March 11, 2010
Modern-Day Slavery Museum leaves its mark on FGCU!
With museum on campus, FGCU Student Senate votes strong resolution calling on foodservice leader Aramark to "work in partnership with CIW"...
In a significant reversal, the Florida Gulf Coast Universtity Student Senate voted 21-8 (above, right) this past Tuesday night in favor of a resolution calling on Aramark to join forces with the CIW and the Campaign for Fair Food without further delay. Here's an excerpt:
"THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Student Body of Florida Gulf Coast University urges meaningful dialogue between ARAMARK and CIW, resulting in negotiating terms for ARAMARK working in partnership and cooperation with the CIW to directly improve Florida tomato pickers’ wages, and together with the CIW, implement an enforceable, human rights-based Code of Conduct for its tomato supply chain; read the full resolution here |
Just weeks ago, the FGCU Student Senate voted down a similar resolution. This time, however, not only was the museum on campus, but CIW member Leonel Perez, who is traveling with the museum, also addressed the Senate on behalf of the Campaign for Fair Food before the vote. You can read more about the news from FGCU and about the growing Aramark movement at the Student/Farmworker Alliance website.
And you can see the FGCU Eagle News story on the vote, "CIW wins: Senate supports dialouge between Aramark and farmworkers' alliance" here.
Meanwhile, the museum continues its statewide tour, heading north to Sarasota and Venice this week, following its two-day stay on the FGCU campus. Hundreds of students turned out over the course of the stay, as did several top administrators. Even FGCU President Dr. Wilson G. Bradshaw made time for a visit! In the photo on the right, President Bradshaw (left) receives a personal tour of the museum from Leonel and Jordan Buckley of Interfaith Action.
Check back soon for the next photo report from the road, with more on the two days at FGCU and news from the north.
And don't forget... We are rapidly closing on the one-month mark ahead of April's huge three-day Farmworker Freedom March! Check out the march website, and be sure to email us at workers@ciw-online.org for all the details on how you can join us for the whole march or at any number of exciting events along the way, including Sunday's big march and rally in Publix's hometown of Lakeland.
March 7, 2010
From five-year olds to fifth-graders, kids from California to Florida are sending in entries to the Children's Fair Food Drawing Contest!
Plus... Check out the latest photo report from the Modern-Day Slavery Museum!
With the April 1st deadline for entries still nearly a month away, kids from across the country have started sending in their drawings of what Fair Food means to them, and the results are every bit as delightful -- and touching -- as we thought they might be!
Here are just a few of the sentiments expressed in the entries that have arrived thus far (corrected for spelling, of course, because the original spelling is just as charming as the drawings themselves...):
- "Being in the hot sun all day does not deserve minimum wage."
- "I don't think you should be treated unfairly for such an important job."
- "You rock for picking fruits and veggies for us. You should get a lot more money for what you do."
For a sneak peek at a baker's dozen of the first entries to make it into Immokalee, click here.
For more on the Children's Drawing Contest, click here. And keep those drawings coming!
And be sure to check out the latest dispatch from the road as the Modern-Day Slavery Museum completes its first week on tour, including a Friday night installation at Ft. Myers Arts Walk (right)!
February 28, 2010
3... 2... 1... Modern-Day Slavery Museum launches today!
Don't miss the great preview story in today's Ft. Myers News-Press...
With final touches being put on late into the night last night (on the right, CIW member Oscar Otzoy prepares the box truck for the mounting of museum displays, photo by Andrew West, News-Press), the Modern-Day Slavery Museum is finally ready for its big debut and hits the road today!
