Denver Fair Food Delivers Manager Letter and Adopts a Wendy's!

As the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) demonstrates in New York City at the Wendy's Share holders meeting, Denver Fair Food has adopted a Wendy's location in North West Denver. Members of Denver Fair Food will be returning, on a semi-regular basis, to this location to educate Wendy's patrons on the struggle for Fair Food. In addition we engaged managers in conversation and hand delivered letters in support of the CIW.

Petition: Tell Wendy's to Join the Fair Food Program!

From SumOfUs.org:

Sign our petition to Wendy’s: Join the Fair Food Program and protect farmworkers’ rights!

For the last 20 years, there’s been a quiet revolution in the tomato fields of Florida. A group of immigrant farmworkers called the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (or CIW) has been organizing to eradicate human rights abuses, like wage theft, sexual assault and in extreme cases, modern slavery which once ran rampant in the tomato industry, and improve working conditions and wages for people who pick the tomatoes we eat. They’ve made incredible progress, but now Wendy’s is standing in their way.

Most of the largest fast food chains, including McDonald’s, Subway, Burger King, and Taco Bell have all signed on to the CIW’s Fair Food Program. They have agreed to pay an extra penny per pound of tomatoes to raise wages and only buy from fields where workers’ rights are respected. Wendy’s is lagging behind the rest of the industry and is refusing to sign the agreement, despite being asked five times since 2007.

Farm workers and their allies are planning to march in the lead up to Wendy’s shareholder’s meeting in New York on May 18, and we want to make sure they can bring along a huge petition to show than consumers are behind them. Last year, the SumOfUs.org community helped push Tra we know that big corporations listen when farmworkers and consumers stand together.

der Joe’s and Chipotle to join the Fair Food Program, so

Sign our petition to Wendy’s: Join the Fair Food Program and protect farmworkers’ rights!

There’s no excuse for Wendy’s refusal to sign on to the fair food agreement. The program adds an additional 1.5 cents per pound of tomatoes raise wages, guarantees improved health and safety measures, and implements a complaint system that allows workers to safely report grievances and get fair arbitration. Wendy’s management has the know-how to implement the program -- CEO Emil Brolick ran Taco Bell when that fast food giant signed the agreement after a historic boycott. Wendy’s is dragging its feet refusing to support the unprecedented changes taking place in Florida's fields today, recently heralded in the Washington Post as "one of the great human rights success stories of our day"

Worse, Wendy’s is misleading the public about the way it purchases tomatoes. It says it buys produce through a non-profit cooperative that ensures that workers are treated fairly. But the “cooperative” is simply a bulk purchasing system controlled by Wendy’s, and its stated purpose is to “provide more favorable pricing” to Wendy’s, not to protect workers from poverty wages and abusive conditions. Meanwhile, the “cooperative” isn’t accountable to workers at all, and Wendy’s has remained silent in the face of demands to disclose any enforcement mechanisms behind its toothless code of conduct.

Wendy’s need to know that consumers see what it’s doing, and that we’ll hold it accountable if it keeps burying its head in the sand.

Before the Fair Food Program launched, tomato pickers faced some of the worst labor conditions in the country without any effective form of recourse. But the CIW’s approach is working, and it’s been internationally recognized for its unprecedented success in protecting human rights. An advisory committee to the White House cited the fair food agreement in a report on the eradication of human trafficking as “one of the most successful and innovative programs” in the world today in the fight against modern-day slavery, and the United Nations has sent observers to study the program.

Tell Wendy’s to sign the fair food agreement and get on the right side of history.

 

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More information:

Old fashioned is right!, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, January 2013
"Fair Food Program helps end the use of slavery in the tomato fields" The Washington Post, September 2012

Report-back: March for Rights, Respect and Fair Food

Come hear stories, eat some food, see a photo exhibit, watch video highlights, hear stories and listen to original music from the March for Rights, Respect and Fair Food!

April 6, 6:00pm-9:00pm
at Colorado Progressive Coalition
1029 Santa Fe Dr. [map]

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers called for a 200-mile march to mark the incredible progress that has been made in Florida's fields, as well as, mark the path ahead - inviting those corporations that have yet to join the Fair Food Program.

The Denver Fair Food Committee answered that call with a delegation of students, young people, and community leaders that marched 200-miles in solidarity with the CIW and with the hope that together we will forge that new path for dignity and respect in the fields.
This will be a fundraiser to off-set costs for this delegation that rolled deep to represent the mile-high city's support for the Fair Food Program!

If you'd like to give now, click here to donate!

Come hear stories, eat some food, see a photo exhibit, watch video highlights and listen to original music from the march! 

Donations are greatly appreciated but no one will be turned away!

Denver presente! 3 more videos from the March for Rights, Respect and Fair Food!

The March for Rights, Respect and Fair Food is now over. The 15-day, 200-mile action walking side-by-side with farmworkers and other allies was, by all accounts, a powerful experience for everyone who participated from Denver. Here are three more videos from Denver Fair Food members reflecting on their experience on the March.

