Anita Hill, Chair of the Hollywood Commission: “There are myriad lessons for Hollywood to glean from the approach, execution and success of CIW and the Fair Food Program in eradicating sexual harassment from an industry devoid of accountability and rife with abuse…”
Today, we are thrilled to announce a new partnership with the Hollywood Commission, the initiative that formed in the wake of the powerful #MeToo movement that swept through not only the U.S. entertainment industry, but workplaces across the country that had long grappled with pervasive and deeply-rooted issues of sexual harassment.
Drawing on the CIW and Fair Food Program’s decade of experience, the Hollywood Commission and the Fair Food team will explore a blueprint for a program designed for the entertainment industry to “address and prevent misconduct in independent production companies,” targeting sexual harassment and discrimination.
Here below is the full public release – and make sure to stay tuned for more news in the weeks ahead about this exciting new partnership!
ANITA HILL-LED HOLLYWOOD COMMISSION PARTNERS WITH PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL-WINNING HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION:
COALITION OF IMMOKALEE WORKERS TO BUILD AN ANTI-HARASSMENT AND -DISCRIMINATION PROGRAM FOR INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION COMPANIES
LOS ANGELES, May 19, 2021 — The Hollywood Commission, chaired by Anita Hill and founded by Kathleen Kennedy and Nina Shaw, today announced a partnership with Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), an organization heralded as “unique in the country” for preventing sexual violence (PBS Frontline, “Rape in the Fields”) in agriculture and other industries. The organizations will work together to develop a third-party pilot to protect workers at independent production companies and support those companies‘ efforts to prevent workplace misconduct.
Independent production companies face a number of unique challenges. They are often small in size and lack adequate resources and internal expertise to put systems in place that prevent workplace misconduct. In addition, victim reporting options at these companies are limited and at times require victims to bring complaints to their abuser. According to the Hollywood Survey, a groundbreaking study of entertainment workers, those working on small productions were more likely to report egregious forms of sexual harassment by powerful abusers (sexual coercion and sexual assault) than those on large productions. They were also less likely than those working on large productions to be aware of existing company resources or systems to address workplace conduct, and were less likely to report any misconduct to the company and less satisfied with the company‘s response if they did report.
“There are myriad lessons for Hollywood to glean from the approach, execution and success of CIW and the Fair Food Program in eradicating sexual harassment from an industry devoid of accountability and rife with abuse,” Anita Hill, who chairs the Hollywood Commission for Eliminating Harassment and Advancing Equality. “Building on the existing work of the Hollywood Commission, this partnership will help us create a blueprint to address and prevent misconduct in independent production companies, and ultimately, we hope, forge a safer and more equitable workplace environment in Hollywood.”
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers is renowned for creating a market-enforced approach to protecting human rights in corporate supply chains. By harnessing the buying power of large distributors, they are able to ensure the right to work free of sexual assault, harassment and retaliation. In 2011, CIW created the Fair Food Program to address the profound abuses endured by farmworkers. Since that time, the Fair Food Program has radically transformed conditions for over 35,000 farmworkers in seven states and three crops, effectively eliminating many longstanding abuses, including sexual violence and forced labor, and significantly reducing the incidences of other more common forms of mistreatment, from discrimination to wage theft. The Fair Food Program was awarded the Presidential Medal from President Obama in 2015, earned co-founder Greg Asbed a MacArthur “Genius” award in 2017, and was named by Harvard Business Review as one of the “15 most important social-impact success stories of the past century.”
“Although each sector is unique, sexual harassment and bullying in the workplace are universal problems that share the common denominator of power imbalance,” said former New York State Supreme Court judge Laura Safer Espinoza, Executive Director of the Fair Food Standards Council, the independent monitoring body that oversees and enforces the Fair Food Program. “Through our work over the past decade, we have proven that an interconnected system of transparency, worker empowerment, and reliable enforcement can bring about true accountability and transform an industry from the ground up. We look forward to partnering with the Hollywood Commission to explore how these lessons can be effectively applied to address the specific needs of vulnerable workers in the entertainment industry.”
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About the Hollywood Commission
The Hollywood Commission is a nonprofit that brings together influential entertainment companies, unions and guilds with cutting edge thought leadership and expertise to develop and implement cross- industry systems and processes to eradicate harassment, discrimination and power abuse and create lasting cultural change in Hollywood.
About the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Fair Food Program
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) is a worker-based human rights organization internationally recognized for its achievements in fighting human trafficking and gender-based violence at work. The CIW created the Fair Food Program, and is also recognized for pioneering the design and development of the Worker-driven Social Responsibility paradigm, a worker-led, market-enforced approach to the protection of human rights in corporate supply chains.
Contact:
Hollywood Commission
Carrie Davis
310-770-7696
Coalition of Immokalee Workers / Fair Food Program
Tiffany Goetzinger
941-993-5754
