Farm workers and injustice

MadPriest sent me an article this morning entitled "Christians back farmworkers in McDonald's protests". Here's what it's about:

A delegation of Presbyterian and United Church of Christ-backed Florida farmworkers will embark on a 10-day "mini-tour" to the Chicago area next month to carry their struggle for higher wages and better working conditions to fast-food giant McDonald's - writes Evan Silverstein.

Some 10 members of the US Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) will travel by van from Immokalee, Florida, on the three-state multi-city trek, which runs from 14-23 October 2006, with stops in Illinois, Kentucky and Indiana.

Highlights will include a peaceful rally on 20 October outside the hamburger company's suburban Chicago corporate offices in Oak Brook, Illinois. Another peaceful demonstration will follow in downtown Chicago the next day.

The CIW, an organization of farmworkers who pick tomatoes that McDonald's uses in its products, is sponsoring the event, expected to feature national human-rights speakers, religious leaders, student leaders and musicians.
...
Florida farmworkers suffer the same miserable conditions experienced by generations of farmworkers, including forced labor and wages that leave them in deep poverty, according to the CIW. The pickers now earn 40 to 45 cents per 32-pound bucket, a rate essentially unchanged for nearly 30 years.

It's hard for me to understand how we, as a society, are willing to tolerate this kind of injustice. I'm glad that progressive church people are standing up for the farm workers. This helps demonstrate to the country that not all Christians are conservative right-wingers.