What do blueberry pickers, lobstermen and dairy workers have in common?
Posted Tue, 03/22/2016 - 4:14pm
They were all at Migrant Justice last weekend for a historic tri-state gathering of agricultural workers. 
Immigrant workers from New York, Maine, and Vermont gathered together to share organizing models and build solidarity across industries and state lines. Members of Mano en Mano (Maine), Workers’ Center of Central New York (Syracuse), Nuestra Voz de la Comunidad (Maine), and the Worker Justice Center of New York packed the Migrant Justice office over the weekend to hear from Vermont dairy workers about our game-changing Milk with Dignity program.
Migrant Justice inspired our guests with the history of the Milk with Dignity campaign and its potential to transform the dairy industry. "In the Milk with Dignity program, workers hold corporations accountable to guarantee their human rights are protected through the supply chain," said Migrant Justice leader Kike Balcazar. And this spring, we are sharing this same message around the country.
Last month brought us to the national Jobs with Justice conference in Washington, D.C. and a meeting of the Worker-Driven Social Responsibility Collaborative in NYC. And next month we’ll be presenting at the summit of the Food Chain Worker’s Alliance in Los Angeles and the national Labor Notes conference in Chicago.
Whether we are bringing people to Vermont or taking our message on the road, Migrant Justice is being recognized as a national leader in the movement to create dignified work and housing for immigrant farmworkers!
Read the full article for a complete photo report of the weekend!
Join us on Friday, September 11th to hear the world-renowned Villalobos Brothers play live!!! Doors open at 7PM, and the concert starts at 8PM at the Old Labor Hall in Barre, VT! There will be incredible music, delicious food, ice-cold drinks, and lots and lots of dancing!! 
Last week was an amazing week for Vermont dairy workers’ movement!
On the evening before 17 Milk with Dignity actions were planned at Ben & Jerry's scoop shops across the nation, Ben & Jerry's committed to work towards an agreement with farmworkers that contains the 5 
Burlington, VT, 6/20/15, 12pm--Over 40 dairy farmworkers and dozens of community supporters gathered at the Migrant Justice office, in the old north end of Burlington, preparing to march to Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shop on Church St to call on the ice cream company to join a new worker’s rights initiative--the Milk with Dignity Program. Before the march got underway Migrant Justice organizer Abel Luna broke the exciting campaign news to the big crowd, “Just yesterday Ben & Jerry's was in touch with Migrant Justice. They say they’ve heard the voices and hardships of farmworkers and have committed to work with Migrant Justice to negotiate an agreement in order to adopt the Milk with Dignity Program into their Northeast supply chain! So today, we are gathered here to recognize this significant step forward. At the same time we must continue to build a movement to demonstrate that people across the country are rallying to ensure that Ben & Jerry's walks with workers all the way to the finish line by signing the Milk with Dignity Agreement--because our human rights cannot wait!” Today, Migrant Justice also released an "Open Letter to Ben & Jerry's" signed by human rights and social justice organizations across the nation (available
***November 2016 Campaign Update: Migrant Justice and Ben & Jerry's agreed in May 2015 to work together to operationalize the Milk with Dignity Program in the Ben & Jerry's Supply Chain and have been working steadily towards that goal ever since!
The pressure on Hannaford Supermarkets to join the Milk with Dignity program is undeniably growing. In the campaign’s largest day of action to date, dairy workers and consumers visited 30 Hannaford locations across the northeast, calling on the grocery chain to take responsibility for the rights and well-being of the farmworkers behind its store-brand milk.