May 8, 2013

New York, NY – Today, after three years of organizing by low wage workers, the New York City Council passed a weakened version of the Earned Sick Time Act. While this marks progress for many workers who lacked paid sick days and who feared termination if they stayed home while sick, the final bill includes unacceptable compromises and exclusions.

The final language of the bill comes as a disappointment to food workers and the organizations representing them, such as the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York (ROC-NY) and Brandworkers International, both of which are member organizations of the Food Chain Workers Alliance. Food workers have been involved in pushing for the legislation’s passage since 2009, and none of them anticipated that the final bill would deny paid sick days to all workers in the manufacturing sector, deny paid sick days to employees in many medium-size businesses, and include a provision that would require restaurant workers and other shift workers to “choose” between picking up an extra shift or taking a paid sick day.

“While giving job protection to most workers and paid sick days to many workers is a step forward, it is upsetting that a bill fueled by the stories of sick food workers would exclude many of those very workers,” said Diana Robinson of the Food Chain Workers Alliance. “The workers who produce, cook, and serve our food deserve the same basic rights as all other workers.”

There are 74,500 manufacturing workers in New York City. These workers are mostly minimum wage-earning immigrants who simply cannot afford to get sick. The Earned Sick Time Act denies manufacturing workers the right to paid sick days.

“Everyone’s safety is compromised when food production workers have to choose between losing their livelihood or coming to work sick and handling our food,” said Joseph Sanchez, Campaign Coordinator at Brandworkers. “Food manufacturing workers struggle to feed themselves and their families, struggle to survive on poverty wages in an industry rife with wage theft, discrimination, unsafe working conditions, and other abuses. The City Council’s outright exclusion of these workers from the right to paid sick days is simply indefensible.”

There are over 200,000 restaurant workers in New York City. The majority of these workers are people of color and immigrants. Almost 90% of restaurant workers in the City lack paid sick days. Restaurant workers are also some of the City’s lowest paid workers, experiencing high rates of poverty and wage theft.

“I support paid sick days for everyone, but I’m upset that shift workers are being treated differently than other workers,” said Carolina Portillo, a restaurant worker and member of ROC-NY. “I’ve been waiting years for this moment, and paid sick days shouldn’t just be optional for workers like me. It should be an absolute right, just like it is for any other worker.”

Under the Earned Sick Time Act, restaurant and other shift workers will be denied a paid sick day if they pick up an extra shift or change shifts with a co-worker.

“Picking up extra shifts is how many of these workers survive,” said Daisy Chung, Executive Director of ROC-NY. “Now, they are required to forego an extra shift if they take time off for an illness, or be denied pay for their sick day. We also expect that some employers will manipulate this provision to their advantage to avoid paying for sick time.”

The agreement also carved out businesses with fewer than 20 employees from being required to provide any paid sick leave beginning on April 1, 2014, and will be lowered to fewer than 15 employees beginning on October 1, 2015. The exemption, which originally only applied to businesses with no more than 5 employees, will now mean the exclusion of many food workers.

“Paid sick days are a fundamental right that all workers deserve. Unfortunately, the final version of the Earned Sick Times Act falls far short of guaranteeing this right, particularly for New York City’s food chain workers,” Robinson said. “FCWA member organizations will continue to organize until New York City’s paid sick days law covers everyone.”

If your organization would like to sign on in support, please click here to fill out a form or fill out the form below.

Immigration Policy Principles for Food Sovereignty

Preamble

The US Food Sovereignty Alliance (USFSA) stands for the rights of all people, including undocumented immigrant workers and their families in the U.S. Farmworkers, food processing workers, food distribution workers, restaurant workers and other retail food workers are all directly harmed by the marginalization and exploitation of all undocumented immigrants including the vulnerability of women to economic, physical, and sexual abuse.  Food sovereignty requires dignity and for all workers in the food system; we affirm that this includes a process of legalization with dignity that guarantees all rights for all people.

Full dignity and empowerment for food system workers is impossible to achieve while neo-liberal “free trade” policies define the relationship between our government and other nations. At the same time, the misguided mandate of militarizing the Mexico-US borders and areas further south directly contradicts the internal logic of “free trade” as an idea.  These agreements force the migration of economically displaced people while militarization of borders and criminalization of cross-border migration is designed to maintain a vulnerable and therefore cheap labor force.  The movement of people migrating toward employment out of desperation for economic survival is a symptom of a broad system of economic exploitation.  That system directly undermines food sovereignty and human dignity.  We believe that the principles of food sovereignty would be served by policies that honor the humanity of all workers, including the unconditional right to migrate as enshrined in the International Declaration of Human Rights, the right to organize, and the right to defend and implement economic policies that allow for people to prosper and stay in their home communities, including a democratic and sovereign control of local agricultural and food markets and local agricultural policies.

