Workers chained to poles. Locked in trucks. Physically beaten. Robbed of pay. It sounds too extreme to be true. But it's happening today.

For decades, Florida's farmworkers have faced terrible abuses, brutal exploitation, and in the most extreme cases, forced labor. But almost as disturbing is the silence of Florida's governors – who have refused to condemn these abuses.  That's why we're calling on Florida Governor Charlie Crist to commit the full power of his office to addressing the plague of forced labor in Florida's fields.

» Add your voice to this call by writing Governor Crist today!

In the past, American Rights at Work activists like you helped pressure Burger King and McDonald's to give Florida farmworkers a raise: a penny more per pound of picked tomatoes. But the Governor has stood silently by as growers blocked that raise – and workers have yet to see a dime of it.

And just this past December, federal prosecutors from the Department of Justice wrapped up yet another case of forced labor involving farmworkers – a case the Chief Assistant US Attorney called "one of Southwest Florida's biggest, ugliest slavery cases ever." Take action now.

According to court documents, workers were chained to poles, locked inside trucks, beaten, and robbed of their pay. This was the seventh of these cases in just over 10 years, which together have involved well over 1,000 workers. The record of abuse by employers in Florida is so shameful a federal prosecutor was prompted to call the state "ground zero for modern-day slavery" in the pages of the New Yorker magazine.¹

Yet, when reporters called Governor Crist's office to ask about this most recent case, the governor declined to comment, passing the call off to a spokesperson who – not once, but twice – gave the impression that one such forced labor case per year is not a big deal.²

We're collaborating with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, an organization based in Florida that's collecting signatures in support of farmworkers and coordinating a day of action in Tallahassee next month.

Please join them in standing up for Florida farmworkers. It's time Florida's leaders took this abuse seriously.

1. http://www.sfalliance.org/media/New-Yorker-4-03.pdf

2. http://www.news-press.com/article/20081219/NEWS01/81218093/1075