Coalition of Immokalee Workers

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) is a worker-based human-rights organization founded in 1993 in Immokalee, Florida, a major agricultural community and center of the state’s fresh-tomato industry. Its work addresses labor conditions in agricultural supply chains, including low wages, workplace violence, forced labor, sexual violence, occupational health and safety, and the responsibilities of large food purchasers. The organization grew from local farmworker community organizing and popular-education methods rather than from a conventional trade-union structure. Its organizing philosophy emphasizes worker leadership and collective action, summarized by the motto “Consciousness + Commitment = Change.” During the 1990s, the CIW organized community-wide work stoppages, a hunger strike, marches, and other actions over falling real wages and abusive treatment in Florida tomato fields. These campaigns helped secure industry-wide piece-rate increases between 1995 and 1998, although the organization argued that the resulting wages still left many workers below acceptable living standards. Beginning around 2000, CIW’s strategy expanded beyond individual farms and growers. It argued that large retail and food-service companies exerted purchasing pressure that pushed costs and risk down the agricultural supply chain, ultimately affecting farmworker pay and working conditions. That analysis led to the Campaign for Fair Food and, in 2001, a national boycott of Taco Bell. The campaign sought direct participation by major buyers in improving labor conditions, including a premium for workers, enforceable standards for agricultural suppliers, transparent purchasing arrangements, and worker-accessible complaint procedures. In 2005, Taco Bell’s parent company, Yum! Brands, reached an agreement with the CIW that became a model for later buyer commitments. Agreements followed with McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, Whole Foods Market, food-service companies, Trader Joe’s, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Walmart, and other retailers and institutional food purchasers. The organization’s most influential initiative is the Fair Food Program (FFP), launched in 2011 after a 2010 agreement with the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange. The program combines a human-rights code of conduct, worker education, audits, a 24-hour complaint mechanism, complaint investigation and remediation, and a Fair Food Premium paid by participating buyers and distributed to eligible farmworkers. It began in Florida tomatoes and later expanded to additional crops, the cut-flower industry, multiple U.S. states, and Chile. The organization has also promoted a worker-driven social-responsibility model in which workers and their representatives play a central role in monitoring, enforcement, and remedy. Through the WSR-Network, CIW provides technical assistance to organizations applying similar approaches in other sectors and countries. CIW also has a significant anti-human-trafficking record. It was active in the early U.S. anti-trafficking movement, helped expose forced-labor operations, cooperated with federal and other law-enforcement authorities in prosecutions, and developed training associated with a victim-centered approach. Its work has contributed to the release of workers from slavery operations in the southeastern United States and to broader attention to labor trafficking in agricultural supply chains. The CIW continues to campaign for wider participation in the Fair Food Program. Its recent efforts have included pressure on food retailers and restaurant companies that have not joined, including campaigns directed at Wendy’s, Publix, and Kroger. The organization remains focused on worker-led enforcement, corporate supply-chain responsibility, and the expansion of protections beyond Florida tomatoes.

