Amsterdam allies step into the ring in Ahold campaign!

In open letter to Amsterdam-based Ahold, Dutch unions, faith groups, NGO’s say CIW struggle “important for the Netherlands,” pledge to “closely follow” campaign and “give active support”…

Ahold, the Amsterdam-based supermarket giant that owns eleven major chains globally (including its flagship brand, Albert Heijn, pictured above, and US chains Giant and Stop and Shop), has been served formal notice.

Fair Food allies in Amsterdam have published an open letter to Ahold CEO Lodewijk Hijmans van den Bergh to inform him that they will be taking action on Ahold’s home turf to support the Campaign for Fair Food if the company fails to “follow the example of its competitors” and reach an agreement with the CIW to improve wages and working conditions in its suppliers’ tomato fields. The letter was signed by a broad coalition of Dutch organizations, including:

  • FNV (Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging, logo on right), the largest union federation in the country, representing 1.4 million members;
  • CNV (Christelijk Nationaal Vakverbond), the Christian national union federation, representing 350,000 members;
  • BLinN, Bonded Labour in the Netherlands, a Dutch NGO that supports victims of slavery and raises awareness about modern-day slavery;
  • Arbeidspastoraat Disk, a cooperative labor ministry that combines the efforts of seven Dutch denominations, including Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Baptist churches;
  • OKIA, a Dutch immigrant worker organization that works to defend and expand its members’ labor rights.

Here below are excerpts from the letter (the English version):

… The Signatories have followed with admiration the work of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers for several years now.  Special to their approach is that they do not only focus on farms with slavery or very poor working conditions, but they also focus in particular on the large corporations who purchase the products, and who, because of their market power, bear great influence on conditions in the agricultural sector…

… The struggle of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers is important for the Netherlands because also Amsterdam-based Ahold is involved in this story. Ahold’s subsidiary supermarket companies in the U.S., Stop and Shop and Giant, appeared to buy tomatoes from at least one, if not both, growers tainted by the last major tomato slavery case.

Ahold was asked questions about this at the shareholders’ meeting last April in Amsterdam. Ahold said that it relies on laws and regulations and enforcement of labor laws in the U.S., and on a certification process that their suppliers participate in. But this certification can hardly be taken seriously: the aforementioned companies where the last tomato slavery operation was uncovered were certified themselves by that process. And just last year, in a crushing report, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) declared that enforcement in the field of labor violations was in a deplorable state. Through a visit to the headquarters of Ahold in Amsterdam last month, the Coalition made it clear that  the answers given at the shareholders meeting were insufficient…

After corresponding about this public letter, Ahold informed the CIW that all acquisitions from the Immokalee area will be put on hold pending an independent investigation.

Ahold’s show of good will and serious attention to this matter are positive steps. However, the undersigned wish to emphasize that a real solution demands a concrete plan of action.

Decent working conditions prevent slavery from flourishing. The CIW has put together a set of vital, basic provisions regarding supply chain responsibility. Taco Bell, McDonalds, Burger King, Whole Foods Market, Aramark, Compass Group and Subway are already on board with the Coalition and have signed agreements to uphold these conditions.

Together with our congratulations to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, we declare our hope and expectation that the granting of this prestigious prize to Laura Germino from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers [the State Department recognition from earlier this month for her anti-slavery efforts] will be an incentive for Ahold to take this up actively and follow the example of its competitors. We will closely follow the further proceedings and, where necessary, give active support.” read more

Peter Gortzak, General Secretary and Vice Chair of the FNV, added this in a press release accompanying the letter:

“In the Netherlands as well as abroad regularly emerge stories about deplorable labour conditions and outright slavery. It’s important to respond to that internationally and together. That’s why we support a local coalition like this one in Florida and address international corporations together with them.”

In the letter, the Amsterdam allies refer to the fact that company representatives recently informed them (and only later informed the CIW) that Ahold would be suspending purchases “from the Immokalee area” pending an internal investigation of the finding of slave labor on two Florida tomato farms.

Giant3
Fair Food activists in Baltimore take a Campaign for Fair Food manager’s letter to a local Giant supermarket in November of last year.

Of course, there are a few problems with this latest move by Ahold. First, no one is buying tomatoes from the Immokalee area for the next several months, as there are no tomatoes in Immokalee to be sold until the harvest returns to Florida in October. Second, when Immokalee again has tomatoes to sell, Ahold’s blanket decision would punish all the growers — and, therefore, the workers — for the latest sins of a couple of farms.

Further, the news of Ahold’s intention to investigate comes with no explanation of a) what sort of time frame or deadline Ahold has in mind, b) what kind of resources or approach Ahold plans to use in its investigation, c) what possible outcomes could result from a positive finding, and d) why an investigation is necessary at all when a US federal court found enough evidence to convict two farm bosses on slavery charges and put them away for twin 12-year sentences.

Not to mention the fact that not buying from slavery-tainted growers is the very least Ahold could do, while its competitors have agreed to take far more extensive measures — in partnership with the CIW — designed to raise farmworkers’ wages and improve farm labor conditions.

In short, just like when Publix bowed to scrutiny and stopped purchasing from the growers associated with the latest slavery prosecution on the eve of the massive Farmworker Freedom March, Ahold’s decision to suspend purchases is “Far too little, far too late.” And the Amsterdam allies understand that, emphasizing that “a real solution demands a concrete plan of action.”

So, in summary, it looks like Ahold, despite encouraging words earlier this year from its executives in Amsterdam, is digging in. And it looks like our Fair Food allies in Amsterdam are ready.

Stay tuned in the weeks ahead as the Ahold campaign heats up, both here, with the coming Northeast Slavery Museum Tour aiming straight for the markets plied by Ahold properties Giant and Stop and Shop, and in Holland, home to so many great things, including a vibrant labor movement and a deep and devoted market for all things Fair Trade. Should be interesting…

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UPDATE: Since this page was originally posted, Pacific Tomato Growers has agreed to participate in CIW’s Campaign for Fair Food and has adopted a comprehensive Code of Conduct that affords significant verifiable worker protections. This Code reconfirms Pacific Tomato Grower’s long-standing commitment to a zero tolerance for forced labor. While Pacific Tomato Growers was never the target or subject of the Federal prosecution’s Navarrette investigation, Pacific Tomato Growers agrees that all growers must do more to prevent the use of forced labor on their farms.