PETITION CLOSED

  • The time period for signing this petition has ended.
Tell Grocery Stores Giant and Stop & Shop to Stop Selling Slave-Picked Produce
  1. Signatures
    1,190 out of 1,500
    Petitioning
    1. Vice President for Coporate Responsibility and Sustainability, Ahold USA (Harriet Hentges)
  2. Created By
    M G
    Washington, DC
About this Petition Petition Letter

Slavery is alive and well in Florida. And although modern-day slavery is hidden, it's hardly isolated from the more civilized world. In fact, if you've ever bought a tomato from Giant, Stop & Shop or many other grocery stores during the winter, you've benefited from slave labor in Florida.

A new mobile museum in Florida traces the history of farm labor servitude and displays artifacts and information from some of the most horrific cases of worker abuse in the state -- including the blood-stained shirt of a 16-year-old boy named Edgar who was beaten by his boss after he stopped picking to take a drink of water in 1996. Visitors can also view a 32-pound bucket filled as many as 150 times a day by farm workers for just 45 cents per bucket.

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the only voice for farm workers in Florida, has seen some success in convincing massive food companies like Taco Bell, Burger King and Whole Foods to only accept tomatoes from farms that pay their laborers a fair wage. The shareholders for Dutch company Ahold, which owns Giant and Stop & Shop, will discuss doing the same on April 13. Send a letter to Ahold's corporate responsibility team to urge Stop & Shop and Giant to stop supporting modern-day slavery.

Photo credit: KOMUNews

Recent Signatures

Stop Supporting Slavery in Florida

Greetings

I am writing in advance of your April 13 shareholders' meeting to urge your company to stop selling produce picked by slaves in Florida. As the new mobile Florida Modern-Day Slavery Museum illustrates, tomatoes and other crops from farms that hold contracts with Ahold are picked by workers who are subjected to slavery conditions: they are paid 45 cents a bucket or less and live in squalor. In one case, migrant workers were forced to live in a box truck for more than two years until 2007.

I'm sure you agree that conditions of many migrant workers in Florida and other states are abhorrent, so I urge you to support the coalition of Florida farm workers seeking to bring an end to the farms' practices. Despite your company's claims that you already do enough to prevent slavery in Florida, supporting current laws is not sufficient to protect workers, who often make less than $10,000 a year. The only way the workers will be successful is if companies like yours join forces and refuse to support farms that use slaves.

I look forward to hearing that Ahold has joined the fight for human rights.

[Your name]

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