Florida Migrant Labor Organization Receives RFK Award

[govegan]

Florida Migrant Labor Organization Receives Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award
11/20/03 5:45PM

A Florida migrant labor organization received the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award Thursday, the first time in the award's 20-year history that an American group has won.

Lucas Benitez, Julia Gabriel and Romeo Ramirez, three leaders of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, were recognized for organizing investigations of three multistate operations enslaving farmworkers. Their work led to prosecution of the slavery rings, one of which had held Gabriel as a captive worker on South Carolina and Florida farms.

The Robert F. Kennedy center presents the award each Nov. 20 to commemorate the former attorney general's birthday. The award includes a $30,000 prize and a pledge from the center to continue working with the recipient.

Link to story: http://channels.attbusiness.net/index.cfm?fuseAction=viewNewsArticle&nav_id=33&category_name=National&article_id=1c59ef419857f07947fe84eb26d75a0c

[catzies]

1. My area was one of the three multistate operations -- here's another link

U.S. Slavery Didn't End When North Won Civil War

When Gabriel receives her honor today in the nation's capital, a national spotlight will be shone on a practice many thought was as bygone as the Southern cotton plantations of the mid-1800s.

Gabriel, along with Lucas Benitez and Romeo Ramirez, are being honored for fighting slavery and protecting human rights through their Florida-based Coalition of Immokalee Workers.

For Gabriel, her story began in 1992 when the Guatemalan immigrant was driven from Arizona to a forced-labor camp in South Carolina, where she was held for three months with 70 other undocumented workers. After months of being yelled at and having guns pointed at her, Gabriel escaped with 30 other workers and contacted authorities.


http://www.staronline.com/vcs/county_news/article/0,1375,VCS_226_2443094,00.html