- Coalition of Immokalee Workers
- Farmworkers Self-Help
- National Farmworker Ministry
- Student Action with Farmworkers
Coalition of Immokalee Workers
2006 Winner, Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Award
P.O. Box 603
Immokalee, FL 34143
Phone: 239-657-8311
Fax: 239-657-5055
Email : workers@ciw-online.org
Website : www.ciw-online.org
"Pesticides hurt your nose and face ... We get up at 4:30a.m. to go wait for work. And sometimes they don't pay us -- we work eight or 10 hours a day and don't get a check. We're just trying to feed our families," said Manuel Cortez, a 17-year-old farmworker who immigrated to the U.S. from Oaxaca, Mexico, to reporter Kari Lydersen.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) has heard stories like Manuel's for years. At a camp in Lake Placid, Florida, people were kept under constant surveillance, crammed four to a single room the size of a pantry, denied their rightful pay, beaten and pistol-whipped into submission. Farmworkers are the most transient of laborers and unquestionably the most impoverished of all workers in America. Farmworkers make, on average, less than $10,000 a year, working with toxic pesticides and living in substandard conditions with no health benefits, vacation time, or sick days.
What is the cost of justice to farmworkers like Manuel? One penny. By paying one penny more per pound for tomatoes, produce purchasers can nearly double farmworkers' wages. Currently, workers would have to pick more than two tons of tomatoes per day just to make Florida's minimum wage rate of about $6 an hour.
In the spring of 2005, CIW won a historic and unprecedented victory after a four year boycott of Taco Bell, resulting in increased wages and a workers' rights agreement for the workers who harvest Taco Bell's tomatoes. Since then, the Coalition has also won landmark agreements with McDonald's and Burger King, with both fast food giants pledging to improve farmworker wages and working conditions throughout their supply chains.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, founded in 1994, is a community-based worker organization based in Immokalee, Florida. Its 3,000 members are largely Latino, Haitian, and Mayan Indian immigrant farmworkers who speak a variety of languages. Together, they are fighting for livable wages; improved working conditions; better and cheaper housing; stronger worker rights, laws and enforcement; the right to organize without fear of retaliation; and an end to indentured servitude in the fields. In just over 10 years, CIW has become a powerful advocate for farmworkers and an internationally recognized leader in the fight against modern-day slavery, helping bring justice to Florida since 1997.
The CIW is more than an organization. It is a movement that empowers workers to resist exploitation and demand justice. The power of the CIW's message can best be summed by its slogan: "Consciousness + Commitment=Change." The Coalition builds community through reflection and analysis, coalition building across ethnic divisions, and an ongoing investment in leadership development among its members. Like peasant and indigenous movements around the world, the CIW also uses art, music, and images to vividly paint pictures of the lives of low wage workers. These unconventional methods aim to awaken a wider public to the struggles that farmworkers face everyday.
The Coalition of Immoklee Workers is a well-deserved winner of WhyHunger's Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Award. The cash grant award is given to outstanding grassroots organizations in the U.S. who have moved beyond charity to create change in their communities. Winners are judged outstanding for their innovative and creative approaches to fighting domestic hunger and poverty by empowering people and building self-reliance. The CIW embodies innovative solutions and self-reliance, two vital components for social change and justice.
The Coalition will use its award to build a community center to serve as a base for human rights work and for the many programs for the community. Aside from bars, restaurants, and street corners, farm workers have no place to congregate. There is currently no public space for seasonal workers to meet, learn valuable skills, and work together to address the human rights abuses they experience in the fields. A community center is critical for the workers to reinforce connections necessary to confront cases of modern day slavery in the fields.
The unconventional tactics of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers have won unprecedented gains for some of this country's most marginalized workers. In addition to winning an extra penny per pound for tomato harvesters, the Coalition's victories demonstrate that corporations must be held accountable for their exploitative financial policies. The Coalition plays a critical role in raising the public's consciousness to demand justice for all. (by Abraham Paulos, WhyHunger 2007)
Farmworkers Self-Help, Inc.
37240 Lock Street
Dade City, FL 33523
Phone: 352-567-1432
Fax: 352-567-5118
Email: Romo1936@aol.com
Website: http://www.fshflorida.org/
Founded in 1982, Farmworkers Self-Help, Inc., (FSH) works with immigrant Mexican farmworkers, Mexican-American farmworkers, and former farmworkers. Although initially formed to fight abuses by the U.S. Border Patrol, FSH now works on a host of other issues as well.
