Coming up: The Fair Food Nation takes on holdouts Wendy’s and Publix with a Florida “Summer of Action”!

Energized by an eventful couple of months in the Wendy’s Boycott, farmworkers are announcing a series of Florida protests to turn up the heat on Wendy’s and longtime Fair Food holdout Publix Supermarkets in the dog days of summer!

After Wendy’s declared its decision to repatriate tomato purchases from Mexico in response to the tremendous pressure consumers and farmworkers have built over the course of the two-year boycott and the spring’s powerful five-day Freedom Fast, we have put fast-food holdout and Board Chair Nelson Peltz in the hot seat for failing to commit to farmworker human rights by joining the Fair Food Program. Wendy’s move to greenhouses does not shield workers from the abuse and poverty experienced in the fields, and infrequent third-party audits lacking worker participation and effective enforcement fail to truly protect workers. With these truths in hand, 200+ marched to Mr. Peltz’s Manhattan offices a couple weeks ago to demand, “Wendy’s, How Much Longer?,” while hundreds more from coast to coast called in, sent letters, and educated friends and family about Wendy’s shameful evasion of responsibility.

In August and September, Immokalee farmworkers, their families and their many steadfast allies throughout the Sunshine State will build on the Wendy’s Boycott momentum while casting a spotlight on Publix’s failure to respect workers’ rights. If you’re in Florida, we invite you, as consumers and allies, to join us for protests and marches at the following locations:

St. Petersburg, FL
Sunday, August 5 at 3 PM - 4 PM
Allendale United Methodist Church, 3803 Haines Rd N in St. Petersburg, FL 33703
Facebook Event

Orlando, FL
Sunday, August 12 at 2 PM - 4 PM
4510 Semoran Blvd S. Orlando, FL 32822
Facebook Event

Miami, FL
Sunday, September 2 at 4 PM - 6 PM
3301 Biscayne Blvd, Miami, FL 33137
Facebook Event

Naples, FL
Saturday, September 22
Time and location TBA

For inspiration, check out the reportbacks from lively protests in Sarasota and Ft. Myers earlier this summer!

If you’re not in Florida or not able to take part in the series, sign up to participate in our “Farmworkers in the Pulpits/Bimah/Minbar” Labor Day weekend call to education and action (Sep. 1-2). If you’re a student or young person, consider applying for the 2018 Encuentro gathering in Immokalee (Sep. 20-23)!

Adelante!
The Immokalee Crew

TAKE ACTION: This Labor Day, extend the call for farmworker justice to your congregation!

Labor Day is a time for us to celebrate the contributions of workers to our country and the continuing struggle for fairness and justice by and for them. For allies of faith in the Fair Food Nation, Labor Day weekend (Sep. 1-3) represents an opportunity to amplify the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' longstanding struggle for justice in the fields. 

This year, the CIW invites allies of faith to incorporate the campaign for Fair Food and the Wendy's Boycott into the weekend's religious services — through sermon, ritual, prayer or another avenue — and then take to the streets to show Wendy's that the longer they stall — and thereby deny — justice, the louder and more insistent our call will be. If you are in the Southeast, we also encourage you to also extend the call to Publix Supermarkets, another Fair Food holdout.

We've also compiled your resource guide to help you plan your participation in this national mobilization, where you will find: 

• Service elements
• Sermon points
• Spiritual resources, including readings, reflections and prayers from the Christian, Jewish and Muslim traditions
• Ideas and tips on how to organize a public action
• Action materials, including a printable Boycott Wendy's flyer, a chant sheet, a letter for Wendy's management

Fill out the form to let us know about your participation at organize@allianceforfairfood.org. Looking forward to sharing updates across the AFF Faith Network!

ANNOUNCING: On July 19, farmworkers return to NYC to demand, “How Much Longer, Wendy’s?”

Following Wendy’s move to repatriate its tomato purchases from Mexico in response to consumers’ human rights concerns – but continued refusal to join the Fair Food Program – farmworkers and allies prepare to turn up the heat on the company’s leadership in the Big Apple!

Mark your calendars, Fair Food Nation!

On July 19, Immokalee farmworkers and their families will return to Manhattan for a major march to demand that Wendy’s, the final fast food hold-out from the Fair Food Program, make an unequivocal commitment to human rights, once and for all.  We invite you to join us in New York City as we return to Nelson Peltz’s now-storied offices at Trian Partners, 280 Park Ave., to bring Wendy’s all the way home to the Fair Food Program!  Here’s all the details you need to make your plans:

“Wendy’s, How Much Longer?” March in NYC

Thursday, July 19 at 5pm

Trian Partners (280 Park Ave, near E 49th St.)

