This Valentine’s Day, there is a move to break-up with more than your significant other! As part of the Deliver with Dignity campaign, the Student/Farmworker Alliance, Alliance for Fair Food and Coalition of Immokalee Workers are urging DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub and Postmates to cut their ties with Wendy’s. Why is there a boycott? The fast-food company is the only of its stature to refuse to join the Fair Food Program, which ensures legally enforceable protections for farmworkers.
(That’s right, even Subway has signed it, the company facing a lawsuit about the lack of tuna in their tuna sandwiches.)
What is worse, Wendy’s has remained unmovable for eight years about joining the human rights program. This means that the workers who pick tomatoes for your chicken sandwich are effectively without any protections. The scale here is modern-day slavery. Let that sink in.
Wendy’s is the third-largest hamburger chain in the world, meaning the company purchases a lot of tomatoes. As the Fair Food Program has expanded to protect more farmworkers here in the United States, Wendy’s has shifted sourcing to Mexico in order to have a cost advantage over competitors. By doing so, Wendy’s is choosing profit margin over ethics
An investigation into major Mexican tomato grower, Bioparques de Occidente, for the Los Angeles Times “described subhuman conditions, with workers forced to work without pay, trapped for months at a time in scorpion-infested camps, often without beds, fed on scraps, and beaten when they tried to quit.”
Taking action is urgent, due to the high instances of sexual assault, forced labor, and human rights abuses faced by farmworkers in Wendy’s supply chain — especially during COVID-19. The lack of safety protocols means infection and death rates remain significant for farmworkers nationwide, who are essential workers. Without farmworkers, there is no food.
This Valentine’s Day, join me for a Deliver with Dignity Day of Action to help support our essential farmworkers. Here’s how to participate:
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Write and decorate a Valentine’s Day-themed message on a piece of paper to DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, and Postmates urging them to support farmworker justice and #DumpWendys
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Take a cute selfie with your Valentine card
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Post it on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook (or all three!) and tag @DoorDash, @UberEats, @Grubhub and @Postmates and use #DumpWendys so we can amplify it online
Be sure to use short and direct phrases to get the message across: stand on the right side of history by boycotting Wendy’s until the fast-food company joins the Fair Food Program.
You can also support the Deliver with Dignity campaign by signing this petition or donating here.
Wendy’s is choosing profit over people. On February 14, and every day, let’s show the company that we don’t support abusive, exploitive relationships.