Photo from the Farmworker Association of Florida

The US Food Sovereignty Alliance calls for immigration policies that remain accountable to affected communities and that uphold the rights and dignity of all, while contributing to a food system that values the lives and well-being of food system workers and their families.

USFSA Principles for Immigration Reform

1      END BORDER MILITARIZATION.  The use of expensive and wasteful border militarization as a binding condition for a legalization program is unacceptable and cruel.   Such a condition, as proposed in the recently released Senate immigration bill, would further concentrate power and further conflate criminalization processes with migration. Remove National Guard troops from the border and end the privatization of border control and security operations on the border.  Prosecute private vigilante groups for violations of the rights of migrants, including assault against women. No more deaths.  Redirect funds from border enforcement towards social services, healthcare, education, family reunification, processing visa backlogs and enforcing civil rights.

2      SEPARATE ENFORCEMENT OF FEDERAL IMMIGRATION LAW FROM LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT. End Secure Communities.  Truly secure communities know that they can access law enforcement agents without fear of retaliation or deportation.  End local criminalization of immigration status-related violations such as driving without a license or unlawful entry.

3      END TEMPORARY or GUEST WORKER PROGRAMS. If/while they continue to exist, grant all temporary workers access to visas that create a pathway to citizenship for themselves and their families. Guarantee human rights, worker protections, and fair wages to all workers, regardless of immigration status or country of origin.  Allow workers to change employers, the right to organize, and the right to travel.   Deprivatize the foreign labor recruitment market to curb indentured servitude. Ensure that employers have sufficient resources to pay promised wages and to comply with labor laws. We  oppose any attempt to impose a “merit based” program that assigns skill preferences that are both unrealistic and unjust.

4      END MANDATORY E-VERIFY PROGRAMS. They turn employers into immigration law enforcers, and too often, are used as a tool to prohibit workers from organizing or speaking up about workplace rights violations including assault on women.  These employer screenings violate the privacy and basic human rights of all workers.  Such programs put an undue burden on workers and employers, and risk creating an I.D. that signals and imposes a second class status for the worker.

5      REPEAL UNJUST TRADE AGREEMENTS. Evaluate and repeal existing trade agreements that displace people, force migration, and impede food sovereignty.  Don’t create new trade agreements that displace people or lower living standards. Prohibit military enforcement of trade agreements.

6      PROVIDE A FAIR PATHWAY TO LEGALIZATION AND/OR CITIZENSHIP: Allow affordable and straightforward access to pathways for all, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, economic status, or employment status.  Allow equal protections and rights for all, including right to work, right to organize, right to travel, right to benefits, and right to due process during the legalization process.

7      KEEP FAMILIES TOGETHER – Reunite families that have been separated by deportation. Process the backlog of pending visas & increase family-based visas.  Recognize same-sex partnership and sibling relationships under the family visa program.  Eliminate high income requirements for sponsorship to keep families together.

8      END ARBITRARY DETENTION: Guarantee due process and a fair day in court to all. Close detention centers.

9      INSTATE A MORATORIUM ON DEPORTATIONS and allow right-to-return for all deported over the last 4 years.

10   PROVIDE SANCTUARY for refugees and victims of crime, domestic abuse, and sexual assault.

11   REMAIN ACCOUNTABLE AND TRANSPARENT. Engage affected communities in decision-making around immigration policy.  Ensure that the laws protect all people’s rights.  Ensure transparency and accountability between agencies enforcing laws, policymakers, and affected people.

12   GUARANTEE THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS FOR ALL. In the workplace and beyond.  No criminalization that compromises rights.  Guarantee rights regardless of race, gender, economic status, immigration status, sexual orientation, including the right to organize and self-advocate without fear of retaliation or deportation.

 

The discussion highlighted many issues that Saru Jayaraman chronicled in her book, Behind The Kitchen Door, which exposes the rampant discrimination, meager wages, and health issues (lack of earned sick days, working while sick) that face our country’s 10 million food-service workers every day.

