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COALITION OF IMMOKALEE WORKERS   HOME | BREAKING NEWS | ABOUT CIW | TAKE ACTION | ANTI-SLAVERY NEWS | JOIN LISTSERVE | CONTACT US | DONATE Click here to take a Virtual Tour of Immokalee...  CAMPAIGN FOR FAIR FOOD VICTORY ARCHIVES... Click on the images below for the complete news archives from the Taco Bell, McDonald's, and Burger King campaigns. These are great resources for getting a sense of the history of the campaign since its inception in 2001:     Domingo Jacinto: "Como miembro de la CIW y uno de los participantes de la Huelga de Hambre de 30 dias en 1997, agradezco a todos los aliados que nos estan apoyando en la Campaña por la Comida Justa. El pueblo ya no aguanta los salarios que ganamos en la labor." As a member of the CIW and one of the participants in the thirty-day Hunger Strike of 1997, I want to thank all of our allies in the Campaign for Fair Food. The people can no longer endure the wages we earn in the fields. THE CIW NEEDS YOU!...  ... to help us build our new Community Center. Click here to learn more about plans for the new center and how you can help! Or, donate now by clicking on the PayPal link below:  CIW throws Thanksgiving day bash in Immokalee!... 11/28/08: The CIW's Radio Conciencia (right) went mobile to headline the community gathering, taking advantage of the day off in the fields to have a little fun. Click here for pictures from the party!  MEDIA ADVISORY: CIW, Allies to Launch Subway Protest Tour New: Click here for an up-to-date list of actions and events in cities along the route! Also new... see a story on the upcoming Subway tour published today by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) online news service! IMMOKALEE, FL, November 25, 2008 – Farmworkers from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers will launch a 10-day protest tour this coming Tuesday, December 2, calling on Subway -- the world’s largest sandwich chain and the biggest fast-food buyer of Florida tomatoes -- to follow McDonald’s, Burger King, and Yum Brands in agreeing to help improve wages and working conditions for the workers who pick their tomatoes. The tour is designed to bring public attention to Subway’s inaction in the face of the longstanding and well-documented exploitation of Florida farmworkers. It will also serve to lay the groundwork for a more extensive protest tour in early 2009. The tour will begin at the Miami headquarters of Subway’s purchasing cooperative (the Independent Purchasing Cooperative, or IPC), make its way north to a protest outside Subway’s corporate headquarters in Milford, Connecticut, and culminate with a march from the United Nations in New York City to a local Subway restaurant in commemoration of International Human Rights Day, December 10th. “The brutal exploitation of workers in Florida’s fields can no longer be disputed or ignored,” said Gerardo Reyes of the CIW. “The latest slavery prosecution – involving tomato harvesters beaten, chained inside u-haul trucks, and forced to pick tomatoes against their will right here in Immokalee – speaks for itself. The other leaders of the fast-food industry have spoken, and they agree that it is time to turn the page for a more modern, more humane Florida agricultural industry. At this point, we can only ask: What in the world is Subway waiting for?” Who: The Coalition of Immokalee Workers and its student, faith, labor, and community allies What: 10-day Subway Protest Tour When/Where: Below is a schedule of the cities and dates: 2008 Northeast Tour December 2 - 10 December 2 - Miami, FL December 3 - Raleigh-Durham, NC December 4 - Washington, D.C. // Baltimore, MD December 5 - Philadelphia December 6 - Boston // Providence, RI December 7 & 8 - New Haven & Milford, CT December 9 & 10 - New York City Contact: Gerardo Reyes or Julia Perkins (CIW) 239 986-0891 For more information about specific events, or to help organize an event in your community, contact info@allianceforfairfood.org. Click here for pictures from an exciting Subway action (11/9/08)  "Honoring the hands that feed us"... New editorial reminds us: "Thanksgiving is a holiday built around food... but rarely do we honor the hands that feed us." 11/24/08: A well-timed op/ed -- published as consumers across the country begin gearing-up for Thanksgiving -- takes a hard look at conditions in the fields where the fruits and vegetables for our holiday feasts are grown and picked. After touching on the exploitation of workers in Immokalee, the editorial concludes: "... Immokalee is an extreme example, but it leaves a bitter taste in your mouth when you realize the high costs that some people are paying so that we can have cheap food. Most of us do not take the time to wonder why our food costs so little. Instead, we notice how expensive organic or locally grown produce is in comparison. For agriculture to be sustainable, it must provide a living for those who work our land. Let's honor the hands that feed us by restoring the dignity of fair wages to farmers and farmworkers." Read the editorial in its entirety here.  