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers began in 1993 as the Southwest Florida Farmworker Project in Immokalee, Florida. The community was home to many migrant and seasonal agricultural workers employed in the state’s tomato fields. CIW developed a worker-centered organizing model based on popular education, leadership development, and collective action. Rather than treating farmworkers only as beneficiaries of outside advocacy, the organization positioned them as the principal decision-makers and enforcers of labor-rights reforms. Between 1995 and 2000, CIW organized several major actions against low tomato-picking rates and abusive workplace practices. Community-wide work stoppages took place in 1995, 1997, and 1999. In late 1997 and early 1998, six members conducted a 30-day hunger strike. In 2000, the organization organized a roughly 230-mile march from Fort Myers to Orlando. These activities helped produce industry-wide wage increases between 1995 and 1998, but CIW maintained that farmworker incomes remained inadequate and that improvements at individual farms were difficult to sustain. Around 2000, CIW broadened its analysis from farm-level abuses to the commercial structure of the food system. It argued that large restaurant, retail, and food-service companies use purchasing power to demand low prices from growers. Growers, operating with limited margins, may then transfer price pressure to workers through low piece rates, weak enforcement, and unsafe conditions. This led to the Campaign for Fair Food, which targeted major food purchasers rather than relying exclusively on negotiations with growers. In 2001, CIW began a national boycott of Taco Bell. The campaign was supported by community groups, religious organizations, students, food-justice advocates, and the Student/Farmworker Alliance. The coalition connected worker demands with consumer and institutional pressure. In 2005, Yum! Brands, Taco Bell’s parent company, accepted a package that included a direct payment to farmworkers connected to tomato purchases, an enforceable supplier code of conduct, incentives for compliant growers, and greater purchasing transparency. The agreement established a precedent for binding buyer participation in farm labor standards. CIW subsequently expanded its campaign to other restaurant and institutional buyers. McDonald’s reached an agreement in 2007, Burger King in 2008, and Subway later in 2008. Whole Foods Market signed an agreement in 2008 without the extended public protest that had characterized earlier campaigns. During 2009 and 2010, the Student/Farmworker Alliance’s Dine with Dignity campaign focused on food-service companies operating in institutional settings, contributing to agreements with Bon Appétit Management Company, Compass Group, Aramark, and Sodexo. Trader Joe’s signed an agreement in 2012, while Chipotle Mexican Grill reached a Fair Food Agreement in the same year after a prolonged campaign. Walmart joined in 2014, supporting geographic and crop expansion. Additional agreements were reached with The Fresh Market and Ahold in 2015. A major obstacle was resistance from the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange. In 2007, the exchange stated that certain buyer agreements would not be implemented and threatened penalties against members cooperating with Yum! Brands or McDonald’s, citing antitrust concerns. Funds associated with the buyer agreements accumulated in escrow during the dispute. A 2008 U.S. Senate hearing examined working conditions and the legal basis for the growers’ resistance, with CIW representatives and senators challenging growers’ claims about farmworker earnings. In November 2010, CIW and the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange reached an agreement to establish the Fair Food Program across most of Florida’s tomato industry. The program combined a code of conduct, worker education, health and safety activities, a complaint system, and buyer participation. It formally launched in 2011 and became CIW’s central institutional achievement. The Fair Food Program is designed around worker-driven social responsibility. Participating buyers agree to pay a Fair Food Premium, generally connected to the volume of covered produce, and participating farms must comply with a human-rights-based code. Workers can submit complaints through an accessible system, and the program uses investigations, remediation, audits, and market consequences to encourage compliance. The model differs from systems in which companies alone select standards, auditors, and remedies because workers and their representatives have a direct role in monitoring and enforcement. The framework expanded from Florida tomatoes into additional crops, the cut-flower sector, ten U.S. states, and Chile. The Fair Food Program Sponsor Program created an avenue for cooperatives and smaller independent grocers to support the initiative. CIW also helped spread the worker-driven social-responsibility model through the WSR-Network. Similar approaches have appeared in other industries, including apparel in Bangladesh through the Bangladesh Accord and International Accord, apparel in Lesotho through the Lesotho Agreements, and dairy in Vermont through the Milk with Dignity Program. Anti-trafficking work has remained another major part of CIW’s history. The organization was involved in early U.S. efforts against agricultural slavery, identified forced-labor operations, and cooperated with law enforcement in domestic and cross-border cases. It has helped free workers from slavery operations and trained law-enforcement personnel in approaches that place victims’ safety, testimony, and access to services at the center of investigations. CIW has continued to campaign against food companies that have not joined the Fair Food Program. In the 2020s, its public efforts included campaigns targeting Wendy’s and supermarket companies such as Publix and Kroger. A 2023 farmworker march across Florida highlighted alleged forced labor and other poor working conditions while calling on those retailers to participate. The organization’s continuing role is therefore both local and systemic: it organizes farmworkers in agricultural communities, negotiates with national buyers, monitors labor standards, and promotes worker-led accountability models internationally.

• 2023

  Florida march targeting Publix and Kroger

  [1]Coalition of Immokalee Workersen.wikipedia.org

  Farmworkers marched across Florida to call for participation by Publix and Kroger and to spotlight forced labor and other labor abuses.

• 2015

  Further supermarket agreements

  [1]Coalition of Immokalee Workersen.wikipedia.org

  The Fresh Market and Ahold joined the Fair Food initiative.