For an excellent preview of the museum and what you can expect to see if you join us for one of its dozens of stops across the state, check out today's article in the Ft. Myers News-Press, "Modern slavery in spotlight: Immokalee coalition debuts mobile museum". Here's an excerpt:
"The white truck's cargo space is dark, cluttered and hot - walls lined with stained plywood, cardboard boxes stacked head-high, a clanking steel roll-down door that locks from outside. This is what home looked like for some of the Navarrete family's slaves. It's best not to imagine what it smelled like - the 24-square-foot truck's corners were the locked-in captives' toilets. This ordinary-seeming produce truck is the centerpiece of the Florida Modern-Day Slavery Museum, which begins touring today. It's a replica of the one the Navarretes used before they went to federal prison in 2008 for keeping 12 slaves they forced to pick tomatoes on some of Florida's biggest farms. After promising the Mexican and Guatemalan men work, Navarrete family members confiscated their IDs, tied, chained and beat them if they tried to leave. Although they advanced their victims "credit" for necessities, they didn't pay them for their work, all of which added up to slavery "plain and simple," according Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Molloy. Slavery? Didn't slavery end in 1865?..." keep reading here |
And check back soon for photos and a report from the museum's first stop!
February 21, 2010
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| The blood- and tomato plant-stained shirt above will be part of the museum's unique catalog. The shirt was worn by a 17-yr old worker who was brutally beaten in 1996 by his supervisor after stopping work to take a drink of water. He walked several miles from the field to the CIW office, still wearing the bloody shirt, to lodge his complaint. The incident sparked a nighttime march of several hundred workers to the house of the crewleader in Immokalee. |
And now back to
our regular programming...
Raj Patel (author of NY Times bestseller "Value of Nothing") pens powerful Op/Ed crushing Publix for position on farm labor slavery!
Modern-Day Slavery Museum gathers impressive new statements of support as it enters final week before launch!
Author Raj Patel entered the fray this past week in the campaign calling on Publix to support the Campaign for Fair Food with a sharply-worded opinion piece published in the St. Petersburg Times (one of the Tampa/Lakeland area's key papers). Here's an excerpt (from "Supermarkets must take stand against slave conditions for tomato pickers," 2/17/10):
Little could be further from our minds when we go into a modern supermarket, yet that dark history is much closer than we'd like to think. The descendant of Atlantic slavery taints all too many tomatoes picked in southern Florida today. Since 1997, well more than 1,000 people have been freed from conditions of modern slavery in the tomato fields of Florida. In the latest of such cases to surface, workers were chained inside trucks, charged $5 for a shower, and made to work for pennies a day, suffering heinous physical abuse from their employers... ... Yet many firms continue to ignore the call to improve farm labor conditions and end slavery in the fields. Among them is Publix, the No. 1 supermarket company in Florida, with revenues of $24 billion in 2009. One might have imagined Florida's self-styled "neighborhood grocer" to be more sympathetic to calls to end slavery in its suppliers' operations. At the end of the day, it seems, business is business. The argument that Publix offers is that the tomatoes it buys — including those it buys from Pacific and Six Ls, the two growers associated with the latest slavery prosecution — are bought at a fair market price. According to Publix spokesman Dwaine Stevens they're unwilling to interfere in what they regard as a labor dispute. "That's not our role: to come between our suppliers and their workers." This is disingenuous on many fronts. First, while supply and demand have indeed met without hindrance, there's nothing fair about profiting from the federal crime of slavery, no matter how smoothly and efficiently supply and demand have intersected. Second, when change has been demanded in the past, Publix has felt very able to make its own decisions. In 2005, the company stopped buying grape tomatoes from Ag-Mart, a supplier alleged to have violated state and federal pesticide laws. Publix cared when methyl bromide might have tainted its tomatoes — but it seems the sweat of modern-day slaves can be rinsed off a little easier..." |
"The gavel came down, the auction ended, and the winners carted their new purchases home. The bidders had walked the market, seen the wares, placed their offers and the highest bid won. It was a fair market price, struck 150 years ago outside Savannah, Ga., in a model of modern capitalism. At one of the last slave auctions in America, this was how 429 men, women and children were dispatched, through a timeless dance of supply and demand. Efficient. Mathematical. Unjust. The price may have been fair, but the market wasn't.He concludes his piece with this: "While many other large corporations have adopted a code that raises farmworker wages and, for the first time, commits buyers to cut off suppliers who are involved in slavery, Publix has no plans to meet with the coalition. On its Web site can be found the line: 'The Publix guarantee to never knowingly disappoint our customers is legendary in the industry.' Consumers have every reason to be disappointed with Publix's attitude. And Publix needs to live up to its word." You can read the full text of the of the op/ed here.
