Santiago explains the hierarchy affecting farmworkers in Florida.
This past Friday, MLOV welcomed Santiago from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and Joe, a member of the Student/Farmworker Alliance for a bilingual community presentation about the connection between farmworkers, consumers and allies.
For decades, Florida's farmworkers faced poverty wages and daily violations of their basic rights — including physical abuse, sexual harassment, and in the most extreme cases, modern-day slavery — in order to harvest the food on our plates. However, due to the successful organizing of Santiago and hundreds of other farmworkers, students, consumers and allies, the CIW is changing conditions in the fields by fighting for fair wages, affordable housing, the right to organize, an end to involuntary servitude and stronger laws and enforcement mechanisms.
For decades, Florida's farmworkers faced poverty wages and daily violations of their basic rights — including physical abuse, sexual harassment, and in the most extreme cases, modern-day slavery — in order to harvest the food on our plates. However, due to the successful organizing of Santiago and hundreds of other farmworkers, students, consumers and allies, the CIW is changing conditions in the fields by fighting for fair wages, affordable housing, the right to organize, an end to involuntary servitude and stronger laws and enforcement mechanisms.
To date, they have reached groundbreaking agreements with ten of the world's leading food retailers, including McDonald's, Subway and Trader Joe's. The CIW calls on these corporations to join the Fair Food Program, a stringent, worker-designed code of conduct that requires retailers to pay one more penny per pound for the tomatoes they buy to go directly to the workers who picked them. These agreements are transforming Florida’s tomato fields to reflect a future of livable wages and just, modern labor relations. However, this future is dependent on continued community collaboration to ensure all food retailers sign agreements to follow the CIW’s Fair Food principles.
How can you help? Royal Ahold USA (the parent company of DC grocery store Giant) has refused to join this partnership, instead continuing to leverage its high-volume purchasing power to demand the ever-lower prices that result in farmworker exploitation. Rather than use this market power to support farmworkers and their families, Ahold's recalcitrance provides a market for continued abuse.
Join farmworkers and Fair Food advocates in demanding that Ahold uphold human rights and join the Fair Food Program!
How can you help? Royal Ahold USA (the parent company of DC grocery store Giant) has refused to join this partnership, instead continuing to leverage its high-volume purchasing power to demand the ever-lower prices that result in farmworker exploitation. Rather than use this market power to support farmworkers and their families, Ahold's recalcitrance provides a market for continued abuse.
Join farmworkers and Fair Food advocates in demanding that Ahold uphold human rights and join the Fair Food Program!