Coalition of Immokalee Workers

Farmworkers In Florida Are Marching Against Slave Conditions

March 15, 2023 Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network. Resist! Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Fair Food Campaign, Farmworkers, Florida

In December of 2016, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), based out of Immokalee, Florida, received a phone call from two men who had just escaped captivity near the town of Pahokee by hiding in the trunk of a car. The two men were migrant farmworkers, working on H-2A visas, who had been harvesting watermelons for Bladimir Moreno, owner of the farm labor contracting business Los Villatoros Harvesting LLC—a business that, in reality, was little more than a modern-day slave camp. “They told of being held against their will on a labor camp surrounded by barbed wire,” the CIW notes, “working and living under constant surveillance, and earning extremely low pay.”

Farmworkers Protest By Home Of Wendy’s Billionaire Chairman

March 14, 2016 Staff, www.cbsnews.com Resist! Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Farmworkers, Protests, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Staff of CBS and AP - PALM BEACH, Fla. - Hundreds of protesters, many farmworkers, led by Ethel Kennedy, demonstrated near the home of Wendy's fast food chain's chairman in hopes of convincing the company to pay a penny-per-pound fee for its tomatoes to supplement some farmworkers' wages. The Palm Beach Post reports the Immokalee Coalition of Farmworker' march near billionaire Nelson Peltz's home was peaceful Saturday. A federal judge had ruled the coalition could use loudspeakers but said marchers must remain on the sidewalk.

Activists Protest Wendy’s For Food Justice For Farmworkers

March 7, 2016 Meagan Dellavilla, www.foodtank.com Resist! Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Food and Agriculture, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Meagan Dellavilla for Food Tank - On Thursday, March 3, hundreds are set to march to the office of Wendy’s Board Chairman, Nelson Peltz. Farmers, religious leaders, students, and consumers are hitting the streets of New York City to demand that the fast food giant joins the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ (CIW) award-winning Fair Food Program (FFP). Regarded as one of the best workplace monitoring programs in the United States, the FFP is an innovative partnership between farmers, farmworkers, and fourteen major food retailers.

Lessons From Coalition Of Immokalee Workers For Workers

February 26, 2015 Geoff Gilbert, www.wagingnonviolence.org Strategize! Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Food and Agriculture, Human Rights, Labor Rights, Social Change

Having received a Presidential Medal in January for its efforts to combat modern-day slavery, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, or CIW, and its Campaign For Fair Food hit the road this month as part of its “Boot the Braids” campaign against Wendy’s. The tour spanned colleges and universities throughout the Northeast and Midwest to educate students, as well as create and solidify campus campaigns aimed at pressuring Wendy’s to join the CIW’s Fair Food Program, the only industry-wide social responsibility program in U.S. agriculture. Wendy’s is the last holdout of the big five fast food corporations — McDonald’s, Burger King, Yum Brands! and Subway — from the program, which has extended the Fair Food Code of Conduct to more than 30,000 workers, who make up over 90 percent of the Florida tomato industry. The many improbable successes of the CIW offer important lessons for countless other campaigns, especially those by low-wage workers in other industries.

New Documentary ‘Food Chains’ Sparks Protests

November 26, 2014 Coalition of Immokalee Workers, www.ciw-online.org Resist! Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Food and Agriculture, Labor Rights

Media coverage and word-of-mouth buzz around the new documentary “Food Chains” remained strong as the story of farmworker exploitation — and of the unprecedented partnership for social responsibility transforming the Florida tomato industry today — closed out its opening weekend in more than a dozen major cities. As Thanksgiving approaches, “Food Chains” is making Americans take a second look at the fruits and vegetables that grace their holiday tables. If you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to take advantage of the Thanksgiving break to catch it at a local theater or on iTunes. Then add your voice to the growing conversation about food justice!

Fear And Fair Cannot Coexist…

October 16, 2014 Coalition of Immokalee Workers, www.ciw-online.org Organize! Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Food and Agriculture, Labor Rights, Mexico

For the sake of Mexico’s workers, one can only hope that last month’s massacre sparks a social movement equal to that of the Civil Rights movement in this country that can challenge the rule of corruption and end the senseless violence of the decade-old drug wars. But until then, Mexican farmworkers will remain powerless to address the abuse and exploitation they face in the fields, and Florida tomatoes will be the only truly fair product on the market. Ultimately, it was the economic power of tourism that dragged Florida into the 20th century. The competition for the country’s growing tourist dollars in the 1960s was enough that Florida could no longer abide the shame of “Florida Terror” headlines in northern papers. Let’s hope that competition from the Fair Food Program likewise helps prod Mexico’s tomato industry to realize that the country’s violence and corruption is holding it back, and that real, sustainable economic growth can only come with peace, transparency, and lasting social justice.

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