Wendy’s Restaurants Pressured to Sign Fair Food Agreement Again

The 2^nd annual Tour de Fair Food targeted Wendy’s restaurants in Denver on Saturday. The 1^stannual tour did also.

The tomatoes that you buy were picked by someone who may be at risk for human rights abuses. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers has organized in Florida for years to protect the labor rights of tomato pickers. Seventy percent of the winter tomato crop that comes to the southwestern United States comes from Florida.

Local organizers have joined the movement to protect farm worker rights. On Saturday activists on bikes targeted Wendy’s restaurants that have refused to sign a safety agreement outlined by the coalition.

Holdout Wendy’s refuses to sign the Fair Food Agreement that has already been signed by other food chains such as McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Burger King, Chipotle, and Trader Joe’s.

The issue is the rights of farm workers who pick the tomatoes that go to these establishments.

These rights are outlined in the Agreement and include safe working conditions such as protections from sexual assault, from pesticides, and from the heat.

Wearing the signature Wendy’s red braids, activists biked to two different downtown Wendy’s to deliver letters to management, calling for Wendy’s to cooperate by signing the Agreement.

Joe Deras, an organizer with Denver Fair Food reported that management at both Wendy’s locations in downtown Denver refused to meet with activists and were ordered to leave the establishment.

Other holdouts include Publix grocery chains nationally, and locally Kroger/King Soopers and Quiznos sandwich shops.