Coalition of Immokalee Workers

In 2001, the CIW declared a national boycott of Taco Bell, marking the launch of the Campaign for Fair Food.[14] The CIW argued that when major buyers such as Taco Bell leverage their volume purchasing power to demand discounts from their suppliers, they create strong downward pressure on wages and working conditions in these suppliers' operations. The Campaign’s key slogan—"Taco Bell makes farmworkers poor”—captured the essence of the CIW’s thinking: when major buyers such as Taco Bell leverage their volume purchasing power to demand discounts from their suppliers, they create strong downward pressure on wages and working conditions in these suppliers' operations.

A 2004 study by Oxfam America confirmed this trend: "Squeezed by the buyers of their produce, growers pass on the costs and risks imposed on them to those on the lowest rung of the supply chain: the farmworkers they employ."[15]

During the Taco Bell Boycott, the CIW worked closely with religious and community groups and a student network, the Student/Farmworker Alliance, to pressure Taco Bell from different angles. The idea was that collaboration was built on a shared self-interest for desired change.[16] For Immokalee farmworkers, that change was higher wages and improved working conditions. For their allies, the change was ethical consumption. From this foundation, a national consumer-network enlisting students, faith organizations, food and environmental justice advocates, and socially responsible investors[17] formed to hold retail food industry brands accountable for human rights abuses in their produce supply chains.

The CIW launched a boycott of Taco Bell in 2001, holding the company accountable for the wages and working conditions of farmworkers in its tomato supply chain. The CIW argued that when major buyers such as Taco Bell leverage their volume purchasing power to demand discounts from their suppliers, they create strong downward pressure on wages and working conditions in these suppliers' operations. A 2004 study by Oxfam America confirmed this trend: "Squeezed by the buyers of their produce, growers pass on the costs and risks imposed on them to those on the lowest rung of the supply chain: the farmworkers they employ."[18]

During the Taco Bell Boycott, the CIW worked closely with religious and community groups and a student network, the Student/Farmworker Alliance, to pressure Taco Bell from different angles. On March 8, 2005, Yum! Brands, Inc., parent company of Taco Bell, agreed to all of the CIW's demands,[19] including:

• The first-ever direct, ongoing payment by a fast-food industry leader to farmworkers in its supply chain to address sub-standard farm labor wages (nearly doubling the percentage of the final retail price that goes to the workers who pick the produce);
• The first-ever enforceable Code of Conduct for agricultural suppliers in the fast-food industry (which includes the CIW as part of the investigative body for monitoring worker complaints);
• Market incentives for agricultural suppliers willing to respect their workers’ human rights, even when those rights are not guaranteed by law;
• 100% transparency for Taco Bell's tomato purchases in Florida.

After the Taco Bell Boycott, the Campaign for Fair Food shifted its focus to the rest of the fast-food industry. In response to the campaign, McDonald's helped create an industry-controlled code of conduct known as SAFE (Socially Accountable Farm Employers) that the CIW and its allies deemed insufficient.[20] On April 9, 2007, an agreement between McDonald's and the CIW was announced at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia.[21] The agreement, which met the standards previously set by the Taco Bell accord, also included a commitment by McDonald's to work with the CIW to develop an industry-wide third-party mechanism to monitor conditions and investigate abuses in the fields.[22]

In May 2008, at the U.S. Capitol, the CIW announced an agreement with Burger King. The world's second-largest burger chain had originally strongly opposed the campaign, even going so far as to hire a private investigative firm to provide information on the Student/Farmworker Alliance.[23] As part of the announcement, Burger King's chief executive, John W. Chidsey, apologized for prior negative remarks directed towards the CIW and went on to praise the group's efforts.[24] Subway, the largest fast-food buyer of Florida tomatoes, signed an agreement with the CIW six months later in December 2008.[25] With this agreement, four of the world's largest fast-food companies were now supporting the campaign. The CIW and Chipotle Mexican Grill reached a Fair Food Agreement on October 4, 2012,[26] after a six-year campaign by the CIW.[27]

In September 2008, the CIW broke ground in the supermarket industry by signing an agreement with Whole Foods Market. Karen Christensen, a Whole Foods executive explained, "We commend the CIW for their advocacy on behalf of these workers. After carefully evaluating the situation in Florida, we felt that an agreement of this nature was in line with our core values and was in the best interest of the workers."[28] The Whole Foods agreement marked the first time a retailer agreed to support the CIW initiative without extended public protests.

