Farmworker with the CIW: “Heat and weariness don’t affect us because justice is priceless.”

Alice Driver, author, on the CIW and Venceremos: “The CIW has organized workers since 1993, and, like Venceremos, it began as a small group of workers meeting weekly. Over the years, they developed a worker-led model and used protests and media campaigns to pressure retailers to source food ethically and encourage consumers to support just labor conditions.”

As we ring in the new year -- one sadly marked by a vast uncertainty and, in many communities, real fear -- we want to take a moment to remind our readers of a true ray of hope, a light in the darkness, that only promises to shine brighter as this year goes on.

That ray of hope is known as Worker-driven Social Responsibility (WSR). Born in Immokalee in the early 2000s, WSR is a unique model for partnership among workers, suppliers, and corporations at the top of global supply chains, designed to protect and advance the human rights of workers at the bottom of those chains. WSR empowers workers to be the frontline monitors of their own rights through legally-binding agreements with buyers that condition the buyers' purchases on compliance with the workers' fundamental human rights. It's a classic application of economic incentives as carrot and stick: suppliers who respect their workers' rights receive purchasing preference from some of the largest buyers in the world, and those who don't lose sales to those same buyers. It is a powerful new model for sustainable social change, with a unique track record of success. And its reach today is expanding at an unprecedented rate.

Though WSR was forged years ago in the fields of Immokalee, Florida – and its launch heralded a new day for human rights for workers in the fields – its light now shines around the globe, reaching workers on five continents who toil in workplaces ranging from sweatshops in Bangladesh and Lesotho to fishing vessels off the coast of Scotland.

Conceived and built by farmworkers standing up for their own human rights, the CIW's Fair Food Program was the first-ever example of the broader WSR model and remains its flagship program today. Since then, garment workers in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Lesotho -- inspired by the Immokalee workers' remarkable success ending longstanding abuses in the agricultural industry through the FFP -- have adapted the WSR model to their own textile industry, building and launching transformative programs, with the support of the workers in Immokalee, that today enforce the human rights of some of the world’s most vulnerable workers. Dairy workers in Vermont also adapted WSR to empower themselves as well, with the help of their colleagues in the FFP, and they are now hard at work expanding the market power and reach of their Milk with Dignity program. Meanwhile, construction workers in Minnesota are in the process of launching their industry’s first-ever WSR program; fishers in the UK are set to launch their own pilot WSR program soon; and other workers, including farmworkers in Spain, India, and Ecuador, as well as salmon farmers in Chile and farmworkers in South Africa, are all currently exploring -- or experiencing -- the WSR model.

With each new program that comes online to protect workers, the light of WSR shines brighter, and draws the attention of yet more worker and human rights organizations to the promise of this unique model. As a result, WSR is fast-becoming the new paradigm for human rights enforcement in supply chains across the world in the 21st century. And each new push to adapt WSR to a new industry or geography comes complete with its own story – each inspiring in their own right.

Today, we want to share with you the story of poultry workers in Arkansas with the organization Venceremos, who are currently organizing to bring WSR to meat processing plants owned by one of the world’s largest food corporations -- Tyson Foods. It is a true David versus Goliath story with striking similarities to the early days of the Campaign for Fair Food, when farmworkers in Florida were trying to bring the very first corporate buyer, Taco Bell (and its corporate owner, Yum Brands) to the table to sign the first-ever Fair Food agreement and help launch what would become the Fair Food Program. 

The author Alice Driver recently published a compelling new book, titled Life and Death of the American Worker, which recounts the harsh working and living conditions of poultry workers in Arkansas, as well their campaign calling on Tyson to sign an agreement with the workers' organization, Venceremos.

The first excerpt below describes the beginnings of Venceremos, and provides a brief, but harrowing, glimpse into the working conditions in a meat processing plant in Arkansas. The second provides an account of workers associated with Venceremos attending the CIW’s 2022 March to End Modern Slavery in the Fields, where farmworkers and allies marched through the streets of Palm Beach to demand Wendy’s join the Fair Food Program.

If you are moved by these excerpts and want to read more, you can buy the book at every major bookstore and online retailer. Or you can buy it directly from the publisher here. 

