REPORTBACK: Month of Outrage sparks action in cities across the country!

After a month of non-stop action, April’s ‘Month of Outrage’ is a wrap! In the past few weeks, thousands of consumers learned of the newly launched Wendy’s Boycott as several hundreds of allies took to the streets and Wendy’s locations across the country to make their voices heard as part of the CIW’s wide-sweeping call for farmworker justice.

From coast to coast and from north to south, consumers built on the momentum of the previous month’s Workers’ Voice Tour to march, picket, and chant in nearly 20 cities nationwide throughout April.

It all kicked off in the heart of the Fair Food Nation in Southwest Florida, when Immokalee farmworkers and their families joined allies in Naples for a high-spirited picket and manager letter delivery. Fair Food Group strongholds then took up the baton – Tampa Bay Fair Food and DC Fair Food organized letter deliveries to local Wendy’s managers, and Ohio Fair Food allies in Columbus joined forces with groups across the city to do the same. In Westchester and Rockland counties in New York, students joined people of faith to deliver boycott pledges gathered throughout the month, all taped together to show the depth of local support for the Wendy’s Boycott. Over on the other coast, community allies in Seattle heeded the call and engaged supporters in their cities to call on Wendy’s to join the Fair Food Program.

Students got creative, organizing not just pickets and letter deliveries but also teach-ins and impromptu presentations to educate fellow students about ongoing campaigns to Boot the Braids off campuses and student meal plans, like at the University of Michigan and Vanderbilt University. At universities in Miami, Denver, Pittsburgh, and Columbus, too, students took it upon themselves to educate fellow students, gather boycott pledges, and take them to local Wendy’s management.

Major metropolises Chicago and Los Angeles also felt the heat with dozens-strong actions, engaging not just local allies but also national networks of workers and organizations leading their own struggles for justice, including Freedom Network USA and the Food Chain Workers Alliance. Immigrant and low-wage workers in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and New York City also marched in solidarity with farmworkers at actions organized in conjunction with consumer allies in both places.

Closer to Immokalee, cities in Southwest Florida kept going strong as the month progressed. After a large picket outside a highly-trafficked Ft. Myers Wendy’s, farmworkers concluded the Month of Outrage with an energizing hundred-person protest in sunny Sarasota.
Check out this photo report of the lively mosaic of pickets, marches, letter deliveries, and creative action organized by the ever-spirited AFF network throughout the Month of Outrage!

And as if mobilizing their communities weren’t enough, allies also took up their pens to author an array of articles and op/eds indicting Wendy’s for its conscious and unacceptable decision to shift purchases away from Florida’s tomato industry – “one of the great human rights success stories of our day” – towards a Mexican tomato producer that in 2013 was the subject of a nightmarish slavery prosecution.

Faith leaders and students alike described how “Wendy’s has lost my respect as well as my patronage,” for its callous refusal to join the CIW in partnership for farmworkers' human rights. T’ruah’s tomato rabbis penned insightful pieces (here and here), reflecting on how Jewish struggles for freedom, commemorated during Passover, profoundly connect their community to farmworkers’ fight for dignity and justice in the fields.

We could say that the Month of Outrage ended with a bang – with five powerful actions amplifying the Wendy’s Boycott on the same weekend – but the pressure on Wendy’s to come to the table with farmworkers is climbing day by day without any signs of slowing down.

As consumer allies of the CIW, we’re committed to continuing to mobilize our communities and expand the scope of support for the Wendy’s Boycott ahead of the next big opportunity to open Wendy’s executives’ ears to our call for farmworker justice: the Wendy’s annual shareholder meeting in Dublin, OH on May 26.

Keep an eye out for more updates on how you can take part in building the drumbeat for May 26!

May 23 declared Wendy’s Boycott national Day of Prayer!

The farmworker-led Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) has launched a national boycott of Wendy’s in response to the fast food company’s decision to reject the Fair Food Program, a worker-designed, proven human rights program that is preventing violence, wage theft, sexual assault, and slavery in the Florida tomato industry and beyond.  As news breaks that Wendy’s has moved its tomato purchases from Florida to a supplier in Mexico where slavery was uncovered in 2013, farmworkers and consumers around the country are responding to express their deep dismay.  

In preparation for Wendy’s Annual Shareholder Meeting, join thousands of people of faith around the country for a Wendy’s Boycott National Day of Prayer on Monday, May 23.  Acting on our faith that calls us to justice, together we pray that Wendy’s executives will do what is right by farmworkers in their supply chain.  

