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Florida farmworkers ask "What are you hiding, Wendy's?" Make all food Fair Food Contact Name: Oscar Otzoy Contact Email: yaissy@sfalliance.org Contact Phone Number: 239-692-1482 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Oscar Otzoy Coalition of Immokalee Workers 239-692-1482 // yaissy@sfalliance.org Florida farmworkers ask “What are you hiding, Wendy’s” with march to demand Wendy’s join Fair Food Program and help end human rights abuses Hundreds to converge on New York City on Nov. 18 for day-long protest, two-mile march to offices of one of Wendy’s largest shareholders, Trian Partners NEW YORK, NY — On November 18th, 2019, farmworkers with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) together with students, faith, and community leaders from around the country, will march to the offices (280 Park Ave) of Trian Partners, one of the largest shareholders of the fast food giant, Wendy’s. In addition to over 70 farmworkers and their family members traveling to New York from Florida, hundreds of consumer allies from across the Northeast are expected to join the action. The march will protest the restaurant chain’s refusal to join the CIW’s Fair Food Program, the worker-driven social responsibility program that has virtually ended sexual assault, forced labor, and other human rights abuses for tens of thousands of workers on dozens of participating farms in seven states. Wendy’s competitors McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, Chipotle, and Taco Bell all joined the Presidential medal-winning program years ago and have contributed to an unprecedented improvement in farmworkers’ lives in their supply chains. Wendy’s claims of better working conditions in the company’s greenhouse suppliers’ operations and of the efficacy of third-party supply chain audits to confirm those claims have been widely questioned by human rights experts, based on clear evidence of harsh conditions faced by workers in greenhouses. Those questions are only underscored by the well-documented failure of third-party auditing initiatives, like those employed by Wendy’s, to protect workers from widespread labor and safety violations in corporate supply chains. “Outside the protections of the Fair Food Program, hundreds of thousands of farmworkers in the U.S. and abroad remain vulnerable to widespread violence, rampant sexual assault, and systemic wage theft”, stated Oscar Otzoy, a farmworker leader with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. “This is true whether they labor under the hot sun of an open field or the plastic roof of a greenhouse.” The Fair Food Program was named one of the Harvard Business Review’s top 15 “most important social-impact stories of the past century” and was called “the best workplace monitoring program in the U.S.” on the front page of the New York Times. The Program has harnessed the purchasing power of more than a dozen of the world’s largest retail food companies, including retail giants like Walmart and Stop & Shop, to end decades of human rights abuses on participating U.S. farms. In 2015, the Fair Food Program expanded to cover seven states along the East Coast, demonstrating its potential to be replicated in new regions and industries. The “What are you hiding, Wendy’s” March will take place at the offices of Trian Partners, 280 Park Avenue, New York, NY on November 18th at 5:00 PM. Farmworkers will begin protesting outside of Trian Partners at 8:00 AM. The action will build on the 2018 Freedom Fast, during which 100 farmworkers and allies fasted for five days in front of Trian Partners, and 2,000 farmworkers and supporters joined the Time’s Up Wendy’s March at the culmination of the fast. Donate Now: makeallfoodfairfood.runraise.org ### Coalition of Immokalee Workers: www.ciw-online.org The Coalition of Immokalee Workers is a human rights organization and Presidential Medal recipient internationally recognized for its achievements in the fields of social responsibility, anti-sexual violence efforts, community organizing, and ending slavery. The CIW’s Fair Food Program is a groundbreaking partnership among farmworkers, Florida tomato growers, and fourteen major food retailers. Participating retailers agree to purchase exclusively from suppliers who meet a worker-driven code of conduct, which includes a zero-tolerance policy for slavery and sexual harassment. Retailers also pay a “penny-per-pound” premium, which is passed down through the supply chain and paid out directly to workers by their employers. Since the program’s inception in 2011, buyers have paid over $29 million into the FFP. For more information, visit www.fairfoodprogram.org