The majority of the organization's operations are located along the same street, which was recently renamed Calle de Milagros (Street of Miracles) in honor of the successful work of FSH. The street is in Tommytown, a community plagued by drugs, prostitution and gang violence. While just outside of the populous Dade City, Tommytown has unpaved roads, no traffic lights, and an average family income of $7,500 per year.
With the assistance of Farmworkers Self-Help, the community has been stirred to action, most recently by participating in a 22-mile trek to the state capital to demand justice for farmworkers. The youth are also engaged in the work of the organization. They created and performed a drama entitled "An Immigrant's Journey" and are writing poetry about many issues farmworkers face. FSH has many programs that address the community's specific challenges, including healthcare, education, and immigration status.
Healthcare is a major challenge for farmworkers and their families, many of whom do not qualify for Medicaid due to immigration status. Farmworkers Self-Help has a free clinic, House of Hope and Health, which relies on volunteer doctors and nurses to serve farmworkers with care and dignity. Along with the regular staff of volunteer providers, FSH partners with Florida State University to bring medical students to the clinic three weekends per year, seeing about 250 patients each time. The success of the partnership led the University to replicate the model by creating a second free clinic near the university campus in Gretna. To increase the clinic's corps of health-care workers, the House of Hope and Health trains women to be Promatoras de Salud (Promoters of Health), to do community health outreach and screen for hypertension, diabetes, and other health problems. Like most members of the staff and board, the Director of House of Hope and Health is a member of the community and came from a family of farmworkers.
The FSH Social Services Center helps community members apply for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, or SNAP (formerly food stamps) and other benefits, and is the base of many community programs including afterschool programs, a quilting circle, a community garden, and a playground. The center also provides vital immigration services, charging just $150 for services for which an immigration attorney would charge $3,000. Other aspects of FSH community outreach have included a Christmas gift of blankets to all 900 youth in the community and a fund-raising campaign that raised $4,000 for affected farmworkers in South Florida after hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
The FSH Norma Godinez Learning Center was a gift from the county in recognition of the organization's work. Not only does the center provide homework and afterschool programs, but offers 'high-risk' teenagers jobs, giving them opportunities to earn a salary, engage with community children and take on responsibilities. These jobs have made a real difference in the lives of other community members-turned-FSH staff.
FSH also has strong legislative advocacy programs. Its advocacy was integral in the 1993 enactment of the Farmworkers Right to Know Bill. It is currently working on the Dream Act, in-state tuition rights, health care for immigrant children, research on pesticide exposure, and housing and disaster assistance for farmworkers. The FSH Learning Center had the Congressional Representative come and answer questions on issues important to undocumented youth. Additionally, FSH is part of the drivers license coalition and works closely with the newly appointed Legislative Commission on Migrant and Seasonal Labor.
National Farm Worker Ministry
2007 Winner, Harry Chapin Self Reliance Award
438 N. Skinner Blvd
St. Louis, MO 63130
Phone: 314-726-6470
Fax: 314-726-6427
Email: vnesmith@nfwm.org
Website: www.nfwm.org
National Farm Worker Ministry (NFWM) began in 1920 as a ministry of charity and service, providing food, clothing and day care to the farmworkers. When United Farm Workers founder César Chávez began organizing in the 1960s, he called on the religious community to change its emphasis from charity to justice. NFWM became the vehicle for people of faith to respond to that call. NFWM brings together national denominations, state councils of churches, religious orders and congregations, and concerned individuals to act with the farmworkers to achieve fundamental change in their living and working conditions.
NFWM's Project Solidarity links volunteers with farmworkers who are organizing with the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC). FLOC represents over 5000 farmworkers in North Carolina, increasing job security for the workers, putting an end to blacklisting, and establishing a grievance procedure allowing workers to address problems without fear of retaliation. In its first few months, FLOC received 500 grievances about living and working conditions, proving that workers were feeling empowered enough to speak out. Through Project Solidarity, hundreds of volunteers have spent time working in solidarity with farmworkers to further increase their rights.
NFWM created the Youth and Young Adult Network to support a nationwide network of young people of faith actively working to change the oppressive social, political and economic conditions of farmworkers. Through letter writing campaigns, picketing, and other activities, the Network provides meaningful ways for youth to join the movement.
