Immigration Pt. 2: Coalition of Immokalee Workers Spotlight

food system, especially the most vulnerable workers. We're gonna look at some policies in the works to stop the abuse we seldom hear about happening in processing plants, fields, and even fast food chains. I'm Tom Coluchio, and this is citizen chef. People who grow and process our food should have more power than most workers. But for generations now, these workers have been marginalized and by our federal government. Strong workers don't go on strike, they haven't said since

like Chavez. They don't have the kind of power that they should have. The they're not able to negotiate or enter into negotiations are to have a contract. There's no collective bargaining and there's no way that there's no way to negotiat I mean Morcaly workers did that. They negotiated

for a penny extra bushel. Well, we have been UH seeing a lot of changes due to the what we called the Campaign for for Food that's Horado cheveez reas the Coalition of Morchly Workers, which started after almost a decade of the Coalition of Moocaar Workers focusing on bringing the growers to to negotiate and talk about how to eliminate situations of verbal and physical abuse that we're very common according to US Southern Property Law Center study that

came out a few years ago of women were facing situations of sexual harassment and or assault in the fields UH and modern day slavery where workers have been forced to work at conpoint in some cases and the threats of that against them and their families also in different investigations that we have conducted by working with the FBI,

the Department of Justice. So we have been able to create the solution for that, and I'm going to get into that in a bit, but those were the goals that the c was pursuing, along with an increasing wages. As you were mentioning, we were demanding for a penny more per pound of tomatoes that were harvested and ended up in corporations that we were asking to join onto the Fair Food program. You know that worked because the public got behind it. It was a good messaging campaign.

I mean they went they went after the Burger Kings and McDonald's of the world and the Wendy's the world and said, you know, you're not willing to back one penny per bushel. You'll have a zero effect on your bottom line and I'll have a major effect on the workers. Yeah. I mean. One of the things that we did was to create a theory of change um and the theory was, or states stated that corporations and the market as a whole was being used to drive prices down because that's

how they operate. They buy in huge amounts the tomatoes they need in this case, and other vegetables that we also harvest, and we ask these corporations to participate with us to buy under the conditioning of zero tolerance for modern days labory happening in the fields, which means they would have to commit to cut purchases if any case of modern days labory was to take place in any of the farms that were supplying them, along with the payment of a plenty more per pounds and a list

of other rights that would result that eventually in the elimination of modern days labor in the fields, but also a dramatic decrease in situations of sexual harassment and the elimination of sexual assault. I'll share a little bit about one of the LASS cases that took place in Florida, actually a few blocks away from the office UM where we where we have been organized UM for for many, many years. UH. This case involved workers who were forced

to sleep inside a cargo truck. They were locked with a padlock actually inside this rockers punishment, and there was a padlock used to keep them inside, but there was also change that were literally used to tie them up just to show the rest of the crew who was in control. These workers were taken two different farms and they were without access. They were living without access to

a bathroom for example. You know, you know some something like that would mean that if you needed to actually use a bathroom, you would have to just like hold it until they let you out or UM going the same corner that that's horrible. That's a way in which people have stripped of their dignity and their humanity. Were producing the food that ends up in everybody's plaits, and many people don't know that. So so in these situation,

workers escape. One of them pushed his way through with the help of the others, through the roof of this old you hold type of truck and brought a ladder to help worker escape. Two of those workers came to our office and talk to me and another one of my colleagues. They showed us the bruises that they huddle over their body and their legs and in their bags, the product of the biddings that they beat, things that they were suffering at the vance of these crew leaders

that are now in prison. In total for these cases that I mentioned, and there's been nine investigations, eight prosecutions, more than one thousand, two hundred workers that have been freed from these conditions, and fifteen bosses that have gone to federal prison. That's what we're talking about here, and it is not a problem as it has been described sometimes prior to the agreements that we have reached with

the agricultural industry. The tomato growers represented on the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange um about a problem of a few but apples. It was a problem in which the industry needed to pay attention in how they were treating their workers. In a systemic way. So so a systemic solution was needed. And that's why we are decided to bring the market to to work with us to condition they're purchasing and use the power to to put a step to that crime. Right her alight? I heard you say a few times