Lani:


Alex:


Mu Son:


Check out the Coalition of Immokalee Workers website for more videos, photos, press and more!

Denver presente! Three videos from the March for Rights, Respect and Fair Food

Today we're gonna share three videos from folks from Denver.  One from folks who recently returned from the March and two from folks who recently arrived at the March. All are reflections on their participation in the March for Rights, Respect and Fair Food and the meaning of solidarity.

The first comes from the group from Regis University who recently returned from the March and almost immediately shared their experience with dozens of their schoolmates at a community dinner at the Regis-affiliated Romero House:


The second video comes from SFA Steering Committee member and Denver Fair Food organizer Joe Deras:



And finally, another Denver Fair Food member, Tania Valenzuela, shares her experience walking with the CIW on her first day on the March:



While we're on the subject of videos, be sure to check out the web page for the March where you'll find incredible videos which have at least as much beauty and heart as ours and maybe a leg up on us when it comes to technical and artistic sophistication.

Small gestures of solidarity on the March for Rights, Respect and Fair Food

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers' March for Rights, Respect and Fair Food has now been going on for over a week and covered over 100 miles of Florida highway. A large contingent from Denver Fair Food is participating in the March - some of us have already returned from Florida, some of us are still marching and some of us will be joining the other marchers shortly.

Go to the web page for the March for Rights, Respect and Fair Food for all the information you'll need on this historic action.  There you'll find incredible photo reports, press accounts, inspiring videos and more.

Rather than duplicate updates of those on the march, we thought we might try to share the perspective of the thousands of bystanders who have witnessed the March as it slowly progressed through their cities.  The response from those witnesses has been an overwhelmingly positive one - overwhelming not just in terms of numbers but truly the small displays of solidarity shown by ordinary people has at times left the marchers overwhelmed with pride and joy and gratitude. 

Everywhere the March has traveled, despite being inconvenienced by backed-up traffic, despite probably being otherwise contented customers of Publix supermarkets, despite most likely never having themselves worked a day in the fields in their lives, people from all walks of life have demonstrated their support through honks, waves, cheers, claps and thumbs up as workers, and consumers, journey toward Publix headquarters seeking rights and respect.

Without further ado, here is a glimpse of but a few of the many everyday people who have expressed their solidarity:

There's this person with the awesome "solidarity fist";

this woman at the bus stop who enthusiastically waved and clamped the whole time the march passed;

the woman on the far left and her dog;

and this woman and her dog;

 this woman who recorded the scene with her smart phone;

these folks who were enjoying lunch at the most recent company to join the Fair Food Program;

 this woman with a strong thumbs up;

 this hair stylist who took a few minutes from her day to say hi;

 this person from a local dentist office;

 this guy who was admiring a nearby art exhibit before turning his admiration to one of the most beautiful social movements of our day;

 and last but not least Santa Claus, his friend, and a giant stuffed chimpanzee.



In all seriousness, though, these small gestures on the part of those who presumably have little or no knowledge of farmworkers' struggle point to something profound.  Perhaps it is an intuitive recognition of what Kandace Vallejo, a long-time ally of the CIW in the Campaign for Fair Food, articulates in her recent reflection on the March: "I’ve spent years learning that though our struggles are not the same, they converge. I am tired of a life dominated by corporate logos and individual alienation. Although North American culture prioritizes personal gain over collective responsibility, I refuse to believe that we have to reiterate such values through our relationships and lifestyles. This movement has shown me that we don’t."

Valentine's Day Actions hit Wendy's from Washington, DC to Santa Ana, CA

"Roses are red, violets are blue...

"...Sign the Fair Food agreement, Wendy's, it's the right thing to do!"

 

A month ago, Fair Food activists across the country visited their local Wendy's to deliver a message: It's time to join the rest of the fast-food industry and support the Fair Food Program. They promised to follow up their visits with a national week of Valentine-themed action if Wendy's failed to respond to their invitation to do the right thing.

This past weekend, those same consumers returned to Wendy's -- which responded to the call for social responsibility with a resounding silence -- and made good on their promise! Photos and reports have made their way into Immokalee from over a dozen cities, from a snowy march and protest in Cincinnati, Ohio, to a balmy rally in Miami where they delivered the catchy poem of unrequited love at the top of this post, and a creative bit of theater from Denver Fair Food (pictured above). And more are on the way. Check out the Coalition of Immokalee Workers website today for pictures and reports from some of those actions.

 

A here are some exclusive photos from the action in Denver!

 

A delegation from Denver Fair Food went inside to speak with the manager before performing the above shown teatro in which workers and consumers "propose" to Wendy's that the company join the Fair Food Program.

Meanwhile outside, we chanted...

passed out our home-made valentines to Wendy's customers, educating them on about farmworker's struggle...

and, in the process, asked some tough questions of the "old fashioned" burger chain...

But, of course, we sill managed to have some fun.