The Coalition of Immokalee Workers have been on a decade long campaign to bring a level of economic fairness and work safety measures to immigrant farmworkers in Florida, and today they reached the pinnacle of that effort with an agreement with the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange (FTGE) that will extend the labor organization'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. The announcement was made today at a news conference, the first time the two warring parties have held one together.
The FTGE have agreed to pass through the Coalition's long time demand for a penny-per-pound raise from participating purchasers and cooperate with a financial audit of the penny-per-pound funds.
Over the years, the farm labor organizing group has won major victories over McDonald's, Burger King, Subway, and Yum Brands (the parent company of Taco Bell, who was the target of one of the group's first successful campaigns back in 2001 with yo no quiero Taco Bell.” They've also achieved major successes with some of the country's largest foodservice providers, such as Aramark.
But the problem in the past, such as their victory over Yum Brands in 20o5, has been the failure of the growers to implement those agreements the Coalition has made with those companies.
This article appears in Nov 11-17, 2010.