Plus: CIW wins 2009 WMNF Radio Peace and Justice Award!

When a delegation of local labor, student and community allies representing the Denver Fair Food Committee visited Chipotle corporate headquarters last week (right) to deliver over 16,000 signatures demanding that Chipotle enter into a genuine partnership with the CIW to address the human rights crisis in Florida’s tomato fields, they were met wtih what can only be described as studied indifference.

See the Denver Fair Food blog report here, including video from the visit.

The blog report quoted the Chipotle representative, who told the delegation, “We are working with the CIW… OK, maybe not to their satisfaction, but we are working with them.”

To paraphrase a recent president, that depends on what the meaning of the word “with” is.

But we’ll let the Denver crew respond, who, as always, nail it:

“… In one of his most famous speeches, MLK stated: “There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, ‘When will you be satisfied?’” To which he reponded: “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors . . . as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity . . . No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until ‘justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.’”

Likewise, today the CIW cannot be satisfied with the actions Chipotle has taken in response to the dire crisis faced by farmworkers. Farmworkers deserve a fair wage, and none of us can be satisfied as long as Chipotle refuses to guarantee that it will not back out of its commitment to contributing to one. Farmworkers have a fundamental right to have a voice in the industry of which they are a part, and we will never be satisfied as long as Chipotle denies them the ability to participate in the decisions which impact their lives. Proctecting the rights of farmworkers is not possible without transparency about purchasers’ business practices, and we cannot be satisfied while Chipotle continues to meet us with only secrecy and closed doors. We cannot be satisfied with Chipotle’s response any more than we can ever tolerate the existence of poverty, exploitation and slavery…” read the entire post here

CIW wins 2009 WMNF “Peace and Justice Award”!…

This past Saturday, the CIW was honored to receive the 2009 WMNF Peace and Justice Award! The award was presented in front of a crowd of nearly 300 at a sold-out ceremony in Tampa.

WMNF — a nationally-recognized community radio station based in Tampa, part of the Pacifica radio network — has long been a supporter of the CIW and the Campaign for Fair Food. WMNF staffers even played an integral role in the creation of our own low-power radio station, Radio Conciencia, driving the 2.5 hours from Tampa to deliver an all-important sound board.

In his acceptance speech, CIW’s Lucas Benítez thanked WMNF for its years of support and brought the crowd to its feet with an announcement that the campaign has set its sights on Publix Supermarket, which is headquartered a mere hour away from Tampa in Lakeland, FL.

We thank WMNF for this great honor, and look forward to spending more time with our old and new Tampa allies as the Publix campaign heats up.