Migrant Justice Justicia Migrante

The Milk with Dignity Organizing Tour is entering its final week! Throughout April, farmworkers have traveled to seven states, holding organizing meetings and taking action at Hannaford stores across the region. Now we’re in the home stretch! And with a couple late additions, the final count of tour stops will be 52.

The past three weeks have been incredible: we have connected with hundreds of new campaign supporters in libraries and churches, schools and universities, and farms and community centers. Farmworkers and allies have passed out flyers to customers, talked with managers, and rallied at Hannafords across the region.

When the tour wraps up, we will hold a call-in day on May 1st, International Workers’ Day. All throughout the day on 5/1, we will flood Hannaford’s phone lines with calls from supporters urging the company to join the Milk with Dignity Program. Mark your calendars to make a call on Mayday!

We are halfway through the Milk with Dignity Organizing Tour! Over the past two weeks, farmworkers have traveled across Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, holding 25 organizing meetings with communities and taking action at Hannaford Supermarkets to demand Milk with Dignity. The next two weeks will take us to New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, as the Dignity Tour heads farther south.

As farmworkers connect with Hannaford customers in schools, churches, farms, and libraries around the northeast, Hannaford’s parent company – Dutch multinational Ahold Delhaize – held its annual meeting of shareholders and Board of Directors. Migrant Justice participated in the shareholder meeting and shared a new, in-depth analysis of the failures of Hannaford’s Speak-Up Line to protect farmworkers – even by the company’s own metrics! – contrasted with the benefits of Milk with Dignity.

Read more to learn about Hannaford's latest excuses, as they double down on their failed complaint line in an attempt to dismiss worker demands for Milk with Dignity.

Throughout the month of April, Migrant Justice will be on the road, connecting with supporters and taking action for Milk with Dignity. We will hold more than 50 organizing meetings across seven states. Farmworkers and organizers will connect with audiences to share the successes of the Milk with Dignity program and help communities join the struggle for farmworker rights!

Click “Read More” to see an interactive map and a full schedule of the Milk with Dignity Organizing Tour – and find the details for a tour stop near you!

Migrant Justice is excited to announce a number of important human rights victories in recent months. Despite their role as essential workers, immigrant farmworkers are criminalized by the government and targeted for deportation. But through Migrant Justice, farmworkers are fighting back to stop their deportations and defend their community from attack.

José Ángel, a member of the “Migrant Justice 10” who petitioned ICE last year to stop their deportations, is the first of the group to win his case. He is no longer subject to deportation and can continue to live, work, and organize in Vermont!

Wuendy Bernardo was told last year that she would have to leave the country by April or face detention and deportation. She has received an outpouring of support – most recently through a letter signed by 67 Vermont state legislators – and has been granted a temporary reprieve from deportation while her petition is pending.

And Luis Ulloa, who was turned over to Border Patrol by a local sheriff’s deputy and subsequently deported, has settled his discrimination claim. The sheriff department has had to pay monetary compensation, and police agencies around the state have been put on notice that there are consequences for collaborating with federal deportation agents.

Read More to get the full story!

On February 15th, a farmworker delegation visited the Hannaford Supermarkets corporate headquarters in Scarborough, ME. For weeks, Migrant Justice had let the company know about our planned visit and requested a sit-down meeting. When we arrived, workers were met with security guards and excuses. Hannaford kept the doors shut and refused to meet with farmworkers.

Hannaford is trying to hide from its responsibility, but consumers aren’t fooled. The same day of the farmworker delegation, nearly 700 Milk with Dignity supporters called Hannaford President Mike Vail to express their solidarity with dairy workers. This was the largest call-in day ever – nearly double the number of calls that Hannaford has received on any previous day!

Click Read More to get the full story!

Over the past week, farmworkers have been counting down to today: a delegation from Migrant Justice is paying a visit to the corporate headquarters of Hannaford Supermarkets in Scarborough, Maine. We are knocking on their door and asking to sit down with company executives to discuss the Milk with Dignity Program.

As we arrive at Hannaford headquarters today, Milk with Dignity allies will be flooding their phone lines calling on the company to stamp out abuses on dairy farms supplying Hannaford-brand milk. Can you make a call today?

As 2022 comes to a close, we celebrate another year of progress in the fight for human rights and economic justice, while recommitting ourselves to the long road ahead. Since founding Migrant Justice, immigrant farmworkers have achieved more than they could have imagined – but we know that there is much work left to do.

We ended the year on a high note, with a spirited march through the snow leading to a boisterous rally in front of Hannaford Supermarkets. As Hannaford representatives once more threatened marchers with arrest, dairy workers stood firm and courageously shared testimonies about the atrocious conditions they experience in the company’s dairy supply chain.

Read more to see excerpts of workers complaints and a full photo-report of the latest march on Hannaford!

In October, we celebrated the fifth anniversary of the Milk with Dignity program. Five years have passed since we declared, at the historic signing of the first Milk with Dignity agreement, a “new day for human rights in the dairy industry.” And in those years, our achievements have surpassed the dreams of the farmworkers who conceived of and built Milk with Dignity.

The program has won unprecedented improvements in labor and housing conditions for hundreds of dairy workers and has secured protections for a workforce previously bereft of enforceable rights. Milk with Dignity has invested over $3.4 million in farmworker pay and benefits, and the worker-driven program has transformed the nature of work on dairy farms.

Make a donation to Migrant Justice to keep powering these human rights victories!

Despite these incredible achievements, our work is far from done. Milk with Dignity is protecting the rights of hundreds of farmworkers, but many others are still left out. That’s why we are fighting hard to expose abuses on farms outside the program and push companies to do the right thing, starting with grocery chain Hannaford Supermarket.

Ervin, who lives on a Milk with Dignity farm with his wife and daughter, spoke about his hopes for the future:

“We are achieving great things: dignified housing, a living wage, improvements in all areas of work. My message to dairy companies is that they pay attention to what’s happening here and join the program. If you do, there will be many more farms under Milk with Dignity and many more workers who get the benefits that we have now. We will see the fruits of the seeds we have planted today.”