September 11, 2009

What they're saying about the agreement with East Coast...

Reaction is flooding in to the announcement that East Coast Growers and Packers has agreed to work with the CIW and food industry leaders to implement the CIW's Fair Food agreements, including the penny-per-pound raise to harvesters, supply chain transparency, and a stringent code of conduct.

We'll start with words from East Coast itself. In an interview with the Miami Herald ("Florida tomato grower will raise workers' wages," 9/11/09), Batista Madonia, Jr., sales manager for East Coast,explained why his company decided to buck the powerful industry lobby and pursue the opportunity presented by the CIW's agreements. Here's an extended excerpt:

"... Rather than fight with the rest of the industry, East Coast Growers decided in the last few weeks to drop out of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange...

'I would rather be unpopular with my competition and do the right thing,' said Batista Madonia Jr., sales manager for the family-owned company. 'I believe when you do the right thing for your worker, it gives you a better worker and a better company.'

Reggie Brown, executive vice president of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, said he was not familiar with the details of the agreement between East Coast and Chipotle. But that the the growers organization remains a voluntary one.

`Everyone is free to make whatever business decision they choose to make,' Brown said.

East Coast Growers was started in 1956 by Madonia's parents and has been based in central Florida for 30 years. The company describes itself as one of the top three tomato growers in the state, planting about 7,000 acres of tomatoes in Florida. East Coast also owns three packing houses in Florida, plus it has growing and packing operations in Virginia.

Madonia said he is already in discussions with all of the other major fast-food chains about the ability to handle their business and implement the agreements with the CIW. While Chipotle is a small user of Florida tomatoes, Subway is the biggest user of all restaurants and Burger King would also be near the top.

`If it brings me extra business that's great,' Madonia said. `If not, it still helps my workers live a better life and it doesn't cost me anything.'

Madonia said he is working with the repacking houses on the mechanism for tracking how many tomatoes a worker has picked that are ultimately bought by Chipotle or any other restaurant chain.

`Every farmer has always faced situations where people say it can't be done,' he said. `We always find a solution.' read the entire article here

Tom Philpott of grist.org also weighed in on the news ("Large Florida grower steps up for workers," 9/10/09):

"... Two years ago, the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, a cooperative representing the state’s industrial-scale tomato farms, balked. Perhaps stung by the workers’ success and emerging sense of power, the FTGE slammed the door shut on the raise. The group announced it would impose a draconian fine on any grower who passed on the penny per pound raise...

... And this is why the agreement with East Coast Growers and Packers is so significant. The operation is defying the FTGE and passing the raise directly to the workers. And the raise is significant. It will push the per-bucket rate from 50 cents to 82 cents—a 64 percent raise.

And with mega-companies like McDonald’s directing their business to East Coast because of the deal, it seems likely that other growers will relent, too—and the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange’s absurd campaign to block the raise will collapse." read the entire article here

The grist.org article ended, as will this update, with this pointed bit of commentary:

A note on Chipotle Grill, which announced in a Tuesday press release that it had “reached an agreement with East Coast Farms, one of Florida’s largest tomato growers, under which workers who harvest tomatoes for Chipotle will receive an additional penny per pound.”

Chipotle had come under fire, including from me, for its refusal to sign an agreement with the CIW. While the burrito chain should be commended for joining CIW and its previous signees’ efforts to push East Coast into accepting the raise, it’s puzzling that Chipotle would present this important agreement as a one-off deal between a large grower and one company. Happily, the East Coast agreement is much larger than that.

Check back soon for more to come on this breaking news!

Update... More on the recent news: Gourmet Magazine, "Score one for farmworkers" (9/10/09):

"In a few weeks, the migrant workers who plant and harvest tomatoes will begin trickling back into Immokalee, Florida, to prepare the fields for the winter/spring season, as they have done every fall for decades.

But this year, they will encounter something different. For the first time, a major Florida tomato producer, East Coast Growers and Packers, has implemented the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’(CIW) “Fair Food” program, breaking ranks with the dozen or so Florida companies that raise and ship most of the fresh tomatoes Americans eat during the cold months. The CIW’s initiative includes a one-penny-per-pound wage hike for workers (it might not sound like much, but it amounts to a 64 percent increase—the difference between poverty and a livable income) and a stringent code of fair labor practices..." read more

 

September 10, 2009

At long last, a grower steps forward!

With the start of the new season only weeks away, East Coast Growers and Packers -- one of Florida's largest tomato growers -- has agreed to work with the CIW and food industry leaders to implement the CIW'S Fair Food agreements, including the penny-per-pound raise to harvesters, supply chain transparency, and a stringent code of conduct.

The agreements -- six in all, among them the world's four largest restaurant companies and the leading organic grocer -- had been held up for nearly two years by the resistance of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange (FTGE), the powerful industry lobby.

"The past two years have been difficult, as farmworkers in Immokalee and throughout Florida have been stubbornly denied the benefits of the Fair Food agreements thanks to the FTGE," said Lucas Benitez of the CIW. "But we never stopped organizing, and during those two years some of the industry's largest buyers of tomatoes signed on to the agreements, creating an ever larger share of the market committed to purchasing tomatoes only from growers who agree to meet the higher standards called for by the CIW."

"We are extremely pleased that East Coast has shown the courage and the vision to seize on this tremendous opportunity and by so doing help lead the Florida tomato industry toward a fairer, more sustainable future," added Gerardo Reyes, also of the CIW. "We will be working closely with East Coast and our food industry partners in the coming weeks to ensure that we have an effective mechanism in place for passing the penny-per-pound to the workers and a solid plan for monitoring compliance with the code of conduct. There is still much work to be done but, at long last, we are working together, and when we work together -- farmworkers, growers, retailers, and consumers -- we can forge a relationship that will benefit all of us."

With a major grower now committed to implementing the CIW agreements, the Campaign for Fair Food turns to those companies that have remained on the sidelines, companies like Publix and Kroger, Sodexo and Aramark, Wendy's and Quizno's, Costco and WalMart.

The familiar excuses for inaction -- "we don't get involved in disputes between our suppliers and their employees," or "but there's no way to get the penny to the workers" -- no longer hold.

The question to those companies now is simple: Will your company support social responsibility? Will your company put its purchasing power behind those in the Florida tomato industry who are willing to do the right thing for their workers, or will you continue to support the growers who stand against progress?

The time for stalling is over. Now, to borrow a phrase, is the season for action.