Museum support pours in!... Meanwhile, support continues to flood in for the Modern-Day Slavery Museum, which is just days away from hitting the road. Since we last updated you, statements of support have come in from anti-slavery and human rights figures from Mary Robinson (former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, pictured here on the right) to preeminent historian Eric Foner of Columbia University and John Bowe, author of the highly-acclaimed 2007 book on modern-day slavery, "Nobodies".
Here below is one example of the kind of statements that have come in during the past several days, this one from Kevin Bales, Pulitzer-nominated author and president of Free the Slaves, the internationally-respected anti-slavery advocacy organization:
"There is real slavery in the fields of Florida. This is not about lousy jobs, but violent control, vicious exploitation, and the potential for serious harm and even death. Even more heartbreaking is the fact that there has never been a day in the history of Florida agriculture without some amount of slavery tainting the food grown there. That food leaves the hands of slaves and ends up in the meals we eat with our families. It is an ugly problem and we cannot solve problems we do not understand. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers is one of the most effective anti-slavery groups on earth. Their new traveling museum helps all of us learn what we need to know in order to bring this crime to an end. This is a living museum that restores the right to life. This is not a dry and academic collection of dusty artifacts (and as a Professor I know about dry and dusty!). Bring the traveling museum to your town, church, library, or convention. Then take your children and friends and family. It is so much more than learning, it is our chance to be part of ending slavery." Dr. Kevin Bales |
Click here to see the full list of new statements for support for the Modern-Day Slavery Museum, and check back soon for the very latest news as the museum readies for his Feb. 28th launch!
February 19, 2010
News-Press nails it!
Editorial: "Consumers must back farmworkers"...
Cutting through the hype and spin coming from the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange on the growers' "new social responsibility program," the Ft. Myers News-Press published the following editorial this morning ("Consumers must back Farmworkers," 2/19/10). It is included here in its entirety:
The Florida Tomato Growers Exchange announced it was reversing its long and fierce opposition to letting its grower members distribute extra wages to workers contributed by several major fast-food companies and grocers. The FTGE also announced a social responsibility program to establish guidelines for employment practices. This seemed like another milestone in the remarkably successful campaign of the grass-roots Coalition of Immokalee Workers for better pay and conditions for tomato pickers, whose wages have been stagnant for decades. But one goal of the FTGE’s change of position seems to be to undermine the coalition, the very organization that forced the FTGE reversal. The FTGE’s new policy presumably will allow growers to pass on to pickers an extra penny per pound of tomatoes harvested, which the coalition got the food retailers to agree to pay. Previously, the FTGE, to which 75 percent of growers in the state’s $400 million tomato industry belong, threatened $100,000 fines against any members who passed the penny through to their workers. It relented on that recently. So why is the coalition not celebrating? The problem is that the social responsibility program which the coalition worked out with McDonald’s, Burger King and other food retailers was crafted with worker participation. On the other hand, the FTGE’s program excludes worker participation through the coalition, or otherwise. Coalition leader Lucas Benitez says, “In the end, the growers’ code leaves the foxes squarely in charge of the henhouse, and sadly, Florida tomato growers have never demonstrated the ability to police themselves.” It is the workers, through the coalition, who have brought this campaign this far, persuading retailers — and the public whose good opinion the retailers cherish — that the pickers deserve better than the growers were giving them. It is critical that customers educate themselves on whether the retailers they patronize are supporting the coalition’s Campaign for Fair Food, as well as other sincere, independent campaigns to ensure fair pay and humane conditions for the agricultural workers who harvest what we eat and drink. Those workers need an engaged public." |
"It sounds like a complete victory for Florida tomato pickers, until you take a second look.Confusion Alert!: And one more thing... while we're on the subject. Some news outlets have had a harder time sifting through the hype in the FTGE's announcement, resulting in stories like this, which reported, "In a surprise move Tuesday, the Florida Tomato Exchange agreed to pay migrant workers the extra penny per pound the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has fought for the last three years."
