Coast to Coast Trader Joe's Actions SATURDAY!

Trader Joe's Picket for Fair Food

Time	Saturday, October 16 · 11:00am - 12:00pm
Location	Trader Joe's (near Lake Merritt Farmers Market) 3250 Lakeshore Ave. Oakland, CA

SLAVERY IS NOT SUSTAINABLE. And no matter how delicious organic trail mix tastes, how great it is that Trader Joe's sells some incredibly affordable food that has a more discrete environmental footprint, they continue to refuse to put an end to modern-day slavery conditions in their tomato supply chain!

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (http://www.ciw-online.org/)
in partnership with the Student Farmworker Alliance (http://www....sfalliance.org/) and Just Harvest USA (http://www.justharvestusa.org/) are continuing their Campaign for Fair Food, which has successfully brought 9 multi-billion dollar fast food and food service corporations - including McDonalds, Burger King and Subway - to their knees, hoping that the supermarket industry (including Trader Joe's) will also become partners in justice by signing an agreement with the CIW.

Our goals are to: 1. End modern-day slavery conditions in the fields of Florida, 2. Establish a fair wage: an increase of a mere penny per pound of tomatoes the workers harvest would double wages!, 3. Dignified working conditions, and 4. Worker participation in creating and implementing a human rights-based code of conduct.

Please join us on Saturday at 10:45 in front of Trader Joe's to meet one another, devour FREE and tasty baked goods from the Arizmendi Bakery Co-operative (http://www.arizmendibakery.org/), and get ready for a short and sweet picket : )

We will supply all of the materials including banners and posters, but if you would like to come hang out and make signs with us, but all means, contact me! You dont even have to know anything about the campaign to come and participate because we will be giving a mini info session before we picket.

Trader Joes Picket for Fair Food- Saturday!

Trader Joe's Brooklyn 130 Court Street. Brooklyn, NY 11201

Wear your Hawaiian Shirts!
12:00pm - 1:30pm

Join the CFA give a penny to Trader Joe's cashiers and demand that they pay an extra penny per pound to their farmworkers!! We will be wearing hawaiin shirts and outreaching to customers/community folks. We will also be supplying pennies for everyone to participate!

SLAVERY IS NOT SUSTAINABLE!! Be in solidarity with the CIW and push Trader Joe’s to join an agreement to end abuse and modern-day slavery on their farmworkers.

Farmwo...rkers picking tomatoes for Trader Joe's chain of supermarkets earn 40-50 cents for every 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they harvest—wages that have not risen since 1978. Grinding poverty leaves farmworkers vulnerable to further exploitation from employers: since 1997, over 1000 farmworkers have been freed from modern day slavery-like conditions in the Florida fields where they work.

Community/Farmworker Alliance (NYC) is a local coalition of community members that organizes in solidarity with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in their Campaign for Fair food, a national movement to transform the purchasing practices of the corporate food industry in order to advance the human rights of farmworkers at the bottom of corporate supply chains. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) (http://www.ciw-online.org/) is a Florida-based, membership-led organization of low-wage workers.

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (http://www.ciw-online.org/)

Community/Farmworker Alliance Protest in Solidarity with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers

Tuesday, October 19th, 6:30pm

Hilton Garden Inn
1575 Round Swamp Road
Plainview, NY 11803



In May, Quiznos promised that it would soon be joining in agreement with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to improve the wages and working conditions of farmworkers who pick tomatoes bought by the company. Months have now passed and it is time to hold Quiznos to its word. Until Quiznos' promises become concrete actions, we will intensify our call for justice!

BACKGROUND:
Florida farmworkers who pick tomatoes are among the nation’s most exploited workers: they earn sub-poverty wages, have no right to form unions or to over-time pay, lack traditional employment benefits such as health, sick leave or pensions, and have not received a significant raise in nearly 30 years. At the current rate, a Florida tomato picker must harvest over TWO AND A HALF TONS just to earn the equivalent of minimum wage for a typical 10 hour. In the most extreme situations workers are held in modern-day slavery and forced to work against their will.

In 2001, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers - a grassroots organization of migrant farmworkers based in Florida - and their allies launched the Campaign for Fair Food, calling on retail food industry leaders to address the egregious working conditions and poverty stemming from these companies' high-volume/low-cost purchasing practices. As a result, the CIW has reached historic agreements with McDonald's, Burger King, Subway and others to directly improve farmworker wages and working conditions and set new standards for social responsibility in Florida agriculture.

Despite these breakthroughs, however, Quiznos – who profits from the exploitation of farmworkers due to the sheer volume of its tomato purchases – has yet to take responsibility. While Quiznos has begun discussions with the CIW, those talks continue to drag on without resolution. Visit ciw-online.org for more info.

Who is Trader Joe, Anyway?

A NYC blogger and locavore writes about Trader Joe's lack of transparency...

Check it out here!

Florida Farmworkers Take Aim at Supermarket Chains for “Fair Food”

Uprising Radio Features the CIW Supermarket Campaign!


Trader Joes has become a target of the Coalition for Immokalee Workers Fair Food! campaign. The grocery store has an ever growing number of locations around the nation and it describes itself as a specialty store that carries innovative as well as basic food items. It was ranked by the business focused think-tank Ethisphere as the one of three most ethical food stores in its 2010 World’s Most Ethical Companies list. The Immokalee workers are asking Trader Joes, as well as Kroger’s, Publix, and Stop N’ Shop chains to change the way they buy tomatoes. When retailers sign CIW’s Fair Food agreement they are agreeing to take specific actions including demanding more humane labor conditions for tomato growers, and buying only from growers who meet those higher standards. Florida tomato pickers are paid by the piece and the CIW says that to earn the minimum wage a farmworker must pick more than 2 and a quarter tons of tomatoes per 10 hour work day. Over the years the Immokalee workers’ campaign has been very successful in persuading major food corporations to join, including Whole Foods, Burger King, McDonalds, and Subway. On August 20th a coalition of farmworker advocacy groups began its Trader Joes campaign with a protest outside of a Manhattan, New York location.

Community/Farmworker Alliance Workshop!

Please Forward Widely!

Community/Farmworker Alliance Workshop!

Come out to learn more about the national network organizing with farmworkers to eliminate sweatshop conditions and modern-day slavery in the fields. We work in alliance with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a Florida-based, membership-led organization of mostly Latino, Haitian, and Mayan Indian low-wage workers.

After CIW victories against major corporations like Burger King, Subway and McDonalds, the Community/Farmworker Alliance NYC is working with the CIW to take on the Supermarket Industry, starting with Trader Joe’s!

Join us to learn more about the CIW's work and the CFA-NYC campaign!

September 14 · 6:30pm

6th Street Community Center

638 East 6th Street

New York, NY

**Yummy food for sale during the event at the weekly Organic Soul Cafe which uses food from the 6th Street Community Center CSA!***

Please write to farmworkersolidarity@gmail.com for more info!

http://farmworkersolidarity.blogspot.com/

Let Trader Joe's know what you think!

Let Trader Joe's know what you think about the conditions of farm workers in their agricultural fields and the corporation's failure to negotiate with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. Let's flood them with responses! Please FWD.

Please fill out a comment here:

http://www.traderjoes.com/about/general-feedback-form.asp

Also, be sure to check out our Community/Farmworker Alliance Teach-In on Tuesday, September 14th at 7pm at the 6th Street Community Center to learn more about the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' Supermarket Campaign and next steps for NYC.