At the start of the long segment, Chris Hayes cited multiple statistics and data from our report The Hands That Feed Us!

Watch the entire segment on the Welcome Table website!

The Welcome Table

We are on the cusp of creating real change for food workers and the food system in America; legislators across America are currently considering proposals ro raise the minimum wage and provide paid sick days, and to regulate food companies, forcing them to provide healthier, more environmentally-sustainable food.

All of us – workers, employers, and eaters – have a stake in encouraging a sustainable food system and thriving local economies.  By raising the wage and benefits floor, millions of workers across the food chain will have enough to spend on the basics, and boost the economy in the process by circulating more money in local economies.  So this year, to eat just, join us at thewelcometable.net

Angie Rodriguez, Walmart worker & leader of OUR Walmart

Watch our new video “The Hands That Feed Us, Part I“, which features workers throughout the food system talking about health and safety issues in the workplace and the lack of paid sick days. We have TWO VERSIONS of the video – one is bilingual in English/Spanish and the other has subtitles in Chinese, thanks to our UCLA intern Shijie Zhang. Angie Rodriguez, a Walmart worker and leader of OUR Walmart (pictured here), is one of the workers featured in the video.

Then, send a letter to your Congressional representatives asking them to support the Healthy Families Act.

Sign our petition on SignOn.org telling members of Congress that as a consumer, you’re willing to pay an extra dime a day so that 29 million workers can receive a much needed raise and they should support the Fair Minimum Wage Act. Read the blog post below to learn more!

*By Saru Jayaraman and Joann Lo*

Big Food companies and their lobbying groups have lied to us many times. They convinced Congress to include tomato paste on pizzas as a vegetable. They say we need industrial, chemical-laden agriculture to feed the world (check out Anna Lappé’s new video Food MythBusters to learn that we don’t). And Big Food has also spread the mythology that if the minimum wage is raised, food will become so expensive that none of us will be able to afford to eat out – or eat at all – again.

Yes, that’s a lie! On this Food Day 2012, our organizations are releasing a new report, A Dime a Day: The Impact of the Miller/Harkin Minimum Wage Proposal on the Price of Food. The proposed Fair Minimum Wage Act, introduced this year by Representative George Miller (D-CA) in the House and Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) in the Senate would raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.80 per hour over the next 3 years and the tipped minimum wage from $2.13 to 70% of the regular minimum wage.

We found that this increase in the regular minimum wage and the tipped minimum wage would have a minuscule impact on food costs. Even if the entire cost of increased wages is passed on to consumers, grocery store prices would rise, on average, less than half of 1 percent over the three-year phase-in of the new minimum wage and restaurant food prices would also increase by less than one percent per year. This would mean a $0.45 increase on a $20 restaurant bill over three years.

Overall, even if all employers passed on 100% of the wage increase to customers, the average American household would pay less than a dime a day extra for food over the three-year implementation of the minimum wage increase.  This is actually the highest it could possibly be, because businesses could choose to not pass on the entire cost to consumers.

We decided to conduct this study, with help from Chris Benner, Associate Professor at UC Davis, because we had to confront the myth that raising the minimum wage would make food too expensive for all of us. In fact, raising the minimum wage would not only not prohibit us from being able to put food on the table, but it would also allow the millions of workers who work in the food system to put food on the table as well. They can’t right now because their wages are just too low.

Twenty million people work in the food system in the U.S., and more than half (10 million workers) earn less than the poverty line for a family of three. In our report, “The Hands That Feed Us,” which came out in June 2012, we found that food workers use food stamps at 1.5 times the rate of the rest of the U.S. workforce and face food insecurity, or the inability to afford to eat as defined by the USDA, at 1.2 times the rate of all other workers.

Photo by MissPixels (Flickr)

Not only does the food system represent the largest employer of workers in this country, but it is also the largest employer of minimum wage workers. So, the workers who touch our food would be the greatest beneficiaries of a minimum wage increase – almost eight million workers in the food system. In total, 29 million workers in all industries will benefit from the minimum wage increase. The Economic Policy Institute estimated that all workers affected by the increase would earn an additional $40 billion in additional wages over the first several years of the bill’s enactment.

