Migrant Justice Justicia Migrante

The Milk with Dignity program has brought about a new day for hundreds of dairy workers. Farmworkers across Vermont and New York have received raises, paid sick leave, new health and safety standards, improved housing, and protections against sexual harassment, discrimination, and unjust firings. Through the program’s worker-defined standards and binding enforcement mechanisms, workers have become frontline defenders of their human rights.

These transformations were comprehensively documented in last year’s Biennial Report. Yet too many farmworkers remain outside the protections of Milk with Dignity. And they continue to live and work in unjust, unsafe, and undignified conditions.

October 3rd will mark the two-year anniversary since Migrant Justice first publicly called on Hannaford to join Milk with Dignity – and the four-year anniversary of Ben & Jerry’s becoming the program’s first participating company. We will celebrate the occasion with the relaunch of the “Dignity Tour,” a farmworker speaking tour throughout the northeast that began in March, 2020 only to be cut short by the onset of the pandemic.

Click "Read More" to read more about conditions in Hannaford's dairy supply chain and to learn about the upcoming Dignity Tour!

Recently, a delegation of dairy workers and organizers from Migrant Justice traveled to Maine to build support for the Milk with Dignity campaign in Hannaford’s backyard.

We traversed the state over several days, meeting with a dozen different organizations from across the spectrum of Maine’s civil society: labor unions, public health organizations, student groups, legal services, activists, and faith communities. Each group learned about the human rights abuses against farmworkers in Hannaford’s dairy supply chain and committed to support the campaign for Milk with Dignity.

The delegation also traveled to dairy farms and met with farmworkers across the state. We encountered the same dire conditions with which we are so familiar in Vermont – and the same desire for change. On one farm, a family with a young child had been forced to live without heat in their housing. On another, the workers work seven days a week, only resting a half shift every two weeks. Everywhere workers expressed fear of retaliation for speaking out and defending their rights.

A group of 71 investment firms, pension funds, and other shareholders have published a letter addressed to Hannaford Supermarkets urging the company to clean up its dairy brand. 

The signatories, representing over $121 billion in assets under management, call on the Maine-based grocery chain to “address material reputational and compliance risks related to the human rights of workers in their dairy supply chain.”

The letter goes on to offer a solution, inviting Hannaford to join Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream as a participant in the Milk with Dignity (MD) program. “MD stands apart from any other compliance program, supplier code of conduct, or company run audit by directly engaging workers in the business of protecting their own rights and wellbeing.”

Excerpts from the letter – along with Father's Day messages from farmworker dads to Hannaford – were published in a full-page ad in today's Maine Sunday Telegram, Hannaford's hometown newspaper and the state's largest.

Click "Read More" for the full story!

Post-action update: Over 250 calls made! Thank you to all who took action!!

Farmworkers need your support today in their fight for rights and dignity. For over a year, Hannaford Supermarkets has been ignoring the workers milking cows to produce Hannaford-brand milk. Dairy workers labor long hours in dangerous conditions for little pay and lack basic protections – all while Hannaford made record profits during the pandemic.

Today, June 9th, we are asking our supporters around the country to flood Hannaford with messages. Call Hannaford's President Mike Vail to tell him to treat farmworkers fairly and join Milk with Dignity!

Our last call-in action generated over 350 calls to the Hannaford President's office in just one day. The pressure from these actions forced the company to issue public statements in response, making commitments to clean up their supply chain and ensure fair treatment for workers. Until now, however, these commitments have not been backed up by action, and Hannaford has yet to take any steps to stamp out abuses on the farms producing their store-brand milk.

Let's keep the pressure on by jamming their phone lines and filling their voicemails. Hannaford President Mike Vail needs to hear loud and clear that his customers expect accountability and demand action!

Last Saturday, hundreds of farmworkers and allies converged outside a Hannaford supermarket in Barre, VT, calling on the company to sit down with farmworkers and join the Milk with Dignity program. On International Workers Day, we urged the grocery chain to take responsibility for the rights and wellbeing of dairy workers in its supply chain.

Check out the full photo album from May Day’s tremendous, colorful action. Then take a moment to download or screenshot your favorite photo and post it as a comment on the Hannaford facebook page, letting them know that you support Milk with Dignity!