• 2014

  Walmart joins the program

  [1]Coalition of Immokalee Workersen.wikipedia.org

  Walmart joined the Fair Food Program and supported expansion to other crops and regions.

• 2012

  Chipotle and Trader Joe’s agreements

  [1]Coalition of Immokalee Workersen.wikipedia.org

  CIW reached Fair Food agreements with Chipotle Mexican Grill and Trader Joe’s.

• 2011

  Fair Food Program launches

  [1]Coalition of Immokalee Workersen.wikipedia.org

  The Fair Food Program began as a worker-centered monitoring, enforcement, education, and remediation system.

• 2010

  Florida Tomato Growers Exchange agreement

  [1]Coalition of Immokalee Workersen.wikipedia.org

  CIW and the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange agreed on the framework that enabled broad implementation of the Fair Food Program.

• 2008

  Burger King, Subway, and Whole Foods agreements

  [1]Coalition of Immokalee Workersen.wikipedia.org

  Several major restaurant and retail companies joined the campaign through agreements with CIW.

• 2007

  McDonald's agreement

  [1]Coalition of Immokalee Workersen.wikipedia.org

  McDonald’s agreed to Fair Food campaign terms and to cooperate on independent monitoring and complaint investigation.

• 2005

  Yum! Brands agreement

  [1]Coalition of Immokalee Workersen.wikipedia.org

  Yum! Brands agreed to direct worker payments, an enforceable supplier code, market incentives, and purchasing transparency.

• 2001

  Taco Bell boycott begins

  [1]Coalition of Immokalee Workersen.wikipedia.org

  The national Campaign for Fair Food began with a boycott of Taco Bell.

• 2000

  Strategy shifts toward major food buyers

  [1]Coalition of Immokalee Workersen.wikipedia.org

  CIW organized a long march from Fort Myers to Orlando and increasingly focused on the purchasing practices of major food corporations.

• 1997

  Hunger strike and further work stoppage

  [1]Coalition of Immokalee Workersen.wikipedia.org

  The organization conducted another work stoppage, followed by a 30-day hunger strike involving six members from December 1997 into January 1998.

• 1995

  First major community work stoppage

  [1]Coalition of Immokalee Workersen.wikipedia.org

  CIW organized a work stoppage over declining real wages and abusive treatment in Florida tomato harvesting.

• 1993

  Organization formed in Immokalee

  [1]Coalition of Immokalee Workersen.wikipedia.org

  The organization was established in Immokalee, Florida, initially under the name Southwest Florida Farmworker Project.

A worker-led human-rights and supply-chain accountability organization that uses collective bargaining pressure, consumer campaigns, legally binding buyer agreements, monitoring, complaint resolution, and worker education to improve agricultural labor conditions.

• Worker-driven supply-chain accountability program · 2011

  Fair Food Program

  CIW’s principal program links participating food buyers and agricultural producers to a human-rights-based code of conduct. Its mechanisms include worker education, farm audits, a 24-hour complaint process, investigation and remediation, and market consequences for serious or unresolved violations. Participating buyers also provide a Fair Food Premium intended to reach eligible farmworkers in addition to ordinary wages. The program originated in Florida tomatoes and expanded to other crops, cut flowers, multiple U.S. states, and Chile.

• Retail participation channel

  Fair Food Program Sponsor Program

  The Sponsor Program provides cooperatives and smaller independent grocery stores with a way to support the Fair Food Program. It broadens participation beyond the largest national food brands and helps create additional purchasing channels for produce covered by the program.

• Human-rights model and advisory support

  Worker-driven social responsibility technical assistance

  Through the WSR-Network and related work, CIW supports organizations seeking to adapt worker-driven social-responsibility principles to other industries and locations. The model places workers and their representatives at the center of standard-setting, monitoring, complaint resolution, enforcement, and remedy.

• Community organizing · 1993

  Farmworker organizing and education

  CIW organizes farmworkers through popular education, leadership development, collective actions, worker-to-worker education, and campaigns aimed at growers, retailers, restaurants, and institutional food buyers. These activities address wages, workplace safety, discrimination, violence, sexual harassment, forced labor, and access to effective remedies.

