Nearly three dozen people marched and chanted outside Wendy’s on Charles St in Providence Friday afternoon to call attention to the boycott of the food chain called by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a group that has fought for farmworker’s rights and fair treatment for two decades. Wendy’s remains the largest fast food chain that refuses to ethically source their produce from CIW supported growers. Rather than supporting the efforts of the CIW, Wendy’s began purchasing its produce from Mexico, where workers “continue to confront wage theft, sexual harassment, child labor and even slavery.”
CIW member Julia de la Cruz lead the protest, assisted by members of the Brown University Student Labor Alliance, the AFSC, Fuerza Laboral and the Fair Food Alliance.
When a coalition of five protesters approached the restaurant to deliver a message to the manager, they were loudly asked to leave the property, and did. The protest lasted 90 minutes and garnered the support and interest of many passersby.
Julia de la Cruz, of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), came to Providence for two days to “amplify the farm worker-led national boycott of Wendy’s” as part of a regional, “Behind the Braids” tour that seeks to reveal the true face of Wendy’s. de la Cruz talked about the history of the CIW in combating horrific working conditions, including wage theft, violence and sexual harassment and abuse. de la Cruz spoke in a calm voice, translated by Patricia Cipollitti of the Alliance for Fair Food (AFF).
CIW rose out from a group of farmworkers, primarily of Mexican, Guatemalan, Haitian and Central American descent from Immokalee, FL who sought better wages and worker conditions. Picking tomatoes in the 90 to 100 degree fields of Florida, without clean water, shade from the brutal sun or decent toilets made work an exercise that lacked dignity. The workers were subjected to the casual cruelty and violence of supervisors, many who thought little of striking a worker in their charge. Wage theft and sexual abuse were rampant, and there was no one to report these crimes to.
The workers began to organize to defend their rights, change the conditions of work and demand not only fair wages but respect and dignity. They used work stoppages, strikes, hunger strikes, marches and protests to make their point and force concessions from the growers. But little by little, said de la Cruz, the CIW came to realize that their conditions were not imposed on them by the growers. It was the corporations that forced the growers to cut wages and profit from virtual (or actual) slave conditions.
In order to fund their ideas, the CIW asked corporation to pay an extra one cent per pound of produce purchased. This money would allow the workers to push for higher wages and establish a code of conduct that contained zero tolerance for the worst abuses. This allowed workers to demand respect, and in fact they mandated that the worker’s voices be heard during the implementation of these changes.
Taco Bell was the first restaurant chain CIW targeted. It took years, 2001-2005, to win. but it was a major victory. by 2010 CIW had roped in 9 major corporations into what they now called the Fair Food Program. Ninety percent of Florida’s tomato growers signed on. Corporations now agree to purchase tomatoes only from these growers.
Now these workers have clean water, shade from the sun, actual bathrooms instead of being forced to do their “business” in the crop fields. There is a 24 hour hotline, administrated by a third party, to report abuses. The hotline has operators fluent in Spanish, Creole and English.
Today 14 corporations are signed on, but CIW is looking to expand this program of Worker Driven Social Responsibility. They have expanded beyond Florida and into other states such as Georgia and North and South Carolina. They have expanded beyond tomatoes and into other crops such as strawberries and bell peppers. They want more corporations to sign on.
Hence the boycott of Wendy’s. Rather than support the efforts of the CIW, Wendy’s began purchasing its produce from Mexico, where workers “continue to confront wage theft, sexual harassment, child labor and even slavery. (In the early days of the CIW they ran an anti-slavery campaign in Florida that freed over 1500 workers and jailed almost a dozen people for the crime of slavery.) Recently, Wendy’s has “published an empty Code of Conduct for its suppliers that lacks the two most essential elements of the Fair Food Program: worker participation and verifiable enforcement mechanisms for standards.”
So we consumers need to ask ourselves: Are we willing to boycott Wendy’s to prevent the rape, exploitation and slavery of people who simply wish to live and work with dignity and respect?
If so, consider coming out to Wendy’s on 391 Charles St this Friday afternoon at 4pm and add your voice to the chorus of people calling on Wendy’s to ethically source their produce and support the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.
