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Protest by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers outside a Wendy’s restaurant in New York. (Credit: Aaron Cantú)

I was thrilled to see the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) honored at the Roosevelt Institute’s Four Freedom Awards on Wednesday night. Having followed the organization’s work for seven years, I believe their effectiveness is unmatched, and their achievements constantly offer a reason for hope.

The CIW way is non-hierarchal, led from the grassroots, fearless and savvy—and they have defeated Goliath so many times that they can no longer be considered a David. I think many community-based and national anti-poverty organizations can learn a lot from them.

The Four Freedom Awards honor those who exemplify Franklin D. Roosevelt’s vision of democracy—“a world founded upon four essential human freedoms”—freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear. Past recipients include President Jimmy Carter, Senator Ted Kennedy, Studs Terkel, Barbara Ehrenreich, Elie Wiesel, Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, Aung San Suu Kyi and Carlos Fuentes. The farmworkers were introduced by Roosevelt Fellow Dorian Warren, who outlined some of CIW’s key campaigns and victories.

In 1993, the CIW was a small group of tomato industry farmworkers in Immokalee, Florida, whose unflinching organizing efforts would eventually end a twenty-year decline in their poverty wages. How did they do it? Over a five-year period, they engaged in work stoppages and demonstrations, a thirty-day hunger strike and a 234-mile march from Fort Myers to Orlando, Florida.

Although they won raises of 13 to 25 percent—resulting in an increase of several million dollars annually for the community—they still earned well below the poverty line. The group realized that the real power was with the corporate buyers whose constant demand for lower tomato prices exerted significant downward pressure on farmworker wages. In 2001, the CIW launched its Campaign for Fair Food—forging an alliance between consumers and farmworkers—and initiated the first-ever national boycott of a major fast food chain: Taco Bell.

Students, people of faith, workers and community members demanded that Taco Bell pay an extra penny per pound of tomatoes, which would go directly towards workers’ wages. They also called on the corporation to take responsibility for its supply chain and only purchase from growers who signed an enforceable code of conduct that addressed human rights violations in the fields—violations such as involuntary servitude and sexual harassment.

After four years of struggle, Taco Bell agreed to the demands and called on other fast-food chains to do the same. Over the next three years, McDonald’s, Burger King and Subway all followed suit. Today, Wendy’s remains the only holdout. The CIW turned its attention to the supermarket industry and won similar agreements with Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s (Publix, Giant, Kroger and Stop & Shop still aren’t on board); in the food service provider industry, Bon Appétit Management Co., Compass Group, Aramark and Sodexo all signed fair food agreements in 2009–10.

In 2010, the Campaign for Fair Food evolved into a broader Fair Food Program—a new model of social responsibility. In addition to abiding by the penny-per-pound agreement—which has resulted in over $11 million in additional earnings for workers since January 2011—corporate buyers who sign on will purchase tomatoes only from growers who sign a code of conduct drafted by workers, in consultation with the growers and buyers. There is also worker-to-worker education on the new rights, and workers monitor their own workplaces.

Under the agreement, the Fair Food Standards Council conducts regular audits, investigates complaints and monitors resolutions at the twenty-six participating growers—growers who account for 90 percent of the $650 million in revenues in the tomato industry. When major violations occur and aren’t corrected, corporations stop buying from those growers. (This model is similar to the one US retailers have refused to sign on to in the Bangladesh garment industry.) Through this system, four crew leaders with long histories of sexual harassment or labor abuse have been terminated, and supervisors at those companies were trained to address sexual harassment and other requirements under the Fair Food Program.

“With this program, the women who pick tomatoes to support their families no longer have to leave their dignity in the tomato fields,” said farmworker Nely Rodriguez, who accepted the Freedom From Want Medal along with fellow CIW members Gerardo Reyes and Greg Asbed. “Women now have a voice and a way to stop the harassment and abuse that happened for too long.”

Finally, there is the CIW’s stunning anti-slavery campaign: since 1997, the group has assisted the Department of Justice in uncovering numerous multi-state slavery operations in the Southeastern United States. This work has resulted in the liberation of more than 1,200 workers and was a major factor in the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. The State Department recognized the CIW as “an independent and pressing voice as they uncover slavery rings, tap the power of the workers, and hold companies and governments accountable.” Now, with the Fair Food Program and the severe financial consequences for growers that are imposed when forced labor is discovered, Florida has evolved from what one federal prosecutor described as “ground zero for modern-day slavery” to having no cases of slavery over the past three years.

Asbed spoke of the special significance of the Freedom from Want Medal in the context of the organization’s history.

“Twenty years ago when we began organizing, Immokalee was a town defined by violence,” he said. “Violence against women, beatings in the fields, modern-day slavery—it was a brutal and unforgiving place.”

The farmworkers began to gather every week in a room at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in town. They would pass around the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights—the preamble of which included FDR’s Four Freedoms.

“This book gave us hope that a better world, a more humane world, was in fact possible,” said Asbed. “[It] gave us the strength we needed to fight to make that world real. So being here today feels a bit like coming home, like our journey has come full circle.”

