A group of 10 Tufts students traveled to Columbus, Ohio, last weekend to protest the fact that Wendy's has refused to sign the Fair Food Agreement.
According to junior Diane Adamson, one of the Tufts organizers, the event was part of a larger campaign by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and its affiliate group, the Student/Farmworker Alliance (SFA).
"The leaders of the organization are farm workers, in particular tomato pickers, who came together to improve their working conditions and created a program called the Fair Food Program," Adamson said. "[Through this program] they pressure corporations that are major buyers of tomatoes, [like] Walmart and McDonald's, to sign on to this agreement, which includes one more penny ... that goes directly to the workers for every pound of tomatoes that they pick."
According to Adamson, the program, through a third-party monitoring agency, ensures that the workers are paid acceptable wages. She explained that Wendy's is one of the only large corporations that has not signed the agreement.
"The whole purpose of the series of events was to put pressure on Wendy's to sign the Fair
Food Agreement because they're really the last hold out in terms of major fast food corporations ... McDonald's has already signed, Chipotle is on [and] Taco Bell is on," Adamson said. "There are really 11 multibillion dollar corporations that have already signed the Fair Food Agreement, which has created huge changes in Florida for these farm workers ... It's not really a question of whether or not Wendy's is going to sign ... but a question of when and how much pressure that we need to put on them."
According to Wendy's spokesperson Bob Bertini, the restaurant chain believes its practices already ensure workers are treated fairly.
"We do not believe it's appropriate for us to compensate individuals who work for another company," Bertini told the Daily in an email. "Because of our high standards, we already pay a premium to our tomato suppliers in Florida, and we expect them to compensate and take care of their employees. The harvesters work directly for them, not us."
He also explained that all of Wendy's tomato suppliers are signatories of the Fair Food Code of Conduct.
According to Adamson, however, the decision of Wendy's CEO Emil Brolick is hypocritical.
"Ironically, [he] was CEO of Taco Bell when Taco Bell signed the Fair Food Agreement back in 2005 and, at that time, [he] issued a statement saying that in order for the Fair Food Agreement to work, other corporations needed to sign on," Adamson said. "He basically put out this whole statement about how they were being a leader in fast food and how everyone else needed to participate, but now that he is CEO of Wendy's, he's refusing to sign and essentially contradicting his own words."
Nearly 800 activists, including students, farmworkers and families, gathered in Ohio, according to Adamson. She said the weekend of events included a candlelight vigil to celebrate International Women's Day, a concert and dance at a Columbus church, as well as a march to Wendy's flagship restaurant near the corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ohio.
Protest attendee Margaret Young said the weekend was well-organized and a great experience.
"The mood of the whole thing was so cheerful and optimistic," she said. "Compared to other protests, to me this is not a contentious issue ... Everyone was there in solidarity ... Nobody was there trying to detract and get angry."
The Tufts students who attended the protest were members of a variety of different student groups, including Tufts Labor Coalition, United for Immigrant Justice, the First Generation Student Council and the Tisch Scholars, according to Adamson. While the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate provided the groups with $1000 of funding, attendees paid $125 per person for a train and bus they shared with other university students.
Student participation was especially important because of the role they play as consumers, Adamson said.
"With Taco Bell in [2005], the Student/Farmworker Alliance started a campaign called Boot the Bell where, especially at major universities that had fast food on their campus, students lobbied successfully to cut the contract of Taco Bell at their universities until they signed the Fair Food Agreement," Adamson said.
Nevertheless, Adamson credited the farmworkers for leading the campaign and said that the students are simply following along.
"It's really important for any talk of the food movement to include discussion and action about labor and about the workers who so often go unmentioned in those conversations about changing the food system," she said. "Farmworkers are the major speakers, farmworkers walk in the front, farmworkers set the agenda ... Students are not there to save them - we're just there to support and to learn."
Adamson described the protest as "rejuvenating" and said it proves that anyone can create change.
"People who are thought of as being disenfranchised, through work and determination over a very long period of time, have successfully pressured corporations into changing some of their most fundamental policies," she said. "It's amazing."