The Fair Minimum Wage Act is also a historic shift from minimum wage increase legislation of the last two decades, since the federal minimum wage for workers who receive tips, like servers, bussers, and bartenders, has been frozen at $2.13 for more than 20 years. This bill would result in more than a 100% wage increase for them over three years. For those workers earning the minimum wage, the bill’s passage would result in a 33% wage increase over the same period. For these millions of working people who touch our food, the bill’s passage could provide these workers the means to support themselves and their families.

So stand up to Big Food! Sign our petition on SignOn.org telling members of Congress that as a consumer, you’re willing to pay an extra dime a day so that 29 million workers can receive a much needed raise and they should support the Fair Minimum Wage Act.

Saru Jayaraman is Director of the Food Labor Research Center at UC Berkeley and co-founder and co-Director of the Restaurant Opportunities Center United. Joann Lo is the Executive Director of the Food Chain Workers Alliance.

The Hands That Feed Us is based on nearly 700 surveys and interviews with workers and employers in food production, processing, distribution, retail and service, which collectively sell over $1.8 trillion dollars in goods and services annually, accounting for over 13 percent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product.

According to our report, there are some good jobs in the food system (13.5% of workers surveyed earn livable wages), but the vast majority are incredibly low-wage, with little or no access to paid sick days and health benefits, with dire consequences for consumers. More than 86 percent of workers reported earning subminimum, poverty, and low wages, resulting in a sad irony: food workers face higher levels of food insecurity, or the inability to afford to eat, than the rest of the U.S. workforce.

You can download the full report, the executive summary, and the executive summary in Spanish. If you would like a hard copy of any of these, please contact us at info (at) foodchainworkers.org.

The Hands That Feed Us examines the five core food occupations and industries in the food system: farmworkers (production), slaughterhouse and other processing facilities workers (processing), warehouse workers (distribution), grocery store workers (retail), and restaurant and food service workers (service).  It examines how corporate consolidation throughout the food chain has created universal impacts on workers in terms of low wages, small to midsize employers in terms of unfair competition, and consumers in terms of food quality and diversity.  Employers interviewed unanimously commented on how multinational food corporations receiving government subsidies and tax breaks and buying up their own suppliers has created unfair and unmanageable competition.

In addition to examples of poor work environments, the report also highlights fair business practices and steps that policymakers, consumers, and employers can take to improve conditions for food system workers.

Key Findings from The Hands That Feed Us:

Lack of Benefits: Seventy-nine percent of food system workers do not have a single paid sick day, or do not know if they have paid sick days, and 58 percent lack health coverage. Consequently, 53 percent have admitted to working while sick.

Reliance on Public Support: Food system workers use food stamps at one-and-a-half times the rate of the rest of the U.S. workforce. Food industry employees are also more likely receive Medicaid than other industries.  Nearly 28% of food system employees are on Medicaid, compared to 19.36% of all industries. Due to a lack of employer-provided health benefits, more than one third of all workers surveyed (34.8%) report using the emergency room for primary health care. In addition, 80 percent of these workers are unable to pay for such care.

Poor Quality of Life: A full 10 percent reported working more than 10 hours per day, and the vast majority of those reported working 60 or more hours per week. Almost half of the workers also reported working multiple jobs to make ends meet.

Lack of Upward Mobility: Despite taking on more duties, 81 percent never received a promotion.

Improper Safety Training: More than half of all workers surveyed (52 percent) reported that they did not receive health and safety training from their employers. Almost one-third of all food system workers (32.7%) reported that their employers did not always provide necessary equipment to do their jobs. A majority of workers (57.2%) reported suffering an injury or illness on the job.

Gender and Race Discrimination: While about one quarter of Black and Latino workers and almost 40 percent of Asian workers reported earning less than the minimum wage, only 13.5 percent of white workers surveyed reported earning less than the minimum wage. Not surprisingly given these differences, more than one third of workers surveyed reported feeling that they had been discriminated against by their employer. Women food system workers take home slightly less than men in the food system; women earn median weekly wages of $400, while men reported a median weekly take-home of $421.

There are answers: There is tremendous potential to engage consumers, small-to-midsize employers and workers to change the food system for all.  For starters policymakers can increase the minimum wage and guarantee workers health benefits and the right to organize.  Consumers can support businesses that are providing livable wages and benefits, and speak out against those that are not.  Employers can increase wages and benefits; adopt systematic and fair hiring and promotion practices; and adopt benefits, such as paid sick days, that would allow employees to care for themselves and their families.

