08655
September 10, 2008
Whole Foods and CIW reach agreement
Stated Clerk praises pact to improve wages and working conditions for farmworkers
The Rev. Gradye Parsons LOUISVILLE — Whole Foods Market has struck an agreement with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)-backed Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) to help raise wages and improve working conditions for Florida’s tomato pickers.
The Texas-based organic and natural foods grocer is the latest to join the coalition’s Campaign for Fair Food, agreeing to pay a penny more per pound for tomatoes it purchases from Florida growers. The extra money would be passed along to the harvesters.
The CIW, a Florida-based farmworkers group, receives strong support from the PC(USA) and other faith groups.
The Rev. Gradye Parsons, stated clerk of the PC(USA) General Assembly, issued a statement commending Whole Foods and the coalition on the agreement, which was signed this week.
“The agreement between the CIW and Whole Foods Market stands as a harbinger of change within the grocery industry and marks a significant advance in the sustainable food movement,” Parsons wrote.
He said the Presbyterian Church remains committed to working with the coalition “until that longed-for day when the entire retail food industry and the agricultural industry can say with assurance: the tomatoes we deliver to tables across this nation ensure the human rights of the farmworkers who harvest them.”
Whole Foods is the first grocery chain to join Burger King, McDonald’s and Taco Bell’s parent company, Yum! Brands Inc., in signing the agreement with the coalition.
“With this agreement, the Campaign for Fair Food has again broken new ground,” said coalition member Gerardo Reyes in a prepared statement. “This is not only our first agreement in the supermarket industry but, in working with Whole Foods Market, we have the opportunity to really raise the bar to establish and ensure modern day labor standards and conditions in Florida.”
Additionally, Whole Foods is looking at creating a domestic purchasing program to “help guarantee transparent, ethical and responsible sourcing and production.”
“We commend the CIW for their advocacy on behalf of these workers,” said Karen Christensen, global produce coordinator for Whole Foods, in a press release. “After carefully evaluating the situation in Florida, we felt that an agreement of this nature was in line with our core values and was in the best interest of the workers.”
The CIW, which is based in Immokalee, FL, works to improve the lives of its mostly immigrant members, many of whom do low-wage labor in Florida’s fields. The coalition is also considered one of the most respected anti-slavery groups, helping the Department of Justice to successfully investigate and prosecute six federal slavery cases and educating NGOs worldwide about the farmworkers’ human-rights-based approach for countering slavery.
For information about the PC(USA)’s Campaign for Fair Food, click here.
The full text of Parsons’ statement:
On behalf of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) I want to commend the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and Whole Foods Market on their agreement to improve wages and working conditions for farmworkers in the Florida tomato fields. By voluntarily stepping forward, Whole Foods Market has signaled that “the time is now” for members of the grocery industry to join in forging a more just and sustainable food system together with the farmworkers.
Recognizing that the well-being of the earth, its resources and humanity are interdependent, the PC(USA) believes that we are called to ways of living that foster the wholeness God intends for our world. Whole Foods Market is a pioneer in crafting business practices that uphold standards of environmental and animal welfare. Through this agreement with the CIW, the company now adds new and necessary standards for human rights to its sustainable business practices.
The reasonable and urgent demands of the farmworkers for a penny-per-pound wage increase and the joint development of a worker-monitored, human rights-based code of conduct to address heinous abuses such as modern-day slavery in the fields that are hallmarks of the farmworkers’ agreements with other corporations are met in this agreement. Further, the agreement has the potential to go well beyond the standards already established by the Campaign for Fair Food as Whole Foods Market has committed to working with the Coalition in the development of standards to assure rights and benefits for farmworkers not currently in place anywhere in Florida today.
As the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) lauds this agreement, we take this opportunity to call on the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange to repent; to cease obstructing the penny wage increase from getting to the farmworkers and to become a part of this historic movement for a more just and humane food system. Major corporations in the retail food industry are prepared to do their part, consumers are urging this change and justice for farmworkers is generations overdue. What is missing is the commitment of the leadership of the tomato industry.
The agreement between the CIW and Whole Foods Market stands as a harbinger of change within the grocery industry and marks a significant advance in the sustainable food movement. The Presbyterian Church remains committed to working with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers until that longed-for day when the entire retail food industry and the agricultural industry can say with assurance: the tomatoes we deliver to tables across this nation ensure the human rights of the farmworkers who harvest them.
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