National Farm Workers Ministry has also created a number of resources, including Blessing the Hands: A Farm Worker Curriculum. The curriculum is designed for adult and high school groups and includes prayers, fact sheets, scripture, and suggested activities and actions. Through these and other programs, and in offices across the country, NFWM is leading the fight for justice for farmworkers.
Student Action with Farmworkers
2004 Winner, Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Award
1317 W Pettigrew St
Durham, NC 27705
Phone: 919-660-3652
Fax: 919-681-7600
Email: mwiggins@duke.edu
Website: http://cds.aas.duke.edu/saf/
Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF) is housed in the Documentary Studies Department of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. The walls are plastered with images of Cesar Chavez and other pioneers of the farmworker justice movement, protest posters, campaign slogans, Latin American art, and awards -- including WhyHunger's 2004 Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Award. The bright atmosphere and powerful imagery proves inspirational for the staff. SAF's mission is to bring students and farmworkers together to learn about each other's lives, share resources and skills, improve conditions for farmworkers, and build diverse coalitions working for social change. The program began as a Documentary Studies Department project in which Duke students documented the lives of migrant farmworker children. Today, SAF runs four programs: Into the Fields, Sowing Seeds for Change, From the Ground Up, and Project Levante.
There are roughly 400,000 farmworkers in the state of North Carolina, primarily harvesting the region's main crops of tobacco, cucumbers, peppers and Christmas trees. The majority are from Mexico, along with some African-Americans and a recent wave of Thai, Haitians, and indigenous Mayans. SAF attributes the recent wave of non-Spanish-speaking workers largely to US trade policies. Unlike many farmworker support organizations, SAF also includes people in the food processing industry in its definition of "farmworker." North Carolina has recently seen a major shift from field work to food processing, primarily in the poultry and pork industry. Workers are attracted to food processing jobs in part because federal law requires employers in that sector to provide employee benefits.
However, North Carolina is the least unionized state in the country, and a recent influx of immigrants has caused an anti-immigrant backlash. Farmworker organizations and legislators working on fair immigration policies have received death threats for their efforts to grant in-state tuition for children of farmworkers. In light of the recent immigration debate, SAF has stepped up its efforts to increase public education around issues of farmworkers and immigration.
The SAF Into the Fields project is an annual summer internship and leadership development program for college students. The program provides opportunities for thirty college students to support farmworkers as they address health and safety concerns, educational barriers, immigration policies, and discrimination in the workplace. Students are paired with migrant workers who follow crop harvests across the country.
Sowing Seeds for Change provides workshops and trainings on farmworker and student solidarity movements. The program also assists schools to develop campaigns and courses on farmworker issues, events for Farmworker Awareness Week, and information on internship and volunteer opportunities through an online Internship Directory.
From the Ground Up raises awareness of injustices in the agricultural industry. The program informs and mobilizes students and community members around current legislation, consumer boycotts, and other justice efforts initiated by farmworkers.
Project Levante develops the leadership of migrant youth in rural North Carolina through leadership retreats, tours of colleges and universities, youth empowerment, art, and college preparation workshops. In 2005, with the help of WhyHunger's Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Award, SAF launched the Fellows Program. The four fellows chosen by SAF are spread across the country, working side by side with farmworkers in their fight for justice and fairness. One fellow, at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, created a bilingual resource guide for farmworkers and the groups that serve them. Another created a documentary and photography project on mushroom pickers. All fellows give presentations to students about their work in order to increase public education.
SAF also recently began working with a housing coalition developing a community garden, processing center, and market in Newton Grove, North Carolina. A community food assessment of Newton Grove determined that farmworkers, who often face food insecurity, are beginning to grow gardens in the camps where they live. Developing a market will allow the gardeners to exchange surplus crops with each other and with the larger community.
Student Action with Farmworkers has an informational DVD, in which the daughter of farmworkers is asked what motivated her to stay in college. She answers by recounting the day her family gained citizenship. Her mother had to have her fingerprints taken three times before she was finally told that years of field labor had literally worn the prints off her fingers. Tearfully, the young woman explains that her internship with SAF allowed her to honor the hard work of her parents and millions of others like them by striving for farmworker justice. SAF is empowering these young people to make a difference through peer education, journalism, and advocacy for better conditions for farmworkers.
Updated 7/2010
