Migrant Justice Justicia Migrante

This past week, a delegation of dairy workers and organizers returned to Maine to continue pushing for the expansion of Milk with Dignity. Farmworkers and consumers joined together to call on Hannaford Supermarkets to address abuses in its dairy supply chain and join the worker-led human rights program.

On Friday – after months of calls, emails, and letters met with no direct response – Migrant Justice knocked on the office doors to ask for a meeting to discuss our invitation to Hannaford to join the Milk with Dignity Program. Hannaford´s response was to throw us off the property. 

So we returned the next day accompanied by dozens of local allies to hold a press conference and rally outside Hannaford’s central offices. In the face of the company’s continued refusal to meet with farmworkers in their dairy supply chain, we took the campaign right to their doorstep.

Click “Read More” to check out the full photo report from the day’s action!

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

Today, December 2nd, 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!

End-of-day update: Over 275 calls made to Hannaford!

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!