Ohio Fair Food to protest at Wendy’s Annual Shareholder Meeting!

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Protests outside of Wendy's shareholder meeting in 2013
300-person march ahead of Wendy’s shareholder meeting in 2013

Building on years of powerful actions, Fair Food allies gear up for fast food giant’s annual meeting in Ohio…

This week, Wendy’s executives are busily preparing for their June 1st annual shareholder meeting, ready to welcome shareholders from across the country to their corporate hometown of Dublin, Ohio.  But shareholders will not be the only ones gathering at Wendy’s headquarters next week.  The intrepid members of Ohio Fair Food, alongside CIW members and the Ohio State University Student/Farmworker Alliance chapter, are mobilizing to bring their own message to Wendy’s shareholders: The campaign for respect and dignity for Florida’s farmworkers will continue to grow until Wendy’s joins one of the most effective human rights programs in the world today — the Fair Food Program. 

These plans, of course, should come as no surprise to the burger giant, after the creative protests at Wendy’s previous two shareholder meetings.  Each year, the Fair Food Nation has brought an ever stronger, clearer call for farmworker justice to the meeting, as well as new tidings of the growing success of the Fair Food Program.  And as each year slips by, Wendy’s absence from the roster of participating buyers grows evermore inexplicable.

2013:  Taking to the streets of New York City…

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Over 300 allies march with farmworkers through the streets of New York ahead of Wendy’s 2013 Shareholder Meeting

In the spring of 2013, Wendy’s executives, board members and many shareholders convened in the Big Apple, and they were met by a formidable presence both inside and outside the meeting.  Inside, during the period of questions for Wendy’s leadership, farmworkers and their consumer allies made a powerful case for why Wendy’s needed to stand with the farmworkers in their supply chain and join the Fair Food Program.  Indeed, one of the shareholders in attendance, Mr. Bradford L. Grazier, who had been given his first shares of Wendy’s over fifty years ago, spoke up for doing the right thing:

“Honestly, the potential bad publicity between the folks here and outside on the street does not do our company much good. I’m wondering what the downside is of not signing the darn agreement and doing something that I think would make a lot of sense.”

Outside the meeting in New York, Fair Food allies, including the president of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, Kerry Kennedy, held a press conference that was covered by widely-circulated outlets including the Associated Press, the Wall St. Journal and Democracy Now. 

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CIW, alongside Kerry Kennedy and other allies, host a press conference outside of Wendy’s 2013 shareholder meeting

That same week, allies organized dozens of protests and delegations across the country, producing numerous negative articles about the fast food chain’s refusal to join the Fair Food Program.  Yet in spite of the wave of bad press, by the time the next shareholder meeting rolled around a year later, Wendy’s still had not changed its tune.

2014:  Students step up the pressure in Ohio…

In 2014, the Annual Shareholder Meeting was moved to Wendy’s home territory of Dublin, Ohio — but even there, the company could not escape public scrutiny.  The shareholder meeting was met by a massive protest of Ohio Fair Food members, who brought an impressive visual timeline of the Wendy’s campaign that shareholders couldn’t miss as they arrived.  

Timeline of the Wendy's Campaign at the 2014 Shareholder Meeting
Timeline of the Wendy’s Campaign at the 2014 Shareholder Meeting

A disciplined team of questioners from the Fair Food Nation was also inside the meeting, including the CIW, faith and student allies.  Ohio State University student Sarah Stanger shared the news that students on her campus were leading the launch of the “Boot the Braids” campaign, “to cut university contracts with Wendy’s and end our universities’ complicity in Wendy’s disregard for farmworker rights,” and   declaring that modern restaurants and flashy new branding would not be enough to attract her generation.  

Since then, Sarah and her generation have stayed true to their word.  Students nationwide have taken the “Boot the Braids” campaign to a new level.  In March of this year, the Student/Farmworker Alliance announced that students around the country were launching a national student boycott of Wendy’s.  That boycott has been adopted by Ohio State University, University of Michigan, and National MeChA — and surely, many more schools to come this fall, if Wendy’s fails to reevaluate its position.

2015:  What will it be, Wendy’s?

As Wendy’s convenes its shareholder meeting this Monday, the CIW and Ohio Fair Food will organize their own powerful, steady presence, both inside and outside the meeting.  And, given Wendy’s claim that they have moved their tomato purchases away from Florida — effectively divesting from an industry widely hailed as the gold standard for human rights in U.S. agriculture, thanks to the Fair Food Program — Wendy’s executives will surely have some serious explaining to do at this meeting. 

Stay tuned!