Coalition of Immokalee Workers

A trained human rights investigator conducts an audit on a FFP farm, interviewing farmworkers on their working and living condition. Naples Daily News op-ed: “When workers can report problems without fear and employers have a financial interest in solving them, labor standards finally become a lived reality.” The Guardian: “With today’s extreme heat, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and growers within their Fair Food Program decided it was necessary for the tens of thousands of people in their program to have access to electrolytes on participating farms year-round.”

The transformative power of the Fair Food Program lies not only in its capacity to unite farmworkers, growers, and major food retailers in a groundbreaking “win-win-win” partnership, but also in its proven ability to protect workers’ fundamental human rights far beyond the fields where it was born.

Indeed, the FFP’s success has demonstrated that the very market forces that typically drive a race to the bottom in wages and working conditions can instead become a powerful engine for protecting fundamental human rights. In a recent Naples Daily News op-ed, Melissa Obegi, climate investor, co-chair of the Salzburg Global Corporate Governance Program and Senior Advisor for Global Markets at the Fair Food Program, explores how the FFP’s unique system of market-based enforcement has created compelling economic incentives for workers, growers, and buyers to work together to prevent abuse before it happens, and why that proven approach offers a ready-made solution for millions of workers facing dangerous heat on the job.

And in a powerful illustration of just how far the seeds of the Fair Food Program have begun to spread, a new feature in The Guardian picks up where Obegi’s op-ed leaves off, tracing the growing movement of workers across industries who are adapting the FFP’s model to confront the injustices in their own workplaces. Among them are our longtime allies at WeCount!, whose emerging worker-driven initiative in Florida’s vast plant nursery industry promises to bring the same transformative power of the purchasing order to thousands of workers who labor in sweltering greenhouses and nurseries, often without even the most basic protections against the heat.

We’re excited to share both pieces with you today, starting with Ms. Obegi’s op-ed, which you can find, in full, below.

Farmworkers, farmers come together to devise heat rules | Opinion Spearheaded by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the program gives everyone in the nation’s food supply chain an economic incentive to prevent abuse

• Federal heat protection rules for outdoor workers, proposed in 2021, remain stalled in the rule-making process.

• A worker-led initiative, the Fair Food Program, has already established heat safety standards for tens of thousands of farmworkers.

• The program creates economic incentives for farms to comply by linking them with major retailers like Walmart and Whole Foods.

• Participating farmworkers receive guaranteed shade, water, rest breaks, and a safe system for reporting violations without fear of retaliation.

In yet another summer of spiraling temperatures, the fight for effective heat regulations remains mired in the rule-making process. The New York Times recently reported on the uncertain future of federal heat protections for America’s outdoor workers, first proposed by OSHA in 2021, now left adrift as decision-makers spin their wheels. Meanwhile, regulators acknowledge that more than 140 workers have died from heat exposure since the process began, a figure almost certainly understated, because heart or kidney failure tends to be cited as the cause of death when a worker dies from heat, not the record temperatures that actually drove the vital organs to failure.

For the roughly 36 million Americans the new rules are intended to protect, the longer Washington waits, the greater the chance they too fall victim to the soaring heat indexes making life miserable from Florida to California this summer. But while lawmakers struggle to implement basic rules around heat and the workplace, tens of thousands of farmworkers are already working under what The Washington Post called “America’s strongest workplace heat rules.” Those protections did not come from Congress or OSHA. They emerged because farmworkers and farmers came together to build an entirely different way to enforce workplace rights in the fields, where effective heat rules aren’t a subject for endless debate, but a pressing question of life and death.

The system is called the Fair Food Program. It operates today in 23 states and dozens of crops, backed by some of the country’s largest retail brands including Walmart, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, McDonald’s and others.

Spearheaded by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a community-based human rights organization founded in the Southwest Florida town of Immokalee 30 years ago, the program works for one simple reason: it gives everyone in the nation’s food supply chain a compelling economic incentive to prevent abuse before it happens.

Retailers agree to purchase preferentially from farms that meet the program’s labor standards, satisfying growing consumer demand for ethical supply chain management − particularly critical since agricultural workers are 35 times more likely to die from heat stress than other workers.

Farmers gain reliable access to major buyers − and stand to lose that access if they fail to meet the program’s strictly enforced standards.

Farmworkers receive mandatory shade, drinking water, rest breaks, electrolytes, heat-illness training, prompt medical care and something just as important: multiple safe ways to report violations, backed by independent enforcement designed to protect them from retaliation.

