CIW's Lucas Benitez: "The events of the past months have been trying. But we are prepared to move forward, together now with Burger King, toward a future of full respect for the human rights of workers in the Florida tomato fields. Today we are one step closer to building a world where we, as farmworkers, can enjoy a fair wage and humane working conditions in exchange for the hard and essential work we do everyday. We are not there yet, but we are getting there, and this agreement should send a strong message to the rest of the restaurant and supermarket industry: Now is the time to join Yum! Brands, McDonalds, and Burger King in righting the wrongs that have been allowed to linger in Florida’s fields for far too long."
Click here for the press release, media coverage, and agreement details.
May 23, 2008
Burger King campaign comes to end with historic press conference, signing ceremony at US Capitol
May 7, 2008
BK 'spygate' scandal widens, implicates CEO
With a powerful new op/ed published in today's New York Times, entitled "Burger With a Side of Spies," award-winning investigative author Eric Schlosser takes the spreading "spygate" scandal to a new level, documenting the fast-food giants efforts to infiltrate the Student/Farmworker Alliance.
This comes just three weeks after a report in the Ft. Myers News-Press broke the story of a multi-faceted "dirty tricks" campaign aimed at discrediting the CIW through an anonymous, bogus blogger campaign of emails and internet postings questioning the CIW's integrity and calling the Immokalee farmworkers' organization the "lowest form of life" and "bloodsuckers," among other things. That smear campaign has since been tied to Burger King Vice President Steven Grover (above right, "Burger King VP puts self on grill; Daughter says dad wrote anti-coalition postings," 4/28/08). Stay tuned for more news in this rapidly developing story!
April 17, 2008
Three upcoming events: May 1-3
Please join us at three upcoming events:
1. Immigrant Rights March
Thursday, May 1st, Rally 4:30pm, March 5:30pm
South Steps of the Capitol, 1100 Congress Ave 78701
Take to the streets on May Day to demand dignity for immigrant workers and the right to live without fear of deportations that divide families!
2. Fair Food Celebration
Friday, May 2nd, 7pm
MonkeyWrench Books, 110. E. North Loop 78751
Before summer arrives and workers leave Immokalee for northern harvests, celebrate the end of another year of local Fair Food organizing with music from Son Armado, photographs, refreshments and updates on the Whole Foods and Burger King campaigns -- including a report-back from the national petition delivery in Miami!
3. Guatemala, International Mining, and Community Resistance
Saturday, May 3rd, 7pm
MonkeyWrench Books, 110. E. North Loop
Fausto Valiente Roberto de Leon represents the Pastoral Commission for Peace and Ecology (COPAE), and will speak about community struggles against gold and silver extraction in San Marcos, Guatemala. COPAE works to monitor the health, social, and environmental affects of mining and supports community efforts to exert their right to autonomy against transnational corporations and create locally determined economic alternatives for development.
April 14, 2008
Exposed: Burger King spying on CIW and SFA!
"Who would spy on a couple of nonprofit human rights groups? Who would hire a professional infiltrator to sit in on the organizations’ planning sessions? Who would attack them on the Web for their efforts to improve the lives of workers who pick produce for the world’s largest fast food chains? That’s something the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Student/Farmworker Alliance would like to know." Read the full article on this breaking story:
- "Tomato pickers feeling spied on," Ft. Myers News-Press (4/12)
- "Did Burger King target and spy on tomato pickers rights groups?" Democracy Now! (4/14)
March 21, 2008
CIW Petition Campaign Heats Up!
The National Petition Campaign to End Sweatshops & Slavery in the Fields is entering its final month! We need your support to make it a success now more than ever. The petitions will serve as notice that those who sign are “prepared to stop patronizing Burger King now, and other food industry leaders in the future, should they fail to do so.” The campaign comes on the 200th anniversary of the US ban against the importation of slaves, and echoes key strategies of the early abolitionist movement that helped hasten the end of slavery in the 19th century.
Take a moment today to add your name to the growing list of petition signers, and forward the petition on to your family, friends and co-workers so that they may sign as well. With each signature, our message to Burger King -- and other food industry leaders such as Whole Foods -- that they must take responsibility for the human rights crisis in America's fields grows even stronger. Don't miss this creative video petition from the Student/Farmworker Alliance crew in NYC!