People of faith have played an essential role in the call to Wendy’s since the CIW first invited Wendy’s to a conversation 10 years ago, writing letters and joining farmworkers in countless vigils, marches, protests, and phone calls to Wendy’s Headquarters asking Wendy’s to respect the dignity of farmworkers.  As the CIW launches only the second boycott in their history, it is more crucial than ever that people of faith and conscience make our voices heard.

After praying, call the offices of Wendy’s Board Chair and major shareholder Nelson Peltz to urge Wendy’s executives to bring the corporation to an agreement with the CIW.  The below script can serve as a guide.  If you'd like to involve your congregation or house of worship, you can download and print a half-page insert to include in bulletins the weekend preceding May 23. 

After calling, remember to write organize@allianceforfairfood.org with a brief report of how your call went! And to amplify your action over social media, don't forget to tweet .@Wendys using the hashtag #BoycottWendys. 

Call-in Number: 212-451-3000
Suggested script: 

Hi, my name is _________, and I would like to leave a message for Nelson Peltz.

As a person of faith allying with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, it unconscionable that Wendy’s refuses to ensure the human rights of farmworkers in their supply chain.  Mr. Peltz, today thousands around the country are praying that Wendy’s join the Fair Food Program.  It is time for you to use your position in Wendy’s to bring the corporation to an agreement with the CIW.

Thank you for relaying this message.

 

Wendy’s disdain for consumer consciousness, harkens back to the birth of the Campaign for Fair Food

Perhaps in driving by a billboard or turning on your TV recently you’ve seen Wendy’s brand new advertising campaign, “Where’s the beef?”  Focused on the sourcing of their beef, Wendy’s seeks to appear wholesome sending a message to consumers that they really care about where their food comes from — all the while refusing to respect the human rights of farmworkers in their supply chain.

If Wendy’s thinks that they can sell such an image to consumers without committing to strengthening and expanding the rights of the CIW’s Fair Food Program, they are not only avoiding the reality that thousands of consumers have already pledged to Boycott Wendy's — but they’re also ignoring history. Since the beginning of the CIW's Campaign for Fair Food — back in the days before Taco Bell had joined the Fair Food Program — consumers have followed farmworkers’ leadership in revealing the truth behind corporations’ manicured profiles. Through education and action, the CIW and allies have pulled back the curtain and, in doing so, brought 14 corporations to partnership in transforming conditions in the tomato fields of Florida, in six northern states, and now in strawberry and pepper fields as well.

As the national ally movement to the CIW responds to the news that Wendy’s purchases from a grower who was the subject of a major slavery prosecution in 2013, Wendy’s advertising about their “All-American” beef falls terribly flat. For a fascinating, in-depth look at how Wendy’s marketing scheme — and misestimation of consumer agency — relates to the CIW’s history with Taco Bell and other corporations, head over to the CIW site. And if you’re still looking for a way to take action this April check out the Month of Action web page!

Farmworkers kick off #BoycottWendys Month of Action: “We invite all who believe in justice to join!”

Colorful signs aloft and spirits high, dozens of farmworkers from Immokalee, their families, and their local supporters began the national #BoycottWendys Month of Action this past Sunday with a lively picket at a Naples Wendy’s, just minutes away from the heart of the Campaign for Fair Food.  The Coalition of Immokalee Workers is calling for people of conscience around the country to take action with the Wendy’s Boycott during this Month of Action to send a clear message to the chain — that until Wendy’s joins the Fair Food Program, we will refuse to purchase from Wendy’s and invite our communities to do the same.  

This boycott action — soon to be followed by dozens more around the country as the Alliance for Fair Food network mobilizes — comes as news breaks that Wendy’s has not only shifted purchasing from Florida to Mexico, completely divesting from growers that are implementing human rights for farmworkers through the Fair Food Program — but it has also been revealed that Wendy’s now purchases from a grower who in 2013 was found to be holding hundreds of workers against their will in egregious conditions.  As Silvia Perez of the CIW put it: “For this reason, we invite all consumers, all people who believe in justice, who support us, to join this month of action against Wendy’s.”  

Farmworkers and local consumers were joined by the Naples Fox 4 Station, whose coverage highlights the Fair Food Program’s unique success in addressing decades-old farm labor abuses.  It makes one wonder — with the Program’s success from the East Coast tomato industry to now Florida strawberries, heralded by academics, human rights organizations, faith bodies, the general press — and first and foremost, by workers’ themselves — how long will Wendy’s withstand the mounting demand that they respect farmworkers?