Since the FFP’s inception in 2010, the program has ended generations of abuse ranging from wage theft to sexual assault and even forced labor, removed abusive supervisors, suspended farms when necessary and created a system that can address new threats like heat stress, preventing harm before it occurs.

A farmworker takes a break to drink water. FFP farms comply with mandatory heat stress protections that include the provision of water, electrolytes, rest breaks, training, and the ability to stop work and seek medical treatment without fear of retaliation

The success of the FFP has already convinced other industries to adopt its model, including the Milk with Dignity program anchored by Ben & Jerry’s, and Building Dignity and Respect in construction, which realigned business practices rather than wait for spotty regulatory enforcement.

Growers themselves are some of the program’s strongest advocates.

Jon Esformes, CEO of Sunripe Certified Brands, was the first major grower to join the Fair Food Program in 2010 and helped shape many of its standards. Fifteen years later, he still describes the decision not as a regulatory burden but as a business advantage.

In Esformes’ experience, rested workers on FFP farms are more productive than their counterparts outside the program, who are often pushed to exhaustion by midday. And experienced employees who feel appreciated return season after season, often bringing friends and relatives with them, sharply reducing turnover and the constant training costs it drives.

“At the end of the day, people want to go to work, earn their money, know they’re safe, and go home,” said Esformes, adding, “[The program] created a bridge so we could have the relationship with our employees we should have been having for years.”
Extreme heat is becoming one of the defining workplace hazards of the Twenty-First Century. Farmworkers, construction workers, roofers, landscapers and countless others cannot afford to wait while Washington debates what effective protection should look like. They need meaningful protections now.

And as the Fair Food Program and its offshoots demonstrate, the protections themselves are only half the story. Market-based enforcement is what ultimately decides whether an outdoor worker makes it home at night to his or her family − or becomes just another statistic in yet another story of workers failed by those with the power to protect them.

Plant nursery workers can be counted among those who cannot afford to wait while Washington engages in seemingly endless debates over basic workplace protections, and as a new feature in The Guardian explores, they are now joining forces with the CIW to bring the transformative model of the Fair Food Program to their own industry. Check out some key excerpts below. To read the full piece, click here.

US workers facing deadly heat embrace tactic that targets major brands’ reputations Program founded by tomato pickers has some of the strongest US worker protections – and its approach is being emulated by other groups

“It’s the kind of heat that makes you feel like you’re being dehydrated, like your skin is drying out,” said Lucas Benitez, after harvesting watermelons with his sons and wife this summer. “The heat that we had 30 years ago is not nearly the heat that we have today.”

This summer was the hottest on record in the US, and most workers in fields, greenhouses and unconditioned indoor facilities still do not have heat protections on the job, putting their health at risk as the climate crisis is expected to make extreme heat more frequent and intense.

Benitez began working in tomato fields in Immokalee, Florida, when he was just 16, and in the early 1990s went on to help found the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), named after the major tomato growing region in south-west Florida. Today, CIW’s Fair Food Program has some of the strongest heat protections for workers in the country, and its approach is being emulated by other groups – in the US and beyond – as federal, state and local efforts to protect people from extreme heat stall.

Farmworkers in GA receive an on-the-clock, worker-to-worker education session

The program’s protections were hard won after years of boycotts, hunger strikes and protests against food corporations, and now protect farm workers in dozens of crop types. The model, described as “market-based enforcement” by academics, works by targeting the reputation of the known brand-name of a company – say a fast-food retailer – to improve conditions rather than smaller entities in the supply chain.

Retailers agree to pay a small premium to buy from farms that comply with a worker-protection code of conduct. Farms that violate the code can lose their preferred status, giving workers a powerful way to enforce protections without relying on government regulators.

Miami-based WeCount is among the labor groups that are now adopting the Fair Food Program model for other hot, low-wage jobs. Worker organizations in dairy production in Vermont, construction in Minnesota, sugarcane production in India, and banana production in Ecuador have created similar human rights initiatives….

A long fight for better conditions

With today’s extreme heat, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and growers within their Fair Food Program decided it was necessary for the tens of thousands of people in their program to have access to electrolytes on participating farms year-round. This summer, the CIW’s Fair Food Program added the new requirement to its heat protection standards in a matter of weeks, which already required participating growers to provide shade, cool drinking water, paid rest breaks, heat illness training for workers and supervisors, and the ability for workers to seek medical attention without fear of retaliation…

Stay tuned for more exciting updates on all things FFP and WSR!

