Rabbis For Human Rights - North America

Take Action

"You shall not abuse a needy and destitute laborer, whether a fellow Israelite or a stranger in one of the
communities of your land. You must pay out the wages due on the same day, before the sun sets, for the worker is
needy and urgently depends on it." (Deuteronomy 24:14–15)

 

Photo by CWMc via flickr.com. Creative Commons License.

Basic Information for a Sermon on the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Campaign for Fair Food

 

Core message: The Jewish legacy informs our moral imperative to fight modern slavery and uphold the right of every individual to be free. “Ground zero” for modern slavery in America is the Florida tomato industry, with slavery cases serving as the extreme end of a continuum of labor abuses that includes sub-poverty wages, wage theft, violence, and sexual harassment. The Coalition of the Immokalee Workers is working to create a new reality for farmworkers through the Fair Food Campaign. Fair Food Agreements raise the wage paid to workers by one penny a pound and require retailers to only buy from growers who have agreed to a code of conduct for the field. While the CIW has had major victories (including the fast food industry and 90% of Florida’s tomato growers), the grocery store industry has proved recalcitrant. The Jewish community must support the CIW in their campaigns with major grocery stores, notably Publix and Trader Joe’s.

 

Some key questions:

Now that we know that there are problems in the tomato industry, are we obligated as Jews to respond?

How can we use our leverage as consumers to become activists?

Given there are problems in many industries, why tomatoes? Is it easier to envision a solution when we can support grassroots organizations on the ground working to change their reality?

How does Jewish historical experience as slaves shape our response to modern slavery and to concern for the “stranger” in our midst?

The Jewish food movement has brought a lot of attention to the question of “Who grows our food?” Should we shift the conversation to ask “Who grows our food and how are they treated?”

 

Potential Openings for the Sermon

Why is the rabbi wearing a Hawaiian shirt?

If your sermon is going to specifically call for action against Trader Joe’s, you might want to wear one of their iconic Hawaian shirts on the bima. Discuss what members of your community like about Trader Joe’s, then raise the fact that what many congregants may not know is that Trader Joe’s tomatoes might be picked by slaves.

Tomatoes on the bima

Bring a tomato on the bima to begin your sermon. Ask people how much the tomato costs and where it comes from. Ask if they know how much the worker who picks the tomato gets paid per pound, and explain that this is less than 1% of the purchase price of the tomato. Another way to concretize the problems of the penny-per-pound increase would be to place a 32 pound tomato bucket (either full of tomatoes or full of rice) on the bima and ask how much that costs in stores (probably around $80, but you should adjust for prices in your area). If your community is less formal, you could invite people to pick up the 32 pound bucket and imagine harvesting such large buckets all day

A Just Harvest for Sukkot

Sukkot celebrates the harvest, a reminder of a time when our ancestors lived according to the rhythms of an agricultural calendar. We dwell in our sukkot, surrounded by beautiful produce, to thank God for the gift of the harvest and the food to sustain us through the winter. Today, the hands that pick our harvest are largely invisible to us, and we turn a blind eye to the conditions under which they work. People come from all over the world to pick America’s produce, searching for dignified work so that they can feed their families and support their children’s futures. Farmwork is hard, dangerous work. We have an obligation to ensure that those who pick the food we eat are paid a sustainable wage and work under conditions of dignity. But too often, farmworkers endure violence, wage theft, sexual harassment, and even slavery.

Visitors to Our Sukkah

It is traditional to invite guests, ushpizin, into the Sukkah. Ask your community to envision the people who picked the food they eat, and invite them into the sukkah. Tell the story of one or more members of the CIW who were freed from slavery and invite them into the sukkah.

 

Background on Slavery

Many of us assume that slavery ended with the Emancipation Proclamation, and slavery is indeed illegal around the world. However, slavery still flourishes almost everywhere: debt bondage, forced prostitution, involuntary domestic servitude, and forced labor. Modern slaves are held captive through endless cycles of debt, threats of violence (especially to family members), stolen papers, and isolation. Slave-made goods are found throughout the supply chains of the products we buy every single day. Slavery thrives because human life is regarded as cheap, and because the increase in poverty and migration have left large numbers of people in search of a better life vulnerable to exploitation.

