Migrant Justice Justicia Migrante

As many families gather today over a meal, it’s just another work day for farmworkers, who are toiling on fields and in barns to put food on our holiday tables. Migrant Justice members are busy milking cows, cleaning stalls – and planning out the next steps in the campaign to expand the Milk with Dignity Program.

On December 2nd, hundreds will call Hannaford Supermarkets to demand Milk with Dignity. Sign up here to attend a training on 12/1, then take a shift to contact supporters and help drive calls to Hannaford!

This fall saw the biggest actions yet in our efforts to invite Hannaford to join Milk with Dignity and expand the program’s human rights protections to hundreds more dairy workers. Following our 29-stop, 7-state “Dignity Tour,” farmworkers led hundreds through the streets of Portland in the Maine March on Hannaford, bringing the campaign to the grocery chain’s backyard.

Click "Read More" below to see a full photo-report from the Maine March on Hannaford!

Over the month of October, farmworkers are taking the Milk with Dignity campaign on the road. Migrant Justice is giving 28 presentations in 7 states around the northeast, sharing the successes of Milk with Dignity and building pressure on Hannaford Supermarkets to join the program.

We are over halfway through the Dignity Tour. Check out the full list of tour stops to catch a presentation near you (or a virtual presentation) before it’s done!

The Hannaford campaign is now announcing its most ambitious action yet! We are calling on Milk with Dignity supporters to mobilize in Portland, Maine for a march and rally near the Hannaford headquarters. Audiences at each tour stop have been filling out pledges to join farmworkers for the March on Hannaford. Will you join them?

Four years ago, farmworkers celebrated an historic achievement. Dairy workers from around Vermont gathered outside a Ben & Jerry’s scoop shop to sign a contract with the CEO of the global ice cream brand. Ben & Jerry’s became the first company to join Milk with Dignity, committing to source their cream from farms enrolled in Migrant Justice’s worker-led human rights program.

The program has succeeded beyond workers’ dreams, transforming labor and housing conditions, achieving a massive redistribution of profits down the supply chain, and giving workers the power to become frontline defenders of their own human rights. Last year, we published the first Milk with Dignity Biennial Report, detailing the successes of the program’s first two years.

Today we are releasing the Year 3 Report Update, a supplement to last year’s report. Check it out!

From October 2nd to October 24th, Migrant Justice will embark on a 3-week speaking tour, taking us to 7 states for a total of 28 presentations. The Dignity Tour will bring us to audiences around the region to share the success story of the Milk with Dignity program and the “new day for human rights in dairy.”

The Dignity Tour will also build support for the campaign calling on supermarket giant Hannaford to join the Milk with Dignity program and take responsibility for the rights and well-being of the farmworkers behind Hannaford-brand milk. We will travel to every state where Hannaford has a store, starting in the company’s home state of Maine.

Click "Read More" to see the full list of tour stops and virtual presentations. See you on the tour!

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!