Author: CIW

Day 3 of the Farmworker Freedom Festival in Palm Beach: Hope comes home…

Day 3 of the Farmworker Freedom Festival in Palm Beach: Hope comes home…

[caption id="attachment_37862" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Farmworkers are joined by their families and allies under banyan trees in a park near the beachside residence of Wendy's Board Chair Nelson Peltz on Day 3 of the Farmworker Freedom Festival in Palm Beach. Ahead of the gathering, workers wrote their hopes for a future of partnership with Wendy's through the Fair Food Program on >> Read More
Day 2 of Farmworker Freedom Festival: Consciousness + CULTURE = Change!

Day 2 of Farmworker Freedom Festival: Consciousness + CULTURE = Change!

[caption id="attachment_37835" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Members of the Immokalee farmworker community -- whose tireless hard work and commitment made the 3-day Farmworker Freedom Festival possible -- are called to the stage to take a much-deserved bow toward the end of Day 2 in Palm Beach.[/caption] Longtime member of CIW family and artist/activist extraordinaire, Olmeca, after receiving first-ever CIW Artist of Conscience >> Read More
Farmworker Freedom Festival lands in the heart of Palm Beach with message of “Esperanza” for Fair Food future!

Farmworker Freedom Festival lands in the heart of Palm Beach with message of “Esperanza” for Fair Food future!

[caption id="attachment_37798" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Esperanza, the CIW's 15 ft-tall, mobile puppet in the form of a female farmworker, walks the luxury store-lined streets of downtown Palm Beach on Day One of the Farmworker Freedom Festival yesterday, spreading her message of hope for a Fair Food agreement and a future of collaboration between workers and hamburger giant Wendy's toward a more >> Read More
Official recognition of WSR model’s unique power to protect human rights continues to grow with USDA announcement!

Official recognition of WSR model’s unique power to protect human rights continues to grow with USDA announcement!

[caption id="attachment_25182" align="aligncenter" width="800"] An auditor from the Fair Food Standards Council, the third-party monitoring body tasked with ensuring the implementation of the Fair Food Program, conducts an interview with workers on a tomato farm in Florida[/caption] U.S. Department of Agriculture recognizes Worker-Driven Social Responsibility (WSR) as highest form of human rights protection in agriculture; WSR, Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs) >> Read More
DAY 5: Video report, media round-up from massive grand finale of March to Build a New World!

DAY 5: Video report, media round-up from massive grand finale of March to Build a New World!

Democracy Now: “We’ve come here to demand that Publix and Kroger — which is directly connected to the situation of modern slavery in Pahokee; they bought watermelons from there — and Wendy’s, for them to join the Fair Food Program and put an end to the extreme labor abuses in this country,” Gerardo Reyes Chavez Fox News 29: "U.S. Rep Lois Frankel, >> Read More
DAY 5: Marchers quintuple in number on final day of March to Build a New World, take Palm Beach by storm with message of farmworker freedom!

DAY 5: Marchers quintuple in number on final day of March to Build a New World, take Palm Beach by storm with message of farmworker freedom!

[caption id="attachment_36713" align="aligncenter" width="900"] A massive March to Build a New World takes to the streets of Palm Beach on its final day with a colorful, animated message for food industry leaders -- including Palm Beach resident and Wendy's Board Chair Nelson Peltz -- that the time has come to stop running from real social responsibility and to join the >> Read More
DAY 4: From labor camps to luxury yachts, modern-day slavery to latter-day robber barons, marchers travel across 48 miles, 2 worlds, in quest for farmworker freedom…

DAY 4: From labor camps to luxury yachts, modern-day slavery to latter-day robber barons, marchers travel across 48 miles, 2 worlds, in quest for farmworker freedom…

Washington Post (AP): "Now workers enjoy the right to complain without fear of retaliation. Workers also have water and shade as part of these agreements,” said Gerardo Reyes Chavez, a coalition official, at the start of the march in Pahokee. “The [Fair Food] program has proven to be the solution, the antidote to the problem of modern day slavery, the >> Read More
Day 3: Support for farmworker freedom swells as marchers inch closer to the coast; YOU can still join us for the grand finale, Saturday, 3/18!

Day 3: Support for farmworker freedom swells as marchers inch closer to the coast; YOU can still join us for the grand finale, Saturday, 3/18!

  [caption id="attachment_36578" align="aligncenter" width="900"] One of the youngest marchers does his part to Build a New World on Day 3 of the march from Pahokee to Palm Beach, eliciting a tumult of truck and car horns that saluted marchers along the day's 11 mile route. As marchers made their way ever closer to the island enclave of Palm Beach, >> Read More
Day 2: Rain, cold fail to dampen marchers’ spirits as farmworkers, allies move one day closer to march goal, one giant leap closer to new world of farmworker freedom!

Day 2: Rain, cold fail to dampen marchers’ spirits as farmworkers, allies move one day closer to march goal, one giant leap closer to new world of farmworker freedom!

[caption id="attachment_36559" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Marchers met new challenges on their 5-day, 50-mile route to the island of Palm Beach yesterday in the form of rain and unseasonably cold weather, but rose to meet the challenges of the day with enthusiasm and an unwavering commitment to their twin goals of celebrating more than a decade of unprecedented human rights progress under >> Read More
DAY 1: Over 100 workers, allies launch 5-day march to celebrate decade of human rights progress, Build a New World of farmworker freedom!

DAY 1: Over 100 workers, allies launch 5-day march to celebrate decade of human rights progress, Build a New World of farmworker freedom!

[caption id="attachment_36546" align="aligncenter" width="2048"] Over 100 farmworkers and their allies make their way from Pahokee to Palm Beach on Day one of the Build a New World March. The globe at the head of the march, illuminated by the sun representing the Fair Food Program, remains divided into two worlds, one filled with the light of fair working conditions, human >> Read More