A Compass for Fair Food

Over the years, The Nation and I have closely tracked the heroic work of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) as they have fought to protect agriculture workers in the fields of Florida from exploitation. CIW has exposed cases of slavery and worked with the Department of Justice to successfully prosecute them. It has carried out a Campaign for Fair Food to raise wages and improve working conditions. In short, it has led a movement that recognizes the dignity of the people who harvest the food we eat, and rewards and protects their labor.

In recent years, the organization has focused on obtaining "penny per pound" pay raises for tomato workers from major food retailers that purchase the produce. It doesn't sound like much, but it would result in about a 75 percent wage increase--from $10,000 annually to $17,000--significantly improving workers' living and working conditions, and making them less vulnerable to unscrupulous employers and traffickers. CIW struck penny per pound deals with McDonalds, Burger King, and Yum! Brands (whose subsidiaries include Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC, Long John Silver's and A&W) after long, hard fought campaigns.

But the community-based farmworker organization has reached a new milestone with its latest victory.

On Friday in Capitol Hill, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis attended a press conference along with representatives of CIW and the world's largest food service company, Compass Group, to announce that the company will pay an extra 1.5 cents per pound of tomatoes that it purchases annually, with one cent per pound going directly to the farmworkers. Compass Group purchases over 10 million pounds of tomatoes every year, and serves 6 million meals at over 10,000 locations every day.

But the key difference between this agreement and previous ones is that Compass Group will only purchase tomatoes from Florida if there is a grower or growers willing to implement the pay raise and a "code of conduct" which includes: a system of clocking in and out to accurately record working hours; the ability of workers to voice labor and safety concerns without fear of retribution; freedom for CIW to educate workers on their rights on company time and at the worksite; and third party auditing for full transparency. If no Florida grower were to step up to these Fair Food standards, Compass Group would remove tomatoes from its menus and use the absence to educate customers about the working conditions that led the company to make this decision.

In the previous agreements brokered by CIW, the food retailers didn't take this extra step of mandating that they would only purchase from socially responsible growers. That's significant because the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange (FTGE)--a trade association representing over 90 percent of the state's growers--has threatened to fine any grower $100,000 for every worker that receives a penny per pound raise. The result? Growers refused to pass along the monies owed to the farmworkers so approximately $1.5 million is now held in escrow by the food retailers.

This time, however, Florida's third largest grower--East Coast Growers and Packers--broke ranks, dropping out of the FTGE in order to participate in the new agreement between Compass Group and CIW. This was a courageous decision. The Madonia family which founded the farm 53 years ago (to the day of the press conference) will be ostracized by a rather tight-knit group of growers and lose the services of the trade association that represents them. But it will also gain the business of Compass Group and the corporations that signed onto the previous agreements--because all of the CIW-brokered contracts require the companies to preferentially purchase from any grower who is willing to meet the specified Fair Food standards.

"The contracts are designed to move the demand of the largest tomato buyers in such a way as to reward those growers who are paying and treating their workers better and take business away from those who don't," explained CIW staff member Greg Asbed.

At the press conference, Lucas Benitez, co-founder of CIW and recipient of the 2003 RFK Human Rights Award, said: "The future of Florida agriculture is contained in this agreement. And that future is founded on mutual respect and mutual benefit. It's a future based on common purpose in which farmworkers, growers, and leaders in the retail food industry, and consumers, will create together a true social responsibility.... It's a future that guarantees that both businesses and workers can receive benefits from a more fair industry."

"This is a great victory for the farmworkers," said Secretary Solis. "When my father came to this country as an immigrant, he also came as a farmworker.... My mother toiled in an assembly line for almost twenty years.... What I remember most importantly about what they instilled in the family is that you respect work, honor the worker. To know that wherever you work there should always be dignity and respect.... I feel very, very honored to be here today to be able to see that such progress has been made at this local level. And I hope to be a part of this partnership so that we can extend this kind of progress throughout the country."

Indeed the vision that CIW has pursued and is beginning to see come to fruition is an inspiring one, and a model for the nation.

"I want to see more of this happen, way beyond just the agriculture arena, but also in the service sector fields where you see a lot of people of similar backgrounds being taken advantage of," Secretary Solis said after the press conference. She indicated that the new Administration was providing "more incentive for these kinds of cooperative agreements to come about."