Below you can listen to Julia de la Cruz’s complete talk, first translated into English by Patricia Cipollitti and then in Spanish only.
The approximately 500 Rhode Island janitors represented by 32BJ SEIU got a pay raise and avoided a strike by agreeing to a new contract with their employer, Maintenance Contractors Association New England, just hours before their current contract expired on Friday night.
The 13,000 New England janitors represented by 32BJ SEIU tentatively agreed to a new four year contract. Rhode Island janitors now earning $13.15 will see their pay increase to $14.20 over the course of the new contract.
“The agreement also moves the needle on full-time work in what is still a predominantly part-time industry and includes a new legal assistance benefit for all members,” according to a news release from 32BJ SEIU announcing the deal.
“Providence is very part time,” Eugenio Villasante told RI Future in a previous interview.
In Rhode Island, about 500 janitors represented by 32BJ SEIU were ready to go on strike if the union didn’t agree to a new contract with employer Maintenance Contractors Association New England. According to Villasante, they work at: Fidelity: 60+; Providence College: 60; TF Green: 32; CVS: 25; Bank of America Center (100 Westminster St., owned by Joe Paolino): 19; Bank of America: 10; One Financial Plaza building (downtown Providence): 16.
Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza said yesterday he was prepared to honor the picket line, if one became necessary.
”If this situation does lead to a strike by workers, I will not cross their picket line,” Elorza said in a statement to RI Future. “As Mayor, I am aware of the important role the workers of Local 32 BJ SEIU play for many businesses in Providence. While I remain optimistic that they will be able to negotiate an agreement, I am offering the support of my administration in whatever way we can help to resolve this matter. I hope that the employees’ requests are taken seriously and that this matter can be resolved fairly for all involved before it resorts to a strike.”
Janitors across New England hailed the new contract.
“This is the contract we need to support our families and communities,” said bargaining committee member Lucy Gonzalez, who cleans terminals at Logan Airport. “I feel relieved that with this contract I will be able to keep up with the rising cost of living and provide quality healthcare to my children. I know thousands of other union members will be doing the same, all of us are supporting our communities and building our local economy.”
Added Roxana Rivera, vice president of 32BJ SEIU, “The promise of America is for everyone … We are mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers; we are neighbors and community members. Many of us are immigrants from around the world and the vast majorities of us live and work in urban centers. We are building America and driving the economies of its cities. Hard working Americans like us deserve to make more than a decent living – we deserve a decent life.”
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With 500 Rhode Island janitors in the final days of contract negotiations before calling a strike, Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza said he won’t cross their picket line if a work stoppage occurs.”If this situation does lead to a strike by workers, I will not cross their picket line,” Elorza said in a statement to RI Future. “As Mayor, I am aware of the important role the workers of Local 32 BJ SEIU play for many businesses in Providence. While I remain optimistic that they will be able to negotiate an agreement, I am offering the support of my administration in whatever way we can help to resolve this matter. I hope that the employees’ requests are taken seriously and that this matter can be resolved fairly for all involved before it resorts to a strike.”The more than 13,000 janitors of the 32BJ SEIU labor union decided on Saturday to give employer Maintenance Contractors Association New England one week – until their current contract expires – before they call for a work stoppage. Providence janitors currently make $13.15 an hour.
“We’re making some progress but we still don’t have a deal,” said Eugenio Villasante, an organizer with 32BJ SEIU. “We hope to come to an agreement tomorrow but we don’t have one yet. My hope is we can avoid a strike but as of today we don’t have an agreement.”
The janitors, some 500 of whom work in Rhode Island, are demanding an annual cost of living increase and better healthcare. In many cases, Villasante said, workers want more work. “Providence is very part time,” he said.
If the janitors do go on strike, it could disrupt businesses and institutions across the Ocean State. According to Villasante, 32BJ SEIU janitors work at SEIU janitors in Rhode Island – Fidelity: 60+; TF Green: 32; CVS: 25; Bank of America Center (100 Westminster St., owned by Joe Paolino): 19; Bank of America: 10; One Financial Plaza building (downtown Providence): 16.
