Coalition of Immokalee Workers

Fair Food Program to consult in adaptation of FFP’s proven protections to prevent brutal labor abuses exposed in Mumbai High Court, Indian press, and hard-hitting New York Times series MAHARASHTRA, INDIA?– A?coalition of labor and human rights groups – coming together under the banner of the newly-formed India Sugar Industry Workers Association (ISWA) – is launching an ambitious collaboration to end longstanding human rights abuses in India’s?multi-billion-dollar sugar industry. The emerging initiative includes several leading grassroots labor organizations representing sugarcane cutters in the key sugar-producing states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Uttar Pradesh, which collectively account for approximately 85% of India’s sugar production. The abuses that gave rise to the collaboration – including tens of thousands of women farmworkers subjected to forced hysterectomies and debt bondage arrangements that in some cases stretch across generations – came to light through several recent, high profile legal actions and investigative articles by Indian and international media outlets, including?The Hindu?and the?New York Times. The labor and human rights groups associated with ISWA– are looking to the US-based Fair Food Program (FFP) for inspiration as they begin the slow and careful process of designing and building their own initiative to enforce farmworkers’ fundamental human rights in India’s sugarcane fields. The FFP has successfully addressed similar issues in the US agriculture industry and has received?widespread recognition?for its groundbreaking?Worker-driven Social Responsibility?(WSR) model, a new paradigm for enforcing human rights in global supply chains based on binding legal agreements between worker organizations and the corporate brands at the top of global markets that set humane standards for workers in their suppliers’ operations. Launched in 2010 by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), and partnering with some of the world’s largest food corporations,?the FFP has?transformed?the working and living conditions of tens of thousands of farmworkers across 23 states in the US, eradicating abuses from forced labor to sexual assault. With worker-to-worker rights education, a 24/7 complaint?hotline?protected from retaliation, independent third-party monitoring, comprehensive field audits, and market consequences for the failure to comply with its human rights standards, the FFP’s unique mix of monitoring and enforcement tools has been called the “new gold standard” for social responsibility... READ MORE HERE: https://lnkd.in/gSMfUtqp

We're #hiring a new Fair Food Program Education and Operations Coordinator in Immokalee, Florida. Apply today or share this post with your network.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution Op/Ed shines light on decades-long relationship between President Carter and CIW for farmworker human rights Professor Susan Marquis, in Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Envisioned and led by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the Fair Food Program is transforming agriculture, ending the endemic abuse on farms across the U.S. and, increasingly, around the globe. When this groundbreaking program was still a bold but untested idea in the early 2000s, Jimmy Carter and The Carter Center brought expertise in con?ict resolution and Carter’s prestige to the farmworkers’ campaign for human rights.” Decades-long relationship began in 1997 with the former President’s public intervention in the CIW’s month-long hunger strike, continued through birth of Fair Food Program and growth of WSR model, carried over into support for CIW’s anti-slavery efforts https://lnkd.in/gXc5yh_C

We're #hiring a new Campaign for Fair Food National Organizer in Immokalee, Florida. Apply today or share this post with your network.

We're #hiring a new Fair Food Program Education and Operations Coordinator in Immokalee, Florida. Apply today or share this post with your network.