Throughout 2009 and 2010, the Student/Farmworker Alliance's "Dine with Dignity" campaign targeted the foodservice industry since many of these companies operate on college campuses. During this period, the CIW reached agreements with Bon Appétit Management Company,[29]Compass Group,[30] Aramark,[31] and Sodexo.[32]

In February 2012, the CIW and Trader Joe's "signed an agreement that formalizes the ways in which Trader Joe's will work with the CIW and Florida tomato growers to support the CIW's Fair Food Program."[33] This was the first Fair Food agreement the CIW signed with a major food retailer in the aftermath of the 2010 breakthrough settlement with the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange.

In January 2014, Walmart, the largest grocery retailer in the U.S., announced it was joining the Fair Food Program. In its agreement with the CIW, Walmart committed to help expand the Fair Food Program outside of Florida and into crops other than tomatoes.[34] Alexandra Guáqueta, chair of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights, attended the signing ceremony and conveyed a statement on behalf of the Working Group. The statement praises the Fair Food Program for its "smart mix" of monitoring and enforcement tools, including "market incentives for growers and retailers, monitoring policies and, crucially, a robust and accessible mechanism to resolve complaints and provide remedy," adding, "Workers have no fear of retaliation if they identify problems." The statement concludes, "We are eager to see whether the Fair Food Program is able to leverage further change within participating businesses, and serve as a model elsewhere in the world."[35]

In 2015, the CIW signed Fair Food Agreements with The Fresh Market[36] and Ahold (parent company of Giant and Stop & Shop).[37]

The Campaign for Fair Food is currently focused on Wendy's, in addition to several supermarket chains who remain uncommitted to the Fair Food Program, including Publix and Kroger.[38] In March 2023, a group of around 100 farm workers launched a protest march across Florida to both pressure both Publix and Kroger to join the Fair Food Program, and to highlight their deplorable working conditions, including forced labor.[39][40]

The CIW innovative campaigning strategy has not gone unchallenged. For instance, in November 2017, the Center for Union Facts filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service asserting the CIW "does not serve the public at large but instead a group of workers seeking concessions from their employers."[41] The union watchdog requested that "the IRS examine CIW's Forms 990 for 2013, 2014, and 2015, and, if appropriate, revoke its tax-exempt status."[42] The complaint was investigated by the Trump Administration Department of Labor and ultimately dismissed.

In November 2007, the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange (FTGE), an agricultural cooperative that provides its grower members with limited antitrust protection for marketing their products, announced that the Taco Bell/Yum and McDonald's deals "will not be executed and now are considered moot."[43] Citing antitrust concerns, the FTGE threatened its members with $100,000 (~$127,774 in 2021) fines for cooperating with McDonald's or Yum Brands. One month later, FTGE Vice President Reggie Brown explained, "I think it is un-American when you get people outside your business to dictate terms of business to you."[44] As a result of the FTGE's resistance, the penny-per-pound funds accrued during the stalemate were held in escrow.

On April 15, 2008, the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) held hearings on "Ending Abuses and Improving Working Conditions for Tomato Workers" in which Reggie Brown claimed farmworkers earned an average wage of "between $10.50 and $14.86 per hour." Lucas Benitez of the CIW and Senators Bernie Sanders (VT-I) and Dick Durbin (IL-D) disputed Brown's claim by citing contradictory evidence. The senators also scrutinized the legal basis for the FTGE's resistance to the Campaign for Fair Food.[45]

In November 2010, an agreement was reached between the CIW and the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange to implement the Fair Food Program – "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 over 90% of the Florida tomato industry".[46][47] Workers could receive an increase in annual wages from $10,000–12,000 a year to $17,000 if additional large buyers agree to the increase. In an editorial, the New York Times described the agreement as a "remarkable victory in a 15-year struggle for better pay and working conditions... The Immokalee victory won’t impose fairness overnight, but after generations of exploitation, part of the farm industry is pointing in the right direction."[48]

The Fair Food Program is a human rights monitoring and enforcement program designed to protect farmworkers’ fundamental human rights on participating farms by harnessing the purchasing power of more than a dozen of the world’s largest retail food brands. The CIW’s Fair Food Agreements with major food retailers provide for the enforcement of the Fair Food Code of Conduct through a multi-layered approach to monitoring and enforcement that features a 24/7 complaint investigation and resolution mechanism and comprehensive field and office audits.