And this problem does not just exist overseas. Slavery and human trafficking cases are being prosecuted right here in the United States, both among workers here illegally and legally (indeed, many recent cases of slavery have been among workers with temporary visas). The agricultural industry has been the focus of many cases of slavery and trafficking. One federal prosecutor has called  Florida “ground zero” for modern slavery in America.

For more on slavery specifically in the tomato industry, visit: http://www.ciw-online.org/slavery.html

 

Background on the Coalition of Immokalee Workers

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) is a membership-led farmworker organization of mostly Latino, Haitian and Mayan Indian immigrants working in low-wage jobs throughout the state of Florida.  They have been organizing in the town of Immokalee since 1993 and have a base of nearly 4,000 members. The CIW is unique because it is a worker-organized response to slavery and exploitative labor conditions, rather than a group organized by outsiders.

The CIW has two primary campaigns. The Campaign for Fair Food seeks to improve wages and working conditions for Florida tomato pickers by calling on major buyers of tomatoes to pay a premium of one penny more per pound for their tomatoes, ensure that this penny is passed down directly to farmworkers, and work together with the CIW to establish and implement a code of conduct in their supply chains. Many of us might remember their campaigns against Taco Bell and Burger King. Today, 9 fast food companies, food service companies, and Whole Foods have signed Fair Food Agreements. In the fall of 2010, the Campaign scored a major victory when 90% of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange agreed to sign Fair Food Agreements and phase in the Code of Conduct. However, the wage increase depends on the retailers at the top of the supply chain agreeing to pay the penny-per-pound increase and to purchase from growers who have instituted a code of conduct. The grocery industry has proven very difficult to move. The CIW is currently focusing its efforts on Trader Joe’s and Publix.

The Anti-Slavery Campaign is an effort to put an end to the continued existence of modern-day slavery in the agricultural industry. To date, the CIW has worked together with the Department of Justice and the FBI to uncover, investigate and federally prosecute seven cases of modern-day slavery in Florida’s fields. They are founding members of the national network to end modern-day slavery, the Freedom Network USA, and through the Freedom Network Training Institute (FNTI), and also train law enforcement and NGOs on how to eliminate forced labor in their communities.

For more background on the CIW, including facts and figures about farmworkers, please visit: http://www.rhr-na.org/issuescampaigns/slavery-a-human-trafficking/take-action/201-background-information-on-the-coalition-of-immokalee-workers.html

http://www.ciw-online.org/about.html

 

Jewish Texts

On Justice

Hosea 10:12

“Plant righteousness for yourselves; harvest the fruits of goodness.” 

On the Importance of Paying Workers a Just Wage

Deuteronomy 24: 14-15 

You shall not abuse a needy and destitute laborer, whether a fellow countryman or a stranger in one of the communities of your land. You must pay him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets, for he is needy and urgently depends on it; else he will cry to God against you and you will incur guilt.

B. Talmud Baba Metzia 112a:

The verse (in Deuteronomy 24) states, “And for it, he risks his life” Why did this worker climb a high ramp to work or suspend himself on the tree to collect its fruits, placing himself in mortal danger? Was it not for his wage? Another explanation translates the verse as follows: “On it he stakes his life.” Whoever withholds the wages of an employee is considered as if he took his life from him.

Jeremiah 22: 13-14

Ha! One who builds one's house with unfairness and one's upper chambers with injustice, who makes their fellow work without pay and does not give them their wages, who thinks: I will build me a vast palace with spacious upper chambers, provided with windows, paneled in cedar, painted with vermilion! Do you think you are more a king because you compete in cedar? Your ancestors ate and drank and dispensed justice and equity -- then all went well with them. They upheld the rights of the poor and needy -- then all was well. That is truly heeding Me -- declares the LORD. But your eyes and your mind are only on ill-gotten gains, on shedding the blood of the innocent, on committing fraud and violence.

