Coalition of Immokalee Workers - Wendy's

A Battle for the Soul of Social Responsibility…  Wendy’s new code of conduct is a prime example of the discredited standards-without-enforcement model of corporate social responsibility; Workers’ Voice Tour to contrast Wendy’s code with the proven success of the Fair Food Program and the Worker-driven Social Responsibility model… What would you do if you could cheat on your taxes and know that you would get away with it? Not just think you might get away with it if you’re lucky, but really know that no one is watching and there would be no consequences.  Would you do it? The answer is pretty obvious.  Nobody likes paying taxes.  And even many of those who think taxes are a necessary part of living in a modern, organized society would jump at the chance to pay less than they owe, or nothing at all, if there were no monitoring or enforcement of the country’s tax laws.  We could all certainly find other ways to use the money. That’s why, when it comes to taxes, we don’t rely on voluntary compliance.  Things like roads and schools, libraries and agricultural extension offices, scientific research and space discovery, and social, economic, and national security don’t pay for themselves, so we have a well-funded and powerful monitoring body, the Internal Revenue Service.  The IRS’s job is simple: to ensure that if we do decide to cheat on our taxes, it is far more likely than not that there will be consequences. The result?  Most of us pay our taxes, most of those who don’t get caught, and, in the main, compliance is achieved.  As we have said before on this site, enforcement is everything. When it comes to human rights, however, it seems voluntary compliance is just fine with Wendy’s... Just as our country has a tax code, Wendy’s has a code of conduct for its suppliers that establishes the rules — on everything from food safety to human rights and labor practices — with which it says its suppliers must comply in order to be “approved to provide goods, products, equipment, or services” to the hamburger giant. The cover page to Wendy’s new code of conduct. Yet a deeper review of the code, which went into effect as of the first of this month, reveals that there is little or no reason to hope that Wendy’s suppliers will actually comply with those rules, or at least with those that are in any way inconvenient for them. Wishful thinking, it seems, is Wendy’s principal, perhaps sole, strategy for compliance... Read the full point-by-point comparison of Wendy's new code of conduct with the Worker-driven Social Responsibility model over at the CIW website!

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