Protecting Food. Empowering Whistleblowers.
Protecting Food. Empowering Whistleblowers.
Great news! Yesterday it was announced that Trader Joe’s has, at last, signed an agreement with the Florida-based farmworker organization – the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) – to support the group’s Fair Food Program and demand better labor standards from the store’s Florida tomato suppliers. The agreement involves an increase in tomato farmworkers’ wages […]
Biotechnology and crop chemical giant Monsanto, also known as a consistent violator of food integrity in FIC terms, has been linked to yet another breach of global community values. The Associated Press reported Monday that Argentina’s tax agency raided a Monsanto contractor and discovered “slave-like conditions” among its corn farmworkers. AP writes: The AFIP tax […]
Anti-union retaliation at one of the country’s largest food distributors, US Foods, sparked a worker strike in Illinois last Sunday (Oct. 30). In the following week, sympathy picket lines spread to warehouses in Missouri, New York, Indiana, Minnesota, Washington, New Jersey, and Colorado. According to GAP coalition partner International Brotherhood of Teamsters, more than 2100 […]
Today the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food released a report to the UN General Assembly that explores the effects that the world-wide expansion of contract farming has on the right to food. The report describes how these contract arrangements, in which farmers agree to provide their products to processing or marketing […]
The following op-ed was written by FIC Director Amanda Hitt. Versions of this op-ed also appeared in the Xenia Daily Gazette (OH), Bristol Press (CT), New Britain Herald (CT), Herkimer Telegram (NY), Little Falls Times (NY), Union Daily Times (SC), and Wayne Independent (PA). Food safety is running afoul in Springdale — in more ways […]
When it comes to food headlines, Springdale, Arkansas can’t catch a break. In the same city Cargill suspended its turkey processing plant after being linked to the recent Salmonella outbreak, a Tyson Foods truck driver died Wednesday morning after being pinned between two truck trailers outside Tyson’s Springdale poultry plant. I might also add that […]
“Giant Ain’t The G They Used to Be,” chanted D.C. hip hop artist Head Roc at a rally Wednesday afternoon at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters’ national headquarters. In front of the IBT steps, GAP joined hundreds of grocery and warehouse workers in protest of recent moves by industry that affront worker rights and food […]
Food service industry workers have it tough, according to a new report — Behind the Kitchen Door: A Multi-Site Study of the Restaurant Industry — released by Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United, a national restaurant workers’ organization launched in 2008. In fact, workers face conditions that threaten both themselves as well as public health — […]
The unionization effort at Jimmy John’s sub sandwich outlets in the Minneapolis area scored a victory Monday when the National Labor Relations Board nullified an October election that defeated the union move. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, or ‘Wobblies’) had sought to represent workers at 10 of the restaurant chain’s shops but lost […]
Unionization in the food sector means giving workers a voice that will ensure the integrity of what ends up on our dinner plates. But our country has never seen a union for the fast-food industry. We may soon witness history, after employees of 10 Minneapolis Jimmy John’s sandwich shops vote on the issue Friday. Fast-food […]