“In 2019, Magaly [Licolli] and sixteen immigrant women poultry workers, including Rosario, founded Venceremos, a worker-based organization whose mission is to ensure the human rights of poultry workers. Magaly began by teaching poultry processing workers about their rights. She used printmaking, papier-mâché, and puppet-making to help workers organize around issues like fair pay and workplace safety. She said, “I use theater and art—that is how I engage with and organize workers. Via popular education we all learn from each other, and I like that.” Although she knew there was a lot of work to be done, her first goal was to create a safe space for workers to share their experiences and feel heard and powerful. Once she made that space, she believed workers would act to demand better labor conditions.

Later that year, Magaly traveled with Rosario and several other women who were helping her organize poultry workers to Florida where they met with the powerful Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). The CIW has organized workers since 1993, and, like Venceremos, it began as a small group of workers meeting weekly. Over the years, they developed a worker-led model and used protests and media campaigns to pressure retailers to source food ethically and encourage consumers to support just labor conditions. In 2011, the CIW launched the Fair Food Program, an agreement with the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange that supports workers by maintaining a third-party monitoring body to investigate labor violations. The program benefits some thirty-five thousand laborers, primarily in Florida. Participating retailers pay a small premium to growers that is passed on to workers—an extra penny per pound of tomatoes that, if all major buyers were to participate, would nearly double farmworkers’ wages.

Magaly believed that the CIW model could change the poultry industry in Arkansas. The CIW trained workers to teach other field workers about their labor rights. A worker-to-worker educational model is an essential tool for organizers in sectors like agriculture and poultry: workers need to be offered classes in their native language—often at the place they work, since that is where they spend most of their time—and with visual forms of learning since some are illiterate. “It’s more like, let’s have fun and learn together,” Magaly said.

Magaly and the founding group of Venceremos, all women from Mexico and Central America, hoped to coordinate with workers from other countries. Arkansas is also home to fifteen thousand workers to learn about their rights so they would understand how to respond when Tyson blamed them for accidents or fired them.

“Everyone here has a story,” said Víctor.

Mateo added, “They have money for other people but not for the workers who process the chicken.”

Víctor, upset, complained that Tyson’s advertising was false. “Their banners and trucks show workers with masks that say ‘Tyson, we are family.’ They are brilliant when it comes to marketing.” He described how, one day at work, a photographer asked workers to hug chicken nuggets for a new advertisement. His youngest child, Emerson, ran by, reminding Víctor of what he told his kids about chicken nuggets: “You love it, but you don’t know what it is made of.”

Sometimes, he told his kids how the sausage was made, describing the ground bones in the recipe. Víctor, supported by accounts of other workers, noted that the areas where the nuggets were made were often unclean. For example, when water gathered in pools, worms could often be found in the area. Alfredo told a story of worms falling from the ceiling. In response to the problem, someone at Tyson put down a piece of plastic. Víctor, laughing, said, “It’s pure protein.”

…

After breakfast on Saturday, April 2, the workers, their children, and local activists put on matching yellow JUSTICE FOR FARMWORKERS shirts and filed onto buses for the two-hour ride to Palm Beach. Víctor’s youngest child, three years old, wore a t-shirt that fit him like a dress, and it dragged on the ground as he walked with a Spider-Man toy in his hands. In the early morning light, we drove past fields filled with workers. Mateo said of the CIW, “I have been thinking about everything I’ve seen. We need to use their model. As Magaly said—even fewer people buy tomatoes than chicken. Either they sink us, or we fight.”

As everyone gathered in the parking lot, an agricultural worker stood up and said: “This campaign has reached many workers, and the only way is forward. They will be forced to listen to our demand for justice and sign the agreement. Heat and weariness don’t affect us because justice is priceless. Today, we are joined by our friends, tireless fighters, many of whom have marched with us before. We will accompany each other forever because we believe in each other. Wendy’s, get ready. We will surprise you.”

Copyright © 2023 by Alice Driver. From the book THE LIFE AND DEATH OF THE AMERICAN WORKER by Alice Driver published by One Signal Publishers, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Printed by permission.