• Anti-trafficking and law-enforcement collaboration

  Anti-human-trafficking advocacy

  CIW investigates and publicizes forced-labor concerns, cooperates with law-enforcement agencies in slavery prosecutions, assists affected workers, and trains officials in victim-centered approaches to trafficking cases. The work has covered agricultural labor operations in the southeastern United States and related domestic and transnational cases.

• 2023

  Farmworker allegations of forced labor and poor conditions

  A 2023 farmworker march highlighted alleged forced labor and other serious working-condition problems in Florida agriculture while pressing major retailers to participate in the Fair Food Program.

  Source

• 2017

  Tax-exempt-status complaint

  The Center for Union Facts submitted a complaint asking the Internal Revenue Service to review CIW’s tax-exempt status, alleging that it primarily represented a limited group of workers. The complaint was investigated and dismissed.

  Source

Read more

• 2023Florida march for Publix and Kroger participation

  Florida, United States

  Farmworkers marched across Florida to urge Publix and Kroger to join the Fair Food Program and to call attention to forced labor and unsafe or abusive agricultural working conditions.

  Outcome. The campaign increased public pressure on the two retailers; a subsequent participation agreement is not established by the supplied sources.

  Source
• 2012Chipotle Fair Food campaign

  United States

  CIW conducted a prolonged campaign urging Chipotle Mexican Grill to support the Fair Food framework.

  Outcome. Chipotle and CIW reached a Fair Food Agreement in October 2012.

  Source
• 2009Dine with Dignity

  United States

  The Student/Farmworker Alliance campaign focused on food-service companies serving colleges and other institutions, linking institutional purchasing to farmworker labor standards.

  Outcome. Agreements were reached with Bon Appétit Management Company, Compass Group, Aramark, and Sodexo during the campaign period.

  Source
• 2006Campaigns targeting McDonald’s and Burger King

  United States

  The Campaign for Fair Food expanded from Taco Bell to other major fast-food buyers, with public pressure directed at McDonald’s and Burger King.

  Outcome. McDonald’s reached an agreement in 2007 and Burger King in 2008.

  Source
• 2001Campaign for Fair Food: Taco Bell boycott

  United States

  CIW and allied student, religious, community, and consumer groups targeted Taco Bell to demand direct worker benefits, enforceable supplier standards, purchasing transparency, and buyer responsibility for farm labor conditions.

  Outcome. Yum! Brands reached an agreement with CIW in 2005, establishing a precedent for direct buyer participation in farmworker protections.

  Source

• 2014

  Expand beyond Florida tomatoesStrategy

  Background

  The Fair Food model had developed in Florida tomatoes but required participation from larger national buyers to reach other crops and regions.

  Action taken

  CIW used Walmart’s participation and other buyer relationships to support expansion into additional crops and U.S. states.

  Aftermath

  The program later extended into ten U.S. states, Chile, cut flowers, and additional expansion initiatives.

  Source

• 2011

  Launch the Fair Food ProgramProduct launch

  Background

  The organization sought a durable system that could convert campaign commitments into enforceable labor protections.

  Action taken

  CIW launched a program combining a code of conduct, worker education, audits, complaint investigation, remediation, and a Fair Food Premium.

  Aftermath

  The FFP became CIW’s central initiative and expanded geographically, across crops, and into related worker-driven social-responsibility models.

  Source

• 2010

  Adopt a broad grower-and-buyer implementation frameworkStrategy

  Background

  Buyer agreements alone faced resistance from the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange and did not provide a uniform mechanism across the tomato industry.

  Action taken

  CIW reached an agreement with the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange covering the principal elements of the Fair Food Program.

  Aftermath

  The agreement enabled broad implementation across Florida tomato farms and supported the program’s launch in 2011.

  Source

• 2000

  Shift from farm-level organizing to buyer-focused campaignsStrategy

  Background

  CIW concluded that low prices and purchasing pressure from powerful food companies contributed to poor wages and conditions at farms.

  Action taken

  The organization redirected significant campaign attention toward restaurant, retail, and institutional food buyers.

  Aftermath

  This strategy produced the Campaign for Fair Food and a series of buyer agreements that later supported the Fair Food Program.

  Source

1. 1Coalition of Immokalee Workersen.wikipedia.org
2. 2Coalition of Immokalee Workers official websiteciw-online.org