Naturally, this has caused considerable confusion around the meaning of the FTGE's decision to allow its individual members, if they so choose, to pass on the penny-per-pound. So, here's the real story:
The FTGE is not saying its members will start paying workers one more penny per pound across the board.
They're not even saying they'll require buyers to pay a penny more per pound...
They're simply saying that they'll allow their members to pass on whatever price premium particular buyers want to pay, whether it's a penny per pound, half a penny per pound, or less. Or nothing, which is still the case for all retail food companies that have not yet reached an agreement with the CIW, despite the FTGE's announcement.
So for anyone who mistook this news for an announcement that the FTGE was instituting an across-the-board, penny-per-pound raise, please understand that is not the case.
Hope that clears that up. And please check back very soon for some big news from the Modern-Day Slavery Museum (soon to be in a community near you!), which has gathered some impressive support while this story was making a stir.
February 18, 2010
Would you buy a used car from the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange?
FTGE’s “New Social Responsibility Program” an old lemon with a fresh coat of paint…
We told you yesterday that we’d have more to say about the FTGE’s big unveiling of a “New Social Responsibility Program,” and now that we’ve had a chance to take a look under the hood, here’s what we’ve found:
- The FTGE’s “new” code of conduct is 90% identical to it’s old code of conduct, known as SAFE.
[SAFE, or “Socially Responsible Farm Employers,” was unveiled, also with much fanfare, in 2006 but discredited from the outset by its total lack of worker input or enforcement mechanisms, and ultimately undone by the finding of slavery operations on SAFE-certified farms. This is also a helpful read for a look at the origins of SAFE.]
- Where the “new” code is different from SAFE, the FTGE has taken provisions from the CIW’s Fair Food code of conduct, but not before rendering those provisions meaningless by carefully removing any and all forms of worker participation.
- The true character of the FTGE’s “new” code is perhaps most clearly revealed in what its drafters chose not to borrow from the CIW’s Fair Food code.
In short, what the FTGE has done is take a broken-down old lemon of a code and slap some fresh paint on it. And now they’re trying to sell it as a “new social responsibility program.”
What follows is a detailed breakdown of the above three points of analysis. It’s a little technical, but worth reading through to get a full picture of the FTGE’s strategy here.
But after this, we're going back to reporting on real news from the Campaign for Fair Food. Despite all the fanfare, the FTGE’s whole “New Social Responsibilty Program” is old news. Even their announcement that they would no longer fine their members for participating in the penny-per-pound agreements is old news – they announced the same thing back in October of last year following the defection of Florida’s third largest tomato grower, East Coast Growers and Packers.
In other words (and this is especially true for the fields): Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss...
February 11, 2010
Shrinking from the Challenge?...
Food writers pick up on "Chipotle Challenge"; meanwhile, silence from Ells...
In December 2009, Food and Society Fellow Sean Sellers challenged Steve Ells (pictured above, right), the CEO of Chipotle Mexican Grill, to a public debate on the merits of the Campaign for Fair Food. The challenge stemmed from Chipotle's ongoing refusal to partner with the CIW to address labor conditions in its tomato supply chain, and in response to misinformation about the CIW spread by Ells in recent high-profile speaking engagements.
Since then -- though Ells has yet to answer the call -- the Chipotle Challenge has certainly caught the attention of national food writers who have seized upon the jarring contradiction at the heart of Chipotle's billion-dollar brand.