Read The Hands That Feed Us for more detailed recommendations for policymakers, consumers, and employers!

Help us connect with consumers!  Take our GoodMaker Challenge and submit an idea for a creative way to educate consumers! Click here for more info!

Check out the media coverage of the report! Click here for the full list!

Research support for the report was provided by the DataCenter and the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United. Writing support was provided by Saru Jayaraman, director of the Food Labor Research Center, University of California, Berkeley.

Join us at the Food Workers & Food Justice Conference

Close to 20 million people throughout the U.S. work in the food system – on farms and in food processing and meatpacking plants, warehouses, grocery stores, restaurants and food service establishments. The food system workforce is equal to one-sixth of the nation’s workforce, and the industries of food production, processing, distribution, retail and service collectively sell over $1.8 trillion dollars in goods and services annually, accounting for over 13 percent of United States Gross Domestic Product. What happens to food workers has an enormous impact on the economy and on consumers, food safety, and public health.

The conference will kick off with an action at 6pm on June 5 to support the Coalition of Immokalee Workers‘ Campaign for Fair Food and the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United‘s Dignity at Darden Campaign. Meet at the Capital Grille restaurant at 155 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017.

June 6 will begin with the release of the FCWA report THE HANDS THAT FEED US: Challenges and Opportunities for Workers Along the Food Chain - the first-ever comprehensive report on the state of food workers in the U.S. – and workers will speak about how the report reflects their own experiences working in the food system. We will then have breakout sessions to focus on the policy recommendations and recommendations on how consumers and employers can work together with workers in the report. Right after lunch, we will have a panel focused on the policy initiatives of three New York City-based FCWA member groups: the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York’s proposed policy to tie liquor licenses to employment standards and the sale of healthy, nutritious food; UFCW Local 1500 and ALIGN’s efforts to require community involvement and good jobs to funding support for new grocery stores in underserved neighborhoods; and Brandworkers International’s effort to include labor standards for any food ma nufacturing businesses that receive loans and other financial incentives in t he City’s Economic Development Corporation. After this panel, we will end the day with a session of workshops to provide more hands-on tools and discussions for food workers and food justice activists.

The conference is being held at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, 365 Fifth Ave., Concourse Level, New York, NY 10016. You can register now at http://foodworkersandjustice.eventbrite.com/. The registration fee is only $20 per person and includes a light breakfast and lunch.

Here’s the agenda overview for the conference:

8am-9am – registration, light breakfast at Concourse Level Lobby & Foyer

9am – Welcome by Joann Lo, Food Chain Workers Alliance, in Proshansky Auditorium

9:30am – Release of the report THE HANDS THAT FEED US: Challenges and Opportunities for Workers Along the Food Chain, with a panel including Uylonda Dickerson, warehouse worker; Ortencia Ramos, meatpacking worker; Kolu Zigbi, Program Director, the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation; Nicholas Freudenberg, Professor of Urban Public Health, Hunter College, City University of New York; Barbara Sebley, La Palapa restaurant; Hnin W. Hnin, Slow Food USA - in Proshansky Auditorium

11am – Break

11:15am-12:45pm – 1st workshop/discussion session

12:45-1:30pm – Lunch at Concourse Level Lobby & Foyer

1:30-1:45 – Brief report-backs from morning workshops in Proshansky Auditorium

1:45-2:45pm – Panel: Food, Jobs and Justice in New York City’s Low-Income Communities, featuring the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York, Brandworkers International, ALIGN, and UFCW Local 1500 in Proshansky Auditorium

2:45pm – Break

3:00-4:30pm – 2nd workshop session

4:30-5pm – Closing by Maritza Silva-Farrell, Alliance for a Greater New York - in Proshansky Auditorium

DETAILED AGENDA

9:30-11am Panel: Presentation of the Food Chain Workers Alliance report THE HANDS THAT FEED US: Challenges and Opportunities for Workers Along the Food Chain

Moderator – Joann Lo, Food Chain Workers Alliance

• Kolu Zigbi, Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation
• Uylonda Dickerson, former warehouse worker and organizer with Warehouse Workers for Justice
• Professor Nicholas Freudenberg, Hunter College
• Ortencia Ramos, meatpacking worker
• Barbara Sebley, La Palapa restaurant
• Hnin W. Hnin, Slow Food USA

11:15am-12:45pm Workshop/Discussion Sessions focused on 5 of the Policy Recommendations in the Report – The structure for each session is to have an open, interactive dialogue about 1) why the policy recommendation is important for food workers, employers, and consumers, 2) what has been or is currently being done in regards to this recommendation; 3) what are other ideas for specific policies or programs that could implement the recommendation; and 4) what actions, if any, can participants take to win passage and implementation of these policies. Each session has a facilitator who understands the issue well to lead the discussion, as well as representatives from organizations working actively on the recommendation who will be ready to briefly contribute their experience and perspective in order to inform the overall discussion. Each session will have an English-Spanish interpreter.

