Immokalee Workers Win, Again!

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/6580/immokalee_workers_win_again/

Friday 22 Oct 10 12:49 pm

By Kari Lydersen


In March, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers took their message to the streets during a three-day march in Florida. (Photo by Kari Lydersen)


Good news is bursting forth like a healthy crop of winter tomatoes for the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). Last week the coalition announced one of the country’s largest tomato growers had signed a workers' rights agreement including the promise to pay a penny more per pound.

Yesterday (October 21), Florida’s largest tomato grower, Six L’s Packing Co., followed suit.

These back-to-back victories show that when confronted with social and economic pressure and a nationwide grassroots movement that refuses to back down, even the seemingly worst employers can do an about-face. Both Six L’s and Pacific Tomato Growers, which signed the agreement with the CIW last week, were responsible for cases of modern-day slavery which the coalition had worked with the Department of Justice to expose and prosecute in recent years.

Knowing they’d be hard-pressed to get results from the growers themselves at the start of their campaign a decade ago, the coalition targeted high-profile buyers, starting with Taco Bell and later McDonald’s, Burger King, Whole Foods, Sodexo and others with the idea they would pressure growers to do the right thing.

The fact that growers are in quick succession now signing on with the coalition shows an historic sea change in farm worker-employer relations – even as the coalition and their allies continue to target tomato buyers including the Florida-based supermarket Publix, Kroger, Trader Joe’s and Quiznos.

Paying a penny more per pound could raise farm workers’ income from about $10,000 to $17,000 a year. And perhaps even more importantly, the agreements signify that farm workers are indeed human beings with human rights and dignity whose labor is crucial to feeding the country and making possible the nation’s massive restaurant industry.

FULL story at link.