March 11, 2008
Movement for Justice in El Barrio
Thursday, March 20th, 7pm
The University of Texas at Austin
Calhoun 100
Movement for Justice in El Barrio (MJB) is a grassroots organization from New York City comprised primarily of Mexican immigrants. For the past three years, this 400-member tenant rights organization has successfully staved off the gentrification of East Harlem in New York City. MJB is coming to Austin, Texas to share their successes and discuss their organizing strategies including the new International Campaign in Defense of El Barrio (which SFA recently endorsed). To learn more about MJB, check out this profile for the May/June issue of Left Turn Magazine, "Urban Zapatismo in NYC."
This event is sponsored by the Chicana/o Latina /o Graduate Student Association, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano/a de Aztlan en Austin (MEChA), Student/Farmworker Alliance - ATX and others.
March 10, 2008
CIW, Fair Food Austin Picket Whole Foods Annual Shareholder Meeting
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 10, 2008
Contact:
Kate Kelly, (512) 560-5897
Carlos Perez de Alejo, (321) 948-3423
Whole Foods Must Partner with Coalition of Immokalee Workers to “Close Gap Between Rhetoric and Reality,” Eliminate Abuse in Florida's Fields
Austin, Texas – On Monday, March 10, members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and the Fair Food Austin campaign will picket outside Whole Foods' annual shareholders meeting to encourage the world's leading natural and organic food retailer to take proactive steps to address sweatshop conditions in its tomato supply chain. The conditions in Florida’s tomato fields – which include an antiquated piece rate pay system that results in sub-poverty annual wages, long hours with no right to overtime pay, and no right to organize – fly in the face of the company’s much publicized commitment to buying only from producers who provide fair wages and humane treatment.
The CIW is an award-winning farmworker organization known for its exposure of several modern-day slavery operations in Florida agriculture. The CIW is appealing to major food industry players – including Austin-based retailer Whole Foods Market – to leverage their market influence to demand full respect for the human rights of the workers who pick their tomatoes. Whole Foods is a Fortune 500 company with $6.6 billion in 2007 sales.
Kate Kelly of Fair Food Austin states, “Last year, Whole Foods announced the Whole Trade Guarantee for products it purchases from overseas, claiming to 'help combat poverty' through 'better wages and working conditions for workers.' These principles should be extended to all workers in Whole Foods' produce supply chain.” Ms. Kelly continues, “Specifically, Whole Foods should partner with the CIW to improve wages and working conditions for Florida tomato pickers.”
Carlos Perez de Alejo of Fair Food Austin adds, “If Whole Foods is to be the company it claims to be, it must live up to its words and partner with the CIW to help end the exploitation of Florida's farmworkers. Whole Foods must close the gap between its rhetoric and reality.”
Background: Florida’s farmworkers – including the workers who pick tomatoes for retailers such as Whole Foods – face sweatshop conditions every day in the fields, including: sub-poverty wages (tomato pickers earn roughly $10,000/year, according to the USDOL); no raise in nearly 30 years (pickers are paid virtually the same per bucket piece rate today as in 1980 - at the going rate, workers must pick more than 2.5 TONS of tomatoes just to earn minimum wage for a typical 10-hr day); and the denial of fundamental labor rights (no right to overtime pay nor right to organize).
In the most extreme cases, workers face actual conditions of modern-day slavery. Federal civil rights officials have prosecuted six slavery operations – involving over 1,000 workers – in Florida's fields since 1997.
In an interview with The Nation following his January 2008 visit to farmworkers in Immokalee, Florida, US Senator Bernie Sanders stated, “I think those are workers who are more ruthlessly exploited and treated with more contempt than any group of workers that I've ever seen and I suspect exist in the US." He added, "The norm is a disaster, and the extreme is slavery."
In 2005, the CIW resolved a four-year, nationwide boycott against Taco Bell when the fast-food leader and its parent company, Yum Brands, agreed to pay a premium for its tomatoes to directly improve workers' sub-poverty wages and to work with the CIW to address the labor abuses endemic to Florida agriculture. In 2007, after a two-year campaign, the CIW reached a similar agreement with McDonald's, the largest fast-food chain in the world.