Facebook Event

If you’re interested in supporting the mobilization or in organizing a caravan to NYC, get in touch at: organize@allianceforfairfood.org!

Here below is the full scoop on the upcoming action:

Only a few short months ago in March, over 2,000 farmworkers and their consumer allies – from New York and around the country – marched in Manhattan in a powerful display of support for the CIW’s five-day Freedom Fast, a fast carried out by nearly 100 farmworkers and allies on the sidewalk outside of Wendy’s Board Chair Nelson Peltz’s hedge fund offices on Park Avenue.  The fasters were calling on Wendy’s to pull its tomato purchases from the Mexican produce industry, where sexual violence against women and other human rights violations are endemic and go unchecked.  Instead, the Fair Food Nation was calling on Wendy’s to return to Florida’s tomato industry, where the company’s former suppliers have implemented the award-winning Fair Food Program in partnership with the CIW, transforming the fields into “the best working environment in U.S. agriculture”. 

In June, bowing to the pressure generated by the farmworkers’ campaign — including a petition that collected well over 100,000 consumer signatures in support of their demands – Wendy’s came half-way home.  In a major announcement earlier this month at its annual shareholder meeting in Ohio, Wendy’s declared its intention to repatriate its tomato purchases from Mexico.  It did not, however, agree to join the Fair Food Program.  Instead, Wendy’s announced that it would be shifting its purchases to greenhouses in the US and Canada. 

Without a doubt, halting purchases from one of the hemisphere’s most abusive produce industries represents a step in the right direction, and the move is proof that when workers and consumers join forces to make their concerns about sexual violence and other human rights violations heard, Wendy’s has no choice but to listen.  Indeed, Wendy’s cited the growing focus on “working conditions for tomato farmworkers” driven by the efforts of the “CIW and other associated organizations” as one of the principal reasons for the move.  However, Wendy’s decision to continue evading the award-winning Fair Food Program, and instead rely on non-FFP farms and a discredited model of superficial third-party auditing to monitor its supply chain, is unacceptable.

Contrary to Wendy’s claims, greenhouses do not in themselves shield farmworkers from the abuse and poverty experienced in the fields.  And infrequent third-party audits lacking worker participation or effective enforcement mechanisms have been proven time and time again insufficient to guarantee a workplace free of exploitation

By refusing to accept Wendy’s patently hollow claims that labor conditions in Mexico were decent and that is monitoring systems were up to the job of enforcing human rights, we compelled a multi-billion dollar retail food chain to move its entire tomato supply chain out of a country where violence, corruption, and impunity are the rule.  That is a victory for human rights, won through consciousness and the tireless commitment to action of countess farmworkers and allies

But it is not a complete victory, and now it is time to cross the finish line.

Neither farmworkers nor consumers will settle for anything less than the worker-driven Fair Food Program and its verifiable guarantee of fundamental human rights for the women and men who harvest our produce. What’s more, we will not allow Wendy’s or Board Chair Nelson Peltz to turn their backs on farmworker women and men’s urgent demands for justice, respect, and true partnership.

TAKE ACTION NOW: Email Wendy’s executives ahead of Tuesday’s annual shareholder meeting!

TODAY: Flood Wendy’s Board of Directors’ inboxes with support for farm labor justice!

Tomorrow, June 5th, Wendy’s executives will be meeting with shareholders at their headquarters in Dublin, Ohio — and whether they like it or not, Fair Food is going to be squarely at the top of the agenda.  As we write, dozens of farmworker families are on the road to Columbus, readying to join scores of allies from across the Midwest at Wendy’s doorstep for a high-energy protest calling on the fast-food giant to join the Fair Food Program.

Whether you’re headed to Columbus or reading this at home, you can add your voice to the growing Fair Food chorus today.  We’ve proven time and time again that even the world’s largest corporations can be held accountable for their failure to protect the human rights of farmworkers in their supply chains — but it takes concerted action to make ourselves heard.

Show your unwavering support for farmworkers’ human rights by sending an email to Wendy’s Board of Directors today!

Tomorrow, farmworkers and their allies — many of whom fasted for five days in frigid temperatures outside of Board Chairman Nelson Peltz’s offices just a few months ago — will confront the fast food giant’s top executives face-to-face, including Mr. Peltz.  Today, YOU can amplify farmworkers’ message, and make sure Wendy’s knows that the women and men who harvest our food are not alone in this fight.

Help us reach our goal of over 400 emails in the next 24 hours.  If everyone reading this message sent an email right now, we’d send ten times that many.  Here’s how:

1. Click here to head over to our action page where you’ll find an email form
2. Add your name, contact information, and a short message
3. Hit send!

And then — please share the action far and wide!