"In the previous administration, we didn't have much enforcement or visibility by the Department of Labor, and Wage and Hour, and OSHA," she said. "Now you will see a difference."

There is still work to be done in Florida--the FTGE still stands in the way of growers who might not possess the same kind of courage as East Coast Growers. Will the Department of Labor get involved to help growers who want to do the right thing? "We'll look at ways," said Secretary Solis. "...This is a moral issue--one about fairness in the workplace and dignity and respect for those workers that bring the food items that...[are] served to the consumer."

CIW now has the four largest restaurant companies in the world, the largest foodservice company in the world, and the largest organic grocer signed on to its Fair Food contracts, with more undoubtedly to come. A major grower has now quit the draconian FTGE and will soon be rewarded by the market for doing so.

"The flood wall can't hold forever," Asbed said. "This would seem to be the start of the 'mighty stream' that we have been waiting for."

Comments (19)

1. What does this say about the Deep South,there is still a caste system de factoally employed there. Where is Droopy I am sure he will lead the charge saying these people do not deserve to be paid for their labor. Now Santi you can move to Florida and help these people save 13 bucks on their taxes.

   Posted by whatozz at 09/27/2009 @ 7:26pm

2. I recommend that one the Madonias of East Coast Growers & Packers receive the Presidential Citizens Award. Maybe Secretary Solis can help in this.

   FTGE members resisting this pay raise should go out and try picking a few tomatoes. Most would not get through a week's work.

   Posted by Sorelish at 09/27/2009 @ 9:07pm

3. In this day and age the wage benefit from working your ass off is to make a whopping $17000 a year. That is with a big raise. We as a people have bought into the notion without realizing it that corporate farming is the way to go.It is hard for me to visualize the tomato pickers. Here in Minnesota huge machines pick the corn,wheat, and soybean crops. You go by a full field in the morning and see it totally picked and cleaned at night.

   Posted by whatozz at 09/27/2009 @ 9:15pm

4. the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange (FTGE)--a trade association representing over 90 percent of the state's growers--has threatened to fine any grower $100,000 for every worker that receives a penny per pound raise.

   posted by Katrina vanden Heuvel on 09/27/2009 @ 5:46pm

   FTGE appears to guard their member list closely (Cheney may have it in his bunker).

   FTGE appears be very secretive. No Board of Directors or Member List. They pay one person, Reggie Brown VP, big $$ from the bigger $$$$ they steal from their rental slave pickers.

   He's the ultimate lobbyist-sentry [Reggie Brown (407) 660-1949 reggie.brown@floridatomatogrowers.org].

   FTGE may be in bed with United Fresh Produce Association (FRESH PAC): "Reggie Brown Receives 2008 United Fresh Technical Award"... Reggie Brown GAVE FRESH PAC $1000 SAME YEAR, yawn.... Senator Saxby Chambliss (GA) is featured on FRESH PAC home page. I got nothing.

   Just wish The Nation could interview and report, with names and quotes, what the big FTGE members have to say about what they pay Reggie to do for them.

   Posted by winyahn at 09/27/2009 @ 9:35pm

5. "What I remember most importantly about what they instilled in the family is that you respect work, honor the worker. To know that wherever you work there should always be dignity and respect" Hilda Solis

   Great Ms. Solis! The key word is 'dignity', if that can not happen, then capitalism - as we know it here - is doomed.

   I think - as is said commonly - that you can't have the cake and eat it altogether. These companies reap the benefits of working in the US with its huge market, what do they fear: massive imports of tomatoes??

   Of course our Reps here will say..."but on real Economics (101?), they will just pass their over cost to the people, so the people in the market will pay this salary increase." As if them, and retailers, did not wanted - and always try -to push the price as high as they can. As if 2 cents were really noticed by the public. If their salaries will go to $ 17,000/yr, that is still only $ 8.20/hr... hardly enough to feed themselves. Certainly if a company is not willing to pay at least that, they should not operate here. These 'companies' are the main reason why people that work very hard are still living at a poverty level here in what should be the Great Society.

   I am really pleased that a grassroots Union- like group has been able to make this progress and hope this will be copied around all over the place.