1. Reduce occupational segregation by developing greater pathways for career mobility in the food system

Facilitator: Saru Jayaraman, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United; Contributors: Kyle Schafer, UNITE HERE; Lorette Picciano, Rural Coalition; Yolanda Gomez and Elvira Carvajal, Farmworker Association of Florida

2. Improve food safety and the public’s health by guaranteeing food system workers health benefits such as paid sick days and access to health care

Facilitator: Jose Oliva, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United; contributor: Daisy Chung, Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York

3. Address the serious health and safety risks imposed upon workers in the food system and increase penalties for employers who engage in exploitation, including wage theft

Facilitator: Charlotte Williams, Center for New Community; Contributors: Ana and Jose Aguayo, Northwest Arkansas Workers’ Justice Center; Nick Allen, Warehouse Workers United

4. Ensure that governmental and institutional procurement policies and subsidies/loan programs include labor standards and worker protections

Facilitator: Liana Foxvog, International Labor Rights Forum; contributors: Pat Purcell, UFCW Local 1500; Joseph Sanchez, Brandworkers International

5. Increase the minimum wage, including the minimum wage for tipped workers

Facilitator: Adam Obernauer, UFCW Local 1500; Contributors: Uylonda Dickerson and Leah Fried, Warehouse Workers for Justice; Rahul Saksena, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United; Tsedeye Gebreselassie, National Employment Law Project

1:45-2:45pm Panel: Food, Jobs and Justice in New York City’s Low-Income Communities

Moderator: Diana Robinson, Food Chain Workers Alliance

Presenters:

• Rahul Saksena, Policy Organizer, Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York – Rahul will talk about ROC-NY’s Liquor License Initiative, which proposes to tie liquor licenses to employment standards and the sale of healthy, nutritious food, as well as ROC’s Dignity at Darden Campaign.
• Matt Ryan, Executive Director, Alliance for a Greater New York (ALIGN), and Patrick Purcell, Jr., Assistant to the President, United Food and Commercial Workers union Local 1500 – Matt and Pat will explain the REFRESH Program, which would require community involvement and good jobs for new grocery stores to receive public funding assistance to open in underserved neighborhoods.
• Joseph Sanchez, Campaign Organizer, Brandworkers International – Joseph will discuss the Brandworkers’ policy initiative that seeks to foster a food manufacturing sector that provides good jobs and local foods by ensuring that companies who receive public monies comply with basic worker protection standards.

3:00-4:30pm Concurrent Workshops:

1)    Good Food Good Jobs Coalitions

Facilitator and Presenter: Josh Kellerman, Alliance for a Greater New York; Presenters: Dennis Olson, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) International Union; Saru Jayaraman, the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United

Projects to both increase access to healthier food and improve jobs for workers in the food system have been increasing in number. Many are called Good Food Good Jobs coalitions. Come hear about three examples of such collaborations: the UFCW, in partnership with the Mondragon Cooperative of Spain and a number of other organizations, is developing the Greater Cincinnati Food Hub, using a hybrid union-workers cooperative model to create good, green jobs and to improve the local economy; the Restaurant Opportunities Center of Michigan helped to launch a Good Food Good Jobs Coalition to leverage liquor licenses to require retail outlets to provide healthy, fresh food and comply with employment law; and the Alliance for a Greater New York coordinates the Good Food Good Jobs coalition in New York City that is developing community-led policy solutions to address both poverty and food access. Learn how to get involved with these coalitions or start your own in your community.

2)    Making Change at Walmart Campaign

Presenters: Stephanie Yazgi, Walmart-Free NYC Coalition, and Maritza Silva-Farrell, Alliance for a Greater New York

Walmart, the nation’s largest food retailer commanding one-third of the grocery market, is now working to expand into urban markets at all costs. This workshop will analyze Walmart’s potential negative impact on our communities, our food system and our economy. The workshop will discuss the campaign to keep Walmart out of NYC while providing attendees with Direct Action training and an opportunity to participate in an action right after the training.

