Starting today (Friday, 11/10), the Harvest without Violence Campaign hits New York City!

Starting today, Friday, November 10, and continuing through Nov. 20th, the CIW’s new “Harvest without Violence” mobile exhibit is hitting the Big Apple! 

After weeks with no response to the CIW Women’s Group’s powerful letter to Wendy’s Board Chairman Nelson Peltz, farmworkers and their consumer allies are taking the fight to end sexual violence in the fields straight to Mr. Peltz’s doorstep in New York City.  Over the next 10 days, the CIW will display the Harvest without Violence exhibit in a number of high-profile locations throughout the city, including Columbia University’s Low Plaza, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and Washington Square Park (you can find a full schedule of exhibit locations and public events at the end of this post).

Then, on the CIW’s final day in New York City, November 20th, CIW members and allies will converge on Mr. Peltz’s offices in Manhattan to demand that Wendy’s do its part to end sexual harassment and assault in the fields by joining the Fair Food Program.  If  you live in the New York City area, make your voice heard in support of human rights and join us for this historic protest!

How you can support the protest if you don’t live near New York: Take part in the National Call-In Day, Nov. 20th…

The workers who will be protesting in New York need your support, whether or not you can be there on the 20th in Manhattan!  Farmworker women are calling on the tens of thousands of allies who are not based in New York City to support their protest outside Mr. Peltz’s downtown hedge fund offices with a National Call-In Day.  Join us!

New York action details…

If you are in New York City, make sure to take time in the next week to see the Harvest without Violence exhibit, which is showing everywhere from Columbia University to Washington Square Park.  Here’s the action-packed rundown:

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Thursday, Nov. 9

Mobile Exhibit
Quad of Princeton Theological Seminary (Rain site: Theron Room)
64 Mercer Street, Princeton, NJ

Friday, Nov. 10

Mobile Exhibit
Sidewalk outside the Jewish Community Center of Manhattan (Rain site: JCC Auditorium)
334 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY
9 a.m. – 4 p.m. (until 2 p.m. in case of rain)

Saturday, Nov. 11

Mobile Exhibit
Grounds at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (Rain site: Synod Hall)
1047 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY
9 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 12

“Bible in the Middle” Harvest without Violence dialogue
Middle Collegiate Church (50 East 7th St. in Manhattan)
10:45 – 11:30 a.m. at 50 East 7th St. in Manhattan

CIW reading of “Si Se Puede” by Diana Cohn, and presentation at the Children’s Multicultural Book Fair
Hosted by Middle Collegiate Church
1:30 – 3:30 p.m. at 50 East 7th St. in Manhattan
Facebook event / Flyer

Mobile Exhibit
Grounds at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (Rain site: Synod Hall)
1047 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY
9 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Monday, Nov. 13

Harvest without Violence: Worker Dialogue with the CIW
Co-hosted by Law at the Margins and New York Taxi Workers Alliance
6:00 – 8:30 p.m. at 31-10 37th Ave, Suite #300, LIC
Facebook event

Mobile Exhibit
Low Plaza (in front of Low Library) at Columbia University
116th St & Broadway, New York, NY
9 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Tuesday, Nov. 14

Mobile Exhibit
Lobby of the Lower East Side Girls Club
402 East 8th St, New York, NY
10 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Wednesday, Nov. 15

Harvest without Violence: A panel on women’s rights and farmworker human rights
Organized by the Columbia Department of Sociology
12 – 1:30 p.m. at 509 Knox Hall, 606 W. 122nd St 

Thursday, Nov. 16

Screening of Food Chains and CIW talk-back
Co-hosted by the JCC of Harlem and Repair the World
7 p.m. at 318 West 118th St in Manhattan

Mobile Exhibit
Garibaldi Plaza at Washington Square Park (Rain site: Assembly Hall in Judson Memorial Church)
Washington Square Park, New York, NY
9 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Friday, Nov. 18

Mobile Exhibit
Poly Prep Country Day School (by reservation only)
9216 7th Ave, Brooklyn, NY
9 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Saturday, Nov. 18

Harvest without Violence Art Build!
Time and location TBD

Sunday, Nov. 19

The Forum Seeking Justice: Harvest without Violence
Hosted by St Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery
12 p.m. at 131 East 10th St, New York, NY

