When Food Workers Rebel | Solidarity Statement Initiated by Anna Lappé
Moderator’s
Note: I first heard about the Coalition
of Immokalee Workers (CIW) in 1991 at the Environmental Justice Summit and
have been privileged to witness their steps toward a unique approach to
the organization of farm worker struggles – a model that is called
“Fair Food.” CIW launched its movement to transform the organization of farm
workers by networking across the entire food chain – for e.g., by
organizing from the farm field to the fast food restaurants. The success of the campaign to organize the Fair Food sourcing program includes an important agreement made in October 2012 with the Chipotle national chain.
This has turned out to be an almost singular
achievement in the history of farm worker organizing and goes well beyond measurably significant gains in “living wages” and
other benefits tied to an innovative fair wage source agreement with the several fast food business sector corporations that the growers supply. CIW is an intrinsic part of a longer-term process in which
they seek to attain workplace democracy by promoting worker and community health,
environmental protection, social justice, and a dignified living wage.
The CIW has now taken its Fair Food campaign to the Wendy’s
restaurant chain. This is part of a process of actively extending
solidarity between ‘fast food’ and farm workers as each sector wages its own
unique but interconnected struggles. These relationships between different sectors
of the food chain working class are in the midst of a historic process of political recomposition
that will transform the way in which workers define their own working and living
conditions, challenging the deskilling and devaluing of their labor power.
Our colleague Anna Lappé has prepared a letter
recognizing the achievements of CIW as part of the observance of International
Human Rights Day – officially December 10. The letter is an eloquent statement submitted to a Mr. Brolick at Wendy’s corporate headquarters calling for an agreement with the farm workers. The CIW continues to inspire the burgeoning food chain workers’ movements.
This letter is circulating and new signatures are being added to bring public pressure to bear on Wendy’ Corporation. I invite you to sign the letter and circulate it through your own networks until we have 5,000 names on the list. Support food chain workers and their rebellion for justice.
For our blog coverage of CIW over the past years, enter “CIW”
in the search box top right corner of the homepage screen and a list will appear dating
back to 2012.
Anna
Lappé | December 10, 2013
In 1993, six farmworkers
gathered in a local Catholic church in Immokalee, Florida, two
hours northwest of Miami. Seated in a circle of folding chairs, they began to
recount the human rights abuses they had suffered and witnessed while working
in the tomato fields of Florida.
One of the farmworkers
produced a nondescript booklet and began to read from the U.N. Declaration of
Human Rights, a set of basic human rights that the nascent Coalition of Immokalee Workers would look
towards when designing their own Code of Conduct to end the abuses
faced by farmworkers.
Today, as we celebrate
International Human Rights Day, the anniversary of the day the United Nations
adopted the Declaration of Human Rights, we recognize the Coalition
of Immokalee Workers, who, from their modest beginnings, has become one of
the human rights giants of our time.
Through their
worker-designed Fair Food
Program–a historic collaboration between farmworkers, 11 food
retail corporations, and the majority of Florida tomato growers–an agricultural
industry based on respect for human rights is becoming a reality. Just
last week, the Coalition, along with the Fair Food Standards
Council, presented its real-world solutions to human rights
abuses to over 1,700 delegates from 85 countries at the United Nations
Business and Human Rights Forum in Geneva.
While 11 leading
retailers are paying a small premium to lift workers’ wages and
have committed their purchasing power to demand human rights
standards, there has been one notable exception: Wendy’s. Supporters
of the Coalition around the country have made sure Wendy’s hears, loud and
clear, that they’re on the wrong side of history. In a recent week of
action against the burger joint, hundreds of people
took to the streets in dozens of cities nationwide, from Columbus, Ohio
to Jacksonville, Florida.
As Wendy’s looks to
establish a more “sustainable” brand and sourcing of “honest
ingredients,” the food justice community–from writers and farmers to
retail workers and students–has rallied together up and down the
supply chain to let Wendy’s know that farmworkers must make up an integral
part of that vision. Today, as we reflect on the commitment to human
rights that we have made as a global community, we ask that Wendy’s
seize this opportunity to join the Fair Food Program.
Below is the letter which I
have signed, along with many of my colleagues in the food movement,
including movement leaders, writers, chefs, small farmers, and food
justice organizations.
><><><><><><><
Dear Mr. Brolick,
As food writers, chefs,
small and family farmers, sustainable businesses leaders, anti-hunger groups,
and food justice advocates, we are writing to express our grave disappointment
that Wendy’s has thus far refused to join the most far-reaching, successful,
and comprehensive program for social responsibility in the US produce industry:
The Fair Food Program.
When Wendy’s founder Dave
Thomas opened the first Wendy’s store, he outlined values that would anchor the
Wendy’s brand, such as “Do The Right Thing,” “Treat People with Respect,” and
“Give Something Back.” Today, the eyes of the growing food movement turn toward
you to ask that you uphold these guiding values upon which Wendy’s has built
its image.