“A true force of nature”: CIW pays tribute to Ethel Kennedy at extraordinary memorial ceremony in Washington, DC CIW’s Lucas Benitez:?“My colleagues and I are here today from Florida… in the company of so many distinguished champions of this great democracy, because Mrs. Kennedy knew it takes all of us, from farmworkers to presidents, to defend the human rights she held so dear.” CIW’s Greg Asbed:?“Her embrace of our work in Immokalee connected us to history, to the history of the civil rights movement, to the history of the farmworker movement, to the history of all who have fought to hold this country accountable to its great promise of equal justice and equal rights.” On October 10th, Ethel Skakel Kennedy passed away peacefully, surrounded by the love of her famously large family, at the age of 96. One week later, on October 16th, over 1,000 friends, family, and admirers — including President Biden, former Presidents Obama and Clinton, artists Stevie Wonder and Sting, and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers — gathered in Washington, DC’s spectacular Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle to celebrate Mrs. Kennedy’s extraordinary life. Mrs. Kennedy lived a life true to the tenets of her faith, defined by an unwavering commitment to social justice that stretched across two centuries.?From the movement to expand fundamental civil and human rights to all Americans in the 1960s — a turbulent decade that claimed the life of her husband, former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy — to the struggle to protect and preserve our country’s fragile democracy today, Mrs. Kennedy never shied from joining in the fight to make the country, and the world, a kinder, more equal, more humane place. Indeed, over two decades ago, Mrs. Kennedy joined the CIW in?ourfight against exploitation and abuse in the fields, when she awarded three CIW leaders — Lucas Benitez, Julia Gabriel, and Romeo Ramirez — the?2003 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award?for their groundbreaking efforts to end modern-day slavery and bring abusive farm bosses to justice.?Mrs. Kennedy presented the award to the trio of CIW leaders at a gala ceremony in the US Senate, and then?promptly joined us in the streets of DC at a protest?outside a Taco Bell restaurant (right). Read more about Mrs. Kennedy's life and contributions to the CIW: https://lnkd.in/gq_pCJ3q

‘A true lifeline’: How the CIW’s radio station helps keep Immokalee safe in times of disaster Miami Herald on the CIW’s Radio Conciencia:?“Many residents appreciate getting their news directly from neighbors and community members they trust; the medium is familiar to them since it is regularly used in Latin America and the Caribbean; and it’s a disaster-resilient form of communication…” Lucas Benitez, co-founder of the CIW:?“Organized communities are always more resilient than those where people are left to face these challenges on their own, and the farmworker community here in Immokalee has demonstrated its resilience time and time again in the face of disaster.” Late in the evening of October 9th, Hurricane Milton made landfall at Siesta Key in Sarasota, Florida. It was the second major hurricane to slam into the state in just over two weeks, following Hurricane Helene on September 23rd.?A behemoth storm, Milton’s sustained winds topped out a terrifying?185 mph?as the Category 5 hurricane made its way across the Gulf before wind shear reduced the storm’s rating to a Category 3 just ahead of landfall. But even before reaching Florida’s shores, Milton’s force was felt in the Immokalee area — and around the entire southern half of Florida — in the form of dozens of deadly tornadoes that shocked a hurricane-weary state that thought it had seen everything, but was not expecting this new hellish look into a future of increasingly violent storms thanks to accelerating climate change. As climate change takes off at a pace even greater than that predicted by the most pessimistic climate scientists, and rising seas and soaring ocean temperatures drive ever stronger storms, it becomes all the more urgent that our communities — and especially marginalized communities like that in Immokalee, who often face the harshest consequences of the evolving climate — are well-organized, informed, and protected from deadly climate extremes.? In Immokalee, thanks to the CIW, the farmworker community was well-prepared for Milton. As it has in previous storms over the last two decades, the CIW’s radio station, 107.7?Radio Conciencia, provided regular updates on the storm’s trajectory and its anticipated impact, as well as local resources for shelter, food, water, and other necessities. The same farmworker leaders who forged the groundbreaking Fair Food Program — including protections from deadly heat at work that the Washington Post called the “nation’s strongest workplace heat rules,” —?were on the airwaves day and night, ensuring their local community was informed and ready for Hurricane Milton, including for the late-breaking news of tornadoes forming in communities from Fort Myers to Clewiston around the Southwest Florida region. Read the Miami Herald article here: https://lnkd.in/gKDkjMMD

As temperatures rise, so do the costs and risks of workers' rights.???? Zooming in on recent decisions in #Florida, RFKHR highlights what organizations like Coalition of Immokalee Workers are doing to advance the rights and dignity of workers in the face of the #ClimateCrisis. Learn more: https://rfkhro.org/4a0nn3x