Mobile Exhibit
Easy Church Yard (along 2nd Ave.) at St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery (Rain site: Parish Hall)
131 East 10th St, New York, NY
9 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Community Gathering with CIW
Fourth Universalist Society
7 p.m. at 160 Central Park West, New York, NY

Please RSVP to patricia@allianceforfairfood.org

Monday, Nov. 20

Harvest without Violence: March from Wendy’s to the offices of Board Chair Nelson Peltz
Gathering: 5:30 p.m. at Wendy’s at 714 3rd Ave
Facebook event / Press release / Flyer

Mobile Exhibit
West End of the Sanctuary at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church
325 Park Ave, New York, NY
1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

BREAKING: National faith leaders announce major Wendy’s Boycott fast and action for January 18, 2018, on the 20th anniversary of farmworkers’ 30-day hunger strike!

United Church of Christ General Minister and President Rev. John Dorhauer, author and public theologian Brian McLaren (left), and 30+ clergy commit to National Day of Fasting and Witness in January, with more on their way…

On January 18, 2018, faith leaders from around the country will join together for National Day of Fasting and Witness in protest of Wendy’s executives’ ongoing and unconscionable refusal to join the Fair Food Program.  Following what’s sure to be an exciting fall season in the Wendy’s campaign (with a major march to the New York City offices of Board Chair Nelson Peltz coming up on November 20!), this mobilization will galvanize faith communities nationwide into action – both in commemoration of the great strides that have been made over the course of our decades-long struggle for justice in the fields, and in advancement of the urgent campaign to bring Wendy’s into the Fair Food fold.

Nearly three dozen clergy from Florida to Indiana to California have already answered the call to fasting and direct action at Wendy’s, including United Church of Christ General Minister and President John Dorhauer and author and public theologian Brian McLaren (pictured above at the August 1, 2017 ceremony breaking the fast of Southwest Florida religious leaders in support of the Wendy’s boycott).

If you are a faith leader who wants to be a part of new era of justice and fairness in our nation’s agricultural industry, sign up to participate today!

Call to National Day of Fasting and Witness, January 18, 2018

As Wendy’s ignores the abuses perpetrated in the name of cheap produce, it is the responsibility of those who care for the integrity of the community in faith and practice to elevate the moral demand for dialogue, justice, and peace.

On January 18, public figures from across this nation’s religious landscape will fast and peacefully demonstrate at local Wendy’s restaurants to educate, mobilize, and inspire their communities to respond to the invitation of the spirit of justice – and to bring Wendy’s into the Fair Food Program, once and for all.

CIW hunger strikers receive communion from the late Bishop John Nevins in January of 1988 in a ceremony breaking their historic month-long fast in Naples, FL.

While carrying forth the current call to action in the growing Wendy’s Boycott, January’s national mobilization led by faith leaders is a conscious commemoration of the history of farmworkers’ struggle.  In December 1997 and January 1998, six farmworkers in Immokalee, FL, made the decision to stop eating until the growers who owned the farms on which they toiled would hear their concerns. Low wages, verbal and physical violence, sexual abuse, and even forced labor plagued Florida tomato fields, and the workers who picked in those fields demanded better conditions. The hunger strike lasted 30 days, and only ended when former President Jimmy Carter and Bishop John Nevins of the Catholic Diocese of Venice intervened to call for a dialogue with growers on the condition that the workers would break their fast. On January 18, 1998, at a Catholic mass with over 800 people in attendance (above right), they did.

Today, the fight for justice in the agricultural industry continues. Incredible progress has been made through the CIW’s Presidential Medal-winning Fair Food Program, but outside of the protections of the Program, wages are still stagnant and workers are still vulnerable. Gender-based violence is still epidemic, a problem highlighted by the CIW’s “Harvest Without Violence” initiative. The Fair Food Program is a proven, market-enforced answer to these violations of personhood, but without the courage of its corporate partners to do what is right for their workers and their industry, its implementation and expansion of critical human rights protections is hindered.

On the twentieth anniversary of the hunger strike, January 18, 2018, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers is calling on its national network of allied faith leaders to observe a National Day of Fasting and Witness in remembrance of the history of the workers’ struggle and in a demonstration of commitment to the Wendy’s Boycott.

CIW members and allies gather at the breaking of their week-long fast outside Publix headquarters in Lakeland, FL, in 2012.

