On March 21 in St. Petersburg, Fla., the Fair Food Concert and Parade hosted by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers drew over 2,000 people. CIW is a worker-based human rights organization that has gained international recognition for its achievements in combating sexual violence, human trafficking and labor exploitation in the agricultural industry.
Launched in 2011, CIW’s Fair Food Program has established worker-to-worker education sessions on new labor standards put forth by its Fair Food Code of Conduct, regular audits to measure compliance, a complaint investigation and resolution process, and a line item bonus on farmworkers’ paychecks from premiums paid by participating buyers, such as Taco Bell, McDonald’s and Walmart.
Supporters of CIW and farmworkers’ rights traveled from all over the country to be at the Fair Food Concert and Parade. After a three-mile march through the heart of St. Pete, the giant action continued with speeches, plays and musical performances until nightfall.
Liberation spoke to several people to hear what motivates them to stand up for the rights of migrant farmworkers and to support the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.
Roger Butterfield, a 24-year-old who lives in Sarasota, Fla., and a longtime supporter of the CIW, spoke about the significance of Saturday’s action.
“This concert is in many ways a celebration of all the hard work that has gone into the campaign for the past 20 years that has finally come to fruition,” said Butterfield. “All of the organizing, the teach-ins, the one-on-ones, the actions, and of course the day-to-day struggle of the farmworkers to get by on poverty wages in horrible conditions; it all paved the way for the creation of the Fair Food Program and the ensuring of fundamental human rights for Florida tomato pickers. This concert was first and foremost for them, the farmworkers, the ones who have led the struggle from the beginning and will lead it until every farmworker sees their day of justice.
“But just like every CIW protest I’ve been to is celebratory, this celebration was also a call to Publix and Wendy’s to join the Coalition. Every day that they hold out is another day where justice has not been done for thousands of farmworkers. And it’s not just Florida tomato pickers; the program has the potential to expand beyond this state and into other crops. I’ve heard of moves toward this already, but there will always be limits to its advance as long as corporate buyers stubbornly cling to their old ways of doing things.
“Wendy’s even recently announced that they have halted all purchases of Florida tomatoes, as if that somehow absolves them of responsibility. A recent LA Times series covered the human rights abuses in Mexico’s tomato fields, and I’m sure if you were to examine tomato agriculture elsewhere in the U.S. you would find a culture of disrespect and oppression similar to the Florida tomato industry of five years ago. So the problem is not something you can solve by just moving your money elsewhere!
“The CIW’s student allies responded today with a big announcement: a national student boycott of Wendy’s. I’m excited to see where their campaign goes. Soon we’ll probably see Wendy’s getting kicked off of college campuses, until they sign of course!”
Megan Hague, a 25-year-old documentarian and member of Worker’s Justice Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, came to St. Pete with a number of other activists. She got involved about a year ago when Worker’s Justice Center organized a protest outside of a Kroger’s shareholder meeting. Kroger, which is headquartered in Cincinnati, has held out from joining the Fair Food Agreement.
“I’m here because I love food. We all depend on food. It’s easy to feel complacent with your options and to not really question where they came from and how they were produced, and if they were produced ethically and if farmworkers were paid properly for that. I think we’re all complicit in that if we’re not fighting for the people who grow the food,” said Hague. “We’re all a part of this system. We’re all workers and if we’re not, we depend on workers. I don’t want work to be an oppressive force in our lives. If you’re not getting paid properly, or you’re getting sexually harassed or if you’re being subject to discrimination or racism—if work is what we do every day—then that’s going to define your life. You have to work to get paid and you have to pay to live, so workers’ rights are important. We have to have solidarity because there’s power in numbers.”
Cristina Castillo, a member of Student/Farmworker Alliance at University of South Florida, is 22 years old and was born in Guatemala. She told Liberation that justice for farmworkers is a human-rights issue.
“Instantly you realize how connected you are to the movement, and the fact that it’s happening in this state right here. You can make a change. Why be here on this planet if you’re not going to try to make a change? Everybody who eats food is connected to this issue. If somebody is working every single day and picking produce for you to eat, why shouldn’t they live a life that’s full of justice and respect and dignity? It’s not about finding a different job. They just want to be paid appropriately and not be scared of working. It’s human rights. It’s basic human rights,” said Castillo.
Rafael Nuñez, an 18 year old from New Jersey, traveled to the Fair Food Concert with a large group of students from Dartmouth College. He spoke about how sharing in the experiences of his mother, an undocumented domestic laborer, opened his eyes to the struggles faced by migrant farmworkers.
“I’m here to support the fight for Fair Food. This is an issue that’s very important to me, making sure that migrant workers have decent working and living conditions and are getting paid a fair wage. My mother is an illegal immigrant here in this country, and while she doesn’t work necessarily in the field, she’s a very hard laborer,” said Nuñez. “She works as a maid. She works with her hands every day just to provide for me and my family. So I think that I understand the struggle that these farmworkers are going through and that their families are going through. My mother, being an illegal immigrant, she has no rights in this country. She can’t ask for benefits, she can’t ask for protection. Her employers mistreat her. She has to work under difficult conditions. She doesn’t earn much money. But I don’t think that’s the way it should be. I think everybody should have a good wage. I think everybody should have basic rights. Just because you’re not a citizen of this country doesn’t mean you get to be treated as an animal. You deserve to be treated with the same rights as any other human being.”
Carmen Mason, a 22-year-old activist from California and a student at American University in Washington, D.C., told Liberation how she was inspired by the activism of her grandmother, a United Farm Workers member who participated in the Delano Grape Strike and Boycott in the 1960s.
“Farmworkers are the people who harvest our food. They’re the reason why we eat,” said Mason. “And a lot of times immigrants are here because of policies that the U.S. has created and because of policies that have pushed them out of their countries, it’s not like they want to be here, they want to be home. We wouldn’t be anywhere without farmworkers. My grandmother used to be a farmworker in California for 15 years. She organized with the UFW in the Grape Boycott. She was one of my inspirations. She was someone who, no matter what role someone played in a food chain or business chain, she believed everyone deserved to be treated with dignity and respect. She was always trying to understand, how can we change this world, and how can I change my own preconceived notions about X,Y and Z, and use that as a means to create change.”
Christina Harn, a sociology and anthropology student at New College of Florida, came to the action with Students Targeting Oppressive Powers at NCF.
“I think this is a pivotal moment in the CIW’s history,” said Harn. “It’s both recognition of how far this really long struggle has gone and it’s also the benchmark right before CIW is about to spread out of Florida. They’ve been working with people in other industries about their worker-led model. They’re about to expand into strawberry fields. This is a huge moment and shows all the diverse groups and people who are behind them as they’re gaining national attention.”