Three years ago, Primitivo began working on a farm in central Vermont. “I had a friend who was already there,” he said. “He told me they needed someone, so I decided to take the job.” He quickly came to regret the decision.

I came to the farm during the winter. There wasn’t enough heat in the house and you had to shower with cold water. The boss wouldn’t put a space heater in because she didn’t want to pay the electric bill.

The hours were awful – three shifts a day. And you didn’t have enough time to rest between shifts. Just all work and no rest. By the end, it was the heavy workload that made me decide to speak up.

I talked to the boss and asked for a change in the schedule. She got upset and told me if I didn’t like it, I could leave. And she threw me out then and there. She sent another worker to tell me to pack my bags. I didn’t know what to do because I didn’t have anywhere to go. She didn’t even want to pay me, I had to insist. And nobody else spoke up because they were afraid the same would happen to them.

The farm where Primitivo worked sells to a nearby plant that bottles Hannaford-brand milk. In supermarkets all around New England, Hannaford is selling milk that is the product of these conditions: subminimum wages, round-the-clock work, inhumane housing, and retaliation against workers who speak up.

When Primitivo was fired for protesting inhumane conditions, there was no one to speak up for him. Let's make sure that no other worker suffers alone. This Mayday we join together to fight for farmworkers and workers' rights everywhere.

Click "Read More" to read more of Primitivo's story and learn how to take action to demand Milk with Dignity!

In January, a new President and Congress took office promising a repudiation of the prior administration's dehumanizing attacks on immigrants. But early momentum – including a moratorium on deportations and the introduction of a bill to provide status to all undocumented immigrants – has faltered. Just as happens every time discussion of immigration reform begins, politicians and the media have diverted attention to a "crisis" on the southern border framed to stoke xenophobic fears. And in Washington, the House of Representatives has passed a "reform" bill originally crafted under the Trump Administration: the Farm Workforce Modernization Act (FWMA).

The FWMA masquerades as immigration reform while failing immigrant farmworkers at every turn. While the bill would provide a pathway to status for some undocumented farmworkers, it requires that beneficiaries continue working in agriculture for up to 8 years to qualify and excludes many workers, among them those who cannot continue working due to injury. In exchange for this limited and lengthy pathway to protection, the bill mandates that agricultural employers to use E-Verify, forcing unprotected farmworkers off the books and making them more vulnerable to abuse. Finally, the bill expands the flawed H-2A agricultural visa program without providing necessary oversight or adequate protections.

The FWMA takes more interest in providing low-cost labor for Big Ag than in protecting the human rights of farmworkers. If passed, the law would create a captive workforce unable to speak out against abuse, organize for better conditions, or take action to defend their rights, because their ability to remain in the country relies on their continued employment. This outcome benefits an agricultural system that has always been predicated on cheap and captive labor; it does not benefit farmworkers. And farmworkers deserve better.

Migrant Justice joins many farmworker and immigrant rights organizations around the country in opposing the harmful Farm Workforce Modernization Act. Learn more about the bill and write to you Senators to tell them to oppose the FWMA!

Post-action update: over 350 calls made!

Farmworkers need your support today in their fight for rights and dignity. For over a year, Hannaford Supermarkets has been ignoring the workers milking cows to produce Hannaford-brand milk. Dairy workers labor long hours in dangerous conditions for little pay and lack basic protections – all while Hannaford has been making record profits during the pandemic.

Today, March 3rd, we are asking our supporters around the country to flood Hannaford with messages. Call Hannaford's President Mike Vail to tell him to treat farmworkers fairly and join Milk with Dignity! Our last call-in action generated over 200 calls to the Hannaford President's office in just one day. This pressure forced the company to issue a public statement in response, making commitments to clean up their supply chain and ensure fair treatment for workers. Until now, however, these commitments have not been backed up by action, and Hannaford has yet to take any steps to stamp out abuses on the farms producing their store-brand milk.

Let's keep the pressure on by jamming their phone lines and filling their voicemails. Hannaford President Mike Vail needs to hear loud and clear that his customers expect accountability and demand action!