   Posted by Frank42 at 09/28/2009 @ 04:11am

6. This is very good news! Perhaps the Fair Food standards worked out contractually between the CIW and the Compass Group can become the basis of general basic standards for all farm workers, enforceable by law. At the very least, grocers and restaurants should have the option of displaying Fair Food LABELS on domestic as well as imported produce to distinguish those goods whose production verifiably does not deny farm workers respect, safety, or a decent living.

   I have great expectations for Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. She seems to be promising an end to corporate feudalism and the restoration of the rule of law on our country's big farms. The fight to achieve this is not over, of course. An unholy alliance of greedy plutocrats and howling xenophobes still does everything it can to oppress farm workers. But the Fair Food movement can defeat this unholy alliance if it continues to enlist socially conscious buyers and consumers in the fight.

   Posted by JakobFabian at 09/28/2009 @ 07:28am

7. Posted by whatozz at 09/27/2009 @ 7:26pm

   I object. Comparing our local knee-jerk right-winger HAPPY to Droopy is completely unfair ...

   to that beloved cartoon character!....heheh

   He's more like Droopy's nemesis, Jubalio Wolf.

   Posted by Mask at 09/28/2009 @ 07:34am

8. I hope it is clear what I meant by "rule of law" in my previous posting. This phrase has been so debased in recent xenophobic parlance that I believe I ought to clarify it further. By "rule of law" I mean the enforceable principle that all farm workers, REGARDLESS OF THEIR COUNTRY OF ORIGIN, are entitled to equal rights on the job. I mean the legal principle expressed in the Declaration of Independence, in which "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" are elevated to universal human rights, not reserved for native-born citizens of one country and denied to the global majority.

   Posted by JakobFabian at 09/28/2009 @ 07:35am

9. In the Ayn Rand / Rev Happy Bradgelina High School sophomore brain, nothing blocks the 'invisible hand'. It's blue skies and competition and the best hero atop the mound. C'mon a graduate, grab a rung up and pull! This (following) is unAmerican, unCapitalistic:

   The #@Y$# Florida Tomato Growers Exchange (FTGE)--a trade association NOT A COMPANY-- representing over 90 percent of the state's growers --has threatened to fine any grower COMPANY $100,000 for every worker that receives a penny per pound raise.

   Of course, many companies (in this sample, 90%) will ride the tailwinds of ANYTHING that increases the bottom line. "We used to own our slaves," one Florida farmer told Murrow in 1960. "Now we just rent them."

   Are you neocons really all for no FDA, nobody checking toys or paint for lead, drinking water for toxins? Do you really, actually believe the consumer needs no protections for things that slip by, enter the body, destroy organs? Do you fly China Air? I have before I read up on them. Won't again.

   Posted by winyahn at 09/28/2009 @ 10:31am

10. Didn't this article get published last month on this date and the the last 3 months?

    Must be rotation week, and a low events in the media...nothing worth writing about....

    I 've got one...;et talk about how all the US adversaries...support Obama? That should open up some eyes and discussions!!!

    But tomatoes and 1 cent a pound rants fall flat, yet again.....

    solution...strike, carry signs and sing union songs( I suggest Engish so support from American unions backs you up) , dont accept the jobs and return home to grow the tomatoes there and sell them here, or work for the wages you agreed to before you started to pick. Odd concept, I know.

    I think next week the Wal-mart rant should be about due complete with compliants about how the business model generastes profits and low prices the consumers love PLUS, the awful deal of non union greeters and slip checkers at Sams..

    ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZz

    Posted by YourJomamma at 09/28/2009 @ 11:58am

11. awww, JOMAMMA sees the end of capitalism in this latest example of citizen actions.

    Damn...how can companies continue to make profits if they have to pay people an extra penny a pound!!!

    Zoinks! These people ask too much!

    John, ever wonder why foreclosures are up to record levels? Maybe, just maybe it has something to do with wage stagnation/deflation?

    Naw...couldn't be...must be an increase in lazy Americans.

    Posted by crabwalk at 09/28/2009 @ 2:58pm

12. John, ever wonder why foreclosures are up to record levels? Maybe, just maybe it has something to do with wage stagnation/deflation?

    Naw...couldn't be...must be an increase in lazy Americans.

    Posted by crabwalk at 09/28/2009 @ 2:58pm

    No, I don't wonder at all,...I know why...

