Longtime CIW ally Travis McConnell has generously offered to match the last $10,000 in donations in our end of year drive…
If you make a contribution TODAY, your donation — and impact — will be doubled!
The novel coronavirus has taught its hosts many tough lessons in the course of its short, but brutal, time on the planet, but perhaps none more important than this: If we are to be safe and to thrive, during the remainder of this pandemic and into the future, we must not only deem the women and men who keep the global economy running “essential” workers, we must also respect them and treat them as essential, too. And yet, the question remains: Can we build a world, and an economy, that puts that lesson into practice – not for a day or a month, but for decades to come?
Even as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage, many are looking beyond the current state of emergency and toward solutions that can lead to profound transformation in the lives of essential workers. And for those who have spent the last decade alongside farmworkers building the Fair Food Program, we look no further than the Worker-driven Social Responsibility (WSR) model – the very infrastructure of the FFP – as an essential blueprint for securing human rights in an uncertain future.
WSR is built on two key components: Empowering workers as frontline defenders of their own rights, and ensuring real, enforceable accountability for violations of its human rights standards. Those twin pillars of the model’s unique success are rooted in binding legal agreements with buyers that establish the transparency and market consequences necessary to make the standards real. After a decade of successful implementation and a continuous process of evaluation and adaptation, we have established an unparalleled track record of ending longstanding abuses and addressing generational poverty in multiple industries and cultural contexts, proving, beyond any doubt, that the WSR model is indeed an effective and enduring vehicle for change.
Over the past month, we have called on YOU to help expand and share the lessons of the Fair Food Program with workers in other industries.
And, as always, the Fair Food Nation has stepped up to the plate: We are 90% of the way to reaching our end-of-year fundraising goal of $100,000.
And today, we’re thrilled to announce that longtime friend and ally to the CIW Travis McConnell has committed to matching the next $10,000 in donations, dollar for dollar. Don’t miss your chance to have your gift instantly doubled — make a contribution today!
As we know, the need for change in the lives of essential workers is urgent: Worker voice, when combined with real power, like the market power that drives the FFP’s success, means that setbacks and unexpected crises can be addressed swiftly and effectively. In the Fair Food Program, our partnership with buyers and growers, together with the program’s existing framework for protecting and enforcing human rights, has allowed us to quickly respond to emerging threats to workers’ well-being — whether it be climate change-induced heat waves or a global pandemic — even while public policy has lagged behind.
The WSR model has now taken root in three continents — Asia, Africa, and North America — driven by workers themselves and tirelessly supported by allies like you. In the U.S., the Fair Food Program has continued to not only grow, but also to serve as a model for workers in multiple industries looking for effective new strategies to end longstanding abuses: for construction workers establishing the Building Respect and Dignity Program in the Twin Cities; for poultry workers in Arkansas; for workers in the fashion industry organized by the Model Alliance in New York building their own RESPECT Program to end sexual assault and wage theft; and for leaders in the entertainment industry through the Hollywood Commission in California. And 2022 promises to bring many, many more efforts to replicate the Fair Food Program’s success both here in the U.S. and overseas.
Replacing empty Corporate Social Responsibility schemes with programs that rigorously, and demonstrably, protect human rights is a long-term solution that needs continued support to pursue opportunities to help build WSR programs with workers across the country and the globe in 2022.