Faith leader participants are encouraged to stand outside of their local Wendy’s franchise for several hours as they fast, where they will serve as witnesses to the reality of injustice in the fields and voices of hope for visiting allies and passersby. Fair Food supporters nationwide – students on university and high school campuses, Fair Food and community groups, and allies – are called upon to support the faith leader-led public witnesses at Wendy’s restaurants around the country.

Clergy of all faiths have the singular privilege in their societal location to raise the moral issue of the human rights abuses faced by farmworkers, to give of their time and resources to the building of a new economy. It is vital, in the spirit of unity and justice, that we respond to that call.

Students, community members, and other allies also have a role to play in this major mobilization! If the leader of your faith community has committed to this action, plan to go out and support him or her at your local Wendy’s on January 18.   If you know a faith leader who should be involved in this effort and want to support them in their public witness, pass the invitation along.

If you’re ready to commit to fasting and organizing a public witness at your local Wendy’s on January 18, 2018, fill out this form or get in touch with us at organize@allianceforfairfood.org!  We will follow up in the coming weeks with spiritual and direct action resources, as well as a map and running list of who’s signed up so far.

In strength and hope,

The Immokalee Crew

Harvest without Violence: November calls to reflection and action!

This November, take action with farmworker women on Nov. 20, and bring Fair Food to the table on Thanksgiving!

The holiday season is coming, and with it arrives another busy harvesting season in Southwest Florida. More and more farmworkers are traveling south to their Immokalee homes and activity at the CIW is intensifying. As we move into this stage of our yearly cycle, one often defined by celebration and gratitude for many, it is vital that we as people of faith remain mindful of our responsibility to carry on the work of justice.

We invite allies to take action on Nov. 20 in solidarity with farmworker women advancing the “Harvest without Violence” campaign to end sexual abuse in Wendy’s supply chain, and then to bring Fair Food to the Thanksgiving table at the end of the month with reflection and prayer resources we’ve put together.

On Nov. 20, mark your calendars to call Wendy’s Board Chair Nelson Peltz and urge him to join the Fair Food Program! 

That day, farmworker women will be travelling to New York City to bring the invitation to support human rights in the fields, directly to the doorstep of Mr. Peltz’s offices in Midtown Manhattan. For over a month, both Mr. Peltz and Mr. Todd Penegor, Wendy’s CEO, have ignored the CIW’s letter requesting a dialogue to end sexual violence in Wendy’s supply chain. As Board Chair and as chair of Wendy's Corporate Social Responsibility Board Committee, Mr. Peltz should be upholding real human rights for farmworkers instead of an illusory Supplier Code of Conduct that excludes workers' voices and lacks consequences for abuses. Sexual violence and other human rights abuses are shockingly widespread — and unacceptable —  in the Mexican farms from which Wendy's is currently purchasing tomatoes.

We’re calling on consumers nationwide to show their support by calling Nelson Peltz’s offices that day!

Then, on Thanksgiving Day, celebrate and give thanks for the contribution of farmworkers to the dinner table – and recall all that still remains to be done in order to bring justice to the fields – using this short pamphlet of Thanksgiving resources compiled by AFF allies.

Included among the resources are faith-specific prayers and a guided reflection for families to use around their dinner table. It is essential in the expression of thanks for certain freedoms and material comforts to remember that our well-being is not individually won, nor is it produced from nothing. The ingredients for our feasts are cultivated by many hands, and the acknowledgement of and appreciation for the people that work for our ability to nourish ourselves and our family is essential to affirming the humanity of the workers thanks to whom our society is built.

Beyond that, we express our commitment to bringing human rights to the workplace, so that all harvests may be realized without violence and without structural harm. The Thanksgiving prayers and reflection also recommit us to bring Wendy’s and Publix to the table of justice.

Download AFF’s Thanksgiving Resources and share them with your community in time for the holidays! Then, keep an eye out for sample social media posts to share and tweet on the week of Thanksgiving.

With hope,

The Immokalee Crew

Columbus, OH Part Two: “We are not victims — we are not asking for charity, we are calling for justice!”