The CIW's groundbreaking work has been recognized by the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Human Rights Center, Anti-Slavery International, US Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Business Ethics Network, among others. The CIW received support from the Editorial Board of the Austin American-Statesman, “Penny pinchers won't let tomato pickers have it their way,” (1/11/08) and has received extensive national and international media coverage since 2001.
Read more...
February 26, 2008
3/10: Action at Whole Foods Shareholder Meeting
Monday, March 10th, 8am
Hilton Austin
500 East 4th Street, 78701
CIW: "Today we are tired, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., of 'relying on the good will and understanding of those who profit by exploiting us.'"
Campaign Background: One year ago, the CIW sent a letter to Whole Foods requesting dialogue around solutions to the human rights crisis in Florida's fields. Whole Foods flatly ignored this request, later claiming to the Austin-American Statesman they never received the certified letter. On February 11, 2008, a delegation of CIW and Austin community members re-delivered the letter to Whole Foods corporate headquarters.
With $6.6 billion in 2007 sales, Whole Foods is the world's leading natural and organic food retailer. It stakes its brand and reputation on an image of social responsibility. Through its Whole Trade guarantee, for example, it proudly markets fair trade purchasing programs for products from overseas, claiming to "help combat poverty" through "better wages and working conditions for workers." Yet farmworkers suffer unconscionable wages and working conditions here in the United States, including:
- sub-poverty wages (tomato pickers earn roughly $10,000/year, according to the US Department of Labor);
- no raise in nearly 30 years (pickers are paid virtually the same per bucket piece rate today as in 1980 – at the going rate, workers must pick more than 2.5 TONS of tomatoes just to earn minimum wage for a typical 10-hr day);
- and the denial of fundamental labor rights (no right to overtime pay nor right to organize).
One year is too long to wait. Please join us on March 10th to take this message to Whole Foods' shareholders from around the country. Read more...
February 19, 2008
Community Meeting + Whole Foods Action
Thanks to everyone who supported the CIW's recent visit to Austin. By all accounts, the weekend was a great success as members of CIW and SFA took the Campaign to Fair Food to thousands of consumers throughout the Texas capital. The Austin Chronicle, among others, is taking notice: "Fighting for Fair Food" (2/08/08).
From educational events to a high-energy Burger King protest to a visit to Whole Foods headquarters, the tour foreshadowed great things to come in the weeks and months ahead, including:
1. Community Meeting & Strategy Discussion
Join us for a community meeting regarding Whole Foods and upcoming actions in the Fair Food Austin campaign.
Sunday, March 2nd, 6 p.m.
Friends Meeting of Austin
3707 E. Martin Luther King Jr. St., 78721
2. Whole Foods Shareholder Meeting - Save the Date!
Join CIW and allies for education and action outside Whole Foods' annual shareholder meeting.
Monday, March 10th, 8am
Hilton Austin
500 East 4th Street, 78701
February 17, 2008
Photo Report: Waiting on Whole Foods
Don't miss the CIW's firsthand photo report of last weekend's whirlwind Austin tour! In this report, you'll find highlights of the Burger King protest plus Monday's human rights delegation to Whole Foods headquarters, where CIW and Austin Fair Food activists were warned against trying to "back Whole Foods into a corner!"
February 11, 2008
Multimedia: CIW Weekend Tour
As part of the CIW Weekend Tour, nearly 100 people marched on Saturday from the MLK Jr. statue at the University of Texas to the nearby Burger King. Participants hailed from Austin, the Rio Grande Valley, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas and as far away as Lawrence, Kansas! Follow the links below for some excellent snapshots of the weekend:
CIW, Fair Food Austin Deliver Message to Whole Foods Headquaters
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 11, 2008
Contact:
Kate Kelly, (512) 560-5897
Carlos Perez de Alejo, (321) 948-3423
Coalition of Immokalee Workers brings Campaign for Fair Food to Austin, presses Whole Foods for fair wages, transparency in tomato supply chain
Austin, Texas – On Monday, February 11, a delegation from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and the Fair Food Austin campaign will visit Whole Foods headquarters to encourage the world's leading natural and organic food retailer to take proactive measures to address sweatshop conditions in its tomato supply chain.
