Friday, August 27, 2010

Trader Joes Continues to deny there's slavery in their supply chain!

Check out the full awesome coverage by Chelsea Now

They write:

During the height of the protest, Chelsea Now entered Trader Joe’s to elicit a statement from the manager. Although she was very polite — almost apologetic — she said she was not allowed to talk to the press, nor could her employees or customers, but Chelsea Now was welcome to speak to the latter once they had exited the store and were away from the entrance. Efforts to speak to customers entering or exiting proved difficult. They either ran past with their heads down or eyes beamed ahead, or they murmured “no comment.” It is not known if the protest impacted customer sales....

The day after the protest, Chelsea Now contacted Alison Mochizuki, Trader Joe’s national public relations director, and requested comments on the company’s position regarding fair labor practices for farmworkers, thoughts about the protest and asked if they were planning to sign an agreement with the CIW. Mochizuki replied that day with an almost identical statement given previously, as reported in the newspaper on Aug. 11. She repeated, “At Trader Joe’s, we work with reputable suppliers that have a strong record of providing safe and healthy work environments and we will continue to make certain that our vendors are meeting if not exceeding government standards throughout all aspects of their businesses. At this time, I have no additional comments.”