The Coalition ofImmokalee Workers

and the Fair Food ProgramBRINGING DIGNITY AND JUSTICE TO FLORIDA’S TOMATO FIELDS

Uprooting Modern-Day Slavery & Abuse in the Fields

Florida growers lead the nation in fresh tomato pro-duction, producing $620 million worth of that crop each year. Yet one U.S. Attorney has called these fields “ground zero for modern slavery.” Over the past 15 years, 9 major investigations and federal prosecutions have freed over 1,200 Florida farm-workers from captivity and forced labor.

Members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) have often led that work, courageously investi-gating violent slavery rings to uncover human rights abuses in the fields. Since its inception in 1993, the Florida-based farmworker organization has helped pioneer anti-trafficking work in the U.S., contributing to the formation of the Department of Justice An-ti-Trafficking Unit and the passage of the landmark Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000.

Secretary of State Clinton presented CIW with the 2010 Hero Acting to End Modern-Day Slavery Award, in recognition of “perseverance against slavery oper-ations in the U.S. agricultural industry” and “determi-nation to eliminate forced labor in supply chains.” Additionally, CIW is:

• Co-founder and So1utheastern U.S. Regional Coordinator for the Freedom Network Train-ing Institute on Human Trafficking (FNTI);

• Legislature-appointed member to the Florida Statewide Task Force on Human Trafficking;

• Partner of the Collier County Sheriff’s Depart-ment Anti-Trafficking Unit.

Campaign for Fair Food

Modern-day slavery operations do not take place in a vacuum. Rather, they occur at the far end of a spec-trum of labor abuses faced by farmworkers. These in-clude sub-poverty annual earnings, the denial of com-mon workplace protections such as overtime pay, and the prevalence of sexual harassment, verbal abuse, and wage theft. As U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders has explained, “The norm is a disaster, and the extreme is slavery.”

For over a decade, the CIW has sought to eliminate these abuses through its Campaign for Fair Food. The campaign – which has brought together tens of thou-sands of students, people of faith, and other support-ers across the country – calls on corporate buyers to take responsibility for human rights abuses in the fields where their produce is grown and picked.

The ability of corporate food industry giants to demand the lowest possible prices for produce from their sup-pliers creates powerful downward pressure on wages and working conditions in the fields. The Campaign for Fair Food asks buyers to reverse that trend by paying a “penny per pound” price premium for tomatoes, to be passed on to farmworkers as increased wages. Buyers must also commit to only purchase tomatoes from Flor-ida tomato growers who abide by the Fair Food Code of Conduct, which was developed by tomato workers, grow-ers, and corporate buyers, and includes an enforceable zero tolerance provision for forced labor. The campaign is currently focused on the supermarket sector.

Yum BrandsMcDonald’sBurger King

SubwayCompass Group

Whole Foods Market

Trader Joe’sChipotle Mexican GrillAramarkSodexoBon AppétitManagement Co.

Participating Buyers

“The CIW model is one of the greathuman rights success stories of our day.”

- Washington Post, 09/03/12

Fair Food Program

Since November 2011, members of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, which represents 90% of the state’s tomato growers, began implementing the Fair Food Code of Conduct on their farms. This achievement was the result of more than fifteen years of efforts by the CIW, and represented the beginning of the Fair Food Program.

The Fair Food Program creates comprehensive, verifi-able, sustainable change in the agricultural industry, benefitting nearly 100,000 workers each year. These changes include:

• A worker pay increase supported by the “penny per pound” price premium (Participat-ing buyers have paid over $8 million in premi-ums as of Summer 2012);

• Compliance with the Fair Food Code, including zero tolerance for forced labor;

• CIW education sessions on the farms and on company time to insure workers understand their crucial role in the Program;

• Health and safety committees on every farm to give workers a structured voice in the shape of their work environment.

Fair Food Standards Council

The Fair Food Standards Council (FFSC) is an indepen-dent organization, solely dedicated to monitoring and enforcing the Fair Food Program. Through a combina-tion of proactive audits of both participating growers and corporate buyers of Florida tomatoes and the investigation and resolution of worker complaints, the FFSC is helping to ensure this new model for social accountability becomes a reality.

