In thick coats and caps they marched through a cold and rainy New York City night chanting in broken syllables, “Boy-cott! Wen-dy’s! Boy-cott! Wen-dy’s!”
Halfway there, but not far enough. That’s the reaction from the Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP), the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and other supporters following last week’s announcement by Wendy’s corporate executives to purchase a majority of its tomatoes in the U.S. instead of Mexico. The announcement came during the restaurant chain’s annual shareholders meeting in Dublin, Ohio.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) has been trying for 10 years to convince the Wendy’s company to join the Fair Food Program (FFP), which focuses on the rights of farmworkers. Despite its pleas, the Ohio-based fast food company has said no. Now the CIW is ramping up its campaign by calling for a national boycott of the food chain. This is only the second time in the group’s history that a national boycott has been called. The first time was 15 years ago against Taco Bell.
More than 120 people, including several Presbyterian Mission Agency (PMA) staff, took up banners and pickets this week, as they made their way across the University of Louisville campus. It was part of a campaign to convince the Wendy’s fast food chain that its current practices of buying tomatoes is negatively impacting the lives and rights of farmworkers.
For more than 10 years, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) has been campaigning to convince the Wendy’s Company to join the Fair Food Program (FFP), which focuses on the rights of farmworkers. But the Ohio-based fast food chain has refused to join the program even though competitors Yum Brands, McDonald’s, Burger King, and Subway have joined.
Against a background of chants, signs and supportive car honks from passersby, about 40 Presbyterians demonstrated in front of a Wendy’s restaurant here, demanding that the fast-food chain sign onto the Fair Food Program to establish more humane farm labor standards and fairer wages for farmworkers in its tomato suppliers’ operations.