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Lucas Benitez, third from left (in black shirt), speaks with then US Representative Porter Goss following a public debate in Immokalee between members of the farmworker community and Rep. Goss on the need to raise the federal minimum wage in 1994. The following year the CIW was to formally announce its founding with the first-ever general strike in Immokalee in November, 1995.
Thirty years ago this month, the Immokalee farmworker community — the principal source of labor for Southwest Florida’s massive agricultural industry for several decades — came together across long-standing linguistic and cultural divisions and erupted in its first-ever general strike. Thousands of workers, immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala and Haiti, refused to board the busses that usually carried them to the fields after one major tomato grower announced a significant cut to the per-bucket harvesting rate, or piece rate.
Instead, for five days the workers occupied the central parking lot in town, where dozens of labor busses normally gathered before dawn to assemble their crews, and planted there the banner of a new, previously unknown human rights organization: the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.
By the end of the week-long strike, the farm had reversed its pay-cut and workers in Immokalee had found their voice, ending generations of silence in the face of all-too-often outrageous exploitation and abuse.
The November 1995 strike marked the public founding of the CIW, which had been quietly organizing in the farmworker community since 1993 under the auspices of the single largest institution in town (outside of the agricultural industry), the Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church. One of the principal organizers in those early years was a teenager from the mountains of Guerrero, Mexico, whose day job was picking citrus and tomatoes on area farms, but who by night would dedicate his precious few hours of free time to organizing and building awareness in the farmworker community (and sometimes by early morning, when he and his brother would wake even before the rest of the notoriously early-rising community to plaster the town’s walls with invitations to Wednesday night meetings, before themselves heading to the fields where they worked).
Lucas Benitez, pictured above at the age of 19, demonstrated a consciousness and commitment — not to mention composure under pressure — well beyond his years in those action-packed early days of the CIW. And so, when the time came for the CIW to become a formal, independent organization in early 1996, and for its members to vote for those among their number who would become the first-ever, paid staff of the fledgling organization (at the generous salary of $9,000 a year, with exactly zero benefits… beyond the obvious benefit of working under a roof instead of Florida’s hot sun), Lucas’s name was called.
Today, 30 years later, Lucas is turning 50.
The young man — whose own life traces the trajectory of the organization he co-founded, born with nothing but a belief in the fundamental dignity of all people, regardless of any distinction, social, economic, ethnic, or otherwise, and grown over the years into a national and international leader in the battle for universal human rights — is not so young anymore.
But the fierce determination for change that drove him at the age of 17 to join a handful of farmworkers dreaming of a more modern, more humane agricultural industry has only grown stronger over the three decades since. And that young man has built more than just a powerful new voice for farm labor justice and dignity in the interim — he’s built a beautiful family, as well, with (from left to right) his wife Veronica Ramirez and their two sons, Edahir and Itzael, pictured here below on a 2024 Christmas trip to New York:
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He also helped build an unprecedented partnership among workers, growers and buyers that aligned the economic incentives inherent in the industry — specifically the purchasing power of the worlds largest buyers of produce — with respect for farmworkers’ dignity and rights in the fields, and in so doing empowered workers to serve as frontline monitors of their own rights, without fear of retaliation, and created market consequences for growers who refuse to comply with the program’s human rights-based code of conduct. The results have been nothing short of spectacular. The FFP has eradicated many of the worst abuses that plagued the fields for generations — from sexual harassment to forced labor and physical assault — and raised the bar for ethical labor standards for the entire agricultural industry, from Florida to California. And best of all, by conditioning purchases on respect for human rights, the FFP has made doing the right thing for workers also the right thing for business, and a rare win-win-win proposition was born in fields that once were labeled “ground zero for modern-day slavery in the US” by federal prosecutors — a total transformation.
On the occasion of his pending 50th birthday, and in recognition of the CIW’s own 30th anniversary, Lucas penned a message to the tens of thousands of allies across the country who have heeded the CIW’s call for “Fair Food” over all those years — even when it was still just a crazy idea — and lent their voices and power to what would eventually become not just a national movement for farm labor justice, but a new paradigm for enforcing fundamental human rights in corporate supply chains around the globe.
Here below is an excerpt that message. To read the full message, including in its original Spanish, click "read more" at the end of this email. It is a very personal message, and yet one that resonates, we believe, with all of us. Lucas also asked that his message mark the launch of our annual holiday fund raising campaign, so we hope you think so too! Enjoy:
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Historic Agreement: [[link removed]] Lucas Benitez (right) shakes hands with John Esformes, CEO of Pacific Tomato Growers, to memorialize the signing of the first Fair Food agreement with a major tomato grower in October, 2010, marking the inception of the Fair Food Program.
Dear friends and supporters of the CIW,
Today, while at home with my beloved wife, Verónica, and our two dear children, Itzael and Edahir, we started talking, and without even realizing it, our conversation turned to memories from my 50 years of life — a birthday I will celebrate this coming November 23. And yes, how time has passed since I was that child born and raised in Arcelia, a remote town in the state of Guerrero, Mexico, in a family of campesinos.
When I left my town, I knew things would be difficult, but I believed I was prepared. I had only one goal: to find work so that I could help my family. When I arrived in Immokalee, I did find the long-desired job I was looking for. I knew farmwork was hard and heavy, and I thought, I’m ready for this. And so I began working in the tomato and orange fields of South Florida, and along the entire East Coast during the summer season.
Not long after, I realized that the work came with a whole package of human rights violations. I couldn’t believe that I was in the United States. It was time to look for solutions to these abuses. And at just 17 years old, I joined with other workers to try to change that imbalance of power. After many meetings of reflection, building awareness, and strengthening commitment within our community, we set out to create our own workers’ organization — what we all know today as the CIW, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.
That is how we began our struggle: with work stoppages, marches that crossed our beautiful Sunshine State, hunger strikes, local marches in Immokalee to end physical violence in the fields, etc., etc., etc. All of that eventually led to the launch of our Fair Food campaign with the famous Taco Bell boycott, which opened the door to a national campaign — one many of you remember or even had the chance to join. Because even though we have achieved many changes, there is still so much more to do...
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Coalition of Immokalee Workers
110 S 2nd St
Immokalee, FL 34142
United States
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