Developed by immigrant farmworkers in the state of Vermont, the Milk with Dignity Program brings together workers, farmers, and industry leaders to address persistent labor abuses in the dairy industry. The Program has adapted to dairy the innovative “Worker-driven Social Responsibility” model created by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and their groundbreaking Fair Food Program. This model succeeds by calling on corporations to take responsibility for conditions in their supply chains and by offering solutions via binding, worker-designed programs with clear enforcement mechanisms. This report documents the first two years of the Milk with Dignity Program and looks toward future opportunities for expansion. As readers will see, the Program has been singularly successful in bringing about the “new day for human rights” on the farms it covers. Yet severe problems persist outside the Program. Migrant Justice invites companies to follow the lead of Ben & Jerry’s in joining the only program in the dairy industry capable of enforcing labor standards in their supply chains and ensuring workers’ human rights.
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