The Encuentro: A Weekend in Immokalee
This past weekend, I was fortunate enough to be in Immokalee, Florida at the Student Farmworker Alliance’s (SFA) annual gathering, the Encuentro. In addition to meeting great people and hearing the actions that student are planning across the country—students affiliated 
with great organizations like United Students Against Sweatshops, Student Labor Action Project, Slow Food USA, Real Food Challenge and United Student for Fair Trade were all in attendance—I got firsthand accounts on how students have fought, and continue to fight, in solidarity with the farmworkers who regularly work for sub-poverty wages in the tomato fields of Florida.
For those that don’t know, SFA is the student affiliate organization of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). CIW is a member based, and member-driven organization of low-wage workers—primarily immigrant workers who work for large agricultural corporations. Here’s more about the CIW’s history, from their website:
We began organizing in 1993 as a small group of workers meeting weekly in a room borrowed from a local church to discuss how to better our community and our lives. In a relatively short time we have managed to bring about significant, concrete change.Combining three community-wide work stoppages with intense public pressure - including an unprecedented month-long hunger strike by six of our members in 1998 and an historic 230-mile march from Ft. Myers to Orlando in 2000 - our early organizing ended over 20 years of declining wages in the tomato industry.
By 1998 we had won industry-wide raises of 13-25% (translating into several million dollars annually for the community in increased wages) and a new-found political and social respect from the outside world.
Since then, CIW has continued to fight for better conditions and wages for farmworkers, in large part through the Campaign for Fair Food, which has called on purchasers of Florida tomatoes to “take 
responsibility for human rights abuses in the fields where its produce is grown and picked.” In solidarity with the CIW, university students have played a big part in getting food industry giants like Taco Bell, Burger King and McDonalds to pay a penny more per pound for the tomatoes they purchase from Florida’s growers. I recommend this PBS video (scroll down to interview with CIW leader Lucas Benitez) for those interested in learning more.
responsibility for human rights abuses in the fields where its produce is grown and picked.” In solidarity with the CIW, university students have played a big part in getting food industry giants like Taco Bell, Burger King and McDonalds to pay a penny more per pound for the tomatoes they purchase from Florida’s growers. I recommend this PBS video (scroll down to interview with CIW leader Lucas Benitez) for those interested in learning more.And the struggle continues! Students and community allies spent much of the weekend discussing actions for the on-going Dine with Dignity campaign—the campaign to get campus food service companies like Sodexo and Aramark to adopt the ‘penny-per-pound’ tomato purchasing policy, and to establish a code of conduct—and farmworker oversight—on working conditions in the fields of large growers.
There were many great moments at the Encuentro. We learned about the history of slave labor on Florida farms (that, in some instances, continues today), we got a tour of the neighborhoods where many Immokalee workers live, we received workshops in research and campus organizing, and we had group discussions of how we could work in solidarity with the CIW when we got back to our communities. My favorite part, though, was when CIW leader, Lucas Benitez, presented the Coalition’s history and philosophy to the group.
His presentation included a story about a crew of workers that was told that they would have to work
through their lunch break one day. Instead of accepting this order sitting down, one of the workers spoke up and refused to relinquish his break. When the crew boss responded, asking who it was who had protested, the worker answered by raising his membership card, stating that he was a member of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and that he was going to take lunch. When the crew leader pressed him further, the rest of the CIW members who were in the crew raised their cards in solidarity with the first person who had spoken up. The boss relented and the workers got lunch.
through their lunch break one day. Instead of accepting this order sitting down, one of the workers spoke up and refused to relinquish his break. When the crew boss responded, asking who it was who had protested, the worker answered by raising his membership card, stating that he was a member of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and that he was going to take lunch. When the crew leader pressed him further, the rest of the CIW members who were in the crew raised their cards in solidarity with the first person who had spoken up. The boss relented and the workers got lunch.This story was particularly moving to me because, as a representative of a union and a believer in the power of the labor movement, I understand how important it is to be organized. And even though, due to restrictive labor laws that govern farmworkers, the CIW members do not have the right to form a union, they have found ways to build up their organization—and sense of collective identity—in its absence.
So I headed by to my apartment in New York on Sunday impressed. Not only with the farmworkers who have struggled for years to win many victories over the years, but with the students I met, who committed to spend their time and energy to fight in solidarity with the farmworkers on their university campus.
