Category: A Year of Victories: May 2008 – May 2009

CIW IN THE NEWS!..

  The Campaign for Fair Food makes the NBC Today Show, The Economist, a new book out by the producers of the PBS show "Now" (right), and an in-depth special report in the Ft. Myers News-Press... The Campaign for Fair Food has gotten some much-needed attention from the mainstream media in recent days, and with the stories piling up, it >> Read More

SCHOLARS’ LETTER TO CHIPOTLE:

"Urgent need for reform in the fields requires us to intensify our call and actions for justice"... Nearly a year and a half ago, 36 leading scholars in the fields of labor law, labor studies, and social research, joined by the founding members of the Alliance for Fair Food, wrote a letter to Chipotle CEO Steve Ells. They began their >> Read More

Chipotle CEO Steve Ells on sustainable agriculture

“We decided long ago that we didn't want Chipotle's success to be tied to the exploitation of animals, farmers, or the environment.”   -Chipotle CEO Steve Ells on sustainable agriculture                                                                              What about farmworkers?... In the press release announcing his company ’s agreement to work with the CIW to improve wages and working conditions in its tomato suppliers’ fields, Burger King >> Read More

FATHERS’ DAY IN IMMOKALEE…

Click on the link below to read a moving, in-depth profile of the CIW's Mathieu Beaucicot from the Naples Daily News, entitled, "Promise kept: Immigrant father endures long-distance love to support, unite family stranded in Haiti"... Here's and excerpt to get you started: "Like any father, he knows certain dates by heart: when he married their mother; the days that >> Read More

BURGER KING CAMPAIGN COMES TO AN END WITH HISTORIC PRESS CONFERENCE, SIGNING CEREMONY AT U.S. CAPITOL

UPDATE 5/29: Editorial Support Strong for New CIW/BK Agreement!... See all the latest media here! Video excerpts from the press conference Exclusive photo report from the press conference Click here for the joint press release Editorial: "What's with the farmers," Palm Beach Post, 5/28/08 Editorial: "News reporting advanced justice," Ft. Myers News-Press, 5/28/08 Editorial: "Coalition of Immokalee Workers," Palm Beach >> Read More

Collected Press from the April 15, 2008 Senate Hearing:

Senator Bernie Sanders addresses the hearing, joined by Senators Edward Kennedy (shown here on right), Richard Durbin, and Sherrod Brown (not pictured). The senators' opening remarks set the tone for the dramatic hearing to follow... "Ending Slavery for Pennies," The Nation, 4/16/08 "Senators look into treatment, wages of Fla. tomato pickers: US senators hold hearing on Fla. tomato growers' opposition >> Read More

“Immokalee workers raise stakes; May boycott fast-food chain in try to raise tomato prices”

Ft. Myers News-Press 3/5/08 By AMY BENNETT WILLIAMS Erica Klopf, 21, left, of the FGCU Environmental Association and Angela Cisneros, 24, of the FGCU Progressive Alliance work on a banner supporting the Coalition of Immokalee Workers on Saturday, March 1, 2008 outside the Florida Gulf Coast University student union. The banner denounces the decision by fast food giant Burger King >> Read More
Press Release: Sixth Immokalee slavery case suspect arrested Group accused of keeping beating, stealing from Immokalee laborers

Press Release: Sixth Immokalee slavery case suspect arrested Group accused of keeping beating, stealing from Immokalee laborers

FORT MYERS NEWS-PRESS Pat Gillespie pgillespie@news-press.com January 18, 2008 In one of the largest slavery prosecutions Southwest Florida has ever seen, authorities arrested a sixth suspect Wednesday, charging her with making money off unpaid illegal immigrant farm workers. Antonia Zuniga Vargas appeared in court for the first time Thursday to listen to the charges: conspiring to make money off workers >> Read More

Fresh allegations of “human slavery” emerge from the tomato fields of Immokalee

Federal prosecutors say workers picking tomatoes locked in trucks, chained, beaten by bosses for trying to escape; Four arrested November 20th was a momentous day in Immokalee. On November 20th, according to court documents filed last week, three tomato pickers made their way to the Collier County Sheriff’s office after having escaped two days earlier through the ventilation hatch of >> Read More