An animated picket outside of a Wendy’s franchise is but one option for action among many during the month of April.  We invite you to head over to last week's post to read the full Call to Action, complete with ideas for public witness that range from writing an op/ed to running a boycott pledge drive, from hosting a vigil at a local Wendy’s to organizing a call-in to Nelson Peltz’s offices. Just make sure you document your action and send the photos and summary to us at organize@allianceforfairfood.org! And head over to the AFF site for a full action report back, complete with press coverage.

First-ever Fair Food Program strawberries hit the shelves bearing the FFP label!

Just this week, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Whole Foods Market, and Sunripe Certified Brands announced their landmark expansion of the Fair Food Program into the strawberry industry and onto the shelves of select Whole Foods produce aisles.  This season marks the first expansion of the Fair Food Program into a new crop — now, in addition to tens of thousands of farmworkers in the tomato industry on the East Coast, workers in the strawberry fields of Sunripe Certified Brands (which you may recognize by its former name, Pacific Tomato Growers, a grower with a long history of support for the Fair Food Program) are working under the just and dignified conditions that the Fair Food Program ensures. And now, the strawberries they pick, affixed with the Fair Food label, are filling grocery carts in Whole Foods around the country.

This is truly a moment for celebration as strawberry workers in Florida taste the justice for which they have long struggled, and thousands more consumers gain the opportunity to learn about the Fair Food Program on their trip through the produce aisle. Recognizing the significance of this expansion for farmworkers’ lives, this moment of celebration also calls us to continue to take action. Throughout this month of action and far beyond, we will continue our demand that hold-out corporations join the Fair Food Program to facilitate the expansion of the Program further still so that all farmworkers may work under just and dignified conditions. 

Here below is the joint press release announcing the news:

Whole Foods Market expands partnership with Coalition of Immokalee Workers

First retailer to introduce Fair Food Program strawberries

AUSTIN, Texas (March 22, 2016) – Whole Foods Market will be the first food retailer to offer strawberries certified by the Fair Food Program, a partnership that brings together workers, consumers, growers and retailers in support of humane labor standards and fairer wages in U.S. agriculture.

Whole Foods Market began supporting the Fair Food Program in 2008, four years before any other supermarket joined the effort. By offering Fair Food strawberries, Whole Foods Market has agreed to pay an additional amount for each case of strawberries it purchases, with the additional money being passed on to farmworkers to supplement their income. The program also requires suppliers to sign a code of conduct, outlining specific social responsibility criteria; the code is then verified by a third-party.

“We advocate for and support sustainable, transparent, long-term labor and farmworker welfare solutions, both inside and outside the U.S.,” said Matt Rogers, senior global produce coordinator for Whole Foods Market. “The Fair Food Program is the leading worker welfare success story in the U.S. We are proud of our history with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and are excited to support their certification as they expand beyond tomatoes.”

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a worker-based human rights organization, initially launched the Fair Food Program with the goal of creating systemic changes for Florida tomato pickers who routinely faced harsh working conditions. Following the success of its tomato program, the CIW has expanded its efforts to include strawberries.

The first certified strawberries will come from Florida-based grower Sunripe Certified Brands, a key supplier to Whole Foods Market and a leading advocate of the Fair Food Program.

“As the first tomato grower to implement the Fair Food Program at all of our tomato operations, Sunripe Certified Brands is proud to be the first grower to extend the guarantee of a safe and fair workplace to the strawberry fields of Florida,” said Jon Esformes, CEO of Sunripe Certified Brands. “We’re honored and humbled to play a part in creating change for the most vulnerable of American workers, and strongly urge other growers to join this important movement.” 

Whole Foods Market and Sunripe Certified Brands also announced they would be the first to use the new Fair Food Program label on both strawberry and tomato packages. The label was developed by the Fair Food Program to help shoppers identify produce that complies with the industry worker welfare program.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Whole Foods Market on the expansion of the Fair Food Program, and are particularly excited to debut the program label on certified products in its stores,” said Nely Rodriguez, education team member for the CIW. “The label symbolizes Florida farmworkers’ tireless efforts to forge a more modern, more humane agricultural industry. We’re proud to share the image and our story with Whole Foods Market shoppers.”

The certified and labeled products from Sunripe Certified Brands are in limited supply and will be sold in Whole Foods Market stores primarily in the southeast as supply allows.

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ACTION ALERT: April declared Month of Action in national Wendy’s Boycott!