On the Importance of Speaking Out Against Injustice

Midrash Tanhuma, Mishpatim 2

If a person of learning participates in public affairs and serves as judge or arbiter, that person gives stability to the land...But if a person sits in their home and says to themselves, “What have the affairs of society to do with me?... Why should I trouble myself with the people’s voices of protest? Let my soul dwell in peace!”—if one does this, they overthrow the world.

Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 54b-55a

Anyone who is able to protest against the transgressions of one's household and does not, is punished for the actions of the members of the household; anyone who is able to protest against the transgressions of one's townspeople and does not, is punished for the transgressions of the townspeople; anyone who is able to protest against the transgressions of the entire world and does not is punished for the transgressions of the entire world.

 

Some Specifics About Trader Joe’s

Trader Joe’s is particularly beloved in the Jewish community because of its wide range of kosher products and because it continues to sell many Israeli products even when faced with a potential boycott. Trader Joe’s is often the only place in many Jewish communities to buy kosher meat or chicken. People perceive them to be an ethical company and shop there for that reason. Trader Joe’s has also recently begun to claim that they are paying the extra penny to workers and thus do not need to sign a Fair Food Agreement, but the CIW has seen no evidence that this is true. However, this is why it is important when speaking about Trader Joe’s to both mention the penny-per-pound increase and the Code of Conduct: otherwise, Trader Joe’s could still buy from growers who permitted violence and sexual harassment in their fields. Trader Joe’s response to the CIW’s Fair Food Campaign can be found on their website.

 

CIW's Point-by-Point rebutal of Trader Joe's "Dear Customer" letter about Florida tomatoes

 

Some Specifics About Publix

Publix founder George Jenkins was quoted as saying: “Don’t let making a profit get in the way of doing the right thing.” In the South, Publix is regarded as a company with deep moral convictions. However, they have largely refused to meet with representatives of the CIW. In December, 2010, a Publix spokesperson was quoted as saying that if there were atrocities going on in the fields, they were not Publix’s business. It is critical that Publix understand that human rights violations in their supply chain are their business.

 

Take Action

In some congregations, it will be controversial enough to raise awareness of the problem of slavery in the tomato industry. However, for most communities, having heard the issue they will want to know what they can do. As consumers, one level of activism is to only buy tomatoes from companies that have signed Fair Food Agreements. But the next level of activism is leveraging our power as consumers to become activists. If you think your congregation would be responsive, this would be a good time to announce a congregational action outside of Trader Joe’s or Publix. Otherwise, please have postcards from the CIW (email workers@ciw-online.org to order postcards) and manager letters ready for interested congregants to use, and please direct them to the online advocacy as well. Corporations need to know that their consumer base wants them to behave ethically and eliminate slavery and misconduct from their supply chains.

Rabbinic letter to Trader Joe’s

Ideas for a Jewish action outside of Trader Joe’s

Send a letter to the corporate leadership of Trader Joe’s

Manager letter for Trader Joe’s

Send a letter to the corporate leadership of PublixManager letter for Publix

More action resources from the CIW

 

More Background Information

Interfaith Action of Southwest Florida: http://www.interfaithact.org/

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers: http://www.ciw-online.org

All of the material on RHR-NA’s support of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers can be found at: http://bit.ly/tomatorabbis

Rabbi Barbara Penzner’s excellent 2011 Rosh Hashanah sermon, “On Power, Hope, and Change” spoke in part about the work of the CIW and can be found at: http://www.rhr-na.org/resources/divrei-torah/203-power-hope-change-rh-5772.html

Rabbi Jill Jacobs’ 2011 Huffington Post article about the CIW and the campaign against Trader Joe’s: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-jill-jacobs/rotten-tomatoes-trader-jo_b_825162.html