Gerardo Reyes Chavez (standing left), along with his fellow farmworker staff members of the CIW, provide an on-the-clock, worker-to-worker education session on an FFP farm in Tennessee in July, 2024.
Gerardo Reyes Chavez in USA Today: “The thermometer doesn’t lie. It’s just common sense that we need more protections, not fewer, to keep our state’s essential outdoor workers safe from the dangers of our warming planet.”
“While the Fair Food Program is great for workers, it’s good for employers and retail brands, too. That’s because it has tackled longstanding human rights violations such as forced labor, child labor, physical violence and sexual assault.”
On this Labor Day, USA Today published an opinion piece from Gerardo Reyes Chavez, a farmworker and longtime leader with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. In his editorial, Chavez taps his personal experience harvesting watermelons — maybe the heaviest job in the fields, done during the highest heat of summer — to share a near tragedy involving a fellow crew members and to outline the transformative power of the Fair Food Program, highlighting the urgent need for farmworkers across the country to be protected by its industry-leading standards.
We hope that while celebrating Labor Day, you take a moment to read Chavez’ timely piece. Below you can find it in full, and you can also check out this piece on USA Today’s site by clicking here.
Enjoy! And stay tuned for more coverage on the impact the FFP is making around the country!
My friend nearly died of dehydration. Farmworkers like us need better protections.
As temperatures rise, so do risks for outdoor workers. Fair Food Program is trying to help both manual laborers and businesses.
Ten summers ago, just outside the small north Florida town of Marianna about an hour from Tallahassee, I watched, helpless, as a man I call my brother nearly died from the brutal, unforgiving heat of the watermelon harvest.
Our crew was moving through the treeless field together, throwing melons rhythmically from the rows to the truck, joking as we often would to distract ourselves from the hot, heavy work. Suddenly, my friend lost consciousness and fell hard to the ground. We quickly carried him to the only shade we could find and wet the shirts off our backs with thermos water to keep him cool until the ambulance arrived. For what felt like an eternity, my friend’s life hung in the balance.
He eventually came to, and after a few hours at the hospital and a much-needed IV, he was back to work throwing melons with the rest of the crew the next day. But the shock and fear we all felt that day was a wake-up call, reminding us that the symptoms we often joked about – crippling cramps, dizziness, disorientation and an unquenchable thirst – were serious signs of chronic dehydration and could have fatal consequences.
And the statistics bear that out: According to the National Institutes of Health, farmworkers are 35 times more likely to die of heat-related issues than workers in other industries.
Gerardo Reyes Chavez harvesting watermelons in Florida
Today, a decade later, I work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a human rights organization based in the farmworker community of Immokalee, Florida. We educate workers about their rights under the CIW’s groundbreaking Fair Food Program, including protections that The Washington Post recently called “America’s strongest workplace heat rules.”
But it would seem that not everyone believes outdoor workers need more protections in this age of accelerating climate change. In April, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law banning local governments from requiring employers to give heat breaks to outdoor workers, including farmworkers.
This is exactly the opposite of constructive leadership. We can all see that it’s getting hotter, not colder. The thermometer doesn’t lie. It’s just common sense that we need more protections, not fewer, to keep our state’s essential outdoor workers safe from the dangers of our warming planet.
What does the Fair Food Program do?
The Fair Food Program is unique in business and human rights for two key reasons.
First, because its standards – and the monitoring tools by which its standards are enforced – were conceived, developed and expanded over time by workers themselves.
And second, because the monitoring and enforcement of those standards is driven by real power, what people in the produce business call “the power of the purchasing order.”
More than a dozen of the country’s largest buyers of produce – including, to date, Walmart, McDonald’s, Whole Foods Market, Burger King and foodservice giant Compass Group – have signed legally binding agreements committing to preferentially purchase from farms that comply with the Fair Food Program’s Code of Conduct and to cease purchases from farms that are suspended from the program for significant code violations.
A third-party human rights organization, the Fair Food Standards Council, monitors compliance on participating farms through the combination of a complaint investigation process – including a confidential, 24/7 hotline where workers can report complaints without fear of retaliation – and regular, in-depth audits, where trained investigators interview a minimum of 50% of the workforce.
And to ensure that workers are equipped to play their all-important role as front-line monitors of their rights, my colleagues and I at the CIW conduct regular rights education sessions on participating farms, empowering farmworkers to be the eyes and ears of the program on the ground.
The Fair Food Program’s heat stress protections, which mandate the provision of shade, water, electrolytes, training and regular breaks for workers, are a critical piece of the program’s standards.
Taking care of workers is good for business
A farmworker discussing conditions on the farm with an auditor in the Fair Food Program
While the Fair Food Program is great for workers, it’s good for employers and retail brands, too. That’s because it has tackled longstanding human rights violations such as forced labor, child labor, physical violence and sexual assault.
This protects employers from costly legal risks and insulates buyers from supply chain interruptions that can wreak havoc on business operations ‒ not to mention brand reputations.
But despite operating today in 23 U.S. states and three countries, most farmworkers in Florida and the rest of the United States remain outside the current reach of the Fair Food Program’s protections, often facing exploitation and abuse.
Jon Esformes, CEO of Sunripe Certified Brands, has been an invaluable leader in the Fair Food Program since 2010. I have learned much from Jon over our many years of partnership, but one thing in particular stands out: “If you need to break the law or hurt your workers to stay in business, you need to find a new line of business.”
Employers, retailers and political leaders who oppose stronger heat protections would do well to take Jon’s words to heart.
Gerardo Reyes Chavez is a senior staff member with the award-winning human rights organization the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). A farmworker who has worked in the fields since age 11, first as a peasant farmer in Mexico and then in the fields of Florida, Reyes conducts workers’ rights education with thousands of farmworkers on farms across the United States as part of the Fair Food Program.