Just a few weeks following the whirlwind 10-day Workers’ Voice Tour, the Wendy’s boycott – the second-ever boycott declared in the 15-year history of the CIW’s Campaign for Fair Food – is in full swing! To keep building pressure on the final fast food holdout, the CIW is inviting allies across the country to participate in the newly-declared Wendy’s Boycott Month of Action this April.

Already, farmworkers and thousands of consumer allies nationwide have united their voices to tell Wendy’s and its recalcitrant leadership that the Fair Food Nation is freezing its wallets until the final fast food holdout joins the Fair Food Program. It’s a significant step in the three-year campaign, and a necessary one given Wendy’s refusal to take responsibility for the working conditions in its supply chain. Workers and allies have declared the national boycott for three principal reasons:

As the CIW detailed on its website, it’s this last reason that sets Wendy’s apart from the fourteen other major food retailers that have joined the Fair Food Program, and made the declaration of a boycott all but inevitable. How else to respond to a company that runs away from the most widely-respected and highly lauded social responsibility program in agriculture today, into the arms of an industry in Mexico where child labor, sexual abuse, and forced labor are prevalent and widely documented?

And just following the tour’s conclusion, the release of an explosive new article in Harper’s Magazine, “Trump’s Tomatoes,” continues to add even more fuel to the fire of the newly-declared boycott. It critically reveals that the Kaliroy Corporation — the very same Mexican tomato producer that was the subject of a scathing exposé by the LA Times detailing the enslavement of hundreds of Mexican workers in nightmarish working conditions — is in fact “one of Wendy’s suppliers.”

Wendy’s has consciously and unacceptably shifted purchases away from “one of the great human rights success stories of our day" directly into a documented human rights nightmare. To understand the significance of this unconscionable decision, take a look at the second installment of the explosive four-part investigative series in the LA Times entitled “A Product of Mexico: Hardship on Mexican Farms, a Bounty on US Tables.”

This April, join us in expressing our collective disappointment and anger at Wendy’s continued disregard for human rights for the workers that pick the produce that make their profits possible.  To channel this sentiment into building on the wave of energy generated by the boycott and major spring action, the CIW has declared April the Wendy’s Boycott Month of Action: the “Month of Outrage.”

Join us to let Wendy’s know that the longer the fast food giant waits, the stronger this national boycott will grow. Here are just some of the many ways you can take part in the upcoming month of action:

  • March or picket at your local Wendy’s
  • Deliver a letter signed by your community to the local Wendy’s manager
  • Write an op-ed in your local paper
  • Organize a group call-in to the office of Wendy’s Board Chair Nelson Peltz’s office
  • Run a boycott pledge drive (and document it with photos!)
  • Host a vigil at a local Wendy’s

Download our boycott creative action guide for more ideas and pointers to put together your very own action! And if you’re in Southwest Florida, you can join farmworkers from Immokalee in launching the Month of Outrage this Sunday at 1 pm in Naples at the Wendy’s at 4114 Tamiami Trail N.

Ready to turn up the heat on Wendy’s in your community?  Write us at organize (at) allianceforfairfood.org to share your boycott action plans and report-backs – and stay tuned to read about all the exciting actions the Fair Food Nation comes up with this month!

PHOTO REPORT: "Their reality is tied to our reality and they can’t continue to ignore us"

As hundreds of individuals representing dozens of worker and grassroots organizations, houses of worship, universities, and unions marched alongside near 150 farmworkers last Saturday in Palm Beach, Lucas Benitez of the CIW remarked, “The people in this town saw for the first time the faces of people who pick their food … Their reality is tied to our reality and they can’t continue to ignore us.” 

Indeed, Wendy’s Board Chair Nelson Peltz surely cannot continue to ignore farmworkers and their consumer allies — especially as his face was incredibly visible not only leading (in puppet-form) Saturday’s historic march through Palm Beach, but also in literally hundreds of articles exposing his role in Wendy’s' staunch refusal to protect farmworkers’ human rights by joining the CIW’s Fair Food Program.  

In a supply chain that obscures both those at the top and those doing the grueling work that makes the profits of those at the top possible, Saturday’s vibrant walk through the streets of Palm Beach brought farmworkers’ realities — and the way they are tied to those of Peltz and his peers — into the public eye.  Today we bring you photos of last weekend’s march through the streets of Palm Beach — the faces of the farmworkers leading this struggle, and the faces of consumers who are joining to boycott Wendy’s until they become part of the proven solution to abuse in their supply chain.

As this movement allies with farmworkers, these photos are a call to continue bearing witness as farmworkers share their realities, and to invite our friends, family, and communities to do the same — by boycotting Wendy’s until they join the Fair Food Program!  

