Lucas Benitez of the CIW speaks (with Julia Perkins translating) at the 10/13/10 press conference while Jon Esformes of Pacific Tomato Growers looks on.

My name is Lucas Benitez.

First of all I’d like to thank everyone here with us today. We know that many have travelled far to join us here.

I’d also like to thank the two families who have played an important role in making this a reality. Thank you to the Heller and Esformes families, and especially Billy and Jon.

We are here today to announce not just an agreement, but rather a new relationship that begins today between Pacific and the CIW.

This new relationship is based on honest, direct, and sincere dialogue. We wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for that – dialogue made it possible for us to see each other as human beings, as equals, and important members of the same industry.

Based on this new relationship we have been able to create a direct agreement between Pacific and the CIW, the first agreement directly between the CIW and a grower since we began our campaign 15 years ago.

Our agreement is a plan of action. A plan to create a workplace that meets high standards of social responsibility and human rights that will improve the lives of hundreds of workers that labor here.

Our role will include:

* Ensuring the participation of workers in the knowledge and protection of their rights under the agreement through a program of education that we carry out with Pacific;

* Working together with Pacific on a new system for investigation and resolution of complaints on the job;

* Creating a new program of Health and Safety, together with Pacific, so that workers can participate in creating a safer and healthier working environment.

And of course – this is based on the code of conduct that we have developed through the agreements with buyers like Compass, Whole Foods, and Sodexo – it includes the penny per pound, third party auditing, shade in the fields, and many other protections for which we have been fighting for many years.

Nevertheless, I want to make one thing perfectly clear; we are not saying that today we have already achieved the changes that the Campaign for Fair Food seeks.

Rather, we are announcing that we have forged a plan of action that gives us the opportunity to achieve those changes.

And with this plan in hand, Pacific and the CIW are embarking together on the path towards true social responsibility.

If this path takes us where we believe it will, it will be the model for many generations of farmworkers – and also growers – in the future. Thank you.