After a decade long battle to fight trafficking, exploitation, and abuse in the Florida tomato industry, the largest tomato grower in Florida Six L’s has signed on to the Coalition of Immokalee Worker’s Fair Food Campaign. That means they agree to pay workers a penny more per pound of tomatoes picked and institute a Code of Conduct, which among other things will help prevent abuse and exploitation of workers. This change represents a huge victory for the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and everyone who has fought to end slavery in the tomato industry.
Six L’s has agreed to take all the steps crucial to protecting farm workers, as advocated by the CIW’s Fair Food Campaign. They will increase worker wages which haven’t grown for years, develop a cooperative complaint resolution system, install a participatory health and safety program, and begin worker-to-worker education initiatives to make every employee, including farm workers, part of a company-wide effort to promote social responsibility. Since Six L’s is the largest grower in a state with one of the most significant problems with abuse in the agricultural sector, this victory is a true coup for abolition.
The victory comes on the heels of the launch of the Coalition of Immokalee Worker’s newest initiative aimed at grocery stores who haven’t yet committed to the Campaign for Fair Food. And while Six L’s proactive actions are worth celebrating, grocery chains around the country are still refusing to step up to the plate and protect farm workers from exploitation and slavery.
You can keep the momentum going by asking Trader Joe’s to join the Fair Food campaign and ensure they aren’t selling produce picked by slaves. Or, check out CIW’s supermarket campaign and attend an event near you. Together, we can make all food fair for the people who grow it and the people who eat it.
Photo credit: EikeR
Largest Tomato Grower In Flordia Joins Campaign for Fair Food
Have you ever heard of the Battle of Blair Mountain? Neither had I, despite its being the largest armed conflict on American soil since the Civil War and the largest labor confrontation ever.