Head over to the CIW site for a full photo report! 

Farmworkers, consumers make waves as Workers' Voice Tour marches through Wendy's Board Chair vacation hometown of Palm Beach!

After ten days, five cities, thousands of miles, and countless consumer allies taking action to join the general boycott of Wendy’s, the Workers’ Voice Tour culminated in a massive march through the heart of the vacation town of Wendy’s Board Chair Nelson Peltz this past Saturday. More than 500 farmworkers and allies from Florida and far beyond, marched alongside Ethel Kennedy — and even a giant puppet of Nelson Peltz — through the exclusive island community of Palm Beach, to bring the message of justice home to Peltz and other Wendy’s decision-makers.

This action comes as Peltz and Wendy’s continue their frosty silence in response to farmworkers’ and consumers’ demand that Wendy’s join the CIW’s Fair Food Program, which is eliminating human rights abuses in the Florida tomato industry — and as of this year, in Florida strawberries, sweet peppers, and in six additional northern states. Wendy’s is the final major fast food corporation to refuse to join the Program, and have recently advertised that they are moving purchasing from Florida tomatoes to Mexico, where routine abuse of farmworkers is well-documented.

As the historic march snaked through one of the wealthiest shopping districts in the United States, accompanied by the same jubilant music, sparkling creativity, and steadfast commitment that will be familiar to anyone who has been to a CIW action, Lucas Benitez of the CIW remarked, “The people in this town saw for the first time the faces of people who pick their food … Their reality is tied to our reality and they can’t continue to ignore us.”  

Nelson Peltz and Wendy’s will not be able to ignore the CIW and their allies, because we will continue to march, we will continue to spread the word in our communities — and we will continue to boycott Wendy’s until they become part of the proven solution to abuse in the fields.

Head to the CIW site to join the boycott and for the full report on Saturday’s action — and stay tuned for a final summary of the tour.

VIDEO: “We are not tied down by slavery… we are embraced by freedom.”

As the Workers’ Voice Tour makes its way south, disseminating farmworkers’ call for dignity and respect in the fields across the country, there has been time to take pause and deeply reflect on the movement for farmworker justice and the interrelated struggles being fought worldwide to usher in a new day for all.

Yesterday, with the warm spring sun shining down on southwest Ohio, the tour stepped back from the excitement of a campaign — a national boycott — in full swing to recognize and thank the women who fight for justice in honor of International Women’s Day. The reflection, led by the CIW’s own powerful women leaders under the shade of strong, interconnected oak trees, created beautiful, vulnerable moments that embraced and united an already tight group of participants.

The CIW media team captured some of the sentiments that were shared and collectively experienced yesterday afternoon, compiled in a short video. 

And tomorrow – keep a look out for a reportback on the action in Louisville and Nashville, as the tour continues on its journey for justice from Wendy's. 

Head over to the CIW website for more! 

Hundreds march through downtown Columbus, taking national boycott straight to Wendy’s hometown!

Following Thursday’s incredible kick-off to the Workers’ Voice Tour and the launch of the second-ever national boycott in the 15-year history of the Campaign for Fair Food, yesterday was Columbus’s turn to feel the heat of the Fair Food Nation!

The Workers’ Voice Tour bus arrived in Wendy’s hometown Saturday night to be welcomed with a night of dancing and convivio with scores of enthusiastic allies, old and new, that had travelled in caravans and buses from across Ohio and across the country—from Rhode Island to Tennessee, Washington, D.C. to Michigan. The excitement and anticipation for the Columbus stop of the tour had been building up for weeks, in the town that has seen many a CIW action throughout the three years of the Wendy’s campaign. 

More than 500 farmworkers, students, people of faith, fellow workers, and consumers converged on Sunday to march for three miles across the heart of downtown Columbus, stopping at a prominent Wendy’s location just in front of The Ohio State University—where students had, only a year ago, launched a national student boycott of the fast food chain as part of the Boot the Braids campaign to cut contracts with on-campus Wendy’s and where local Ohio Fair Food allies have been pushing the campaign forward since its start. 

With groups like the Real Food Challenge, the Central Ohio Worker Center, the Cincinnati Interfaith Worker Center, and the First Unitarian Universalist Church present, the march ended with a beautiful program of popular theater and speakers in a park nearby OSU’s campus, and an invitation to today’s delegation to the corporate offices of Wendy’s in nearby Dublin, OH.

Check out the CIW’s website for a full photo report – and stay tuned for more action updates as the Workers’ Voice Tour makes its way down to Louisville next!

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