WHAT ARE YOU HIDING, WENDY’S?

March for farmworkers’ human rights | November 18 | 5pm | 280 Park Ave | NYC

In today’s business world, the rules for social responsibility are changing.  Consumers increasingly want to know what companies are doing to address the key social issues of our day, from climate change to economic inequality and sexual harassment.  As a result, the days when consumer-facing companies could turn a blind eye to worker exploitation and abuse in their suppliers’ operations are long gone. Instead, accountability, transparency and verifiable human rights protections are the table stakes for corporations wanting to do business in the 21st century.

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ (CIW)  Fair Food Program (FFP) is the gold standard for social responsibility in the food industry today.  After decades of tireless organizing with consumers, farmworkers with the CIW have built a uniquely successful program of worker-led monitoring and enforcement that has ended many long-standing human rights violations — from forced labor to sexual violence — in the fields under its award-winning protections.  The Fair Food Program’s success has made it the most recognized social responsibility program in the country today. The FFP received a Presidential Medal in 2015 for its “extraordinary success in fighting human trafficking” and a MacArthur “Genius” Award in 2017 for its “potential to transform workplace environments across the global supply chain,”, and was called one of the “most important social impact stories of the past century” by the Harvard Business Review.

That’s why all of the largest fast-food companies — McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, Taco Bell and Chipotle — along with nine other major food retailers, from Whole Foods to Walmart, have joined the Fair Food Program.  For over a decade, those companies have partnered with the CIW, embracing the FFP’s transparency and proven protections. Yet today there is still one major fast-food company notably missing from that list: Wendy’s. 

What is Wendy’s really selling to its consumers when it comes to social responsibility? 

For years now, Wendy’s has stubbornly refused to open its supply chain to the Fair Food Program.  Instead, Wendy’s has turned to long-discredited, social auditing companies such as SA8000 to monitor its suppliers’ operations.  With only infrequent, superficial audits for visibility into day-to-day working conditions, those companies provide consumers little or no transparency into the farms where Wendy’s buys its produce.  Worse yet, auditors like SA8000 provide workers none of the complaint investigation and resolution services that make the Fair Food Program so successful, effectively denying the workers who harvest Wendy’s produce a voice -- and justice -- if their rights are violated.  

Yet despite embracing demonstrably inferior social responsibility standards and enforcement mechanisms, Wendy’s continues to insist that working conditions in its suppliers’ operations are second to none.  This begs an obvious question: If there truly are no human rights violations occurring in Wendy’s suppliers’ operations, why not meet its competitors’ challenge and join the FFP, the most comprehensive, most widely-respected human rights program in agriculture?

Wendy’s wouldn’t sell its customers demonstrably inferior beef.   Why would it sell its customers inferior social responsibility?

It’s time to stop hiding… 

Outside the protections of the Fair Food Program, millions of farmworkers in the U.S. and abroad remain vulnerable to rampant sexual assault, widespread violence and systemic wage theft.  This is true whether they labor under the hot sun of an open field or the plastic roof of a greenhouse.  

Wendy’s assurances that working conditions are fine in their greenhouse suppliers’ operations ring hollow when compared to the hard evidence of harsh conditions faced by workers in greenhouses, not to mention the well-documented failure of the auditing companies tasked with protecting workers from widespread labor and safety violations. 

Join us in telling Wendy’s that it’s time to stop hiding.  Join us in demanding real transparency and human rights protections in Wendy’s produce supply chain.

On November 18, farmworkers from Immokalee, together with their consumer allies, will return to Manhattan for a major march to the hedge fund Trian Partners, Wendy’s largest institutional shareholder and the home office of several members of Wendy’s Board of Directors.  In March of 2018, over 2,000 New Yorkers joined farmworkers for a massive march through Midtown Manhattan on the last day CIW’s historic 5-day “Freedom Fast” calling for Wendy’s to join the Fair Food Program and help end sexual assault and other human rights violations in the fields.  November’s march is the latest escalation in the national boycott of Wendy’s, which has received monumental support from hundreds of thousands of consumers, institutions, public figures and city governments.  

Now is the time for Wendy’s to partner with the CIW to guarantee that labor conditions in the company’s supply chain truly live up to its claims.  Until then, until the women and men who harvest Wendy’s tomatoes are guaranteed real dignity and respect through the Fair Food Program, consumers and farmworkers will not rest.

Not in New York City? You can still support!

Participate in the Solidarity National Call-in Day! HERE’S What to do:

1. Call Trian Partners in New York, New York at (212) 451-3000.
2. Ask if you can leave a message regarding Wendy's tomato purchasing policies.
3. You'll likely be directed to an assistant. Once you get someone on the line, give your statement. Feel free to offer your own personal comments, or use the script provided.
4. Let us know how it went using this form!

SAMPLE SCRIPT:
“Hi, my name is _______ and I’m calling to leave a message in support of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. Today hundreds of farmworkers from Florida and allied New Yorkers will be demonstrating outside of your office to call on Wendy’s to join the Fair Food Program. And they aren’t alone. Hundreds of thousands of consumers are boycotting Wendy’s until the company does its part to guarantee human rights protections for farmworkers that harvest its food. It is imperative that Wendy's open its supply chain to the award-winning protections of the Fair Food Program and stop relying on superficial audits to protect farmworkers against sexual violence and slavery.  Thank you for relaying this message.”