The CIW is an award-winning farmworker organization known for its exposure of several modern-day slavery operations in Florida agriculture. The CIW's Campaign for Fair Food appeals to major food industry players – including fast-food giant Burger King and Austin-based retailer Whole Foods – to leverage their market influence to demand full respect for the human rights of the workers who pick their tomatoes.
Kate Kelly of Fair Food Austin states, “Last year, Whole Foods announced strict new criteria for products it purchases from the developing world. If Whole Foods can use its influence to improve wages and working conditions for workers abroad, it can do the same for tomato pickers in Florida.” Ms. Kelly continues, “As a good faith effort, Whole Foods should establish transparency in its tomato supply chain. In an industry plagued by one forced labor case after another, transparency is essential if Whole Foods wishes to guarantee its consumers slavery-free products.”
Carlos Perez de Alejo of Fair Food Austin adds, “A company such as Whole Foods that publicly commits itself to socially responsible purchasing practices should jump at the chance to partner with the CIW, a proven organization with a sustainable model for change in Florida's fields. This is a valuable opportunity for Whole Foods to enhance its reputation while doing the right thing.”
Background: Florida’s farmworkers – including the workers who pick tomatoes for fast-food giants such as Burger King and retailers such as Whole Foods – face sweatshop conditions every day in the fields, including: sub-poverty wages (tomato pickers earn roughly $10,000/year, according to the USDOL); no raise in nearly 30 years (pickers are paid virtually the same per bucket piece rate today as in 1980 - at the going rate, workers must pick more than 2.5 TONS of tomatoes just to earn minimum wage for a typical 10-hr day); and the denial of fundamental labor rights (no right to overtime pay nor right to organize).
In the most extreme cases, workers face actual conditions of modern-day slavery. The CIW has helped federal civil rights officials to prosecute five slavery operations – involving over 1,000 workers – in Florida's fields since 1997.
In 2005, the CIW resolved a four-year, nationwide boycott against Taco Bell when the fast-food leader and its parent company, Yum Brands, agreed to pay a premium for its tomatoes to directly improve workers' sub-poverty wages and work with the CIW to address the labor abuses endemic to Florida agriculture. In 2007, after a two-year campaign, the CIW reached a similar agreement with McDonald's, the largest fast-food chain in the world.
For these efforts, the CIW received support from the Editorial Board of the Austin American-Statesman, “Penny pinchers won't let tomato pickers have it their way,” (1/11/08). This is the CIW's first visit to Austin since 2005.
Read more...
February 1, 2008
CIW Weekend Tour
Join the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) in Austin, Texas from February 7-10, 2008.
1. Keynote Address at 28th Annual Student Conference on Latin America
Thursday, Feb. 7th, 7pm
Thompson Conference Center 1.110, University of Texas
2405 Robert Dedman Dr.
(southwest corner of Dean Keeton and Red River)
2. Photography Exhibit & Fundraiser
Join CIW and documentary photographer Alan Pogue for a special exhibit on Florida farmworkers.
Friday, Feb. 8th, 7pm
1604 E. 11th St.
$10 suggested donation (no one turned away for lack of funds)
3. Campaign Workshop & Art-making
Join CIW and allies for a campaign workshop and art-making for the afternoon protest.
Saturday, Feb. 9th, 11am
Rhizome Collective
300 Allen St.
Lunch provided by Food Not Bombs
4. Burger King Protest
Hit the streets with CIW and allies - Serfs up, Kings down!
Saturday, Feb. 9th, 3pm
March begins at MLK statue on UT campus (East Mall) and ends at Burger
King (2700 Guadalupe St.)
5. Fair Food Dinner
Join CIW and community, faith, labor, and youth allies for dinner, music, and a campaign presentation.
Sunday, Feb. 10th, 5pm
Friends Meeting of Austin
3707 E. Martin Luther King Jr. St.
Dinner provided. Please RSVP sfaatx [at] gmail.com
January 11, 2008
Statesman Rips Burger King, Whole Foods
Don't miss the new editorial from the Austin American-Statesman: "Penny pinchers won't let tomato pickers have it their way" (1/11/08).
In response, this letter, "Tomato pickers plight" (1/21/08), notes the shortcomings in Whole Foods' treatment of tomato pickers.
