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 activists entered the restaurant on Eddy Street and presented a letter to the manager. After the manager accepted the letter the activists moved peacefully out of the restaurant and to the sidewalk, where they marched and chanted. This was part of a series of similar actions covered in part here and here. In accepting the letter, the manager of the Wendy’s kept the disruption of business within the restaurant to a minimum.

According to the Fair Food Program website,

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ (CIW) Fair Food Program is a unique partnership among farmers, farmworkers, and retail food companies that ensures humane wages and working conditions for the workers who pick fruits and vegetables on participating farms. It harnesses the power of consumer demand to give farmworkers a voice in the decisions that affect their lives, and to eliminate the longstanding abuses that have plagued agriculture for generations.

The Program has been called ‘the best workplace-monitoring program’ in the US in the New York Times, and ‘one of the great human rights success stories of our day’ in the Washington Post, and has won widespread recognition for its unique effectiveness from a broad spectrum of human rights observers, from the United Nations to the White House.

According to the activists, of “the five largest fast food corporations in the country — McDonald’s, Subway, Burger King, Taco Bell, and Wendy’s — Wendy’s is the only one to not yet sign onto the Fair Food Program.”

In a release announcing the action, the Brown Student Labor Alliance said, “With 14 food retailers now part of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ Fair Food Program, we are seeing incredible changes — from a zero-tolerance policy for sexual harassment and modern-day slavery, to access to shade, water, and bathrooms, to a real voice on the job — made real not only in Florida, but across state-lines. Just a few months ago, the CIW traveled up and down the eastern seaboard of the United States — Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey — carrying out worker-to-worker education sessions about these new rights for the first time ever with thousands of workers beyond Florida. With these changes, there is now a deep urgency for reinforcement and expansion of the Program, which will only be possible through more retailers joining — yet, corporations like Wendy’s and Publix continue to utterly deny their responsibility to farmworkers.”

Fast food employees, restaurant workers and labor allies rallied outside the Wendy’s restaurant at 771 Warwick Ave in Warwick around noon as part of a national effort to kick off a year-long $15 minimum wage campaign ahead of next year’s presidential elections. Nearly 100 people gathered in the parking lot of Wendy’s, where the management had locked the doors ahead of the protests and only served meals through the drive-thru window.

Led by outgoing Rhode-Island Jobs with Justice executive director Jesse Strecker, workers chanted and marched around the building, finally settling in front for a series of speeches from various workers and advocates “all the way down the food chain.”

Long time Wendy’s worker and minimum wage advocate Jo-Ann Gesterling spoke not only about fair wages, but about wages stolen when management forces workers to work through their breaks, lack of accountability in the management structure, and other issues fast food workers deal with on a daily basis.

Demonstrators were not only demanding $15 an hour, fair treatment and a union, they were also demanding that Wendy’s join the the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ Fair Food Program (FFP). Attentive readers will remember that the Brown Student Labor Alliance lead a protest in October around the FFP, described as a “ground-breaking model for worker-led social responsibility based on a unique collaboration among farmworkers, Florida tomato growers and 14 participating buyers.” It is “the first comprehensive, verifiable and sustainable approach to ensuring better wages and working conditions in America’s agricultural fields.”

Emelio Garcia, a former employee of Teriyaki House Restaurant in downtown Providence spoke about not having been paid for work he did at the restaurant. Wage theft is a story sadly common in Rhode Island, as more and more employees stand up and demand the wages that have been stolen from them by employers. Garcia says that he was docked for two hours of pay a day for breaks he was never actually allowed to take.

Flor Salazar, who worked at Café Atlantic and was owed thousands of dollars in unpaid wages, was allegedly assaulted by owner Juan Noboa with a baseball bat when she and a group of workers confronted Noboa at his home Halloween morning. “We are tired of having our work stolen, we are tired of being disrespected in our workplace,” said Salazar, “It’s enough.”

The final speaker was a not a restaurant worker but Magdalene Smith, a CNA working at a Pawtucket nursing home. “This is not a fight for just restaurants, but for everybody,” said Smith. “Everybody deserves $15. We work hard.”

In addition to Jobs With Justice and the Brown Student/Labor Alliance the event was sponsored by 1199 SEIU Rhode Island, Fuerza Laboral/Power of Workers and Restaurant Opportunities Center of Rhode Island.

Most of the restaurant patrons seemed okay with the surprise protest, some even joining in with the chants, but one family became extremely agitated. A man told me that if I turned the camera towards his kids he would assault me. The same man approached the protesters, took a sign from one of them and ripped it in half before tossing it on the floor. He was very angry.