Interviews with farmworkers, crewleaders and man-agement, examination of supporting documents, and monitoring of premium payment and distribution are several aspects of this work.

Likewise, confidential worker complaints are also field-ed through a 24-hour, toll-free hotline and thoroughly investigated. When violations of the Fair Food Code are found, the FFSC helps draft, implement, and monitor corrective action plans to ensure enforcement of the Code. The FFSC received over 100 calls during its first season and successfully resolved cases ranging from wage and hour claims to sexual harassment, retalia-tion, physical and verbal abuse, and health and safety conditions.

CIW Worker Education Team

The CIW’s Worker-to-Worker Education Team conducts trainings at every participating grower’s farms across Florida. With management present, workers learn about the new Code of Conduct provisions, including zero toler-ance for forced labor, violence and sexual harassment. Workers also learn about new rules against the man-datory overfilling of buckets (an industry-wide practice which had resulted in roughly 10% wage loss to work-ers), the new time clock system, and new protections for health and safety on the job. Perhaps most importantly, workers are told of their ability to make confidential com-plaints, without fear of retaliation.

In addition, CIW has developed a Know Your Rights and Responsibilities pamphlet that is distributed to every worker upon hire. Workers are also shown a video on the topic written and acted by CIW members and pro-duced by an award-winning documentary film company.

CIW Community Center

CIW’s strength stems from its deep roots in Immo-kalee. Immokalee is home to one of the largest farm-worker communities in the U.S. And it was these very workers who formed CIW almost two decades ago. In 2004, through the generous help of its allies, CIW was able to make a down payment on a plot of land and building located in the center of Immokalee, just steps away from the site where thousands of farmworkers board buses to go to work in the fields each day.

Today, this center serves as a truly independent base for CIW’s human rights work in Southwest Florida and beyond. Highlights include:

• Community Room – For weekly community meetings, training sessions, leadership devel-opment workshops, cultural events, classes, and more;

• Anti-Slavery Office – For coordination of CIW’s Anti-Slavery Campaign, including confi-dential interviews and meetings with victims of human trafficking;

• Radio Station Studio – Home of Radio Conciencia 107.9 FM, the CIW’s multilingual radio station, which provides the Immokalee community with news, educational and cul-tural programming, musical entertainment, as well as health, safety and emergency an-nouncements;

• Cooperative Grocery Store – Non-profit grocery store that, because it is run coop-eratively for the benefit of the community, enables consumers to buy cooking supplies, food, phone cards and toiletries at the most affordable prices in town;

• Media Center – For computers, video equip-ment, and a multilingual book/video library for member and community use.

Selected Recognition

• 2012 Growing Green Award, Natural Resourc-es Defense Council, for leaders and innovators in the field of sustainable food and agriculture.

• 2011 Future of Food Conference Speakers, Georgetown University, convened by the Washington Post and His Royal High-ness Prince Charles Phillip Arthur George, Prince of Wales.

• 2010 Hero Acting to End Modern-Day Slavery Award, U.S. Department of State.

• 2010 People of the Year, Fort Myers (Fla.) News-Press, in recognition of the CIW’s “years of groundbreaking advocacy” and “landmark efforts, which have far-ranging implications beyond Southwest Florida.”

• 2007 Anti-Slavery Award, Anti-Slavery International of London (world’s oldest human rights organization) for exceptional contribu-tion towards tackling modern-day slavery in the U.S. agricultural industry.

• 2005, 2009 Business Ethics Network Benny Award for outstanding contribution to corporate ethics.

• 2003 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, RFK Memorial Center for Human Rights.

Selected Media & PublicationsThe CIW has been reported on by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Independent (UK), National Geographic, New Yorker, Gourmet, PBS, and CBS Evening News. The CIW has also been featured in several books, including Nobodies: Modern American Slaves and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy (2007), The Slave Next Door: Human Trafficking and Slave Labor in America Today (2009), and, most recently, Tomatoland (2011).

Coalition of Immokalee Workers http://www.ciw-online.org

Fair Food Standards Council http://www.fairfoodstandards.org

To make a tax-deductible donation, visit http://www.ciw-online.org/donate.html