B&J’s is first company to join “Milk with Dignity” supply chain program

From our member group Migrant Justice: 

After years of negotiations and public campaigning, Migrant Justice and Ben & Jerry’s have reached an historic supply chain agreement to advance worker’s rights by implementing the Milk with Dignity Program in the company’s northeast dairy supply chain.  The legally-binding contract is the first of its kind in the dairy industry.

Developed by Vermont dairy workers, Milk with Dignity is modeled after the internationally-renowned Fair Food Program that has transformed the Florida tomato industry.  The program provides dairy brands such as Ben & Jerry’s with the ability to make transformational changes in their supply chains, improving labor and housing conditions through a verifiable and worker-led model.

By joining the program, Ben & Jerry’s will pay participating farms a premium and require that farms uphold a farmworker-authored code of conduct to ensure fair and dignified work and housing conditions.  The premium provides workers with a bonus on each paycheck and serves to offset farmer’s costs of compliance with the Milk with Dignity Code of Conduct.  The farmworker-authored code sets new industry standards for wages, scheduling, health and safety, housing, and other workplace conditions. The program will be monitored and enforced by a newly created independent third party called the Milk with Dignity Standards Council (MDSC).

Good Food Purchasing Passes Chicago City Council!

New measure will ensure transparency in food systems and generate millions in revenue for local farmers, food-based businesses and communities.

A New Day in the City of Broad Shoulders

Today, the City of Chicago became the first city outside of California to adopt the Good Food Purchasing Policy. The work to pass the ground-breaking resolution was lead by the Chicago Food Policy Action Council and a broad multi-sector coalition that included over 40 local and national organizations. Food Chain Workers Alliance worked closely with CFPAC on the ground and nationally. The policy will transform the way agencies purchase food and will work by promoting health and well-being to Chicagoans while creating a sustainable, socially responsible food system that has the potential of returning millions of dollars to local, food-based businesses and entrepreneurs.

Once implemented, the measure will impact a significant portion of nearly $200 million in spending toward local food businesses and farmers. The policy will prioritize nutrition, affordability, local economies, sustainable production practices, sound environmental practices, fair prices for producers, safe and fair working conditions for employees and food workers, and humane treatment of animals.

Nationwide — Today President Trump announced the end of the DACA program, which for over five years allowed over 800,000 immigrant youth to work and attend school.

Trump made this decision despite repeatedly telling immigrant youth not to worry.  This is another action by this administration that must not be left to stand without widespread repudiation and resistance in every sector and every corner of our country. The Food Chain Workers Alliance stands squarely with young immigrants and against any form of hate regardless of where it emanates.

For the food sector in particular, which has a high concentration of immigrants and youth, the rejection of any solutions that are based on the recognition of the full dignity of every human being is a huge blow to the function of an already stressed food system. Young immigrants are among the 21.5 million people who plant, pick, transport, pack, process, cook and serve the food we eat every day.  Rejecting them is to be blind to how we are fed.  Young immigrants are the backbone of the food system.

We call on food businesses, labor unions, health professionals, and anyone who eats to stand with immigrant workers.

Although we are heartbroken and enraged, it is crucial in this moment to revive the tremendous organizing power and energy that won DACA in the first place. Now, more than ever, we must all stand up and fight alongside immigrant youth and their elders that came to this country for a better life.

The Food Chain Workers Alliance stands firmly with the majority.

The majority deplore the racist, anti-Semitic rallies and bloodshed in Charlottesville this weekend. Right-wing white nationalists and neo-nazi terrorists took to the streets in support of a racist, bigoted, and authoritarian ideology that predicates itself on the oppression of women, people of color, the LGBTQ community, religious minorities, and indigenous peoples.

The moment is urgent. We have a duty to speak out and act boldly against that ideology and its consequences. The violence that threatened Charlottesville is threatening us all and is especially threatening working people of all colors and creeds.

We must make our struggle universal. The only way to fight back against their torches, weapons, and the violence of these white supremacists is with unity and strength of all workers of all races and genders. We need to be clear to everyone that food workers are on the side of equity, inclusion, and justice, not bigotry and terror. We, at theFood Chain Workers Alliance, condemn in the strongest possible terms these deplorable, shameful, and racist events in Charlottesville, Virginia this weekend. We commit to taking action and pouring out onto the streets in unity.

On June 4, 2015 the day before Walmart’s annual shareholder meeting, FCWA released a new report that finds a major discord between Walmart’s labor and environmental claims and the reality in its food supply chain and provides recommendations for improvements.

“Walmart at the Crossroards: the Environmental and Labor Impact of Its Food Supply Chain” examines Walmart’s labor and environmental “codes of ethics” for its suppliers as well as its goal of benefiting farmers via local food purchases. The study looks closely Walmart’s impact on farmers and at the labor and environmental records of 22 major suppliers of popular food items – suppliers include Flowers Foods, Taylor Farms, Tyson, and United Natural Foods, Inc. The report findings underscore Walmart’s priority on profits at the expense of genuine enforcement of its suppliers’ compliance with the code of ethics and over its goals for environmental sustainability and helping local farmers.

Walmart has recently taken steps in the right direction, such as last year’s announcement to sign on to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ Fair Food Program that has implications for farmworkers and a May 22, 2015, announcement by Walmart officials that it will ask its suppliers to animal welfare standards. However, Walmart is now at a crossroads. Will they do the right thing and ensure that their code of ethics is independently verified, or will they continue to use PR as the strategy to address real human suffering and environmental devastation? We are calling on Walmart to truly enforce its labor and environmental standards and to strengthen them, based on the recommendations in our report.

The findings of the study compelled us to launch a new petition with the report on, demanding that Walmart treat workers and farmers in its food supply chain with dignity and respect and to improve its environmental and animal welfare standards. Walmart is the world’s largest retailer and one of the most highly valued publicly traded companies. Foodstuffs currently account for over half of Walmart sales, representing roughly 25% of all groceries sold in the U.S.

 Sign the Petition