Elorza joins Boston Mayor Marty Walsh in pledging not to cross the 32BJ SEIU’s picket line, if they go on strike.
A work stoppage could mean Elorza would not be able to visit Joe Paolino, the mayor’s recent opposing interlocutor on poverty and panhandling in downtown Providence. Paolino’s owns one of the buildings where janitors are threatening to strike and keeps his office there.
Governor Gina Raimondo’s staff has not responded to questions about whether she would honor the picket line.
A march of over 50 people from Jenks Park in Central Falls to the Gloria Dei Lutheran Church near the Rhode Island Mall was held Sunday to demand driver’s licenses for all, regardless of immigration status. Marchers carried signs, sang and chanted as the wound their way through Central Falls, along East Ave in Pawtucket and Hope St in Providence, pausing briefly near the fountain in Lippitt Park and at the State House.
The march briefly detoured through the East Side, to pass by the home of Governor Gina Raimondo, who broke a campaign promise to grant licenses through executive action. Instead, the governor threw the issue to the General Assembly, where House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello declined to advance the legislation.
The march was organized by the Safer Rhodes Coalition and Comité en Acción. Organizer Claire Pimental, writing for RI Future, said that passing this legislation will improve the quality of life and overall safety of our communities, from higher rates of insured and licensed drivers, to greater cooperation between police and the immigrant communities they serve.
Before the march Mayor James Diossa of Central Falls was joined by state Senators Donna Nesselbush and Frank Ciccone, Senator elect Ana Quezada, and Representatives Aaron Regunberg and Shelby Maldonado.
Below find pictures and video from the event.
The Pawtucket School Lunch Workers reached an agreement Thursday afternoon in an effort to prevent a one day strike the school lunch workers had planned for Friday. Unite Here Local 26 who represented the lunch workers, called the agreement “a decisive victory for all women who feed the kids and the fight for equal pay.”
Under the agreement the pay gap for Pawtucket School Lunch Workers will dramatically shrink as they receive $1.20 in raises over three years. Unite Here says that after the lunch workers “courageously called attention to the problem of wage discrimination, Aramark Educational Services, LLC and the City of Pawtucket demonstrated that they wanted to be leaders in solving this problem.”
Melanie Plante, a truck driver based out of Jenks Junior High, described the victory: “We will proudly be serving the kids tomorrow. This new Agreement will help all of us improve our lives and raise healthy, happy families.”
Carolyn DeOliveira, lead cook at Nathaniel Greene Elementary, “Our members have worked hard to earn more and to maintain their health benefits. I am really proud to call myself a Pawtucket School Lunch Worker.”
The new three year Agreement covering the 81 school lunch employees will expire in April 2019.
Unite Here Local 26 represents 9,000 hotel, food service, airport, & casino workers across Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
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The Pawtucket school lunch workers will hold a one day strike on Friday September 23 to highlight the importance equal pay for women if no Agreement is reached. In an effort to avoid the strike, the Pawtucket school lunch workers will be negotiating with their employer, Aramark Educational Services, LLC after school on Thursday, September 22.
The 81 school lunch employees earn only $0.76 for every $1.00 earned by a male doing comparable work. Ethan Shorey wrote in The Valley Breeze that Jenna Karlin, of the Local 26 that Unite Here! “prepared the comparison of 76 cents for women to $1 for men by using publicly available data of the Pawtucket school support staff positions that are primarily filled by men (custodians) and the pay rate data members have for local school lunch members… The figures compare the hourly pay rates.”
On September 8 employees of Aramark voted 100 percent to strike. The workers have also unveiled a mural showing photos of 73 school lunch workers who are ready to strike.
The call for equal pay comes weeks after Massachusetts’s Governor Charlie Baker signed a pay equity bill into law making the circumstances occurring in Pawtucket illegal in Massachusetts. The School Lunch employees in Everett, Massachusetts inspired this new law as part of their fight for equal pay.
