Associated Press: The Fair Food Program is one the country's "most robust... and protective programs" in the US, and a 'game changer" for women farmworkers
Last week, The New York Times published a devastating investigative report detailing many deeply disturbing accounts of sexual abuse committed by United Farm Workers (UFW) co-founder Cesar Chavez, including several instances of assault against Dolores Huerta — another co-founder of the UFW and hero of the farmworker movement — and multiple minors associated with the union. These revelations are as shocking as they are deeply disturbing. They also serve as a stark reminder that when power goes unchecked — whether in the fields or beyond — abuse can, and all too often will, follow.
Because we are committed to a world free from violence and exploitation, we stand firmly with survivors and against all forms of abuse — whoever the perpetrator may be. That commitment has driven farmworkers with the CIW, alongside steadfast allies, to design, build and expand the groundbreaking Fair Food Program, which includes rigorously enforced prohibitions against sexual harassment, abuse, and retaliation. These protections — backed by legally binding agreements with some of the world’s largest produce buyers, who commit to preferentially source from farms complying with the FFP’s worker-generated Code of Conduct — have upended longstanding power imbalances in agriculture and helped dismantle the climate of fear that has for too long kept workers suffering in silence.
Recent coverage casts light on the persistence of abuse on farms currently beyond the reach of the Fair Food Program, underscoring the urgent need to expand the program's proven protections and finally address the longstanding human rights crisis at the foundation of our country's trillion-dollar food industry. To start, below are excerpts from an Associated Press article:
Women farmworkers who built their own fight against sexual assault cope with Chavez allegations
NEW YORK (AP) — Almost two decades ago, legendary labor rights activist Dolores Huerta joined Mónica Ramírez at a Chicago event to promote the Bandana Project, a campaign Ramírez had launched to raise awareness about sexual violence against women farmworkers.
Huerta spoke there about the need to educate women farmworkers about their rights and empower them to speak out about sexual exploitation that is both widespread and underreported among agricultural field workers. Little did anyone know at the time that Huerta herself had been sexually abused at the hands of icon César Chavez, who in 1962 co-founded the organization now known the United Farm Workers with Huerta.
The allegations against Chavez by Huerta and other women and girls show that the culture of fear and intimidation that enables sexual abuse in agricultural fields had also for many years existed within top ranks of the male-dominated labor movement that fought for farmworker rights...
Gains won — and some lost
...[I]n regions where the most robust legal protections and protective programs have been put into place, women farmworkers say things have started to improve.
Nely Rodriguez said sexual abuse was “bread and butter” when she worked the fields decades ago, but she didn’t fully understand her rights until she joined the Florida-based Coalition of Immokalee Workers, which runs the Fair Food Program, a partnership with major produce buyers including Walmart and McDonald’s that pledge to source food from growers who have entered into a legally binding agreement to abide by a code of conduct.
That code of conduct includes sexual harassment training and a system for investigating complaints and holding perpetrators accountable. It also requires erecting moveable bathrooms near fields — a game changer for women who often are forced to accept rides from managers to faraway bathrooms and assaulted on the way, Rodriguez said...
The AP article goes on to cite PBS Frontline's 2013 documentary "Rape in the Fields" for its role in raising national awareness of this issue. At that time, PBS Frontline visited the CIW's office in Immokalee, and documented the transformational impact of the FFP. Deeply impressed by the FFP's extraordinary success, the PBS crew created a standalone segment heralding the FFP as "unique in the country" for its effectiveness in addressing and preventing sexual violence entirely. We want to share that short feature video with you, which also features an interview with the CIW's Nely Rodriguez:
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