Suprior Foods, Inn Foods, Wal-Mart, Target, ALL GUILTY!

To the editor:

Unfortunately, the altercation with Superior Foods and Inn Foods from Watsonville is nothing new. It is actually commonplace in "third-world" countries seriously impacted by globalization and its many ills. One of the advantages for corporations is that NAFTA, the FTAA, and all other neoliberalist policies make it tough for "first-world people" (i.e. YOU) to see first-hand how it is impacting workers and their families. Since human rights abuses are not covered in the corporate media, most people don't know about them, and if they do, it is not a big deal to them because they feel there's nothing they can do to change them. This impotency is also felt by the workers of these exploiting corporations, who have the fear of filing a complaint to their supervisor because, not only would their job and safety be at risk, but no change would come from it. Indeed, most of the time it is their supervisors who are the abusers. Although American companies, like Superior Foods and Inn Foods, know about these abuses and exploitation, it is easier for them to sweep them under the mat for the sake of corporate stability. At million-dollar yearly profits, these Watsonville companies can do a lot more than "urge" their child-workers to go to school. How about full-blown scholarships?
It is hypocritical for the local corporate media to cling to one story about child and worker exploitation, but not report how most of us support this exploitation by shopping at Wal-Mart, Target, K-Mart, and all these other corporations who have as much blood on their hands as Superior Foods and Inn Foods. All this while the Watsonville City Council discusses the "benefits" of a Target expansion. What has this world come to?

Ramiro Medrano
Watsonville