Sustainable food blog Grist.org asks CIW for "elevator pitch" to President-elect Obama on farmworker justice!... CIW joins Eric Schlosser, Michael Pollan, Anna Lappé, and more leaders in sustainable food and agriculture in "advising" the new president on how to address the inequities of our food industry. 11/12/08: Don't miss the exciting and inspiring series "Going Up!" on Grist.org for some of the best ideas on what might be next in our country's efforts to humanize and modernize our food industry. Grist asked the CIW for a contribution to the series, which you can read here below: "Dear President Obama: We know you’re a busy man, so we’ll get right to the point: Come to Immokalee. Your victory has allowed us to dream again. Our dream is for a US food industry founded on respect for human rights, not exploitation of human beings. That’s why it’s so important for you to come to Immokalee, the town that, in many ways, has come to symbolize the struggle of millions of our nation’s farmworkers to survive in the face of grinding poverty, degrading working conditions, and constant human rights violations – the town that one federal prosecutor called “ground zero for modern-day slavery.” Indeed, the most recent Department of Justice prosecution for slavery helped free workers who were forced to pick tomatoes against their will, chained and locked inside u-haul trucks, and beaten by farm labor bosses – right here in Immokalee. We know you’ve got a lot on your plate. The economic crisis, two wars, climate change… the brutal and unending exploitation of farmworkers, no matter how terrible, just doesn’t rise to the level of the innumerable crises you’ve inherited. We understand that. But we ask you: Where else could so little of your time have such a great impact? With one brief visit you would bring more attention to the disgraceful treatment of our country’s farmworkers than all the Harvest of Shame exposés, slavery prosecutions, Congressional hearings, and US Presidents since Lincoln combined. With our Campaign for Fair Food, we could turn that attention into action and end generations of farm labor abuse once and for all. All we need is the right champion, someone who truly cares about the working poor, someone who represents hope to Americans who have been marginalized for far too long, someone like you. And we can do it with just a couple hours of your time." See all the contributions by clicking here Now, do we think such a thing might ever come to pass? Probably not, but as we say, a community can dream... And it's not totally without precedent. Governor Jeb Bush came down to Immokalee and met with CIW leaders during his campaign, following the month-long hunger strike by six of our members in 1998, and one of his first acts as Governor-elect was to help expand on wage gains we had won earlier that year. Much, much more remains to be done, of course -- as evidenced by the six slavery operations brought to justice since Governor Bush took office (the latest of which came on Governor Crist's watch, of course...) -- but who better to help us do it than President Obama? Food for thought... 2008 "CHIPOCRISY TOUR" A HUGE SUCCESS!... Click on the video above for the youtube version, or click here for a cleaner, quicktime streaming video 10/28/08: Check out the new video above with exclusive footage from the recently completed tour, and click on the following links for: All the daily updates from the road The CIW response to Chipotle's 11th hour announcement on the campaign And a hard-hitting human rights white paper from the Alliance for Fair Food entitled "Challenging the Chipocrisy"!  Whole Foods, CIW agree to "work in partnership to help improve wages and working conditions for Florida tomato pickers"!... Update #1: What they are saying about the Whole Foods agreement: The CIW's latest agreement has provoked a good deal of commentary around the country, from Congress to the Presbyterian Church. Here's a sampling of the sentiment:  Eric Schlosser, author Fast-Food Nation: "Sustainable agriculture is impossible without justice for farmworkers. Whole Foods deserves great credit for recognizing this fact." For more from Eric on the question of sustainable and fair food, click here for a great short video interview shot for the environmental blog grist.com during last week's Slow Food Nation gathering in San Francisco. And click here for a good story from grist on the agreement.  US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT): "I am delighted Whole Foods has joined the effort to make sure tomato pickers receive a fair wage for their very difficult work. It is especially exciting that Whole Foods is the first grocery store chain to come on board, which opens the door for other major chains to do the same." Regarding the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange's (FTGE) continuing opposition to the CIW's agreements and decision to stand in the way of efforts by large tomato buyers to fund the long-overdue raise for the Florida workers who pick their tomatoes, Sen. Sanders said he was planning to address the FTGE's resistance with the help of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "This whole country will see that what the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange is doing - how they are behaving - is an outrage," he said.  