Secretary of State Hillary Clinton bestowed that award on the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (the CIW), a community-based organization of mainly Latino, Mayan Indian and Haitian immigrants working in low-wage jobs, mostly agricultural low-wage jobs (read: tomato pickers, citrus pickers, etc) throughout the state of Florida.
Wow, a pretty strong "labor" movement. In Florida. Spawned by the relentless exploitation of migrant workers by large growers. There has always been power in numbers.
snip from the CIW website:
In late 2010, we signed an agreement with the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange to extend the CIW’s Fair Food principles – including a strict code of conduct, a cooperative complaint resolution system, a participatory health and safety program, and a worker-to-worker education process – to over 90% of the Florida tomato industry. This watershed moment ended a 15-year impasse and was hailed in the New York Times as “possibly the most successful labor action in the US in 20 years.” With that agreement, the Fair Food Program was born.
Today, bolstered by the independent auditing and oversight of the Fair Food Standards Council (FFSC), the Fair Food Program – which emerged from the successful Campaign for Fair Food and seeks to affirm the human rights of tomato workers and improve the conditions under which they labor – has begun an unprecedented transformation of farm labor conditions in Florida’s fields.
Millions of additional dollars are flowing into the industry each year from participating buyers, to be passed on by the growers to their workers to increase wages. Audits are revealing and addressing systemic weaknesses that in the past led to worker abuse. Workers receive ongoing education from the CIW – on the farm and on the clock – about their new-found rights and responsibilities under the Program. And complaints from the fields are investigated and resolved by the FFSC.
But the pace, depth, and sustainability of this transformation will ultimately depend on the participation of all the major purchasers of Florida’s tomatoes. Despite widespread support for the innovative, collaborative solution at the heart of the Fair Food Program, the supermarket industry (with the notable exceptions of Whole Foods and Trader Joe's) has yet to do its part, and is thus the one remaining obstacle in the way of long-awaited, sustainable change in the fields.
Why is it that getting business to pay a fair wage has been such a struggle in this country? And around the world? I shudder to think what this country would be like if there'd never been a labor movement.
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