Category: A Year of Victories: May 2008 – May 2009

Guilty! On eve of trial, farm bosses plead guilty to enslaving Immokalee workers in tomato harvest…

UPDATE #2: Read the Ft. Myers News-Press editorial on the slavery conviction, "Purge U.S. of shame of slavery"! Here's an excerpt: "The successful prosecution of five Immokalee residents on slavery charges is satisfying, but the brutal details of their treatment of farm workers show how warped the agricultural labor system is... This is among six slavery cases the Coalition of >> Read More
Statement of Sen. Bernie Sanders on Slavery Verdict in Immokalee, Florida

Statement of Sen. Bernie Sanders on Slavery Verdict in Immokalee, Florida

BURLINGTON, Vt., September 3 – Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a member of the Senate labor committee, made the following statement today regarding the recent guilty plea by five residents of Immokalee, Florida to enslaving and brutalizing farm workers: “I think most Americans would find it hard to believe that people in our country are pleading guilty to slavery charges in >> Read More

RFK Memorial Center for Human Rights joins with Anti-Slavery International

RFK Memorial Center for Human Rights joins with Anti-Slavery International in joint statement remembering the slave trade and its abolition, demanding an end to modern-day slavery in Florida's fields!... Joint statement urges "FloridaTomato Growers Exchange to stop opposing human rights agreements" between CIW and fast-food industry leaders; The following is the text of a joint press release issued Friday, August >> Read More

FAIR FOOD NATION TURNS UP HEAT ON CHIPOTLE!…

More than one hundred students converge on Chipotle HQ in Denver! From the Student/Farmworker Alliance (SFA) website: "This past Friday, members of United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) joined local Denver residents for a rousing action at Chipotle headquarters in the Mile-High City, demanding that Chipotle live up to its own much-lauded "Food With Integrity" mantra and meet with the CIW. >> Read More

SUSTAINABLE FOOD MOVEMENT EMBRACES CAMPAIGN FOR FAIR FOOD!…

Food justice pioneer Frances Moore Lappe and many more endorse the Alliance for Fair Food; CIW to address upcoming Slow Food Nation gathering! New endorsements are flooding into the Alliance for Fair Food, the network of human rights, religious, student, labor, sustainable food, environmental and grassroots organizations who work in partnership with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. New AFF endorsements >> Read More

PRESSURE MOUNTS ON CHIPOTLE!…

Media scrutiny grows as students plan major August protest at Chipotle headquarters. For more than two years, the CIW has sought to work with Chipotle -- the self-proclaimed leader in "food with integrity" -- to improve the unconscionable wages and working conditions of Florida farmworkers. And for more than two years, Chipotle has sought to distance itself at every turn >> Read More

WHAT’S BEHIND YOUR BURRITO?…

Sustainable food world starting to take a closer look at the fast-food company that claims to sell "food with integrity"... The blogosphere is turning against the fastest-growing restaurant chain in the fast-food industry, Chipotle Mexican Grill, as its marketing claims come under increasing scrutiny. Meanwhile, more than 400 people attending the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A)'s annual General Assembly sign an open >> Read More

HOW LONG? NOT LONG…

Two more Florida papers weigh in on the Campaign for Fair Food and the need for change in Florida's fields... The St. Petersburg Times and the Orlando Sentinel joined the growing discussion on the abysmal conditions facing Florida's farmworkers and the campaign to bring fair wages and humane treatment to the state's fields. In Sunday's St. Petersburg Times, Bill Maxwell, >> Read More

OUCH!…

Florida Tomato Growers Exchange (FTGE), Reggie Brown (right) taken to the woodshed by Florida editorial writers for stand against farmworker justice! Two strongly-worded opinions excoriating the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange for its opposition to the CIW's groundbreaking agreements with fast-food industry leaders were published this week in major Florida papers. From the state's southwestern Gulf coast (the Ft. Myers News-Press) >> Read More