Joe Martinez is the Executive Director, Co-Founder for CIERTO, a non-profit farmworker recruitment and training organization that recruits, trains and dispatches farmworkers to agricultural employers in Mexico, the United States and Canada. This model offers a safe recruitment and labor compliance verification/assurance system that protects farm workers from fraud, trafficking, and slave conditions.
CIERTO also protects growers by ensuring clean recruitment that is absent of any fraud or exploitation and lastly the retailer by ensuring their brand integrity and continuity of supply. This is a comprehensive approach that creates additional value and quality throughout the agricultural supply chain- benefiting workers, growers, retailers and consumers alike.
Previously, Joe was the International Labor Advocate/Mexico Program Director for United Farm Workers. He coordinated and directed all of the union’s activities in Mexico and assisted in coordinating the UFW’s international work. Joe has worked closely with NGOs, the US and foreign governments to address issues related to how farmworkers are recruited and dispatched to the US and to establish labor agreements between Mexican State governments and the United Farm Workers.
Joe has a B.A. in Political Science and Comparative History of Ideas from the University of Washington. He is based in Tacoma, WA.