From News-Press.com, 9 Feb 2012. On the eve of the debut of its first Naples store – and a major protest of the event by area farmworkers, Trader Joe’s and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers have made peace. For months, the two had been odds, but Thursday afternoon, the California-based boutique grocery chain joined the … Continue reading
From NaplesNews.com, Joanna Chau, 10 Dec 2011. NAPLES — On a day set aside by the United Nations to support human rights, dozens of protesters picketed Saturday in North Naples, demanding better wages and improved working conditions. Organized by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and Occupy Naples, about 100 people gathered in front of the Riverchase … Continue reading
From GainesvilleIguana.org, Kimberly Hunter, 30 Nov 2011. If we hope to change corporate policies to benefit rather than exploit the 99 percent, we should study the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ history and organizing model: Consciousness + Commitment = Change. They have discovered how to challenge giant corporations in the 21st century – and win! Together … Continue reading
From PalmBeachPost.com, John Lantigua, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer, 23 Oct 2011. Life for migrant farm workers in the United States, including in South Florida, has always been pretty slim pickings. But lately, some tomato pickers have benefited from agreements signed with many of the world’s largest fast-food companies – McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell … Continue reading
From NaplesNews.com,’Let Me Get This Straight’ by Barry Knister, 26 Sept 2011. Jeff Lytle’s August 28 editorial “Immokalee coalition should target education, not Publix” has generated lots of comment on the issue he takes up: is the Coalition of Immokalee Workers missing the point when its members demonstrate at Publix supermarkets to pressure the retailer … Continue reading
From TruthDig.com, Chris Hedges, 26 Sept 2011. It is 6 a.m. in the parking lot outside the La Fiesta supermarket in Immokalee, Fla. Rodrigo Ortiz, a 26-year-old farmworker, waits forlornly in the half light for work in the tomato fields. White-painted school buses with logos such as “P. Cardenas Harvesting” are slowly filling with fieldworkers. … Continue reading
From News-Press.com, “Editorial: Workers deserve back pay” 22 Sept 2011. It’s important – no, imperative – that the “penny-more-per-pound” promise be honored to the fullest. The News-Press Editorial Board named the Coalition of Immokalee Workers the People of the Year of 2010 precisely because of its campaign to fight for better wages for tomato pickers. … Continue reading
From NPR.org, Eliza Barclay, 22 Sept 2011. If you shopped at a Trader Joe’s store this summer, you might have passed activists wielding signs in the shape of plump red tomatoes with slogans like “Trader Joe’s Exploits Farmworkers.” The Florida-based labor rights group behind these picket lines is demanding that the grocer pay an extra … Continue reading
From News-Press.com, Mary Wozniak, mwozniak@news-press.com & Janine Zeitlin, jzeitlin@news-press.com, 21 Sept 2011. Class action suit claims food chains reneged pay increase Would you pay an extra penny for the tomato on your burger, sub or burrito? Burger King, McDonald’s, Taco Bell and Subway didn’t, according to four separate class action lawsuits being filed by 16 … Continue reading
From NapleNews.com, Laura Layden, 20 Sept 2011. Nearly a year ago, the state’s tomato growers signed a historic agreement that paved the way for Florida farmworkers to get a long-awaited raise. The raise has been slow to reach the pockets of workers, but this fall the extra money should get there more easily. “When the … Continue reading