It’s a journey that shows us what it means to work directly—from the grassroots—with those most affected by poverty; what it means to set a seemingly unreachable bar and persevere; and what it means to understand your opposition and find new ways to challenge it.

Asbed insisted that the CIW’s “work has only just begun.”

“Our work is not done until all farmworkers live free from want,” he said. “Until all farmworkers live free from fear; and until all farmworkers live free to enjoy the dignified life they deserve for the hard work they do.”

Get involved

Tell Wendy’s to join the Fair Food Program

Tell Publix to join the Fair Food Program

Stop the Hunger Clock: On November 1, all 48 million low-income Americans who currently need food assistance will see a cut in their benefits—an average cut of $29 per month. (The average benefit is currently just $1.50 per person, per meal). Take action to stop the cut.

United for Homes: Campaign to fund the National Housing Trust Fund

Clips and other resources

“Sister Simone Reflects on the Faithful March,” BillMoyers.com Staff

“Another N.C. threat to program for poor,” The Charlotte Observer

“What You Can Get For The Price Of A Shutdown,” Bryce Covert

“Seeking Shelter: The Experiences and Unmet Needs of LGBT Homeless Youth,” Andrew Cray, Katie Miller and Laura Durso

“La. Group Works to Reduce ‘School-to-Prison Pipeline’,” Equal Voice News

“This map shows where the world’s 30 million slaves live. There are 60,000 in the U.S.,” Max Fisher

“Let’s Treat Housing as a Health Issue,” Jeff Foreman

“Cancer survivors in rural areas often skip care due to costs,” HealthDay News (via Rural Assistance Center)

“In Washington State, Home of Highest Minimum Wage, a City Aims Higher,” Kirk Johnson and Steven Greenhouse

“Study: Poor children are now the majority in American public schools in South, West,” Lyndsey Layton

“Health of rural communities threatened by loss of grocery stores,” Jim McLean (via Rural Assistance Center)

“Not a Dentist: Is a ‘Dental Therapist’ the Solution?” Michael Mello

“Low Wage Employers Cost American Families a Quarter Trillion Dollars,” Alan Pyke

“What would Milton Friedman think of food stamps? Brace yourselves, conservatives,” Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach

“Data Show Critical Role of Head Start in the Lives of Poor Children and Their Families,” Stephanie Schmit

“Separate Spaces, Risky Places: A Price the Nation Can’t Afford,” Brian Smedley

“Nine Facts That Prove Disability Insurance Isn’t A Giant Boondoggle,” Rebecca Vallas and Shawn Fremstad

“Nothing Ted Cruz Said About the ACA Today Is True,” George Zornick

Vital statistics

US poverty (less than $23,492 for a family of four): 46.5 million people, 15 percent.

African-American poverty rate: 27.2 percent.

Hispanic poverty rate: 25.6 percent.

White poverty rate: 9.7 percent.

People with disabilities: 28 percent.

Poorest age group: children, 34.6 percent of all people in poverty are children.

Children in poverty: 16.1 million, 21.8 percent, including 38 percent of African-American children, 34 percent of Latino children, and 12 percent of white children.

Poverty rate among families with children headed by single mothers: 40.9 percent.

Gender gap: Women 31 percent more likely to be poor than men.

Deep poverty (less than $9,142 for a family of three): 20.4 million people, one in fifteen Americans, nearly 10 percent of all children, up from 12.6 million in 2000—an increase of 59 percent.

Twice the poverty level (less than $46,042 for a family of four): 106 million people, approximately one in three Americans.

Jobs in the US paying less than $34,000 a year: 50 percent.

Jobs in the US paying below the poverty line for a family of four, less than $23,000 annually: 25 percent.

Poverty-level wages, 2011: 28 percent of workers.

Federal minimum wage: $7.25 ($2.13 for tipped workers)

Federal minimum wage if indexed to inflation since 1968: $10.59.

Federal minimum wage if it kept pace with productivity gains: $18.72.

Hourly wage needed to lift a family of four above poverty line, 2011: $11.06

Families receiving cash assistance, 1996: 68 for every 100 families living in poverty.

Families receiving cash assistance, 2011: 27 for every 100 families living in poverty.

Impact of public policy, 2011: without government assistance, poverty would have been twice as high—nearly 30 percent of population.

Number of people 65 or older kept out of poverty by Social Security: 15.3 million

Quote of the week

“Somewhere we have heard that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.… Today, for first the first time in the history of the south, this dream is coming true for farmworkers in Florida’s agriculture. For the first time, we have a place at the table. In our struggle for better wages and working conditions, we are confident that this recognition will help us to arrive to the day in which our dreams will be made fully real.”

— Gerardo Reyes, farmworker, accepting Freedom from Want Medal on behalf of the CIW

This Week in Poverty posts here on Friday mornings, and again at Moyers & Company. You can e-mail me at WeekInPoverty@me.com and follow me on Twitter.

In last week’s report on poverty, Greg Kaufmann described how defunding Obamacare would hurt the poor.