True Price of a Low Cost Review
In March, Tri-CRI Member Sr. Mary Heyser, RSHM, with the Fordham University’s Office of Alumni Relations and the Office of Mission and Ministry, the New York Coalition of Religious Congregations Stop Trafficking of Persons (NYCRC-STOP), and LifeWay Network hosted a full-day conference on the entitled: The True Price of Low Cost: Labor Trafficking and Consumerism.
The day began with a thought provoking presentation from Gerardo Reyes-Chavez of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. For twenty years, this community of men and women laborers who pick tomatoes in south Florida have been telling their stories and working for a difference. Two years ago, the US State Department Trafficking-in-Persons presented CIW with the Hero Award for their perseverance against slavery operations in the US agricultural industry, and their determination to eliminate forced labor in the supply chain.
A panel discussion on different facets of the issue of labor trafficking followed. Our very own Kate Walsh was a part of this presentation along with, Lois Harr, Fair Trade Activities, Director of Campus Ministry and Social Action, Manhattan College, NY and Egli Colon, Ed.D., Chairhperson of the Religious Studies Department and Campus Ministry at Cristo Rey New York High School in East Harlem, NY Students and members of public alike were able to spend a day considering these issues, as well as take action to see the end of slavery in our time