The CIW’s legally-binding agreements with participating buyers include two primary provisions: the Fair Food Premium — a bonus paid by the retailers and distributed directly to farmworkers on top of their regular pay, to help improve longstanding poverty-level wages in the US agricultural sector — and the market-backed enforcement of the Fair Food Code of Conduct, through the suspension of purchases by the Participating Buyers from farms that have committed zero tolerance (e.g., forced labor) violations or else failed to remediate other violations (e.g., wage theft). Workers on participating farms receive multiple forms of education on their rights under the Fair Food Code of Conduct, including written and video education at the point of hire and at least two in-person, worker-to-worker educations, on the farm and on the clock, administered by a CIW worker education team per season.

Working in a spirit of partnership with brands and growers, CIW and grower representatives regularly meet and collaborate to revise the Code and resolve concerns over its implementation. For instance, in the face of rising heat-related health risks due to the effects of climate change, the Code has recently been updated to include mandatory breaks every two hours, increased monitoring of heat-stress prevention measures, education and training, and responding to heat-stress symptoms.[49] Another example of how new standards are developed to timely address emerging challenges is the “FFP COVID-19 Illness Prevention, Assessment and Response Plan”.[50] These protocols became effective in September 2020 and were the first set of privately enforceable mandatory standards to protect farmworkers from COVID-19 in the U.S.

The Fair Food Standards Council, an independent monitor set up by the CIW to monitor Code compliance, administers the 24/7 complaint hotline, provides ongoing third-party monitoring and annual auditing (including interviews with over half the workforce on-site), as well as ongoing reviews and payroll and timekeeping systems to ensure that there is no wage theft and that the Fair Food Premium is distributed properly on top of regular wages. The Fair Food Standards Council is based in Sarasota, Florida, and directed by a former New York State Supreme Court Justice.[51]

Corrective action plans are the building blocks for improving supplier compliance with the Code. Audit reports and complaint findings serve as the starting point for a conversation. The corrective action plans that follow are co-created with farms to address their unique circumstances. This contributes to supplier buy-in, as does the independent monitor’s experience, and the efficiency gains from having a clear plan that sets priorities and realistic timelines for achieving them. The entire process is backed by the possibility of market consequences for the failure or refusal to comply with the requirements of the corrective action plan.

Complaint resolutions closes the circle by providing for ongoing monitoring and enforcement. The independent monitor improves communication through effective and efficient resolution of workers’ complaints, free of retaliation, which in turn builds trust in the system and encourages workers to come forward.[52]

With its worker-centered approach to human rights monitoring and enforcement, the Fair Food Program was the first comprehensive, fully functional model of the Worker-driven Social Responsibility (WSR) paradigm.[53] The Fair Food Standards Council recently released its 2021 Fair Food Program report,[54] which includes updated statistics regarding the impact of the program along with education and training for farmworkers to use at their jobs.

The FFP Sponsor Program is a new entry point for smaller retailers who aspire to support ethical practices, meet the expectations of a committed shopper base, and help build a more just food system. Sponsors make three commitments under the program:

–       making an annual support payment to the Fair Food Program based on a sliding scale,

–       educating their customers about the Fair Food Program through the announcement of the partnership and material making an effort to source Fair Food Program produce if it is available to them from their distributors.

The Sponsor Program has the potential to maximize the industry power of smaller food retailers to preserve the gains that the FFP has achieved for workers in the US tomato industry and reduce the almost exclusive reliance on the industry power of corporate buyers as the source of the FFP supplier incentives for decent work.

Currently, the Program includes three co-ops, one independent retailer and one restaurant –respectively, Takoma Park Silver Spring Co-Op (Maryland),[55] Park Slope Food Coop (N.Y.C.),[56] Three Rivers Market (Tennessee), Each Peach Market (D.C.)[57] and The Trashy Vegan (Tennessee).[58]

The Program is steadily expanding to new sectors and new states. In 2020, the Program expanded to the cut flower industry in Virginia,[59] California, and, since 2022, in Chile. The Program is planning further international expansion to South Africa and Mexico through support of the US Department of Labor.[60]