Would any American object to paying an additional penny/pound to those that pick the tomatoes that we eat in our salads and on our hamburgers and tacos? That wouldn’t feel that the piece work rate for tomato harvesters of $0.50 for 32 pounds is unfair? (464 pounds/hour of back-breaking work to earn the $7.25/hour minimum wage.) That a mere penny/pound is all it takes to make these workers lives immeasurably better?
That along with more humane working conditions and better enforcement against modern-slavery was all the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) have been asking for since 2001. The organizing has been difficult and successes slow to materialize. That first penny was achieved in 2005 when TacoBell bowed to the pressure of a boycott. Whole Foods came on board in 2008. Then:
In 2010, the CIW and the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange signed an agreement that spurred the full implementation of the Fair Food Program (FFP), a groundbreaking model for social responsibility based on a unique partnership among farmworkers, Florida tomato growers, and participating buyers. The Program is a comprehensive, verifiable and sustainable approach to ensuring better wages and working conditions in Florida’s tomato fields.
This year Wal-Mart joined. There are a few major restaurants and grocery store chains hold-outs and no way to project which way they’ll go. For now the harvesters will be seeing a significant increase in their income. They earned it. They deserve it. Bravo!
It’s such a novel and ingenious real solution to a real and pressing problem that cheering for those workers is the only humane response. Except for those of a certain age, there’s a sad and uncomfortable echo. Another time and place when The Harvest of Shame was supposed to have been fixed for generations to come. When Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers raised the political conscience and consciousness of all decent Americans. With my ruminations on this in a muddle, the existence of Cesar Chavez, the film, came to my attention.
The biopic movie genre more often fails than succeeds. It’s a tricky act to pull off even for the best of directors and actors (Lincoln) “Cesar Chavez” succeeds despite a few shortcomings, and Diego Luna, the director, can be proud of this work. It’s excellent in its depiction of time and place. What the struggle was about and how incredibly difficult meager changes were to achieve. Michael Peña as Chavez is very good. As is John Malkovich and almost the entire cast. The screenplay – both storytelling and dialogue – is strong. It made me cry (and that’s not easy to do). The use of archival news footage is particularly effective and well-done. It’s an honest movie. Up to a point.
The anti-union and anti-worker forces retreated but didn’t stop fighting back. The UFW membership peaked at 100,000 in the 1970s and today numbers close to 5,000. However, Luna doesn’t neglect to include the dark forces that grew later and subverted much of the UFW efforts. The faces are there and they are chilling. And the destruction they wrought on this country wasn’t limited to farm-workers but all workers.
“Cesar Chavez” is a movie worth supporting with your time and money. A reminder that we mustn’t forget just causes. Or those that paid such a huge price to enlighten others as to the just cause. And that it does live on in the CIW and Fair Foods Standards Council.
