Non-policy routes to equality: Coalition of Immokalee Workers and targeting corporate buyers

To address difficult working conditions and low wages, some food chain workers have pursued remedies outside of traditional policy routes. Some organized groups of workers, such as the Coalition for Immokalee Workers (CIW), have forgone targeting policies and politicians for directing their efforts at corporate buyers. The CIW, an organized group of tomato growers in South Florida, targets the end buyers of the tomatoes they pick as the responsible parties for improving their working conditions and wages. The CIW’s Fair Food Program asks large retailers like supermarkets and fast food restaurants to pay a penny more per pound of tomatoes and to refuse to buy tomatoes from farms with human rights violations. The Food Chain Workers Alliance is a coalition of food chain worker-based organizations, including CIW, organizing to improve wages and working conditions for all workers along the food chain. This presentation will describe food chain workers’ efforts to improve their conditions that are outside of the traditional public policy route.