P.O. Box 603
Immokalee, FL, 34143
www.ciw-online.org
Staff size: 4
2005 annual budget: $498,000
IRS Annual Report: http://dynamodata.fdncenter.org/990_pdf_archive/650/650641010/650641010_200512_990.pdf
The average migrant farmworker in the United States earns less than $10,000 a year, with no right to form unions or claim benefits. But after tireless campaigning by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, in May 2008, Burger King agreed to pay Florida tomato pickers a penny more per pound of tomatos, which adds up to a 71 percent increase in annual wages. This accomplishment is just the latest in a string of victories for the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW).
Using a unique blend of citizen investigation, organizing and activism, the CIW advocates for thousands of Mexican, Haitian and Guatemalan immigrant workers in Southern Florida. Most of the people CIW represents are migrant workers who follow the tomato and citrus harvests. Their chief concerns include fair wages, respect from employers and companies, better and cheaper housing, the right to organize without fear of retaliation, and an end to indentured servitude.
In less than 15 years as an organization, CIW has managed to raise wages for tomato pickers by 13-25 percent. Central to CIW’s strategy was a nationwide boycott against Taco Bell. The boycott demanded the fast food chain take responsibility for conditions in the fields where its produce is grown — even though it is contractors, not Taco Bell, that directly employ the farmworkers. Having faced a high-profile, creative campaign, Taco Bell conceded in March 2005 to the tomato pickers’ demands. Following the boycott’s success, a nationwide network of CIW’s allies spun-off to create the Alliance for Fair Food to continue the work CIW started in the fast-food industry. In 2007, McDonalds became the second fast-food chain to agree to the conditions set in the Taco Bell accord.
Another of the CIW's victories occurred in January 2007, when Ron Evans was sentenced to 30 years in prison for keeping scores of workers in Florida in indentured servitude. Evans hired homeless men to work with the promise of a job and a place to live, but then sold them crack cocaine and forced the men to work off their debt.
CIW is also an active member in the U.S. anti-human trafficking movement. CIW is a co-founder of the Freedom Network USA to Empower Enslaved and Trafficked Persons. The group is also a co-founder of the Freedom Network Training Institute, which conducts training seminars for law enforcement and social service personnel on identifying and assisting slavery victims.