From Ethel Kennedy: The Extraordinary Life and Bold Legacy: “The day after we presented the CIW with the RFK Human Rights Award, Mum and I joined the group to protest outside a local Taco Bell.” “Mum left Immokalee even more determined to help the workers earn a decent living. Upon returning to Washington, Mum cold-called the CEO of McDonald’s. When he picked up the phone, she said, ‘Hi, this is Ethel Kennedy. Would you please give the tomato pickers another penny per pound?’ No deal. The CIW soon announced a boycott of McDonald’s, then Burger King.”

If you are a long-time ally of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, you may have met one of this country’s most tenacious human rights leaders without even knowing it.

Ethel Kennedy lived a life true to the tenets of her faith, defined by an unwavering commitment to justice that stretched across two centuries. From the movement to expand fundamental civil and human rights to all Americans in the 1960s — a turbulent decade that claimed the life of her husband, former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy — to the struggle to protect and preserve our country’s fragile democracy today, Mrs. Kennedy never shied away from joining in the fight to make the country, and the world, a kinder, more equal, more humane place.

Indeed, over two decades ago, Mrs. Kennedy joined the CIW in our fight against exploitation and abuse in the fields, when she awarded three CIW leaders — Lucas Benitez, Julia Gabriel, and Romeo Ramirez — the 2003 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award for their groundbreaking efforts to end modern-day slavery and bring abusive farm bosses to justice. Mrs. Kennedy presented the award to the trio of CIW leaders at a gala ceremony in the US Senate, and then promptly joined us in the streets of DC at a protest outside a Taco Bell restaurant (right).

It would be the first of many, many times that Mrs. Kennedy joined us in the streets, from her 2006 visit to Immokalee to kick off the “RFK Memorial Poverty Tour: A Tour for Social and Economic Justice”, to her annual appearances with hundreds of farmworkers and their allies on marches along glamorous Worth Avenue in the heart of her winter home of Palm Beach, Florida, calling on Wendy’s — and her fellow Palm Beach resident, billionaire investor Nelson Peltz — to join the Fair Food Program.

But perhaps the greatest highlight of the past two decades of Mrs. Kennedy’s tireless solidarity came in 2012, outside Publix headquarters in Lakeland, Florida. In a heartfelt callback to her role in supporting Cesar Chavez’s historic hunger strike for farmworker rights in 1968, in which Mrs. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy joined Chavez for the breaking of his 25-day fast, Mrs. Kennedy joined dozens of farmworkers and their allies as they ended their own fast, calling on Publix to join the Fair Food Program in an emotional and unforgettable ceremony.

Tragically, Mrs. Kennedy passed away in 2024 at the age of 96. In a memorial attended by nearly every living US president and countless other senior political and movement leaders, the CIW’s Lucas Benitez, Greg Asbed, and Laura Germino had the opportunity to eulogize Mrs. Kennedy, speaking to her pivotal contributions to the CIW and the advancement of the Fair Food Program.

Lucas’s words on that sad yet joyful day are worth remembering one more time:

“My colleagues and I are here today from the land of swamps and hurricanes, in the company of so many distinguished champions of this great democracy, because Mrs. Kennedy knew it takes all of us, from farmworkers to Presidents, to defend the human rights she held so dear.  She was the rare person who cares not who you are, but what you do for democracy, freedom and equal rights.

I came alone as a teenager to what would become my beloved adopted county, looking for work in America’s tomato fields and citrus groves, after growing up in a one-room, dirt-floor shack along with my five siblings (a big family, but not quite as big as the Kennedys!…).  And 30 years ago, when we as farmworkers from Immokalee began our fight against forced labor, sexual harassment and assault, and wage theft in the fields, Mrs. Kennedy (together with her daughter Kerry) stood with us from the very start.  Ethel saw the promise in our early efforts to bring brutal farm bosses to justice when no one else did, awarding us the RFK Human Rights Award two decades ago, lifting us up from Immokalee’s dusty streets to celebrate our efforts in the hallowed halls of the US Senate, and she stuck with us ever since, as that early promise grew into transformative change.

She picketed with us is in the streets as we boycotted Taco Bell.  She visited us in the fields and in our homes, and brought her friends with her to Immokalee to join the fight, leaders like John Sweeney of the AFL-CIO, and Senator Bernie Sanders.  She used her powers of persuasion to convince McDonald’s executives to join our growing program for human rights.  And she led marches with us in her beloved Palm Beach not once, but many times. I would push her in her wheelchair along Worth Avenue, her straw hat shielding her from the sun, past jewelry stores and shops selling furs.  Her friends and neighbors would stop her and say “Ethel, what in the world are you doing?” And she would say, “Come along and march with us, for justice and freedom!” And many of them dropped whatever they were doing and did!  Who could say no to Ethel?