As such, we urge you to act
immediately to ensure that the rights and dignity of farmworkers who harvest
the tomatoes sold in Wendy’s products nationwide be respected by committing
your company to a social responsibility program that was recently
heralded in The
Washington Post as “one of the great human rights success
stories of our day.”
While Florida farmworkers
have long faced stagnant, sub-poverty wages and egregious human rights
violations–in the most extreme cases including modern-day slavery–the good
news is that a solution now exists. Through the Coalition of Immokalee
Workers’ (CIW) Fair Food Program–an unprecedented partnership among 11 major
corporate retailers (including all of Wendy’s main competitors),
over 90 percent of the entire Florida tomato industry, and farmworkers
themselves–a more modern, more sustainable industry is being born.
The Fair Food Program was recently
highlighted in a White House report concerning efforts to combat human
trafficking as “one of the most
successful and innovative programs” in the fight against modern-day
slavery. Additionally, the U.N.
Working Group on Business and Human Rights sent observers to
Immokalee, reporting that the Fair Food Program “innovatively addresses core
worker concerns” through an “independent and robust enforcement
mechanism.” Most recently, the CIW was awarded the Roosevelt Institute’s 2013
Freedom From Want Medal, recognizing the unprecedented advances of the Program.
By refusing to put its
weight behind this program, Wendy’s is lagging behind its competitors as
the only major fast food corporation in the US that has yet to become
part of this proven approach to a more sustainable supply chain. What’s more,
when you, Mr. Brolick, helmed Taco Bell in 2005 as the company became the first
Fair Food Program signatory, you stated at the time of the announcement, “We
have indicated that any solution must be industry-wide… but we are willing to
play a leadership role within our industry to be part of the solution. We hope
others in the restaurant industry and supermarket retail trade will follow our
leadership.” Now, eight years later, Wendy’s is “the rest of
the industry” that needs to join the Program.
Until now, however, Wendy’s
has publicly stated that it already pays a premium for its Florida tomato
purchases and only buys from growers within the Fair Food Program. Such
misleading statements do a disservice to Wendy’s brand and reputation. As
you well know, whatever premium Wendy’s may pay, it is unrelated to the Fair
Food Program and does nothing to raise farmworkers’ wages. Moreover, the Fair
Food Program works because it has teeth: Retailers commit to
supporting farms that uphold a necessary set of labor standards and suspend
their purchases from farms that are unwilling to comply. Only by joining its
competitors in making that commitment can Wendy’s assure its customers that it
is doing its part to ensure that farmworkers who pick its tomatoes are treated
with dignity and respect.
Wendy’s promotes its
sourcing of “honest ingredients” and its sustainable business practices, to
which we as food justice advocates are also dedicated. But you must understand
that today’s consumers expect and demand that farmworkers, whose work makes
possible Wendy’s continued growth, also constitute an integral part of that
vision. To portray your company as taking the necessary steps to uphold
farmworker rights while doing no such thing–when a proven and verifiable
solution exists–can only be described as disingenuous.
As Wendy’s looks to
modernize its brand to position itself as “a cut above” their fast-food
counterparts, it must understand that a new logo is insufficient to transform
an old-fashioned approach to human rights. Only a true commitment to just
treatment of workers in your supply chain can assure Wendy’s of smooth sailing
in the 21st Century. We within the food justice movement urge you to seize
this moment as an opportunity to uphold those values and act immediately to
join with the CIW and the Florida tomato industry in building a
better tomorrow.
1. Frances
Moore Lappé, Author, Diet for a Small Planet; Co-founder, Small
Planet Institute
2. Raj
Patel, Author, Stuffed and Starved; IATP Food and Community
Fellow
3. Richard
McCarthy, Executive Director, Slow Food USA
4. Jim
Harkness, President, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
5. Ben
Burkett, President, National Family Farm Coalition; Coordinator, Federation
of Southern Cooperatives
6. John
E. Peck, Executive Director, Family Farm Defenders
7. Bill
Ayres, Executive Director, WhyHunger
8. Eric
Holt-Giménez, Executive Director; Food First/Institute for Development
Policy
9. Nikki
Henderson, Executive Director, People’s Grocery
10. Kathryn
Gilje, Executive Director, Pesticide Action Network North America
11. Niaz
Dorry, Coordinating Director, Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance
