[hupso_hide][hupso title=”Protest in #Louisville at @Wendys brings #FairFoodNation full circle!” url=”https://ciw-online.org/?post=18344″]

Louisville Fair Food activists brought home first-ever Fair Food agreement with Taco Bell in 2005;

Today they are ready to remind then-Taco Bell CEO/now-Wendy’s CEO Emil Brolick of his words on that historic day:

“We recognize that Florida tomato workers do not enjoy the same rights and conditions as employees in other industries, and there is a need for reform. We have indicated that any solution must be industry-wide…”

When the CIW secured its first-ever Fair Food agreement with Taco Bell’s parent company Yum Brands in March, 2005 (click here for a fun foray into the past), it marked the beginning of a process that led, in just five short years, to the launch of the Fair Food Program, a program that today is setting the global standard for the protection of human rights in corporate supply chains.  It has been an extraordinary journey, the first step of which was taken nine years ago on a cold, cloudy day in Louisville (right).

Outside of Immokalee itself, there is arguably no community in the country that should be more proud of that landmark victory than that of Louisville’s Fair Food activists.  Louisville’s diverse, committed, and relentless group of faith, student, and labor allies pressed their neighbors at Yum Brands headquarters until they did the right thing and set new standards for the protection of human rights that the rest of the fast-food industry leaders would have to meet in the coming years.

The rest of the fast-food industry leaders with the exception of Wendy’s, that is.

Which brings us to an interesting historical footnote to that momentous day eight years ago in Louisville that many readers of this site may already know, but that bears repeating.  Wendy’s CEO today, Emil Brolick (below), was in fact the CEO of Taco Bell when the CIW and Yum Brands signed the first Fair Food Agreement in 2005.  And at that time, Mr. Brolick said in the joint press release announcing the agreement:

“As an industry leader, we are pleased to lend our support to and work with the CIW to improve working and pay conditions for farmworkers in the Florida tomato fields,” said Emil Brolick, Taco Bell president.

“We recognize that Florida tomato workers do not enjoy the same rights and conditions as employees in other industries, and there is a need for reform. We have indicated that any solution must be industry-wide, as our company simply does not have the clout alone to solve the issues raised by the CIW, but we are willing to play a leadership role within our industry to be part of the solution,” Brolick added.  

Well, since that day, McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, and Chipotle have indeed all signed Fair Food agreements, bringing the vast majority of the fast-food industry, and four of its top five companies, into the growing partnership for a more modern, more humane agricultural industry.

Wendy’s today is the last holdout, and on Day Five of the upcoming Now Is the Time Tour, the untiring community of Louisville Fair Food activists will take to the streets again to help bring the Campaign for Fair Food full circle and call on Wendy’s to join the rest of its fast-food competitors in supporting fair wages and working conditions for the farmworkers who pick its tomatoes.  Here’s a quote from Louisville’s Kentucky Interfaith Taskforce on Latin America and the Caribbean (KITLAC), a leader in the Louisville Fair Food community, from an email mobilizing its members for the March 10th protest:

The CIW is coming back to the Ville!   The 2005 site of its first corporate Victory!   And this time to conclude the fast food corporate road map with the push to get Wendy’s to sign on.  Dust off the old signs and stretch your legs!  It is a New Day in the Fields in Florida!  Come help consolidate that New Day!!

Join dozens of Immokalee farmworkers as they return to Louisville from demonstrating at Wendy’s headquarters in Columbus, to encourage Wendy’s, the final major fast food holdout, to support the fundamental human rights taking root today in Florida’s fields.

For CIW members getting ready to leave tomorrow morning on the 10-day, 10-city tour, the opportunity to march once more into the breach with our Louisville allies is one of the many reasons we can’t wait to get on the road.  It is the commitment and energy of communities like Louisville that has been the lifeblood of this historic campaign since it started in 2001, and since that first victory in 2005, Fair Food communities have sprung up in scores of cities across the country, expanding the reach and strength of the Campaign for Fair Food exponentially in the process.  

Today, as we prepare to embark on the “Now Is the Time” Tour to raise the pressure on Wendy’s and Publix, our movement is broader and more deeply rooted than ever.  And our movement is fueled today not just with the hope and vision of what a future of Fair Food might look like in Florida’s fields, but with the reality of the New Day that has dawned for Florida’s farmworkers, and with the urgent need to defend and expand the gains of that New Day so that we never return to the shameful past that first sparked the Taco Bell boycott and the Campaign for Fair Food.  

We hope you can join us in taking the fight to Wendy’s and Publix over the next ten days, and in making the Fair Food Program the truly “industry-wide” solution that we — and Mr. Brolick — envisioned when we signed the first-ever Fair Food agreement back in 2005.

See you tomorrow, as we launch the “Now Is the Time” Tour and head to our first stop in Charlotte, North Carolina!