Thanks in large part to her decades of untiring support – it’s never about just showing up, it’s about sticking around – today, we can say that we have built the most effective human rights enforcement program in the US agricultural industry, the Fair Food Program, which has eliminated modern-day slavery and sexual violence in the fields, and has forged America’s strongest workplace heat protections against the ever-worsening climate crisis.  We are in 23 states and counting, and our partners include 14 of the world’s largest corporations.

Mrs. Kennedy, we thank you, and as we say in Mexico, a person only truly dies when they are no longer remembered by anyone, and you, Senora Ethel — a true force of nature — will never really leave us because you will always live on in our hearts and our memories, in Immokalee and anywhere a farmworker harvests the food that feeds our nation. (read more from the unforgettable memorial service here)

Now, Mrs. Kennedy’s daughter, Kerry Kennedy — herself a stalwart supporter of the cause for farmworker dignity — has penned a biography of her late, great mother. Entitled Ethel Kennedy: The Extraordinary Life and Bold Legacy, the book tells the story of Mrs. Kennedy’s remarkable journey through the eyes of her daughter. Jam-packed with firsthand accounts and exquisite storytelling, the book takes readers beyond the towering achievements of Mrs. Kennedy’s public life to reveal the woman behind the legacy — her humor and heart, her convictions and struggles, and the experiences that shaped a lifetime of fighting for justice. Today, we’d like to highlight one passage in particular, which recounts Mrs. Kennedy’s unwavering support for farmworkers’ rights and her unique contributions to the Campaign for Fair Food.

We are sharing that excerpt below, but be sure to buy the book, which is for sale at all major retailers and online. Here is one part of Ethel Kennedy’s story, as told by her daughter:

“In 2003, Mum presented the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a labor group based in Florida that was fighting for fair wages while exposing brutal and illegal conditions in the tomato fields. Along with his colleagues Greg Asbed, Laura Germino, and others, Lucas Benitez had emancipated over a thousand farmworkers from modern-day slavery… The CIW was also leading a nationwide boycott of Taco Bell, one of the major purchasers of Florida tomatoes. At the time, farmworkers received 32 cents for every bucket of tomatoes picked, a pittance that kept them in dire poverty. One of the CIW’s central demands was an additional penny for every pound, which could increase their earnings by $150 more per week. But the raise would be possible only if buyers like Taco Bell paid the growers a penny more per pound. They refused, and the boycott was on.

The day after we presented the CIW with the RFK Human Rights Award, Mum and I joined the group to protest outside a local Taco Bell. Mum hated having to boycott her favorite fast-food joint. “I love Taco Bell,” Mum said. “I called Taco Bell, but they wouldn’t cooperate, so I couldn’t eat there, and it really upset me.” Two years later, the company agreed to pay more for their produce, and Mum was again able to enjoy their supreme burritos.

But she was not finished helping the Florida farmworkers. In 2005, Mum invited the head of the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest trade union federation, and others to join her on a fact-finding tour of filthy, inhumane conditions in Immokalee. The rundown town, surrounded by tomato fields carved out of the swamps, was just 39 miles inland from the wealthy enclave of Naples, Florida, but a world apart. Mum and her guests got a firsthand look at the rotting trailers where the tomato pickers lived three and four to a room. They saw the workers line up for buses, hoping to be chosen by the bosses to spend 12-hour days picking tomatoes. Nearly all the women reported being sexually assaulted by the bosses, often forced to have sex in exchange for the privilege of being hired.

Mum left Immokalee even more determined to help the workers earn a decent living. Upon returning to Washington, Mum cold-called the CEO of McDonald’s. When he picked up the phone, she said, “Hi, this is Ethel Kennedy. Would you please give the tomato pickers another penny per pound?” No deal. The CIW soon announced a boycott of McDonald’s, then Burger King.

*Both Burger King and McDonald’s eventually came around and agreed to participate in the Fair Food Program. The boycott of Wendy’s… continues to this day.”

We truly hope you find the time to read “Ethel Kennedy: The Extraordinary Life and Bold Legacy”, you will be so very glad you did. We here at the CIW have always been honored to have known Mrs. Kennedy, but now, having read this exquisitely written love letter from her daughter Kerry, we miss her, and her indefatigable love of life, even more.