Are you ready? VT workers’ Milk with Dignity National Day of Action around the corner…

Posted on by CIW

[hupso title=”Are you ready?  VT workers’ #MilkWithDignity June 20th Day of Action around the corner…” url=”https://ciw-online.org/blog/2015/06/mwd-around-the-corner/”]

Dairy workers, allies gearing up for June 20th Day of Action;

Meanwhile, CIW and Worker-driven Social Responsibility take center stage at CGI America in Denver!

Even as the season winds down in Immokalee, the ever-expanding Fair Food movement is gearing up for an action-filled summer!  Last week, we shared an exciting report from the Fair Food Program education team as CIW members headed north for the Program’s first-ever “Know Your Rights” trainings on tomato farms outside of Florida.  This week we have more news from the Fair Food front, as the model at the heart of the FFP, Worker-driven Social Responsibility, makes its own waves across the country.

First up:  Make sure to circle next Saturday, June 20th, on your calendar!  Migrant Justice members are calling on Ben & Jerry’s to make a real, enforceable commitment to much-needed human rights standards — standards which would be authored and monitored by workers themselves — in the Vermont dairy industry, and they’ve released yet another great new campaign video to state their case (above).  

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A week from tomorrow, consumers from Vermont to California will be hitting the streets to support dairy workers by heading to Ben & Jerry’s “Scoop Shops” to demand Milk with Dignity, and we know CIW allies across the country will be making their voices heard!  If you are looking to join the growing call for Milk with Dignity, check out the Migrant Justice website for all the resources you need to take action (CIW members will, of course, be doing their own delegation to Ben & Jerry’s — right in the middle of a second round of northern Fair Food Program education sessions in South Carolina and North Carolina!).

Meanwhile, the WSR model that unites the Fair Food Program and the nascent Milk with Dignity initiative was front and center earlier this week at CGI America, the Clinton Global Initiative’s annual “working meeting that promotes collaboration and actionable ideas.”  The CIW’s Lucas Benitez shared the stage with Chelsea Clinton, the Secretary of  Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, and other leaders from the worlds of business, government and social change for the opening plenary panel of the gathering in Denver.

The topic of the conversation?  How to build sustainable livelihoods and good jobs in the U.S.  There could be no more appropriate platform for Worker-driven Social Responsibility, an innovative model that has been widely recognized — including by the Clinton Global Initiative itself, which honored the CIW with the 2014 Global Citizen Award — for its extraordinary success in forging tangible economic and social change for low-wage workers.  The lively opening plenary at CGI America was a popular topic on Twitter:

Between the expansion of the Fair Food Program up the East Coast, the swiftly-growing movement for Milk with Dignity in the Vermont dairy industry, and the rising tide of public recognition for the unique effectiveness of Worker-driven Social Responsibility, the future is bright for low-wage workers looking to protect and advance their rights in corporate supply chains.  And you can help make that promise of enforceable human rights a reality by getting out next Saturday and demanding Milk with Dignity at your local Ben & Jerry’s!