The protest was part of the Student/Farmworker Alliance‘s protest, “Schooling Wendy’s National Week of Action” intended to pressure Wendy’s into joining the FFP, described as a “ground-breaking model for worker-led social responsibility based on a unique collaboration among farmworkers, Florida tomato growers and 14 participating buyers.” It is “the first comprehensive, verifiable and sustainable approach to ensuring better wages and working conditions in America’s agricultural fields,” say organizers.

According to their website, of “the five largest fast food corporations in the country — McDonald’s, Subway, Burger King, Taco Bell, and Wendy’s — Wendy’s is the only one to not yet sign onto the Fair Food Program.”

The program works by having companies pay one extra penny per pound of produce purchased. That extra penny goes into a fund that allows for six benefits to farmworkers, according to FFP’s Code of Conduct:

1. A pay increase supported by a “penny per pound” premium paid by Participating Buyers;
2. Zero tolerance for forced labor, sexual assault, and other abusive conduct;
3. Worker-to-worker education sessions carried out by the CIW on the farms and on company time to ensure workers are aware of their new rights and responsibilities;
4. A worker-triggered complaint resolution mechanism comprising of a timely investigation, corrective action plans, and if necessary, suspension of a farm’s Participating Grower status, and thereby its ability to sell to Participating Buyers;
5. Health and Safety Committees on every farm to give workers a structured voice in the shape of their work environment; and
6. Ongoing auditing of farms to insure compliance with each element of the FFP.

Organizers are asking people to boycott Wendy’s until the corporation signs on to the FFP.

Robert Paquin, the executive director of the Rhode Island Republican Party, said he will be attending the Warwick Wendy’s protest at noon.

With a last minute change of location from the Dunkin’ Donuts on Broad St. in Central Falls to the Burger King on Lonsdale Ave., Jobs with Justice launched their fourth action for $15 an hour and and unionization for fast food workers. Burger King management kept the doors to the restaurant locked but they couldn’t stop the voices of workers demanding fair wages for long hours of work. Towards the end, Charles, a ten year employee of Burger King, spoke briefly about the impossibility of supporting oneself on the paltry wages on offer. The next event is at noon in Warwick, I’ll have pictures from that event soon.

“Fast-food workers in  Central Falls, Warwick, Providence and Pawtucket will walk off their jobs,” according to the media advisory. “They are expected to strike at Providence major fast-food restaurants, including Dunkin Donuts, Wendy’s and KFC.  Clergy, elected officials, and community supporters will join fast-food workers on the strike lines.”

Affected businesses include a Wendy’s, McDonalds, KFC (formerly known as Kentucky Fried Chicken) and Dunkin Donuts.

This is the fourth such direct action in Rhode Island that began at the Wendy’s in Warwick in December (watch video of that action here). It will be the second time workers have actually gone on strike, or not reported to work as a protest against the emloyment conditions.

The effort is part of national campaign, led by the SEIU, to raise the minimum wage in the fast food industry to $15 an hour and the right to form a union. Across the nation, workers will be striking at more than 150 fast food establishments, according to the release.

Public protests will be held at a Dunkin Donuts on Broad Street in Central Falls at 6 am Thursday morning and at noon at the Wendy’s in Warwick.

Here’s some background on the Fight for $15 movement from the Jobs With Justice press release:

A campaign that started in New York City in November 2012, with 200 fast-food workers walking off their jobs demanding $15 and the right to form a union without retaliation, has since spread to more than 150 cities in every region of the country, including the South—and now around the world.  Last December workers in Warwick and Providence joined the movement with a one-day strike.  Momentum continues to grow throughout Rhode Island to include workers at restaurants in Central Falls and Pawtucket.  The growing fight for $15 has been credited with elevating the debate around inequality in the U.S. When Seattle’s mayor proposed a $15 minimum wage earlier this month, Businessweek said he was “adopting the rallying cry of fast-food workers.”

As it spreads, the movement is challenging fast-food companies’ outdated notion that their workers are teenagers looking for pocket change. Today’s workers are mothers and fathers struggling to raise children on wages that are too low. And they’re showing the industry that if it doesn’t raise pay, it will continue to be at the center of the national debate on what’s wrong with our economy.

Earlier this year, workers in three states filed class-action suits against McDonald’s alleging widespread and systematic wage theft. And in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, McDonald’s said worker protests might force it to raise wages this year. With shareholder meeting season upon us, and a recent report showing the industry has by far the largest disparity between worker and CEO pay, scrutiny on fast-food companies is bound to intensify. USA Today called the growing worker movement, “the issue that just won’t go away” for the fast-food industry.