Thea Lee, Department of Labor’s deputy undersecretary for international affairs on the original Department of Labor report: “We commissioned the report,” she said, “precisely because there are so many versions of inadequate worker voice or social audits or corporate-driven compliance programs. We really wanted to have a well-researched, well-articulated framework with clear examples that would be of real value to corporations, to government, to unions and to organizers who are trying to create something better for workers.”

Lee on the CIW: “The Coalition was really able to make something out of nothing. They were able to leverage the power of the big buyers, like Taco Bell, Whole Foods and McDonald’s in the purchase of tomatoes to create a framework where the growers on the bottom of the supply chain need to be responsive and follow the Fair Food standards….”

Steven Greenhouse, former New York Times labor reporter, writing for the Century Foundation in new analysis of DOL study on worker voice: “I immediately thought that worker-driven social responsibility was an idea whose time had come. Championed by… the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, worker-driven social responsibility would in theory ensure more thorough inspections, more rigorous follow through, and more listening to the voice of workers. It also meant greater protection of workers’ anonymity and less threat of retaliation.”

Greenhouse on future of worker voice: “If you want to improve working conditions and end workplace abuses, if you are sincere about ensuring workers’ health and safety, not only is it essential to listen to workers’ voices, but it is vital to give workers a strong voice in shaping and running any program that aims to assure fair and safe treatment of workers.”

Last week, we shared key excerpts of the US Department of Labor’s groundbreaking report: “Worker Voice: What it is, what it is not, and why it matters,” which demonstrated that effective worker voice provides for safer workplaces, more robust communities, and stronger democracies. That report highlighted the work of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in forging a new paradigm for protecting workers’ fundamental human rights in global supply chains in the 21st century: Worker-driven Social Responsibility (WSR).  

The DOL report’s unblinking analysis of the failed Corporate Social Responsibility model, and of the unprecedented success of WSR programs like the CIW’s Fair Food Program, attracted the attention of the New York City-based Century Foundation, “one of the oldest progressive policy research institutes in the country,” which contracted Steven Greenhouse, the well-known former labor reporter for New York Times, to review the report and analyze it findings.

The resulting long-form article, titled “Creating a Stronger Voice for Workers,” brings together Mr. Greenhouse’s decades-long reporting on workers’ struggles to protect their essential rights in opaque supply chains, and his chronicling of the rise of WSR through programs like the CIW’s Fair Food Program, protecting farmworkers in the US and increasingly overseas, and the International Accord, protecting garment workers in Bangladesh and Pakistan, in a detailed and wide-reaching analysis.

We are sharing a few select highlights below, though we strongly encourage you to read the piece in its entirety by clicking here.

Creating a Stronger Voice for Workers

By Steve Greenhouse

EXCERPTS:

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Discussing the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Lee — who had once been a top economist at the AFL-CIO — told me:

It’s in southern Florida in agriculture, where you can’t just say, “Form a union,” because there are legal obstacles. The Coalition was really able to make something out of nothing. They were able to leverage the power of the big buyers, like Taco Bell, Whole Foods and McDonald’s in the purchase of tomatoes to create a framework where the growers on the bottom of the supply chain need to be responsive and follow the fair food standards.

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers succeeded in pressuring several well-known companies into joining its enforceable brand agreement, a model that requires companies to halt purchases or take other action against suppliers that violate a code of conduct. “Enforceable brand agreements,” Lee said, “are a very valuable framework, particularly in areas where it isn’t so easy to organize a union.”

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In discussing the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and other efforts, the Worker Voice report emphasizes that workers feel encouraged and empowered to speak up when they don’t fear retaliation and when independent investigators who aren’t dominated by employers investigate their complaints.

Coalition of Immokalee Workers
110 S 2nd St
Immokalee, FL 34142
United States

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