The Coalition of Immokalee Workers announced today that they have signed an agreement with Pacific Tomato Growers.
Press release follows:
The agreement represents a significant step forward in the CIW’s decade-long campaign for labor reforms in Florida’s tomato industry. Not only is it the first formal agreement between the CIW and a major tomato grower, but the new accord establishes several practical systems designed to implement cooperatively the key principles of the Code of Conduct at the heart of the Campaign for Fair Food. Those principles include a joint — and, when need be, external — complaint resolution system, a participatory health and safety program, and a worker-to-worker education process aimed at insuring that farmworkers themselves are active participants in the social responsibility efforts.The agreement also provides for third-party auditing of both the systems needed to implement the Code and payment of the “penny-per-pound,” the price premium designed to raise farmworker wages that is part of the CIW’s agreements with nine major retail food companies, including sector leaders McDonald’s, Whole Foods, and Compass Group.
This article appears in Oct 7-13, 2010.