In an excellent feature-length article ("One Company Thinks They've Created Fast Food with a Conscience -- Are They Right?," 2/9/10), Tara Lohan of AlterNet writes:
"'Chipotle had no idea it was buying from one of the growers tainted by the most recent slavery prosecution until the CIW told them about it,' said Sellers. 'They would have known much earlier if they had a real working relationship with the CIW.' ... Whether Chipotle will be willing to team up with CIW in an effort to improve labor conditions is yet to be seen. Sellers has invited Ells to a public debate about the issue, but Ells has yet to take him up on the offer. Still, it's not too late for Ells to be consistent about changing the fast-food paradigm." |
And a month earlier, the food blog Simple, Good and Tasty posed a series of hard-hitting questions for Ells ("Chipotle Doesn't Support Florida Tomato Pickers? Say it ain't so, Steve," 1/14/10):
"So, my first question to Steve Ells would simply be, why? Question #2 would be this: Are you willing to tarnish the reputation of your company over this seemingly no-brainer issue? How could you possibly object to doing everything you can to improve the plight of poor and powerless farmworkers in Florida’s tomato fields? (That would be question #3.) And, finally, do you know how much you are hurting the people who care about you, who have held you in such high esteem, who depend on you to provide inexpensive, convenient, delicious, nutritious and sustainably sourced food that appeals to practically everyone? Admit you have a problem, Steve. That’s the first step. Now solve it. Pledge your full and unconditional support to CIW and Florida’s tomato pickers. Do it for them. Do it for your customers. Do it for your investors. Do it for your friends and family. Do it, because, as you say on your website, you can always "do better." Prove it. Thank you." |
Will Ells accept the Chipotle Challenge? The clock is still ticking.
February 9, 2010
I
t's here!...
Check out the brand new Farmworker Freedom March website!
Head over to the brand-spanking new Farmworker Freedom March website today to see all the events, background, materials, and more planned for this March and April, as the Campaign for Fair Food sets out to take the movement to end modern-day slavery to the hometown of Publix!
Here's just a taste of what you'll find there:
Details:
Farmworker Freedom March
* Three-day march of farmworkers and allies
* April 16-18, from Tampa to Lakeland (home of Publix supermarkets)
* Route details and logistics to be announced soonModern-day Slavery Museum
* A mobile educational vehicle in the form of a box-truck outfitted as a replica of the trucks involved in the latest slavery prosecution and accompanied by educational displays on modern-day slavery in Florida, its roots, the reasons it continues today, and its solutions.The exhibits will be developed in consultation with leading academic authorities on slavery and labor history in Florida and will be a rigorous examination of the continuous history of slavery in Florida from its settlement to the current day.
Background:
Slavery yesterday and today: Modern-day slavery in Florida agriculture cannot be understood in a vacuum. It is not separate from the past, rather its roots extend deep in the state's history. While the phenomenon of forced labor has taken many forms over the past four centuries in Florida agriculture, the industry has never been entirely free of the scourge of slavery.
Though the extent of slavery in Florida agriculture has diminished over the centuries, one thing has remained constant: farmworkers have always been, and remain today, the state's poorest, least powerful workers. If we are to abolish slavery once and for all in Florida agriculture, we must pull it up from the roots by addressing farmworker poverty and powerlessness....
Continue reading this post at the Farmworker Freedom March website! >>
December 8, 2009
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| Photo by Cindy Skop, Lakeland Ledger. You can find a gallery of great pics from yesterday's action at the Ledger website by clicking here. |
More from Sunday's March for Farmworker Justice!
Check out the photo report and all the latest press...
Don't miss the CIW photo report -- with analysis and pictures you won't find anywhere else -- from the biggest Publix protest of the year this past weekend in Lakeland. You can find the report here.
