Time’s Up, Hollywood stars Patricia Arquette, Amber Tamblyn, Frances Fisher amplify CIW Women’s call to action in Wendy’s Boycott!

Open letter from CIW women leaders to Time’s Up sparks a conversation across the Twitterverse, prompting calls for national solidarity with farmworker women, upcoming Freedom Fast;

Kerry Kennedy to join CIW, allies for Time’s Up Wendy’s March in NYC on March 15!

On Wednesday, women leaders of the CIW posted an Open Letter to the Time’s Up Movement on the CIW website.  Their message to the leaders of Time’s Up, the exciting new national movement to end sexual harassment and assault, was as simple as it was urgent:

Students and youth join the CIW Women’s Group in Miami for a raucous 200+ march in November 2017

… The time is up for corporate leaders, like Mr. Peltz, who have the power to end sexual violence against women in their supply chains and, yet, do nothing.  Inaction by a market giant like Wendy’s in the face of a problem like sexual assault is unacceptable, but inaction in the face of a solution is unconscionable.

But for our message to be heard – for our voice to reach consumers across the country, and our program to spread its protections to hundreds of thousands of more farmworker women – we need your help.  As women, you know the pain of sexual harassment and assault.  As leaders, you know how rare proven solutions to those crimes truly are, and how few women have access to effective complaint mechanisms at work without fear of losing their jobs, or having to wait years for justice.

So today, we turn to you because we need your voice.  We need your presence.  We need your platform.  We need your power.  Join us in March in New York and help us show the world that there is a price to pay when a corporation turns its back on women calling for an end to sexual violence.

Join us in our fight to bring the proven solution of the Fair Food Program, which has the power to create a world without victims, to more farmworker women.  Now is the time.

By the end of the day Wednesday, the open letter had been published online by The Nation, and a buzz began to grow.  And within 24 hours, Time’s Up leaders themselves responded:

The letter was also spread far and wide across the world of media outlets.  Within hours, the letter was picked up by several of the Twittersphere’s major news aggregators:

From there, the conversation spread like wildfire.  Countless users checked in — from longtime CIW allies to brand-new supporters just learning of the movement for the first time — sharing the letter and their own words of solidarity with their Twitter followers far and wide.  Here are just a few of the highlights:

Finally, late in the day on Thursday, word came from longtime CIW ally and human rights leader Kerry Kennedy that she would be joining the CIW contingent for the big Time’s Up Wendy’s March through the heart of Manhattan on March 15th and speaking at the rally following the march!

The outpouring of support in response to the CIW women’s open letter has been nothing short of astounding.  In the ten days that remain before the launch of the Freedom Fast, farmworkers in Immokalee are counting on the strong and outspoken leaders of Time’s Up — together with the millions of women’s rights advocates and allies across the nation — to join us in taking action, and sending a clear, unequivocal message to the leaders of companies like Wendy’s: There is indeed a price to pay when a corporation turns its back on women calling for an end to sexual violence.  

See you in New York on March 15th.  And in the meantime, you can make your voice heard today by signing and circulating the Change.org petition supporting the Freedom Fast and calling on Wendy’s to join the CIW’s Fair Food Program without further delay!