A History of the CIW
Richard Herder · 2024
The chapter recounts the history of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) as a human rights organization dedicated to ending slavery, gender-based violence, and other abuses in the workplace. The CIW was founded in the early 1990s when a small group of immigrant farmworkers gathered in a church basement to discuss what they could do to address poverty-level wages and pervasive human rights violations on commercial farms in the region. Like their predecessors in the great abolitionist movements of the 18th and 19th centuries, the CIW learned to use public storytelling to disclose abuses and hold perpetrators accountable. After a series of early work stoppages targeting local growers, they sponsored campaigns against national brands that purchased tomatoes from the region. Over the years, they have used ensemble leadership and storytelling practices to animate workers and persuade more than a dozen well-known brands (including Taco Bell, McDonald’s, and Walmart) to sign onto the Fair Food Program. The Fair Food Program has been credited with raising wages and ending slavery and other abuses in Florida’s tomato industry. More recently, the CIW has focused on expanding the Fair Food Program in the United States and internationally.