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Fighting for Farmworkers
Greg asbed ’90 and
laura Germino ’91
arrived at sais determined
to work overseas
after graduation. instead,
they found a worthy cause
closer to home. they fight
for farmworkers’ rights in the
united states, having founded
the Coalition of immokalee
workers (Ciw) in Florida.
asbed shared their story in an
interview with SAISPHERE.
SAISPHERE: One of the great
things about SAIS is the sheer
number and variety of causes
to which students and alumni
dedicate themselves. Of all
the humanitarian issues in the
world, why did you choose this
one in particular?
Greg Asbed: Before going
to sais, laura worked with
the Peace Corps in Burkina
Faso, and i was in Haiti with
a national peasant movement
that was deeply involved with
efforts to build democracy
before and after the fall of
Jean Claude Duvalier. we
enrolled at sais with the
intention of returning overseas
and working in development.
while at sais, we
became involved with local
legal services organizations
that specialize in helping
farmworkers defend their
labor rights, one in Pennsylvania
with workers in the
apple harvest and another
on maryland’s eastern shore
with workers in the watermelon
and tomato harvests.
the abysmal working conditions,
abject poverty, and,
most disconcertingly, real
fear—fear of their bosses,
fear of the consequences if
they were to stand up for
their rights, fear of being a
day away from having no
money in their pockets—
left us convinced that there
was plenty of work to be
done right here at home.
S: Can you describe the genesis
of the Immokalee coalition?
GA: after sais, we found
work as community specialists
with a legal services program
based in immokalee,
Fla. the town is the largest
migrant farmworker community
on the east Coast,
though it more resembles a
labor reserve typical of mining
towns in Brazil or south
africa. Our arrival in 1991
coincided with the second
major wave of Haitian immigration
and an increasing
flow of indigenous migrants
from southern mexico and
Guatemala. many of these
new migrants came to the
states with extensive experience
in political and community
organizing; i had worked
with some of them in Haiti.
these highly sophisticated
organizers, forced by political
and economic pressures
to take refuge in the united
states, sparked the birth of
the coalition.
we also work with large
retail food companies to cre-
alumni news & notes
Laura Germino ’91, left, receives the 2010 TIP Hero Award, which
recognizes efforts to combat human trafficking, from U.S. Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton. Germino is the first U.S. recipient.
ate more humane farm labor
conditions. these companies
have leveraged their highvolume
purchasing power
for years to demand lower
and lower prices for produce,
which in turn puts downward
pressure on farm labor wages
and working conditions. Yet,
they also can use that purchasing
power to help raise
wages and demand more
humane working conditions
from their suppliers. Just one
more penny per pound of
tomatoes at the retail level
could raise wages by more
than 60 percent at the farm
level. this is the theory of
change behind the Ciw’s
Campaign for Fair Food.
S: What are your roles within
the coalition?
GA: laura is the Ciw’s antislavery
Campaign coordinator.
she works with
u.s. Department of Justice
officials on the prosecution
of modern-day slavery
operations and trains state
and local law enforcement
and social services agencies
to detect and investigate
human trafficking. my work
focuses on implementing our
Fair Food agreements by
coordinating our efforts with
those of nine multibilliondollar
retail food companies—
including mcDonald’s, whole
Foods and subway—and
more than 90 percent of the
Florida tomato industry in
a partnership to improve
farmworker wages and working
conditions. i also write
and design the Ciw website
(www.ciw-online.org).
S: How has SAIS influenced
your careers?
GA: the social Change and
Development Program [now
the international Development
Program], under the
guidance of Professor Grace
Goodell, was a place for students
to consider approaches
to economic and political
development that sometimes
ranged far from the mainstream
and were informed
by the real-world experience
of students, most of whom
had worked for several years
overseas in development.
the combination of academic
freedom and practical rigor
has helped us think and
work outside the bonds of
convention.
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