Our long-term partners, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, are embarking on a ten-day, ten-city “
Now is the Time” tour, March 5-15!
Make plans to join us! The coalition has come
so far and Presbyterians around the country have supported these farm
workers from Florida for so many years. To learn more, or to register to
join us, contact
Andrew Kang Bartlett.
SPECIAL ACTIONS:
March 8-9: Major Wendy’s Action in Columbus, Ohio
March 14-15: Major Publix Action in Lakeland, Fla.
The Truth Tour that began it all…
Nearly fourteen years ago, the
Campaign for Fair Food
launched when two buses full of farm workers set out from Immokalee,
Fla. on the first-ever Taco Bell Truth Tour, leaving behind an industry
mired in grinding poverty, rampant wage theft and unaddressed sexual
harassment. The workers crossed the nation with their vision and headed
toward the largest fast food corporation in the world. Almost from the
beginning, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has stood behind the farm
workers in their demands for justice.
But for all that the farm workers lacked in
rights, pay, and recognition for the tremendous fruits of their grueling
labor, what the united crew of workers held was more powerful than the
profits and persuasion of any multi-billion dollar corporation whose
practices made them poor: truth.
Truth that that their work of harvesting the
country's fruits and vegetables merited nothing less than just pay and
respect and that consumers, when made aware of the exploitation behind
their goods, had the will and power to hold corporate retailers
accountable. Truth that corporate retailers could, in turn, harness
their market power to reverse the trend of ever-diminishing wages and
demand higher ethical standards from their suppliers, and that farm
workers, when united with other people of faith and conscience, could
see that vision to fruition.
From Exposing Truth to Building a New Day
A
decade and a half later, where the farm workers were once exposing a
truth, the truth has now long been recognized and accepted. Where they
once were imagining a solution, they’re now inviting partners to join
them in a concrete reality.
Today, the
Fair Food Program
has welcomed twelve corporate retailers—most recently Walmart, the
largest retailer in the world. Some ninety percent of the Florida tomato
industry has come on board. The
Fair Food Standards Council
works round-the-clock to conduct field and farm audits, investigate
complaints and implement corrective action plans. The program’s
education, monitoring and enforcement mechanisms have been recognized
around the country and around the world for creating, in the words of
the
White House, “one of the most innovative and successful programs” to end modern slavery today.
Most importantly, the Fair Food Program is
working.
This past fall, the CIW accepted the Roosevelt Institute’s Freedom from
Want Medal for “creating a sustainable blueprint for worker-driven
corporate social responsibility, winning fairer wages; work with
dignity; and freedom from forced labor, sexual harassment and violence
in the workplace for nearly 100,000 workers."
How long, Publix?
Yet, amid this transformation of an industry, heralded from the
United Nations to
Florida tomato growers
themselves, Publix Supermarkets, Florida’s hometown grocer, has refused
to join the program for over four years. Despite countless
protests and
pray-ins, a
6-day fast and
200-mile march
and many rebukes of the falsehoods they’ve disseminated, Publix remains
steadfast in its refusal. Though the Fair Food Program now enjoys
tremendous gains, its full potential cannot be realized until holdout
corporations decide that they will only purchase from farms upholding
the highest human rights standards.
So this March, we’ll be uniting our voices once
more to make it clearer than ever that such a way of doing business is
now part of a bygone era—but this time, we won’t just stop in Florida.
Because while
Publix is “aggressively” expanding throughout the Southeast, support for Fair Food is
growing even faster, in
Atlanta,
Nashville,
Charlotte—and to
hundreds of thousands internationally. As the
Editorial Board of the Tampa Bay Times
(one of Publix’s hometown papers) wrote itself: "With Whole Foods,
Trader Joe’s and Wal-Mart now participating in the program, there is no
reason Publix should not join its grocery competitors in helping to
raise pay and improve working conditions in Florida’s tomato fields.”
Why not, Wendy’s?
But seeing as Publix isn’t the only holdout to
this proven solution to abuse in their supply chain, we must visit Ohio,
the home of the burger giant, Wendy’s. Of the top five fast food
retailers in the country—McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, Taco Bell and
Wendy’s—Wendy’s remains the only one still
refusing to join the Fair Food Program.
Our tour visit to Wendy’s headquarters will
come almost a decade after Emil Brolick, then-Taco Bell President,
spoke these words
upon signing the first Fair Food Agreement with the CIW: “As an
industry leader, we are pleased to lend our support to and work with the
CIW to improve working and pay conditions for farm workers in the
Florida tomato fields… any solution must be industry-wide … but we are
willing to play a leadership role within our industry to be part of the
solution.” Today, as CEO of Wendy’s, the very same Emil Brolick has
remained silent.
Start preparing for the “Now is the Time" Tour!
This March 5-15,
please join us!
Join us for the major Wendy’s witness on March 7 & 8 in Columbus,
or head to Lakeland for the major call to Publix on March 14 & 15.
Because the fields of Florida have forever been transformed, no
resistance from Publix or Wendy’s will turn us back. Join us as farm
workers and allies tell them together: Now is the time.
Even if you can't join in person, here are some things you can do:
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