that some of the bosses were put in jail. Um, what happened to the companies? Did they take any any responsibility or any of the CEOs? Uh, you know, for these companies? Were they punished all? How far up to the scale? That's an excellent question because it gives me the opportunity to a little bit about why it is important to use the market. In that case, we as workers were trying to bring the growers to to the table, and uh, what happens. What happens is that the growers

didn't burn any responsibility. They would simply just come out publicly and say, look, this is nothing to do this has this has nothing to do with us. This is just a few apples. I was the response. And legally

it wasn't the responsibility. You know, the law would go only to to make arrests of those who were directly hiring people, bringing them and threatening them and bidding them and all of those abusive conditions that are part of these cases, and uh the industry would simply just wash their hands because they would would not be asked to go to court. Um. Yes, So what's what's the relationship

between the growers and and these these field bosses. It used to be UH that the crew leaders which is how we call them, those who go and contract people in the community, uh, served as a firewall of sorts. They would be considered independent entities, therefore making it possible for the industry to say, look, it is not our responsibility. We just hired this guy. This guy brings the people, and we don't know And when we ask, well, how is it that you don't know how the people that

are working in your company are treated? That's just unconscionable. So that's why we brought that also as one of the points that we are now implementing with the growers under the Fair Food program, which is the direct hiring that brings the responsibility to the door steps of whoever is uh the uh the person in charge of those UH companies, those agricultural companies. Right, So these are just these are contracted workers. They weren't actually employed by the company.

Um No, But in order to eliminate that abuse and every other abuse that takes place in the fields, we needed to bring that kind of responsibility and and make that connection, you know, as that the growers to take responsibility by hiring directly every worker and in that in that new way of doing, that more normal way, I should say, because it is how it happens in most places. Um that the growers are now paying a lot of

attention and working with us. So we're in this partnership with them since two thousand eleven when we brought at that point fourteen corporations up to now that are working with a Stacco, Bell, McDonald's were working some of the bigger names, but also from the supermarket industry, trader Joe

seven Walmer is working with us. So that gives us is the power or gave us a power to change those conditions by bringing the suppliers and bringing the buyers of those tomatoes to to sit together with us and reach disagreements to condition the purchasing to the implementation of the rights that were desperately needed by our people. Where where is oceans had to play here, the fair Food

program basically brings to life laws that were dormant. The laws that you know aim to protect workers in regards to the minimum wage payment that that every worker should receive. Whenever you're working by peace but are not able to harvest enough, the your employer has to provide for that. UM. Those those provisions, including provisions that have to deal with health and safety, are observed in farms that are participating with us. But outside of those farms, UM, the same

is not true. There are firms that are trying to constantly cheat the system, not do enough for workers, and not follow the things that are also readily enforced because remember them. Uh, is that just about what the law says, is about who's enforcing how And in this case, just to give you a sense, not just about OCEA, but in general, UM, workers that are vulnerable and afraid and and are afraid to lose their job have to deal with the question. You know, especially or or or in

in situations where they are not protected by the perfect program. UM, you have to ask yourself a question before you bring a complaint, whether it's about OCEA violations, whether it is about labor violations, you have to ask yourself as a worker do I do I complain knowing that that's the right thing to do. Do I complain about sexual harassment about which they have, about all of these things that put my health and my life at risk, knowing that

I'm going to be fired? In other words, am I willing to reach my ability to feed my kids to do the right thing, which is protecting my dignity? And the answer that most people would give in a scenario like that is no, I cannot afford to lose the food for my kids. So so that was the issue that we are now tackling with the Fair Food Program. Now.

It is not perfect in regards to how we're responding to the pandemic because it is something that we have never uh, we never had to deal with with this, right, But the growers inside the Fair Food Program are doing everything they can, providing the personal protective equipment, working to get all those things that are needed, providing extra transportation as I was saying before, but also um, trying to figure out, you know, how to respond when workers come

back positive so that they can provide the housing to isolate them. Um. It is, uh, there's a lot of work that needs to be done, but but workers are better, UH, inside the farms that are participating on the Fair Food Program and this collaboration that started since two thousand eleven that is applying to about thirty thousand workers. It's helping us to be able to create something that didn't exist before.

