‘JOIN us in Palm Beach today as the Workers’ Voice Tour wraps up in Nelson Peltz’s hometown,’ said the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) on Saturday after winning a lawsuit and overturning an attempt to ban a march through the Florida city.
Pelz is the billionaire hedge fund founder and Chairman of Wendy’s Board of Directors.
CIW said: ‘For over three years, farmworkers and consumers have been demanding that Wendy’s join its major competitors – Taco Bell, McDonald’s, Subway and Burger King – in participating in the Fair Food Programme.
‘Yet, Wendy’s has instead consciously and shamefully opted to profit from farmworker poverty and abuse, continuing to cling to the low-bar standards of the past when presented with an acclaimed and proven alternative.
‘Rather than participate in what was called the “best workplace-monitoring programme” in the US in the New York Times, Wendy’s ran from responsibility and abandoned the Florida tomato industry altogether.
‘Those of you who follow the Campaign for Fair Food closely might recall where we were around this time last year. That’s right – we were in the streets of St. Petersburg at the Parade and Concert for Fair Food, 2,000 strong, in a joyous celebration of the unprecedented human rights advances achieved in the first years of the Fair Food Programme.
‘And that’s why it was so strange that the city of Palm Beach reacted as it did when Campaign for Fair Food organisers applied for a permit there, as they have countless times before, for today’s big march marking the culmination of this year’s Workers’ Voice Tour.
‘Town representatives insisted on restrictions – many of which would simply make you scratch your head, including impossible sound limits and a $10 million bond against any damage the protesters might potentially cause – that our organisers, quite frankly, had never encountered before in any city across this great country of ours (and we have organised marches in just about every state, from sea to shining sea, over the years).
‘Unfortunately, those restrictions left the Campaign for Fair Food with no choice but to file a lawsuit last month in federal court to ask for an emergency restraining order and preliminary injunction so that we could go ahead with our march today. Yesterday, the decision was handed down, and… The march will go on!’
CIW added: ‘Report from Day 9, Gainesville: ‘Following lunch, marchers gathered in UF’s Norman Field for a rally under the oaks and Spanish moss, with inspirational words from several UF students, including Kes Nosakhere of UF’s Dream Defenders (whose remarks were translated as effortlessly and ably as ever by the CIW’s go-to interpreter for all our major events, Melody Gonzalez, who herself was a seminal student leader in the Campaign for Fair Food at Notre Dame back in the day).
‘And finally, it was time to hit the streets and do what we do best, as marchers — old, young, and everything in between — took to Gainesville’s city streets and wound through the University of Florida campus on their way to the Reitz Student Union building, where the on-campus Wendy’s restaurant is located, the target of UF’s student’s burgeoning “Boot the Braids” campaign.
‘Once outside the Reitz building, the 200+ marchers fell into picket formation and circled the plaza making their voices heard while inside a delegation of workers from Immokalee and student leaders from UF met with a top administrator from the university’s dining services in what participants felt was a respectful and productive dialogue.
‘Following the conversation inside, the delegation returned to the plaza and gave a report to the marchers, closing out the day’s action on a decidedly hopeful note and setting the stage for the next chapter in UF’s “Boot the Braids” campaign.’
l Frustrated with the unproductive pace of negotiations towards a new contract for 39,000 Verizon workers from Massachusetts to Virginia, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) has launched a regional TV and digital ad calling the nation’s 16th largest company ‘the poster child for corporate greed’.
The CWA said: ‘Verizon made $1.5 billion a month in profits in 2015 – and $39 billion in profits over the last three years – while insisting at the bargaining table that workers accept major cutbacks in health care coverage, job security, pension protections, and benefits for injured workers.
‘Verizon also adamantly refuses to bargain a fair first contract for wireless retail store workers in NY and Massachusetts. Continued management intransigence on these issues, which has left workers without a contract since August 1st of 2015, could lead to a strike that would affect consumers from Massachusetts to Virginia.
‘In the new advertisement, which started running last weekend, retired Verizon worker Ernie Hammel – 29-year former field technician – tells customers, “This company is the poster child for corporate greed.”
‘Following clips of national TV reports about growing economic inequality in the country, the advertisement shows that Verizon’s CEO makes more than 200 times as much as the company’s average worker.’
Dennis Trainor, Vice President for CWA District One, which covers Verizon workers from New Jersey to Massachusetts, said: ‘A company this profitable should not be making the wealth gap in America even worse by cutting benefits and destroying job security, while a handful of executives line their pockets with $50 million a year in compensation.’
Ed Mooney, Vice President for CWA District 2-13, which covers the workforce from Pennsylvania to Virginia, added: ‘Americans are outraged by what the corporate elite has done to working people in this country over the last 30 years. And Verizon typifies everything that people in this country are angry about. If we have to walk, Verizon will be a national target for anger at corporate greed.’
Verizon workers, represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), have been working without a contract since August and are growing increasingly frustrated that the company is still attempting to make devastating changes, including:
• Eliminating job security and allowing the company to force transfer workers anywhere in the company’s footprint, away from their families, for up to two months at a time.
• Refusing to negotiate a fair first contract for 100 Verizon Wireless workers who organised into CWA in 2014. No raises, no benefit increases, no improvements to working conditions.
• Freezing pension accruals at 30 years of service.
• Vastly expanding contracting out and offshoring of union jobs. This comes on top of Verizon’s outsourcing of thousands of call centre jobs to Mexico, the Philippines and other overseas locations in recent years.
• Gutting the Family Leave Care plan, which provides paid leave to care for sick family members or care for a newborn.
• Gutting the Sickness and Accident Disability Plan, which provides benefits to workers injured on the job.
• And continuing their oppressive, bullying tactics of harassment and intimidation every day on the job.
‘Verizon workers are the backbone of this company, and executives have lost sight of what makes this company so profitable,’ said national CWA President Chris Shelton. Verizon workers have helped executives pocket $249 million in the last five years while their own families are worrying about job security. We’re all tired of waiting for Verizon executives to agree to a fair contract. It’s time to let customers know what is going on, and why we’ll be on strike if the situation doesn’t change soon.’
In a strike vote conducted last summer, 86% of Verizon workers supported walking off the job if a fair agreement could not be reached.
