[Mitai-announce] Reminder: March to Stop Sweatshops - Sunday, 1pm

[Anahita Maghami]

*March to Stop Sweatshops*
Sunday, February 27

Gather at 1:00pm, Copley Square (immediately east of Trinity Church)
Additional details forthcoming at
http://www.ciw-online.org/dotherightthing/boston.html

Join farmworkers from Immokalee and their allies as they call on Ahold to do
its part to end farmworker abuse and exploitation during the CIW's largest
and most-important action ever in the Northeast!


Florida farmworkers have long faced brutal conditions in the fields,
including sub-poverty wages, widespread labor rights violations, and even
modern-day slavery.

Today, however, there is hope in the fields.  Through their Campaign for
Fair Food, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) – a Florida farmworker
organization – has reached agreements with nine of the world's leading food
retailers, including McDonald's, Subway and Whole Foods.   In these Fair
Food agreements, corporations are paying one more penny per pound for the
tomatoes they buy directly to the workers who picked them, and have
established a stringent, worker-designed code of conduct in their tomato
supply chains.  In addition, recent historic agreements between the CIW and
Florida tomato growers promise to apply the CIW's Fair Food standards to
virtually the entire Florida tomato industry.

Thus far, however, Ahold USA (parent company of Stop & Shop and Giant) – a
major player in the supermarket industry – has refused to participate.  And
if Ahold has its way, the unprecedented transformation of farm labor
conditions promised by these landmark agreements will be significantly
diminished.

In response, the CIW and their allies are gearing up for one of the most
important actions in the history of the Campaign for Fair Food.  Join them
this February 27th in Boston, and lend your voice to the call for Ahold to
do its part!


For more information, contact Meghan at meghan at sfalliance.org or
239-503-1533.

http://www.ciw-online.org/dotherightthing/