“It wasn’t easy. He would get in the truck and touch us, and we would say ‘no.’ And then one day he called me and told me to come to him because he had something to show me. He was the boss, the one who gave us the work, so I went and he was showing [me] some accounts and I didn’t understand why he was showing it to me, right? Then he says that he likes me a lot and wants to have a relationship with me. I told him “no,” that I wasn’t looking for a relationship right now, that all I wanted to do was work and not have any problems, especially because he is a married man. He told me I wouldn’t have any problems, that he would take care of everything; he’d pay my rent. I told him all I want to do is work. Then, he grabbed my hand and pulled me to him to touch him. I yanked back my hand. I felt bad. Sad. I wondered, ‘Why is this happening? All I need to do is work.’”
– A teenage female farmworker, who came to the CIW to get justice
Stories like this were all too common when the Coalition of Immokalee Workers first started organizing 30 years ago. According to Lupe Gonzalo, CIW Senior Staff, “The problem was endemic across all of the fields.”
And that is why the right to work free from sexual abuse at work is a key component of education sessions across Fair Food Program farms. Women farmworkers now know that it is punishable by law in the United States. Most importantly, they feel comfortable reporting it without fear of retaliation because they know that they are backed by the combined purchasing power of 14 of the world’s largest buyers of produce, thanks to the CIW’s legally-binding Fair Food Agreements. As a result, cases of rape or attempted rape have disappeared from FFP farms, and the days of impunity for sexual harassment with physical contact of any kind are now over. Each growing season, farms are visited by staff members of the CIW who educate farmworkers and supervisors alike on how to prevent, identify, and respond to sexual misconduct.
In total, there have been 19 valid cases that involved sexual harassment with physical contact on Fair Food farms since the program’s inception. In each case, the offender was promptly terminated, and the cases were resolved without retaliation of any kind against complainants or witnesses. And those successful cases, with their very public resolutions, have sent a powerful message to would-be abusers: cross the line, and you will get caught, and there will be consequences. With over a decade of proven success, the Fair Food Program has virtually eradicated serious cases of abuse on dozens of farms and protects tens of thousands of workers every day. That is what prevention looks like.
Last season, a local female worker on a Fair Food Program farm told auditors that her supervisors are respectful towards her and that she feels like she is at home working at the company. She explained that she has experienced sexual harassment when she has gone to work in other industries like painting and cleaning but that at [FFP Participating Grower] she feels sure / “me siento segura” that those things do not happen.
Another woman farmworker, Alejandrina Carrera, knows all too well the reality of vulnerability in the fields outside the protections of the FFP. A farmworker since she was 14, Carrera experienced serious abuse at the hand of a crewleader before there was a Fair Food Program. Now, thanks to the FFP, Carrera explained: “You’re not going to be harassed, you’re not going to be insulted, you’re not going to be forced to work. There’s more respect now.”
But our work to end sexual harassment and assault in the fields is not yet finished. Outside of the Fair Food Program’s protections, sexual abuse remains all too common. Four out of every five female farmworkers experience sexual violence. To guarantee dignity for farmworkers, we must expand the Fair Food Program as far and wide as possible, and with your generous financial support, that can be done.