Accomplishments

Together, IA and the CIW have successfully brought about landmark agreements with Yum Brands (owner of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC), McDonalds, Burger King and Whole Foods to:
■ Directly improve the sub-poverty wages of the tomato pickers in their supply chains by one penny more per pound of tomatoes, an approximately 75% increase in the piece rate that tomato pickers are paid.
■ To work with the CIW to develop, implement and enforce codes of conduct to ensure an end to human rights abuses in their supply chains, including zero tolerance for modern-day slavery.
■ Ensure a voice for farmworkers in monitoring and enforcing improved conditions and wages.

These agreements set historic precedents for addressing decades of farmworker poverty and exploitation, perhaps best made known in the 1960's CBS documentary, “Harvest of Shame.”The wage increase for tomato pickers is the first in three decades and the human rights-based code of conduct is especially important given that seven cases of modern-day slavery have been prosecuted in Florida agriculture since 1997.

The faith community played a crucial role in bringing Yum Brands, McDonalds, Burger King and Whole Foods to improve conditions for tomato pickers. Today, IA continues to engage faith communities in calling on other large tomato purchasers to do the same through the following activities:

■ Education of thousands of people of faith about the abuses faced by the farmworkers who pick our food via presentations for congregations, national religious gatherings, conferences and dissemination of materials.

■ Public witness actions, including vigils outside of corporate headquarters. public statements by religious leaders, and informational pickets across the country.

■ Consumer pressure in the form of hundreds of thousands of letters, postcards, and emails to company headquarters.

■ Shareholder resolutions and letters, as well as providing proxies for farmworkers to attend and speak at shareholder meetings.

■ Resolutions of institutional support from dozens of national religious institutions, including the National Council of Churches.

■ Coordination of logistics for many national “Truth Tours,” in which busloads of farmworkers travel the country to raise consciousness among consumers, culminating in actions at company headquarters.