The ongoing labor conflict between the Latino tomato pickers and a major grocery store chain has shed light on the issue of underpayment for migrant agricultural workers in the United States.

The dispute between Publix, one of the largest privately owned companies in Florida, and the Latino tomato pickers has been going on for almost two months, and caught the U.S. public attention in early March when 70 of them staged a six-day hunger strike before Publix's headquarters in Lakeland, Florida.

The protesters, organized by the non-profit Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) in Immokalee, demanded Publix raise its payment by one penny per bucket (32-pound) of the tomatoes picked. The tomato pickers currently are paid 50 cents per bucket of tomatoes picked -- a rate that has not changed since 1980.

Depending on the harvesting season for fruits and vegetables, there are about 15,000 to 20,000 migrant agricultural workers in the Immokalee area. Most of the tomato workers, who usually earn 10,000 U.S. dollars a year, have to work from sunrise to sunset in a typical day, and receive no health and insurance benefits.

In mid-March, Mexican entertainer Jose Jose and Ethel Kennedy -- widow of the late U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who was well- known for his pro-migrant workers policies -- joined the Latino tomato pickers at a picket protest in front of Publix's headquarters.

Publix, one of the 15 largest corporations in the U.S. in terms of retail sales, has so far rejected the CIW's pressure to raise its payment to the tomatoes it buys.

Due to the public pressure, many other U.S. food giants such as the McDonald's, Burger King, Taco Bell, Whole Foods, Subway and Trader Joe's have already joined the Campaign for Fair Food, launched by the CIW in 2001 to demand American food companies for better treatment of field food-pickers.

In 2005, the CIW scored a major victory after a four-year struggle by forcing the fast-food giant Taco Bell to agree to join the program.

"We will not pay employees of other companies directly for their labor. That is the responsibility of their employers. Employers should pay wages, not those outside of the employment relationship," Shannon Patten, a spokeswoman for Publix, told Xinhua.

"The CIW is trying to negotiate wages and working conditions of the employment with the growers, and the CIW is trying to drag Publix into these negotiations. This is a labor dispute that we simply aren't involved," Patten said.

"We have always strongly encouraged our suppliers to work closely with their workforce, and their workforce's representatives on any issues. Publix is unaware of a single instance of (the payment of) less than the required minimum wage," she added.

The CIW disagreed with Publix's views on the matter. "We believe in fair wages. We believe in doing the right thing. We believe in the words of Publix founding father George W. Jenkins that 'making a profit should never get in the way of doing the right thing.' We believe that the abuses must come to an end," the CIW said in a statement.

Oscar Otzov, one of the hunger strikers, has been a full-time tomato picker for the past four years. When he is not picking tomatoes, he can frequently be found among the Latino field food pickers organizing social community events for the migrant workers in the Immokalee area.

"The hunger fast was a positive thing for the workers, because it really united us," Otzov said after ending his hunger strike. " For so many years, Publix has refused to recognize the humanity of farm workers. Now, due to the hunger fast and protest, consumers can see Publix as a company that doesn't want to work with us."

For the tomato pickers, a typical work day starts at 4 a.m., when they get up and then line up to board old school buses that will take them to the farms. However, once they get to the tomato fields, they usually have to wait for two or three hours until the morning dew on the tomatoes dries up as demanded by the farm owners.

The tomato pickers are not paid for the two or three hours that they are kept waiting, Otzov said, adding that they have to work until the evening hours and usually can have only one or two hours of sleep every night.

"When we pickers are working in the fields, we have a crew leader, or supervisor, who often yells at us if we are not picking tomatoes quickly. Often, any food picker who is yelled at and then tries to talk to the supervisor is immediately fired," said Otzov.

The CIW does not blame the tomato pickers' working conditions on the farm owners, but rather the large corporations who buy the fruits and vegetables. These companies demand that the fruits and vegetables that they buy be of a high quality and produced at a low rate. This, in turn, leads to poor working conditions.

Florida is one of the American states which are predominated by anti-union, or so-called right-to-work laws, which give employers rights to fire their employees for all types of reasons.

"The entire American agricultural industry is stuck in the past. .. With our labor dispute with Publix, it is a question of waiting and seeing what happens. Sooner or later, Publix will have to come to the negotiating table to talk to us," Otzov said.