Last Sunday, farmworkers stood alongside religious leaders from across the city of Columbus, Wendy’s hometown, for a moving interfaith service at First Congregational United Church of Christ.  The next day, it was time not just one, but two, powerful actions calling for a halt to sexual violence in Wendy's supply chain — first at the heart of the national Boot the Braids Campaign at The Ohio State University and the second outside of the Wendy’s Headquarters in Dublin! 

In the morning, with spirits buoyed by the support of the Columbus community, CIW members headed to Ohio State University carrying a beautiful quilt composed of patches stitched together and designed by Immokalee farmworkers.  The quilt gave voice to the workers’ experiences with sexual harassment and violence in the fields, to their thoughts on the extraordinary transformation brought about by the Fair Food Program, and to their firm belief that Wendy’s will one day join them in the struggle to build a more humane agricultural industry.  They arrived — accompanied by OSU students who fasted for seven days in support of the OSU Boot the Braids Campaign last spring — at the university President’s office, prepared to share the quilt, and their urgent concerns, with OSU President Michael Drake. 

Later on that same Monday afternoon, farmworkers gathered in Dublin, Ohio, across the highway from Wendy’s Headquarters.  And they were not alone.  Scores of students, faith leaders, and community members arrived, undaunted by the cold and drizzling rain, to stand with the workers from Immokalee, including representatives from Faith in Public Life, First Congregational Church, the First Unitarian Universalists of Columbus, the Methodist Theological School in Ohio, The Little Minyan Kehillah, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Franklinton Farms, the Central Ohio Workers Center, Working America, AFL-CIO, Planned Parenthood, OSU Student/Farmworker Alliance, OSU Real Food Challenge, Clarion University College Democrats (who drove all the way from Pennsylvania!).

In spite of the increasingly long and loud picket growing outside the windows of their corporate offices — and the letter of invitation to a meeting sent months earlier by the Women’s Group — Wendy’s representatives informed the police that they would not to come face-to-face with the women from Immokalee’s fields, instead choosing to remain hidden behind the tall glass doors of their headquarters...

HEAD OVER THE CIW SITE TO READ THE FULL REPORT ON THE WOMEN’S GROUP DELEGATION TO OSU PRESIDENT DRAKE’S OFFICE AND THE POWERFUL ACTION OUTSIDE OF WENDY’S HEADQUARTERS! 

Welcome to the AFF Interfaith Network, and take action this January!

Welcome to the Alliance for Fair Food Interfaith Network!

Since the very beginning of the CIW's movement for human rights in the agricultural industry, people of faith from a number of traditions and denominations have represented a central constituency in the vibrant multi-cultural and multi-generational Alliance for Fair Food. The AFF Interfaith Network is a community composed of clergy, lay leaders, congregations, and people of faith from around the country who are committed to creating and sustaining the "new day" of respect, dignity, and justice for farmworkers brought about by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and their award-winning Fair Food Program. 

People of faith bring to bear upon the movement for Fair Food spiritual uplift, grounding in religious tradition, and the moral weight of voices of faith in society, while houses of worship remain centers of mobilizing, moving community members from the pews to public demonstrations while housing and feeding innumerable farmworkers and allies during their tours and demonstrations. Most recently, major denominations and faith-based organizations have passed national and state-wide resolutions endorsing the Wendy's Boycott to bring the final fast-food holdout into the Fair Food Program. 

Read more about the role of people of faith in the Campaign for Fair Food here.

Through the AFF Interfaith Network, take action next January!

On January 18, 2018, hundreds of faith leaders from around the United States will join together to fast for a day in protest of Wendy’s executives’ ongoing refusal to join the Fair Food Program and in solidarity with the workers who continue to labor in dangerous and unfair conditions as a result. Sign up to participate today!

As Wendy’s ignores the abuses perpetrated in the name of cheap produce, it is the responsibility of those who care for the integrity of the community in faith and practice to elevate the moral demand for dialogue. On January 18, public figures from across this nation’s religious landscape will fast and peacefully demonstrate their resistance at local Wendy’s restaurants to educate, mobilize, and inspire their communities to respond to the invitation of the spirit of justice. 