The Ft. Myers News-Press also weighed in this morning with a follow-up story on Sunday's big action in an article entitled, "Coalition of Immokalee Workers pay Publix a visit." Here's an excerpt:
"The peaceful demonstration drew workers and supporters from around the state as well as clergy of many faiths. One of those was retired United Church of Christ minister Jim Boler of Fort Myers. 'I was especially moved by what the high school students from Immokalee had to say,' Boler said. 'One girl talked about what it's like to live in a farmworker family, seeing Publix ads celebrating Thanksgiving but knowing that for her family, if there's not work that week, they can't afford food.'" read more |
And the Palm Beach Post joined the fray as well, with an op/ed by Dan Moffett calling on Publix to stop fighting progress and bring its considerable purchasing power to bear on improving farm labor conditions in its home state, entitled "Publix in the wrong aisle." After opening with a quick recital of all the accolades that have made Publix "Florida's grocery store," Mr. Moffett writes:
"The Immokalee coalition has worked with federal officials to prosecute cases against growers who have held foreign workers captive. The coalition has collected some honors of its own in recent years, from human rights groups, including the Robert F. Kennedy Justice Center. Everything Floridians have come to know about Publix suggests that the company should be participating in the farmworkers' initiative. Frankly, you'd expect Publix to be leading it." read more |
And last but definitely not least, Tampa's community radio station WMNF did a remarkably good piece, getting great interviews with several march participants, including 93-yr old human rights activist Stetson Kennedy, who started his career in the 1930's visiting labor camps throughout Florida and reporting on the slavery -- yes, slavery -- he found there:
"When we passed the Civil Rights Act in '64, I told myself that I was going to move on to something else, that everything was fixed. But of course it was not fixed. And so I'm still here this much later. You might say this is where I came in." listen |
And here's more coverage from teh exciting march:
n the day's events:
- "Hundreds of Farm Workers Protest Working Conditions" (Lakeland Ledger, 12/07/09)
- Lakeland Ledger photo gallery (by photographer Cindy Skop, a must-see!)
- A video collage of photos from yesterday's action, with a soundtrack of son jarocho music, by fair food photographer extraordinare, JJ Tiziou, here below (just click on the arrow):
"There's no question that this is the greatest victory for farmworkers since Cesar Chavez in the 1970s." Eric Schlosser, author of "Fast Food Nation" (Ft. Myers News-Press, "Tomato workers win new pay deal" 9/26/09)
"This is a huge victory." Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis (remarks at announcement ceremony 9/25/09)
Sec. of Labor Solis congratulates the CIW's Oscar Otzoy at Friday's announcement ceremony
CIW, Compass Group, East Coast announce "sweeping changes to benefit tomato harvesters"
at press conference in nation's capital!
Update: The Nation, "A Compass for Fair Food," (9/27/09): "The vision that the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has pursued and is beginning to see come to fruition is an inspiring one, and a model for the nation." read more here
Click here for the exclusive photo report!
See the Washington Post report, "Labor deal will mean boost for farmworker wages"
See the Ft. Myers News Press story, "Tomato workers win new pay deal"
Click here for the press release.
Here's a round-up of statements on the announcement:
Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis: "I would like to congratulate the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. For the first time, a major Florida producer, East Coast Growers and Packers, represented here, has implemented the CIW's Fair Food program. This is a huge victory." Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack: "I commend the Compass Group and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers for taking meaningful steps to ensure that these workers are paid a decent wage and are treated fairly. This agreement not only represents an important step forward for tomato workers in Florida, it is an expression of the essential value of farm workers to our agricultural sector as a whole." see the statement here on the USDA website Senator Bernie Sanders: "Today marks the beginning of the end of the harvest of shame that has existed for far too long in Florida's tomato fields. I applaud the tireless efforts of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers toward improving the wages and working conditions of tomato workers. I also commend the Compass Group for agreeing to this important initiative. The time has come for all tomato growers to participate in the penny per pound program and ensure that no tomato worker lives in abject poverty." Steve Sweeney, president and CEO of Chartwells (an operating company of Compass Group): “Compass Group purchases a lot of tomatoes. It is our intent that this agreement brings immediate financial benefit to the harvesters, gives our suppliers the opportunity to partner with us to change the way the industry does business, and provides a platform to educate our customers on the plight of agricultural workers in Florida." Lucas Benitez of the CIW: "The future of Florida agriculture is contained within this agreement today. It is a future founded on mutual respect and mutual benefit, a future of common purpose among farmworkers, growers, retail food leaders, and consumers. In short, it is a future of social responsibility. We look forward to working with East Coast, Compass, and the other companies that have signed Fair Food agreements to develop the rules and rigorous monitoring systems necessary to make that future a reality this coming season." |