The Pawtucket School Lunch workers demand for equal pay comes at a healthy time for the School Lunch Program. The Program’s revenues, in addition to funding all Program expenses, allows Aramark to take over $250,000 back to its out-of-state headquarters every year.
In addition, Aramark has also asserted the right to make changes in work conditions, including changing employee hours, unilaterally, without a contract. This action is currently under legal challenge.
Jayne Rainville, Lead Cook at Jenks Junior High, stated: “I can’t believe that Aramark is treating us this way. Enough is enough. We deserve to be treated fairly.”
Carolyn DeOliveira, Lead Cook at Nathaniel Greene Elementary School, said, “I pour my heart and soul into my job because I care about the kids. Aramark is trying to take advantage of our passion. Like I taught my kids and my grandkids, there comes a time when you have to put your foot down and stand up.”
Kate Massey, at Shea High School, said, “I do this work for the kids. For too many, we serve the only meal(s) they will eat all day. The way Aramark is treating us, makes it harder for us to take care of the kids.”
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After workers and activists from Fuerza Laboral gave David Civetti a 6am wake up call last August, he agreed to meet with the 8 workers who claim that his company owes them for work they completed but were never paid for. Civetti, the CEO of Dependable and Affordable Cleaning Inc, met the workers at the Fuerza Laboral offices, said organizer Raul Figueroa, but maintained he owed the workers nothing, became frustrated, and left. Hence the need for a second action, this timed aimed at Civetti’s offices in the neighborhood next to Providence College.
Fuerza maintains that on May 26-29, Civetti’s company “assigned a group of workers to clean apartments located in the area surrounding Providence College. The workers say that Civetti assigned workers to the houses that needed cleaning and supplied them with company tee shirts and cleaning supplies. After the job was completed, 8 workers were not compensated for those 4 days, 11 hours a day.” Civetti claimed that the people who cleaned his apartments were hired by subcontractors, and that the the subcontractors owe the money, not him.
On Thursday about a dozen workers and activists showed up at Civetti’s offices near Providence College, and began leafleting houses and passing students. Organizer Raul Figueroa carried a megaphone and broadcast the workers’ complaints to the neighborhood. Once the workers arrived at Civetti’s offices, Fabian, one of the workers, called Civetti on the phone and asked him to come down and pay him the money he is owed. When Civetti would not commit to do so, the protest continued.
Eventually, as can be seen towards the end of the third video below, Civetti agreed by phone to meet with the workers at the Fuerza Laboral offices for a second time. According to Fuerza organizer Raoul Figueroa and Mike Araujo of RI Jobs with Justice, Civetti agreed that he did owe the workers their unpaid wages at this meeting. He has agreed to pay the workers on Friday.
This story will be updated.
UPDATE: Raoul Figueroa has informed me that the employees have been paid.
Nabisco made the announcement in January.
“They said, ‘we’re laying off 600 people, we’re sending the production down to Mexico, you can basically deal with it,’” explained Nate Zeff, of the BCTGM International Union. Zeff was in Rhode Island to explain the plight of the Nabisco 600, workers who once made products such as Oreos, Honey Grams, Fig Newtons, Animal Crackers and Ritz Crackers in Chicago, who watched as their good paying jobs were sent to Monterrey and Salinas Mexico.
The workers were told that they could prevent the company moving to Mexico, said Zeff, if they would agree to a staggering $46 million a year in concessions, in perpetuity; an impossible demand to make of working class families.
Mexican workers are paid a tiny fraction of what United States workers earn, allowing Nabisco to pay starvation wages in one country while wiping out an entire community of workers in another. And lest you think these savings might be passed along to consumers, think again. The money ‘saved’ is funneled directly into the pockets of overpaid corporate executives like Irene Rosenfeld, CEO of Nabisco parent company Mondelez International, who made a shame worthy $21 million in 2015.
To counter Nabisco’s move, and to bring these jobs back to the United States, the BCTGM has announced an audacious plan: A targeted boycott of Nabisco products made in Mexico. There are two ways to determine if a product on the shelf is made in Mexico, as seen in the video and picture below. One, the package may simply have the words “Made in Mexico” in the fine print near the ingredients label. Otherwise, check out the “plant identification code.” MM and MS stand for Monterrey and Salinas, Mexico, respectively.