While it carries forth the current call to action in the Wendy's Boycott, this upcoming national mobilization led by faith leaders is a conscious commemoration of the history of the farmworkers’ struggle.  In December 1997 and January 1998, six farmworkers in Immokalee, FL, made the decision to stop eating until the growers who owned the farms on which they toiled would hear their concerns. Low wages, verbal and physical violence, sexual abuse, and even forced labor plagued Florida tomato fields, and the workers who picked in those fields demanded better conditions. The hunger strike lasted 30 days, and only ended when former President Jimmy Carter and Bishop John Nevins of the Catholic Diocese of Venice intervened to call for a dialogue with growers on the condition that the workers would break their fast. On January 18, 1998,  at a Catholic mass with over 800 people in attendance, they did.

Today, the fight for justice in the agricultural industry continues. Incredible progress has been made through the CIW's Presidential Medal-winning Fair Food Program, but outside of the protections of the Program, wages are still stagnant and workers are still vulnerable. Gender-based violence is still epidemic, a problem highlighted by the CIW’s “Harvest Without Violence” initiative. The Fair Food Program is a proven, market-enforced answer to these violations of personhood, but without the courage of its corporate partners to do what is right for their workers and their industry, its  implementation and expansion of critical human rights protections is hindered. 

On the twentieth anniversary of the hunger strike, January 18, 2018, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers is calling on its national network of allied faith leaders to observe a day of fasting and public testimony in remembrance of the history of the workers' struggle and in a demonstration of commitment to the Wendy's Boycott.

Participants are encouraged to stand outside of their local Wendy’s franchise for three hours as they fast, where they will serve as witnesses to the reality of oppression and voices of hope for visiting allies and passersby. Fair Food supporters nationwide will be called upon to support the faith leader-led public witnesses at Wendy's restaurants around the country.

Clergy of all faiths have the singular privilege in their societal location to raise the moral issue of the oppression of farmworkers, to give of their time and resources to the building of a new economy.

Let us, in the spirit of unity and justice, respond to that call.

If you're ready to commit to fasting and organizing a public witness at your local Wendy's on January 18, 2018, fill out this form or get in touch with us at organize@allianceforfairfood.org! If you know a faith leader who should be involved in this effort and want to support them in their public witness, pass the invitation along. We'll follow up in the coming weeks with spiritual and direct action resources, as well as a map and running list of who's signed up so far.

With hope,

Patricia, Uriel, and Wesley
The AFF Faith team in Immokalee

CIW Women's Group Harvest without Violence Tour arrives in Columbus!

Farmworkers debut new Harvest without Violence Mobile Exhibit, join forces with religious leaders from across Columbus, ahead of protest at Wendy’s corporate headquarters…

This past weekend, the CIW Women’s Group, accompanied by CIW members and allies, rolled into Columbus, Ohio, on the first of two Harvest without Violence Tours.  The ensuing days were a whirlwind of consumer education and action in support of the workers’ demand that Wendy’s take responsibility for — and help end — violence against farmworker women in its supply chain by joining the Fair Food Program.  

The weekend’s jam-packed agenda included the debut of the new Harvest without Violence Mobile Exhibit, a moving interfaith service, a powerful delegation to the OSU President’s Office, and a spirited action (once again in the rain) in front of Wendy’s Headquarters.  The Columbus tour was so eventful, in fact, that we’ll be splitting the report into two parts, with today’s post featuring the debut of the CIW’s new mobile exhibit and Sunday’s inspirational interfaith service.  Part Two, coming later this week, will cover the action elements of the weekend’s events, featuring the delegation to the President’s office and the protest at Wendy’s headquarters. 

A Harvest without Violence…

Early last Sunday morning in Columbus — after 20+ hours of driving from Immokalee (and many, manymore hours spent preparing and fine tuning the extraordinary new exhibit at the CIW community center) — CIW members debuted the new Harvest without Violence Mobile Exhibit in front of the First Congregational United Church of Christ.  As hundreds of UCC congregants exited the church following each of three services throughout the day, they were greeted by members of the CIW crew, who led tours of the exhibit, answered questions about farm labor conditions and the Fair Food Program, and encouraged church members to join workers for Monday’s action in Dublin.

Stepping inside the Harvest without Violence tent, visitors were immersed in a world of multimedia and investigative journalism, extensive academic research, court documents and farmworker women’s testimonies detailing the problem of violence against women in agriculture, both here in the US and across the border in Mexico.  Once outside of the tent, participants walked through the second half of the exhibit, which captures the new day in the fields ushered in by the Fair Food Program.  The unprecedented transformation — and the Program’s stunning impact on farmworker women’s lives, specifically — is examined in depth through the key components of the Worker-driven Social Responsibility model, including extensive worker education and meaningful market consequences.   

Alliance for Fair Food’s Uriel Perez leads congregants through the museum’s panels, detailing sexual violence in agriculture as well as the solution provided by the Fair Food Program.

At the conclusion of the tour, visitors to the powerful new exhibit were presented with a choice: Which tomato would they buy to eat and share with their families, one picked in an environment of dignity and respect for human rights under the protections of the Fair Food Program, or one picked where women still face rampant sexual harassment and assault without access to remedy?  The answer among the visitors in Columbus this past weekend was unanimous, and stood in stark contrast to that of Wendy’s, whose decision to abandon its longtime Florida suppliers after Florida growers implemented the Fair Food Program on their farms and shift its purchases to Mexico sparked the national boycott launched nearly two years ago.

Finally, congregants were invited to sign a long scroll, carrying a powerful message for Wendy’s penned by the Women’s Group, which will travel the country with the exhibit to gather the thoughts and signatures of consumers who stand with farmworker women in the struggle to end sexual violence in the fields.

An interfaith service to remember…

In the afternoon, CIW members joined First Congregational members and an inter-denominational roster of faith leaders from across the Columbus community for a moving service, uniting the voices and moral authority of nine faith traditions.  The service was hosted by the First Unitarian Universalists of Columbus, St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, the Abubakar Asiddiq Islamic Center, the Church of the Saviour-United Methodist, the Little Minyan Kehillah, and the North Columbus Friends Meeting.

From left to right:  Rev. Tim Ahrens, First Congregational Church of Christ; Rabbi Jessica Shimberg, The Little Minyan Kehillah; Horsed Nooh, Director of the Abubakar Asiddiq Islamic Center; Rev. Marian Stewart, First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus

The service began with remarks from Rev. Tim Aarons of First Congregational, who gave a warm welcome to all of those gathered.  He was followed by Rabbi Jessica Shimberg of the Little Minyan Kehillah, Horsed Nooh, Director of the Abubakar Asidiq Islamic Center, and Rev. Dr. Marian Stewart of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Columbus.  Here are excerpts from their powerful comments:

Rabbi Shimberg:  The stories we tell are the way we define ourselves, for ourselves and for future generations.  The women of Immokalee have defined their story.  You have reached into places of narrowness and victimization, and you have drawn forth strength and demanded justice.  And this is the story you have to give to your daughters and your sons, and also to our daughters, and our sons.  May you be blessed always with the strength and wisdom and knowledge that you have transformed — and continued to transform — those dark places that once enslaved you.

Horsed Nooh:  We cannot accept that 80% of farmworker women experience gender-based violence.  I want you to put yourselves in the shoes of all of those great messengers that God sent.  What do they do in the face of oppression?…
… God proclaimed, “The only reason I send scriptures and messengers is to establish justice.”  That was why God sent all of those scriptures, and all of those messengers, so that they stand with justice.  Each one of us today represents a great tradition.  Today, let us stand up together for the rights of our sisters.

Finally, the service was brought to an inspiring close with a sermon from CIW’s own Nely Rodriguez:

The words that we have heard by Frederick Douglass have been accompanying me today:  The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.

It is because of this fact that we are here today.  More than 20 years ago, we as farmworkers — as the men and women of Immokalee, Florida, who harvest the fruits and vegetables of this country — decided to stop these tyrants, to say, enough with sexual violence and harassment in the fields.  To make our dignity known. …

… Thanks to the Fair Food Program these tears have dried up and our dignity is no longer being tread upon.   We have been able to put an end to the acts of tyrants, and our resistance will continue on until these new rights touch the lives of more workers.

Today we are here, once again in the heart of Ohio, to continue our struggle for justice and call on Wendy’s to sign a Fair Food Agreement that guarantees basic human rights protections, and that as women we do not have to continue sacrificing our dignity to put food on the tables of our families.

Walking out of the beautiful and historic church, CIW members left secure in the knowledge that the faith community of Columbus stood behind them in their struggle to end sexual violence in the fields, and to expand the critical human rights protections of the Fair Food Program’s well beyond its current borders.  

It was time, now, for action.

Check back soon for the second installment of the report from the action-packed weekend in Columbus!

Always moving forward,
The Immokalee Crew