You know, we have the ability for workers to form part of committees of health and safety, to be able to talk about how to improve those approaches, including now with COVID nineteen, so that workers are able to protect themselves better. But still that doesn't eliminate the vulnerability, which is in part why it's important to bring more corporations to do the same UH and to fortified all the

games that the Fair Food Program represents for workers. So to two questions, what what large companies are not part of fair Food program? Well, right now when this it's UH, it's basically UM, the company that we are asking to join onto the Fair Food Program, and they recently announced in their shareholder meeting that happened a few weeks ago UM that they are doing as much as they can, but they continue to refuse for workers, they say, and they continue to refuse to join the Fair Food Program.

There's nothing out there they can protect workers as much as the Fair Food Program does, and even the Fair Food Program needs to to to be readjusted for these specific scenario to to to do more. But when this is just falling absolutely short UM in in buying from greenhouses where outbreaks were registered, UM and and they don't have any kind of answer. They just do the the talk. But the talking is cheap. You know, this is not an issue where everything is about just the numbers, use

the economics. We are not just statistics, where human means and problems that impact the lives of human beings need to be treated not as a public relations issue but a humans rights issue. And that's what we have. So, yeah, we're boycotting when this action. How does one know that particular organization UH fast food are uh supermarket? How do you know they're participating in the fair food program? UM?

You can you can be see it UM the website of an organization that was created with the purpose of UM basically making issue that all the provisions that I am talking about are are happening in all the farms that are part of part of the Fair Food Program. And the name of this organization is the Fair Food

Standards Council. So it's a fair food standards that or I think that's the address and uh what they do their whole purpose it's to oversee the implementation of the program, to receive complaints from workers with the twenty four seven line that workers can call. And there are investigators that go to the farms and talk directly to the workers.

They do additing uh going over fifty percent in in in every farm and whenever there there are older operations of the workforce is approached by them, which is remarkable. You know, the most reputable firms that the claim that they have uh don uditing or monitoring. The most reputable would say ten at the maximum. And when we're talking about companies where you don't have the power of the market, like outside of the perfect program um, usually these firms

work even with the buyers. You know, they're hired by companies to try to comap with this notion that everything is fine on the ground, but they don't really have the power to fix anything under the program. The Purface Standards Console has the power of the market of fourteen corporations that are ready to exercise the purchasing on their conditioning all the implementation of those rights, which gives them an incredibly unique power and ability to fix the problems.

What that translates into is that there has been there have been bosses at the beginning of the implementation of the program that we're committing abuses and we're committing uh, you know, crimes of sexual harassment. All of those issues were resolved in in in in a matter of weeks. When when you do it through the regular channels, you know, when there's a situation of sexual harassment or discrimination that EUC will intervene in, sometimes those cases take years to

be solved. We have helped workers that had to go through through the ordeal of dragging these cases and having to work in the same place as the perpetrator for years, three or four years, and and that's just justice delayed and for us as justice denight. So that's why this is really important. So, I mean, obviously we know how difficult COVID has been, uh you know in the country for so many people, for so many workers. Uh. Um, do you do you see silver lining at all because

of COVID? Is it causing bringing attention to some causes that that may be easier to um draw attention to now because of COVID, are are is just pushing are COVID putting you back a few steps? What I see it's UH. COVID is not UM the only crisis that we have to deal with UM. What we see is that COVID is bringing you know, UM up up to to to the the eyes of people UH, situations that have always existed for works in terms of the vulnerability.

What I what I think is needed here is a collaboration that is aiming to decrease the risks the COVID represents UH and and and that requires resources dedicated to communities that are suffering. That requires the government taking an active role in overseeing and and prioritizing the well being

of the workforce as supposed to UH the economy. Because here in Florida, you know, we we fight for about a month since since April, we started to call the local UM government, the Department of Health here and in in the state UH and created a petition for a governor around the scientists that many people endors, many organizations were asking for him to to dedicate UM testing and and we were asking for a field hospital or a place in which people can be isolated for the support

that people that are at the very bottom of the economic letter to have the support that they need so that they can actually isolate uh and and and have all of those resources. Nothing really happened, and all of these uh I think centers at the end of the day in something very simple. Our humanity. It seems it's not as important as a humanity of others, but what we produce is essential. So that's the huge contradiction that we have to live with. Yeah, and you're bringing up

something that's really important. There's a difference between someone who's young who decides they want to go to a restaurant or they want to go to a bar and they contract COVID and they're sick um versus someone who is working for very little money that has to put food on the table and they don't have a choice whether or not they come to work or not. They're not

making a decision to go to a bar. They're making a decision to come to work because that food in the table, exactly, and that that means that they actually can can do exactly what so many people who give immigrants a hard time, they said they don't take care of their family, they're on welfare or whatever. No, No, they're actually doing what what they're supposed to be doing.

