Observe Human Trafficking Prevention Month
Photo courtesy of Scott Robertson.
January 2012 – President Obama has proclaimed January 2012 National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month making it an apt time to learn more about how the Campaign for Fair Food has directly addressed and is helping to prevent modern slavery in the Florida tomato fields. Read more in “Freedom in the Fields” by Chris Herlinger (Presbyterians Today, May 2011).
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers has been on the forefront of preventing and addressing human trafficking through their Campaign for Fair Food and specific anti-slavery efforts in partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice and FBI for its work, the CIW’s anti-slavery coordinator was named the first U.S.-based anti-slavery hero by the U.S. Department of State in 2010.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Human Trafficking Roundtable, lifts up the issue of modern slavery, provides educational resources, helps Presbyterians advocate to end human trafficking, and facilitates free, human trafficking awareness trainings with presbyteries. Learn moreon the Human Trafficking website.
The New York Times Extols Fair Food Agreements
Photo courtesy of CIW.
January 2011 – Extolling the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ fair food agreements with corporate buyers and Florida growers, The New York Times ran an in depth article which built upon their favorable editorial in December. The article illustrates the importance of all actors in the food industry bringing their power to bear if exploitation in the fields is to change once and for all. That means the supermarket industry must join the fast food and foodservice industries in ensuring improved wages for farmworkers and implementing farmworker monitored codes of conduct to address abuses.
Now is the time for consumers to tell Ahold and Publix corporations to do their fair share. If you’re in the northeast area, come to the Community Farmworker Alliance “Encuentro,” February 4-6 in New York City to learn more and take action. And mark your calendars for the CIW’s peaceful actions in Boston (February 27 in the afternoon) where we’ll focus on Ahold and in Tampa (March 4-5) where we’ll focus on Publix. And keep those postcards and managers letters going!
History in the making: CIW and FTGE sign Fair Food agreement!
Lucas Benitez of the CIW and Reggie Brown of the FTGE sign the fair food agreement as Gerardo Reyes Chavez of the CIW looks on. Photo courtesy of CIW.
November 2010 — On Tuesday November 16, 2010, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange signed an agreement that will extend the CIW's Fair Food principles – including a strict code of conduct, a cooperative complaint resolution system, a participatory health and safety program, and a worker-to-worker education process – to more than 90 percent of the Florida tomato industry. This is history in the making as the grower community affirms and supports the full participation of farmworkers in the protection of their own rights. See full press coverage and photo essay
The agreement was the capstone on the extraordinary progress made over the past month as the nation’s largest grower, Pacific Tomato Growers and Florida’s largest grower, Six L’s Packing Company each made direct agreements with the CIW.
In a joint statement, General Assembly Stated Clerk the Rev. Gradye Parsons and General Assembly Mission Council Executive Director Linda Valentine lauded the agreement’s collaborative approach to ensuring advances that draw upon the unique contributions that farmworkers, growers, corporations and consumers can make, drawing an analogy from it to the way that the Apostle Paul describes the church as a body whose members need each other to function well.
They called on the supermarket industry, “in particular Publix, Kroger and Ahold, to join this growing partnership of corporations, growers, farmworkers and consumer” saying that “if fair food principles are to be fully realized for every farmworker across the industry, supermarkets must also embrace them.” Read full statement
Take this opportunity to let grocery leaders know that you want them to step forward and support these historic advances that ensure human well-being.
Two Florida Growers Sign Agreements with CIW
Jon Esformes of Pacific Tomato Growers shakes hands with Lucas Benitez of CIW. Photo courtesy of CIW
October 2010 — Two of Florida’s largest tomato growers have made direct agreements with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. On Wednesday, October 13, in a moving press conference, Jon Esformes, operating partner of Pacific Tomato Growers quoted Abraham Joshua Heschel saying, “‘Few are guilty, but all are responsible.’ ... The transgressions that took place are totally unacceptable today and they were totally unacceptable yesterday.” He went on to insist that farmworkers must have the same rights and protections as white-collar workers. Read more and see the photo gallery from this historic press conference. And the momentum for change picked up speed as Six L’s Packing Company, the largest tomato grower in Florida signed a similar agreement with the CIW on October 21. Read more
Ninth forced labor prosecution involving Florida farmworkers
September 2010 — A federal grand jury in Honolulu has indicted six people — including the President of Global Horizons Inc. (a guestworker recruiting company) — for conspiracy to commit forced labor in what the FBI called “the largest human trafficking case ever charged in U.S. history.”
The indictment refers to 400 Thai workers who were brought from Thailand to the United States by Global Horizons “to work on farms across the country under the U.S. federal agricultural guest worker program.”
They worked on farms in 13 states, including Hawaii, Washington, Florida, Ohio and Kentucky. The Department of Justice press release describes how “the defendants conspired and devised a scheme to obtain the labor of approximately 400 Thai nationals by enticing them to come to the United States with false promises of lucrative jobs, and then maintaining their labor at farms ... through threats of serious economic harm.” Read more
This case is a sobering reminder of the need to ensure basic rights for all those who labor in the fields. The U.S. State Department’s Trafficking in Persons report describes how forced labor is a form of modern-day slavery. Such abhorrent conditions do not occur in a vacuum, but in industries where workers lack basic rights.