12. Anna
Lappé, Project Director, Food MythBusters; Author, Diet for a Hot
Planet
13. Tracey
Ryder, Cofounder & CEO, Edible Communities
14. Sanjay
Rawal, Director, Food Chains
15. Molly
Anderson, Food Systems Integrity; Chair, Food & Sustainable
Agriculture Systems, College of the Atlantic
16. Danielle
Nierenberg, Co-Founder & President, Food Tank: The Food Think Tank
17. Anim Steel,
Director, Real Food Challenge
18. Melissa
Kogut, Executive Director, Chef’s Collaborative
19. Lindsay
Comstock, Executive Director, National Farm Worker Ministry
20. Andy
Fisher, Co-founder & Former Executive Director, Community Food Security
Coalition
21. Anuradha
Mittal, Executive Director, Oakland Institute
22. Dana
Geffner, Executive Director, Fair World Project
23. Gerardo
Marin, Co-director, Rooted in Community
24. Joann Lo,
Executive Director, Food Chain Workers Alliance
25. Mark A.
Dunlea, Executive Director, Hunger Action Network of NYS
26. Joel Bert,
Executive Director, New York City Coalition Against Hunger
27. Judy
Gearhart, Executive Director, International Labor Rights Forum
28. Samuel
Nderitu, Co-Director, Grow Biointensive Agriculture Center of Kenya
29. Michelle
Moskowitz Brown, Executive Director, Local Matters
30. Jess
Daniel, Director & Chief Enabler, FoodLab Detroit
31. Daniel
Gross, Co-founder & Executive Director, Brandworkers
32. Gavin
Raders, Co-Founder & Executive Director, Planting Justice;
Co-Founder, Wild and Radish LLC
33. Saru
Jayaraman, Co-Founder, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United
34. Farzana
Serang, Executive Director, Cooperative Food Empowerment Directive
35. Colette
Cosner, Executive Director, Domestic Fair Trade Association
36. Stephen
Bartlett, Coordinator for Constituency Education, Agricultural Missions,
Inc.
37. Nikhil
Aziz, Executive Director, Grassroots International
38. Geetha
Lakmini Fernando, Executive Secretary, National Fisheries Solidarity
Movement (NAFSO)
39. Sanjay
Kharod, Executive Director, New Orleans Food and Farm Network
40. Jeffrey
Frank, National Coordinator, Friends of the MST
41. Eric
Weltman, Senior Organizer, Food and Water Watch
42. Nadia
Johnson, Food Justice Program and City Farms Markets Network
Coordinator, Just Food
43. Lauren
Ornelas, Founder & Executive Director, Food Empowerment Project
44. Erica
Bacon, Co-Chair of Food Justice Project, Community Alliance for Global
Justice
45. Dave
Murphy, Founder & Executive Director, Food Democracy Now!
46. Ronnie
Cummins, Director, Organic Consumers Association
47. Nancy
Romer, Chair of Governance Board, Brooklyn Food Coalition
48. Rashid
Nuri, Director & CEO, Truly Living Well
49. Josephine
Chu, Co-founder, Zenful Bites
50. Natasha
Bowens, Founder, The Color of Food; Blogger, Brown.Girl.Farming.
51. Adrien
Schless-Meier, Deputy Managing Editor, Civil Eats; Emerson Hunger Fellow
52. Brahm
Ahmadi, CEO & President, People’s Community Market; IATP Food and
Community Fellow
53. Rebecca
Wiggins-Reinhard, Farm to School Director, La Semilla Food Center; IATP
Food and Community Fellow
54. Navina
Khanna, Co-founder & Field Director, Live Real
55. Diana
Lopez, Co-Director, Southwest Workers Union
56. Pat
Purcell, Director of Political and Legislative Affairs, United Food and
Commercial Workers Union Local 1500
57. Adam
Olson, Regional Advocacy Lead, Oxfam America
58. Nico
Gumbs, State Coordinator, Florida Youth and Young Adult Network of the
National Farm Worker Ministry
59. Donald B.
Clark, Network for Environmental & Economic Responsibility of the
United Church of Christ; Cornucopia Network of NJ
60. Greg
Baker, Chef, The Refinery
61. Kevin
Archer, Chef; General Manager, Jivamuktea Café
62. Hosam
Ahmad, Chef, Aladdin Pita
63. Alissa
Hamilton, Author, Squeezed: What You Don’t Know About Orange Juice
64. Nora
McKeon, Author, Including Small Farmers in Global Food Politics
65. Mark Winne, Author, Food Rebels,
Guerrilla Gardeners, and Smart-Cookin’ Mamas
66. Anthony
Flaccavento, Farmer, Abingdon Organics Farm; Founder, SCALE, Inc; IATP Food
and Community Fellow
67. Patrick
Crouch, Farmer, Earthworks Urban Farm; Program Manager, Capuchin Soup
Kitchen
68. Jim
Goodman, Farmer, Northwood Farm; IATP Food and Community Fellow
69. Bob St.
Peter, Farmer, Saving Seeds Farm; Executive Director, Food for Maine’s
Future
70. Brian
Lapinski, Farmer, Down to Earth Farm
71. Jim
Goodman, Farmer, Northwood Farm; IATP Food and Community Fellow
72. Jeremy
Brown, Commercial Fisherman; Founding Member, Nooksack Salmon Enhancement
Association; IATP Food and Community Fellow
73. Michael
Jones, Owner, The Greener Grocer
74. Chris
Litchfield, Owner, Maryland Food Collective
75. Phat
Beets Produce
76. The U.S.
Food Sovereignty Alliance
77. The
Community/Farmworker Alliance
78. Devon G. Peña, President and
Founder, The Acequia Institute
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