They are going to work, they are working hard, and they're trying to support their families for what for the American game to actually become here, contribute to the country, and to make sure like everybody else who's come to this country since the beginning of time here, they just come here, well not everyone, but to come here because they want to do They want to do better for their family exactly, and and and and and that's it, And you're right when it when it has to come

down to humanity has to come down to look at at at everyone and seeing their inherent value. Uh not not not the value of how you can abuse their work for some sort of you know gain, but but the inherent value that they have to contribute back to society and and what their next generation is going to bring. And so yeah, I think you're absolutely right. I think you hit on the head. Is it. This is about humanity.

It's not abou economics, it's it's not about um the bottom line, this is about uh, you know, hum human potential, human value, human worth, and and and dig and dignity exactly, and and I think that that's what we're missing And what I'm gonna say is gonna sound really cliche, but I think that you know, in in in that paying attention to what's going on to to farm workers and essentially workers everywhere. Um, we're not just risking um, you know,

to to to create something that is already unfolding. Uh, food crisis. Many plans have closed. Uh it workers get seek in the fields. Who's gonna who's gonna harvest the food that everybody needs? That's going to create a crisis that the cliche parties. Uh, if we are not able as a country to do better, we are losing our own soul exactly because we're shooting shooting ourselves in the

foot by ignoring that. Because you cannot leave in a contradiction in which in one hand you come out and clap for health workers, which is is awesome, you know, it's it's an awesome way in which people can do something that's symbolic. But if it can't simply be symbolic, because even even workers, you know, frontline workers inside the hospital need equipment, needs support, need more from this government

and it should have it. But at the same time, farm workers are also people that should be recognized, not not with clapping, that's not what we're asking for. But but with real change, with real protections, with real demands, that makes sense so that we don't lose what is desperately so desperately needed. There's more than twenty I don't I don't know exactly the number right now, but but there are more than twenty states that are seeing spikes in in cases of COVID and this is the cost

for alarm and it should be. The reason that is going on is because that same same type of mentality, you know, we we disappear when the tomatoes and other vegetables make it out of the fields and into the supermarket. We disappear of the minds of people. People need to remember that if you are or a loved one is on the hospital bed, that person is depending on the hard work of essential workers that are producing the food so that they can recover. We cannot afford to lose that.

We can't. It's just simply are really on a strategic move. And it is not just an error in the strategy. It's an error that gets paid in kind in a really horrible with the lives of people that shouldn't be dying in the hospital. We can reduce that, but we need to act. Yeah. I think. I think what it comes down to is these workers need to be seen, they need to be acknowledged. And you're right, it's not just clapping at seven o'clock. UM, it's about long term,

long term commitment to their viability. UM. Horror, this isn't great. Thank thank you very much. UM, this is a fascinating conversation. Um Ah, I'm speaking to Herodo Ray Chavez from the let me try to my my my Spanish is terrible, but Theodorescali are the mocally workers to c I w that that sounds good to me, that sounds perfect. UM. I would say, Tom, um, thank you. It's an honor

for me to be able to connect. Finally, UM, I think that these conversations need to be going and yeah, I mean, whenever you want to continue, we can talk on different topics to you know, from from the perspective of those who are on the bottom, that that needs to happen more often because many times you hear people speaking from or with a mantle of expertise when they don't know what it is to be poor, to be hungry, and to be fighting while working. Um. And that needs

to change. So I thank you for taking this approach and inviting us and and I think that people would benefit really from the ongoing conversations. So thank you well, thank you, keep fighting and stay safe. I want to give a special thanks to Rado Chevez a Reyas are the coalition of the MARCI workers, and as always big thanks to Kristin Castie and Laurie Silverbush of a Place

to Table. This is Citizen Chef with Me Talklikio. Our executive producer is Christopher Hastiotis, our researcher is Justlyn she Olds, and our producer and editor is Garrielle Collins. Thanks for listening and don't forget to subscribe. H