RFK Memorial Center for Human Rights: "It is our hope that other retail food companies -- companies like Chipotle, who shares Whole Foods' commitment to sustainable food but has yet to make that commitment real when it comes to farm labor, and companies like Subway and Walmart, who buy such large quantities of tomatoes that their responsibility for the exploitation of farmworkers surpasses that of most retail leaders -- follow these powerful examples of social responsibility,” said Monika Kalra Varma, Director of RFK Center. “With their participation, the CIW and its allies will truly be able to transform the industry to bring an end to modern-day slavery and human rights violations in our agricultural fields." Read the RFK Center statment in its entirety here.  The Rev. Gradye Parsons, Stated Clerk, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.): "On behalf of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) I want to commend the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and Whole Foods Market on their agreement to improve wages and working conditions for farmworkers in the Florida tomato fields. By voluntarily stepping forward, Whole Foods Market has signaled that “the time is now” for members of the grocery industry to join in forging a more just and sustainable food system together with the farmworkers..." "...As the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) lauds this agreement, we take this opportunity to call on the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange to repent; to cease obstructing the penny wage increase from getting to the farmworkers and to become a part of this historic movement for a more just and humane food system. Major corporations in the retail food industry are prepared to do their part, consumers are urging this change and justice for farmworkers is generations overdue. What is missing is the commitment of the leadership of the tomato industry." Read the PC(U.S.A) statement in its entirety here. Click here to read the joint CIW/Whole Foods press release announcing the agreement and see the news stories that covered the announcement!        10/20/08: CIW goes coast to coast to speak on sustainable food!... CIW leaders speak at Bioneers Conference in California, World Hunger Year (WHY) gathering in New York City, with Naomi Klein, Alice Waters, Raj Patel, and others! Click here for a video of the WHY speech all the detais. 10/1/08: SFA HOLDS 4TH ANNUAL ENCUENTRO IN IMMOKALEE!... 100+ students and youth meet to launch whirlwind of action for Fair Food!.. Click here for more! 9/20/08: CIW SPEAKS AT SLOW FOOD NATION GATHERING IN SAN FRANCISCO... Chipotle put on notice... A delegation from the CIW (including Lucas Benitez and Melody Gonzalez, of the Student/Farmworker Alliance, shown speaking here as part of the the SFN "soap box" speakers series) traveled to San Francisco over Labor Day weekend to participate in a massive gathering of "Slow Food" activists from across the country and across the globe. Click here for a photo report and analysis of an extraordinary weekend chock full of "good food," confounding contradictions, and exciting possibilities for social change... 9/3/08: GUILTY! ON EVE OF TRIAL, FARM BOSSES PLEAD GUILTY TO ENSLAVING IMMOKALEE WORKERS IN TOMATO HARVEST!... "The successful prosecution of five Immokalee residents on slavery charges is satisfying, but the brutal details of their treatment of farm workers show how warped the agricultural labor system is..." Read the rest of the Ft. Myers News-Press editorial, "Purge U.S. of shame of slavery," on the slavery conviction (above), and all the rest of the news and opinion on this seventh case of agricultural slavery in Florida's fields since 1997 by clicking here! 5/23/08: VICTORY!... BURGER KING CAMPAIGN COMES TO END WITH HISTORIC PRESS CONFERENCE AT U.S. CAPITOL!.... Click here for the full media round-up with video, pictures, press coverage and more!... 4/14/08: US SENATE HOLDS HEARING INTO EXPLOITATION IN FLORIDA TOMATO FIELDS... Click here for a full report and exclusive photos from the historic Senate hearing! HOME | BREAKING NEWS | ABOUT CIW | TAKE ACTION | ANTI-SLAVERY NEWS | JOIN LISTSERVE | CONTACT US | DONATE | CIW MEDIA  A GLIMPSE INSIDE THE SWEATSHOPS!... Check out this incredible, must-see new gallery from the fields of Immokalee, taken this past December by Scott Robertson: See the slideshow See the still pics CIW 360º... Click on the links below to learn more about the CIW's history, our anti-slavery work, our low-power radio station and video production, and how you can take action in the Campaign for Fair Food!     GET THE FACTS... Click on the link below for the latest U.S. Department of Labor statistics and other facts and figures on farmworker poverty:  * Facts and Figures on Farmworker Poverty CIW VIDEOS... Click on the link beneath the image below for a classic CIW video, and check back for more in the months ahead:  "Con Estas Manos..." A four-minute reflection on the hands that pick tomatoes for the fast-food industry and the inhumane conditions so prevalent today in Florida's fields. . |
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