Interfaith groups urge grocery chain to help end abuse of indigenous farm workers at Thanksgiving prayer service
Los Angeles, CA – The National Farm Worker Ministry’s Interfaith Advisory Committee will hold a Thanksgiving prayer service Tuesday in Santa Monica to call on Kroger Co., one of the nation’s largest retail grocery chains, to help halt labor rights violations by America’s biggest table grape producer.
The group seeks to bring public awareness to the plight of farm workers at Giumarra Vineyards Corp., one of the largest farms in the country and known as the King of Table Grapes. The service is also an effort to urge the supermarket chain, which is one of Giumarra’s biggest clients, to demand Giumarra stops the verbal abuse and labor rights violations against workers.
Giumarra workers of Mexican indigenous descent are especially subject to verbal abuse, discrimination and sexual harassment because of their origin. In January, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission accused Giumarra of subjecting a teenage female farm worker to gross sexual harassment and then firing the girl and other workers who came to her defense in retaliation.
WHAT: A Thanksgiving prayer to call on Kroger to get giant grower to stop abusing its workers
WHEN: Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 11:00 a.m.
WHERE: St. Anne Catholic Church & Shrine, 2011 Colorado Avenue, Santa Monica, Ca 90404
WHO: National Farm Worker Ministry, Interfaith Advisory Committee Members: Rev. David Farley, UMC, Echo Park; Msgr. John Moretta, Pastor, Resurrection Church, ELA; Rabbi Steven Jacobs, Founder, Progressive Faith Foundation; Fr. Arturo Corral, Pastor, St. Anne, Santa Monica; Fr. Gilbert Cruz, Associate Priest, Sacred Heart Church, Altadena; Suzanne Darweesh, Pres. Orange County Interfaith Committee to Aid Farm Workers; Rev. Elizabeth Gibbs-Zehnder, Associate Pastor, Immanuel Presbyterian Church, LA; Fr. Mike Gutierrez, Pastor, St. John the Baptist, Baldwin Park; Rev. Toña Rios, UMC, Baldwin Park; Francisco Garcia, Episcopalian Seminarian, Pasadena and Rev. Sandie Richards, First United Methodist, LA, other local Clergy and lay leaders have been invite and several farm workers will join us to tell their stories. Families from the school will also be invited to come celebrate this Thanksgiving Prayer Service and take action in support of Giumarra farm workers.