3)    Whistleblowers and Food Integrity: Protecting the food chain by protecting the right to tell

Facilitator and Presenter: Amanda Hitt, Food Integrity Campaign; Co-Presenters: Matteo Colombi, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and Seth Payer, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union

Food chain whistleblowers are often the first and best line of defense when it comes to protecting public health. Unfortunately, they are all too often ignored, discredited, or silenced by the threat of retaliation or termination. This workshop reviews the challenges and obstacles associated with blowing the whistle, the relevant laws and provisions that protect whistleblowers, and the interplay between whistleblowing and labor.

4)    Participatory Action Research

Presenters: Saba Waheed & Christine Schweidler, DataCenter

This workshop will illustrate ways that community-led, participatory research has strengthened and supported organizing and advocacy work and how it can be used strategically based on the community’s campaign, needs and audiences/targets. In addition, participants will develop an understanding of Research Justice, naming and challenging the structural inequities in research and reclaiming research for our own communities’ needs. Using interactive tools, visuals, case studies (including the Food Chain Workers Alliance national report!), and exercises, the workshop will explore the various research tools available and how to strategically choose a methodology based on goals, audience and expected outcomes. This workshop is designed for those interested in strengthening their strategic capability to move their agenda forward, relying on the expertise of their community, but do not have research project experience, as well as those who have interest in research projects but face prohibitive factors, e.g., intimidated by the thought of it, feeling inadequately equipped or trained, or desire alternatives to conventional outsider-led research to advance the community agenda.

5)    The Food & Farm Bill

Facilitators and Presenters: Yolanda Gomez & Elvira Carvajal, Farmworkers Association of Florida; Angela Andrar & Lorette Picciano, Rural Coalition; Eric Weltman, Food & Water Watch

The Food and Farm Bill, the major agricultural and food policy legislation of the United States, is up for renewal in 2012. Come learn about what the Farm Bill actually is and why this bill impacts all of us. This workshop will be led in Spanish (with simultaneous translation into English) by farmworkers and organizers from the Farmworker Association of Florida.

In the United States, over 20 million people work in the food system, joining millions more around the world whose labor and livelihoods are in the food sector. The food system has become increasingly globalized, with much of what we consume here in the United States produced overseas. International trade policies, consolidated corporate control, and increased industrialization of food production have converged to build a food system that relies heavily on exploited labor forces — from tea plantations in India, to banana plantations and packing operations in Guatemala, to cocoa farms in Ghana. Meanwhile, the segments of the food sector that remain in the United States, whether on large-scale farms, or in processing plants, restaurants, and grocery stores located in communities throughout this country, rely heavily on a vast, low-wage labor force.

This paper researches and analyzes how the historical roots and current practices in the food sector reflect a widespread disregard for workers’ human rights, and how discriminatory power relations between employer and employee are directly connected to the intersection of race, ethnicity, gender, class, and immigration status in all stages of the food chain. The paper proposes specific ideas for ending unjust labor practices in food-sector industries; for encouraging workers to organize in collaboration throughout the food chain, and across racial and ethnic lines; and for creating new business models that will better serve the interests and protect the rights of workers, consumers, business owners, and other stakeholders.

Click this link to download the article. You can also order a hard copy of the journal on the Race/Ethnicity website.

WE ALL ENJOY EATING OUT.

Unfortunately, the workers who cook, prepare, and serve our food suffer from poverty wages, no benefits like paid sick days, and little or no chance to move up to better positions. When the people who serve us food can’t afford to pay the rent or take a day off when they’re sick, our dining experience suffers.

The newly released ROC National Diners’ Guide 2012 provides information on the wage, benefits, and promotion practices of the 150 most popular restaurants in America. The Guide lists responsible restaurants where you can eat knowing that your server can afford to pay the rent and your cook isn’t working while sick.

Join ROC-NY for the NYC release party on Jan. 31, 8:30-10:30am, at COLORS Restaurant, 417 Lafayette St., NY 10003.  Breakfast will be served.  Email events@rocny.org to RSVP!

On ROC’s website, you can download the Diners’ Guide, the Consumer Toolkit for Spreading the Word, and Tip Cards about the Diners’ Guide to hand out to restaurant owners and workers when you go out to eat.