There are a couple of things to note about this boycott. One is that there are still plants in the United States making Nabisco products. This boycott is not against all Oreos, it’s a targeted boycott against Oreos made in Mexico. Note also that it’s not enough to simply not buy the Mexican made products. Take the product to the store manager and tell them why you are not buying.
Sure, the manager will say that they are not responsible for ordering the product, or that they have no control over where the product comes from, but if enough people complain, the complaints will start their way up the chain of command.
Anthony Jackson, a disabled veteran, was also in Rhode Island as part of the tour. He had a job paying him $26 an hour, now that job has gone across the border to a worker who makes less than $100 per week. “This is a $35 billion corporation,” said Jackson, “the Oreo alone made $2.9 billion last year.”
Jackson was at a shareholder’s meeting and asked CEO Rosenfeld why the company couldn’t treat Chicago workers fairly. Rosenfeld said the workers received “fair-market value.”
“To this day we’ve received zero dollars and zero cents,” said Jackson, “So what [Rosenfeld] said to us is that we are nothing.”
Jackson had five requests for those who want to support this effort.
1. Go to fightforamericanjobs.org and learn more about the boycott and the Nabisco 600.
2. Like their Facebook page.
3. Call the number on Oreo packages and complain about the fact that American jobs are being lost even as Mexican labor is being unfairly exploited.
4. Check the label (as seen above) for the country of origin and don’t buy made in Mexico products
5. Tell somebody. Spread the word. “We want to be the first company to bring production back from Mexico,” said Jackson.
A march from Kennedy Plaza to the Providence Public Safety Complex, with a brief, tense stop in front of the Providence Place Mall was held in Providence Friday evening in solidarity with a National Prison Strike, on the 45th anniversary of the Attica Uprising.
After gathering in Kennedy Plaza, across from Providence City Hall, the march headed for the Providence Place Mall, where it came to a stop, blocking one direction of traffic. Providence Police, lead by Lt. Oscar Perez, had until this time been clearing traffic ahead of the march, but here, with traffic stopped, there was a tense five minutes where a threat of arrest seemed imminent. No arrests took place.
Still, many of the participants felt the police showed their hand in front of the mall. At the Providence Public Safety Complex, after the march, a speaker maintained that though the police were saying that they were “trying to keep us all safe… the second we stopped at the mall… we were threatened with arrest… Safety goes out the window when it comes to capital. They’re here to protect and serve, just not us. They’re here to protect fucking capital.”
On my way back to Kennedy Plaza after the event Lt. Perez told me, half jokingly, that “those kids kind of hurt my feelings.”
The problems with capitalism, though, is one of the points this strike and the supportve march is trying to make. As the march organizers say on their event page, “Slavery is legal in America. Written into the 13th Amendment, it is legal to work someone that is incarcerated for free or almost free. Since the Civil War, tens of millions of people – most arrested for non-violent offenses – have been used as slaves for the sake of generating massive profits for multi-national corporations and the US government. Today, prison labor is a multi-billion dollar industry which helps generate enormous wealth for key industries such as fossil fuels, fast food, telecommunications, technology, the US military, and everyday house hold products…
“This is not just a prison strike for better wages or conditions, it is a strike against white supremacy, capitalism, and slavery itself.”
This is the context for the stop at the mall. The mall sells products made by prison labor. Not paying prisoners wages for the work they do, or paying them a fraction of what workers outside prisons make, depress the wages of everyone. The slavery system of prison labor has real consequences for everyone, especially the poor and marginalized, who are often only one bad day away from being in prison themselves.
Nationally, the strike is being led by groups such as the Free Alabama Movement, Free Texas Movement, Free Ohio Movement, Free Virginia Movement, Free Mississippi Movement, and many more. Locally, the march was organized by the Providence chapter of the IWW Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee [IWOC].
The strike is certainly not a one day event. Today, at the Adult Correctional
For more information:
Let the Crops Rot in the Field
Incarcerated Workers Take the Lead
Here’s video from the speak out:
