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After months of campaigning against Trader Joes, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers signed an historic agreement with the Monrovia, CA-based grocery chain, ensuring fairer working conditions and higher wages for tomato farm workers. The CIW has waged a decade-long campaign called the Fair Food Program, which holds major corporate tomato buyers in the food industry accountable for the conditions of the largely immigrant workforce that picks the tomatoes. Alongside demanding “a penny more per pound” of tomatoes, the Fair Food Program also requires companies that sign on, to buy from growers that respect labor laws, enable worker complaints without retaliation, and refuse to participate in conditions of slavery. The campaign aimed at Trader Joes was a nation-wide one, involving pickets, rallies, and even flash mobs, that referred to the major grocery chain as “Traitor Joes.” With 365 stores nationwide, and with the greatest concentration of stores in Southern California, Trader Joes now joins 9 other major corporations that have signed onto the CIW’s Fair Food Program, such as Whole Foods, McDonalds, Subway, Taco Bell, and Burger King. Its successes have marked CIW as one of the most successful campaigns for immigrant workers rights in the US. The worker-led organization, that closely collaborates with student activists, now has a Florida based chain called Publix in its sights, along with Kroger and other major grocery chains.

GUEST: Gerardo Reyes, farm worker, and staff member with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers

Visit www.ciw-online.org for more information.