FAIR FOOD NATION TURNS UP HEAT ON CHIPOTLE

Student/Farmworker Alliance (SFA) is a national network of students and youth organizing with farmworkers to eliminate sweatshop conditions and modern-day slavery in the fields.

We work in alliance with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a membership-led organization of mostly Latino, Haitian, and Mayan Indian low-wage workers based in Southwest Florida. Together we won the four-year Taco Bell Boycott in 2005, McDonald's campaign in 2007 and Burger King campaign in 2008. SFA is a founding member of the Alliance for Fair Food.


Fair food nation turns up the heat on Chipotle.

More than one hundred students converge on Chipotle HQ in Denver
August 11, 2008 - This past Friday, members of United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) joined local Denver residents for a rousing action at Chipotle headquarters in the Mile-High City, demanding that Chipotle live up to its own much-lauded "Food With Integrity" mantra and meet with the CIW.

Following the successful conclusion of the Burger King campaign, this action served as (yet another) wake-up call to Chipotle that it can no longer skirt responsibility and that our campaign in solidarity with farmworkers will only escalate until it comes to the table. This message was made explicit by this letter, delivered by a delegation of representatives from several national and local organizations.

Check out the photo report from the energetic action, and stay tuned for more news and organizing materials as the 2008 Encuentro and another season in the struggle for fair food quickly approach...
Photo report: USAS action at Chipotle HQ
Student letter to Chipotle
Chipotle manager letter
"Want some basic human dignity with that burrito?" (The Nation, 7/29)
Consumers to Chipotle: "Are sweatshop tomatoes really food with integrity?"
Chipotle feels the heat as the Campaign for Fair Food marches on following Burger King victory
July 18, 2008 - Chipotle, the fastest-growing chain in the industry, has created quite a set of lofty expectations for itself. In its own words, Chipotle wants to "revolutionize the way America grows and gathers its food" by leveraging its purchasing power to influence its suppliers' actions.
Basing its public image on the idea of food with integrity, Chipotle has lured socially-conscious consumers by promising a product that is not, in the words of founder and CEO Steve Ells, "tied to the exploitation of animals, farmers, or the environment."
But wait... the environment, farmers, farm animals. What about the farmworkers? Those whose backbreaking labor makes it possible for fresh produce to arrive from the fields to America's tables? Apparently, the definition of "food with integrity" does not include produce harvested by workers receiving fair wages and laboring in humane conditions.
For two years, the CIW has called on Chipotle to follow the example of Yum Brands, McDonald's and now Burger King and take action to end the human rights crisis in its tomato supply chain. And for two years, Chipotle has refused, serving up free-range pork and hormone-free beef while doing nothing to ensure that the tomatoes in its burritos are free of exploitation.
But Chipotle may not be able to ignore the call for real labor reform for much longer. Consumers across the country are waking up to the fact that Chipotle's "revolution" may not be all that it's cracked up to be.
Check out the below links and resources to learn more about - and become a part of - the growing clamor for Chipotle to finally live up to its own vision of "integrity:"
Resources to take action in your community
"Chipotle's 'Food with Integrity' ignores tomato pickers" (The Pump Handle, 7/3)
"Chipotle grilled: will the burrito giant pay up for less exploitative tomatoes?" (Gristmill, 7/3)
"Workers group targets Chipotle" (Bradenton Herald, 7/22)
Scholar's Letter to Chipotle
April 2008 action at Chipotle headquarters


PO Box 603, Immokalee, FL 34143 :: (239) 657-8311 :: organize (at) sfalliance.org

RFK MEMORIAL CENTER

RFK Memorial Center for Human Rights joins with Anti-Slavery International in joint statement remembering the slave trade and its abolition, demanding an end to modern-day slavery in Florida's fields!...
Joint statement urges "FloridaTomato Growers Exchange to stop opposing human rights agreements" between CIW and fast-food industry leaders;
August 25, 2008: The following is the text of a joint press release issued Friday, August 22, by the the RFK Memorial Center for Human Rights and London-based Anti-Slavery International:
For Immediate Release:
RFK Center and Anti-Slavery International Celebrate International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition
Advocates Urge Florida Tomato Growers Exchange to Stop Opposing Human Rights Agreements between Farmworkers and Burger King, McDonald's, and YUM! Brands' to Fight Modern Day Slavery
(Washington, DC) The International Day for Remembrance of the Slave Trade & its Abolition on August 23rd is a day to reflect on the tragedy of the transatlantic slave trade and the reality of modern day slavery. Anti-Slavery International and The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights celebrate the success of the human rights defenders who brought down the transatlantic slave trade and the efforts of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and their supporters in the Campaign for Fair Food along with socially responsible corporations to address modern day slavery.
They are also calling upon the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange (FTGE) to take a stand against forced labor in Florida's fields by ending their obstructive practices against agreements made between farmworkers and major produce buyers to support human rights in their supply chains. The FTGE is a cooperative of Florida tomato growers which account for the overwhelming majority of Florida's tomato production. The CIW has reached deals with Taco Bell owner Yum! Brands, Inc., McDonald's, and Burger King, in March 2005, April 2007 and May 2008, respectively, whereby those corporations agreed to pay tomato pickers 1 penny more per pound of tomatoes picked and to work with farmworkers on systems to ensure slavery does not occur on the farms of their suppliers. The FTGE has taken steps in recent months to stymie the implementation of these initiatives.
"Over two hundred years after the U.S. Congress banned the slave trade, farmworkers in Florida's fields still bear the pain and indignity of modern day slavery and human rights abuses to pick the tomatoes which top the salads and sandwiches Americans eat everyday," said Aidan McQuade, Director of Anti-Slavery International. "The Florida Tomato Grower's Exchange has the opportunity to partner with its customers to implement these human rights based agreements, but it is refusing to do so."
In the past decade, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has conducted dozens of investigations into slavery in the U.S. agricultural industry, resulting in eight prosecutions involving over one thousand workers in Florida, which DOJ officials have called "ground-zero for modern day slavery." These include workers who were locked in trailers, tied up and chained, drugged, and threatened with physical harm to their families if they attempted to leave. Criminal prosecutions for slavery occur only in the most extreme cases while many workers are exploited in subtler ways that go unpunished. These workers, whose rights to organize and collectively bargain are not protected by federal law, and whose wages are pushed below poverty level by the downward pressure on prices exerted by the volume purchasing power of major purchasing companies, have become victims of slavery and other gross human rights abuses.
"The FTGE members are standing in the way of workers realizing their human rights and the express will of consumers and socially responsible corporations working to promote fair food," said Monika Kalra Varma, Director of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights. "Today, as the world celebrates the end of the gross abuses of the slave trade, we are calling upon the FTGE to end their obstructive practices, support workers' rights and join us in standing against modern day slavery."
Anti-Slavery International (www.antislavery.org)Robert F. Kennedy Memorial (www.rfkmemorial.org)