    Mortgages were given to people who couldn't afford the payments in the first place...

    Posted by YourJomamma at 09/28/2009 @ 3:51pm

13. John, ever wonder why foreclosures are up to record levels? Maybe, just maybe it has something to do with wage stagnation/deflation?

    Naw...couldn't be...must be an increase in lazy Americans.

    Posted by crabwalk at 09/28/2009 @ 2:58pm

    No, I don't wonder at all,...I know why...

    Mortgages were given to people who couldn't afford the payments in the first place...

    Posted by YourJomamma at 09/28/2009 @ 3:51pm

    HOWEVER, I thought it was one of the tenets of neocon belief--now that we are "successfully" transformed into a services economy from that nasty, old, unionized, smokestack-laden industrial model--that economic "growth" in fact now depends upon, in large part, the unbridled growth in financial aggregates, like mortgage debt.

    Posted by schnellerheinz at 09/28/2009 @ 4:17pm

14. He's more like Droopy's nemesis, Jubalio Wolf.

    Posted by Mask at 09/28/2009 @ 07:34am

    ooh, i get to be chilly willy.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp0xTbsOoMw

    Posted by frosty zoom at 09/28/2009 @ 4:43pm

15. I have no sympathy for those bankers who bundled the shitty, rickety morgages into triple AAA rated investments...

    They should have known this was coming, and screamed louder that the govt was forcing bad mortgages upon the industry in order to influence more home ownership...a noble intention for sure....but typical of liberal ideas, no practicality..always accompanied by unintended consequences....and we pay those...

    but the banks became drunk with the fees they could rake in...

    as far as unions...they contributed to the collapse of GM in a big way, but were rewearded with a huge chunk of the company at the expense of actual investors who took a beating. I will never buy a GM or Chrysler product ever again..

    Posted by YourJomamma at 09/28/2009 @ 4:46pm

16. "I will never buy a GM or Chrysler product ever again.."

    Posted by YourJomamma at 09/28/2009 @ 4:46pm

    Have you actually seen the 6.2L engines and Allison transmisssions GM uses?

    Wicked.

    They'll pull a Ford in two, any of them.

    Posted by Benchrest at 09/28/2009 @ 4:54pm

17. Well, all I can say is...

    ...Wall Street-type banker/financiers, who benefit, indeed, "eat well" due to a liberal policy of mortgage writing, who then go out and, presumably, being white-shoe guys, vote Republican, are therefore irrational in their role as profit maximizers.

    In other words, management types really are nuts. OK, I will buy that.

    I do agree, people should buy what they want, although to reject even investigating a product based solely on WHO made it, is also irrational, but a free choice, so ok.

    Still not seeing, though, in this post-industrial model, that since we don't make stuff anymore, and since we won't have this unhindered growth in financial aggregates qua debt, where will economic growth come from?

    Posted by schnellerheinz at 09/28/2009 @ 6:14pm

18. Good news. Just for the record, Ceasar Chavez favored enforcement against illegal immigration because it undermines wages.

    Posted by Buddy33 at 09/30/2009 @ 10:20am

19. Socialism via "other people's money"--versus the prior grand theft…

    "...the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange (FTGE)--a trade association representing over 90 percent of the state's growers--has threatened to fine any grower $100,000 for every worker that receives a penny per pound raise..."

    In a recent CounterPunch article, Mark T. Harris recounts the calculating imposture in place in the American corporate regime, in lieu of, e.g., union arbitration contending for a fair share of America's wealth in the form of a living wage. Without unions and their legal representatives agitating for the workers--i.e., their rights, their families, etc.--management and owners will bleed American labor as its own fungible commodity, i.e., easily bought, easily sold, and readily replaced. That the capitalist agenda has been reified in the US--e.g., the frank avowal of Coolidge: "the business of America is business"--leaves the American worker as "second best," a lesser species of citizen in comparison to the elitist clique of the investor class, their attorneys, and their merely self-serving prerogatives. Harris writes of one corporate CEO feathering his own nest at the expense of workers and their families, Whole Foods' John Mackey:

    (continued...)

    http://empireglassdarkly.wordpress.com

    Posted by Stonewhite at 10/02/2009 @ 4:23pm