Nat'l Supermarket Week of Action: Nov 14-21
Marc Rodrigues
National Supermarket Week of Action
November 14-21, 2010
This
Thanksgiving, let's send a message to the supermarket
industry:
NOW is the time for Fair Food!
- Check out our action listing here and send us your events to be listed
- Week of action toolkit here (and attached)
With the recent historic agreements between the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and leading tomato growers, the vision of a more just and humane agricultural system is closer than ever to becoming a reality.
There's no doubt that change is underway. But the rate, breadth, and depth of that change depends now more than ever on the buyers of Florida produce — from Publix to Ahold, Kroger to Trader Joe's, Quiznos and Walmart.
In the lead-up to Thanksgiving—one of the busiest
times of the year for this country's supermarkets—you can do your
part to help speed the day when all of Florida's farmworkers enjoy
the fair wages, respect and dignity they deserve.
Take action this November
14-21:
- Deliver a Manager Letter and ask the supermarket manager to share your concerns with the company’s corporate headquarters. When you're done, contact us to let us know what supermarket you visited to and how it went. (Many supermarkets have Regional Offices/Headquarters that can also be sites for dropping off the Manger Letter.)
- Hold a picket/rally outside your local supermarket. Have participants hold vibrant, visible signs, banners and art & have flyers handy for passers-by and shoppers. Invite members of the press. Cap off your action with a Manager Letter delivery. Check out our action list to join an action that's already planned.
- Hold an educational event and collect signed supermarket postcards. Contact us to receive a free DVD, postcards addressed to the corporate headquarters of your local supermarket, and other organizing/educational materials. New for this season, our DVD now includes a 20-minute encapsulation of the landmark 1960 documentary Harvest of Shame as well as the CIW's new Supermarket Campaign video.
- Take part in the Supermarket Campaign E-Action.
Background: The day after Thanksgiving, 1960, the documentary Harvest of Shame – largely filmed in Florida and narrated by famed journalist Edward R. Murrow – shocked millions of Americans with its depiction of the daily degradation faced by the nations' migrant farmworkers.
Today,
50 years later, a movement for Fair Food is finally bringing
fairer wages and more humane working conditions to Florida's
fields thanks to a historic alliance of farmworkers,
consumers, growers, and nine retail food industry leaders
including McDonald's, Burger King, Whole Foods, Compass Group
and Sodexo.
While
the transition to a more just Florida tomato industry is
well underway, much remains to be done to ensure this
future.
By
leveraging its high-volume purchasing power, the U.S.
supermarket industry plays an active role in farmworker
exploitation. And with the exception of Whole Foods, the $550
billion supermarket industry has been slow to embrace the
principles of Fair Food.
Publix, Ahold (parent
company of Stop & Shop and Giant), Kroger, Trader Joe's
and WalMart – which alone sells fully 25% of all food sold in
US grocery stores – all pack a very heavy punch when it comes
to their market power in the produce industry. And with great
power comes great responsibility – both for the poverty and
brutal working conditions from which they have profited for so
many years, and for the work of reforming farm labor
conditions in their supply chains that lies ahead.
The
supermarket giants are the only thing standing between us
and a future of respect for human rights in Florida's
fields,
between a food industry based on farm labor exploitation and
degradation today and a more modern, more humane industry
tomorrow.
If we are to end Florida's decades-old Harvest of Shame, the
supermarket giants must do their part.
This
Thanksgiving season, remember farmworkers and honor the
dignity of their labor by urging Publix, Stop & Shop,
Giant, Kroger,
Trader Joe's, Quiznos and Walmart to address the sub-poverty
wages and human rights abuses faced by farmworkers who harvest
their tomatoes.