Environmental Awareness Club @ UTPA

Quiznos Encuentro and Picket this Weekend!

rgvalternative:

Hey farmworker rights supporters,

This weekend the RGV is happy to host the Quiznos Fair Food Encuentro, where Fair Food activists from the Rio Grande Valley, Denver, Austin and even Seguin will join their minds to create strategy to finally bring Quiznos to the table to sign a Fair Food Agreement with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. In order to take advantage of our time together, and send Quiznos a message that we’re not going anywhere until they sign, we’re planning a special QUIZ QUIZNOS action this Saturday.

At this special Quiz Quiznos themed protest, we’ll have “True” and “False” cards and questions related to Quiznos’ stance on farmworker rights and corporate social responsibility in their tomato supply chain. It will be a fun, visual way to call Quiznos out on their continued inaction in support of ending poverty and human rights abuses in their tomato supply chain.

Join us! - http://www.facebook.com/events/287759981276157/

Quiznos is one of the few fast-food stragglers not yet working with the CIW to do its part to improve wages and working conditions in Florida’s tomato fields. These wages and working conditions are miserable by any standards: Workers are paid virtually the same piece rate (an average of 50 per 32-lb. bucket) as they were 30 years ago. At this rate, a worker must pick over 2.25 TONS of tomatoes to earn the Florida minimum wage in a typical 10-hour workday. Most workers earn less than $12,000 per year. Farmworkers in Florida have no right to overtime pay, no health insurance, sick leave, paid vacation or pension, and no right to organize in order to improve these conditions. In the most extreme situations, workers are forced to labor against their will through the use or threat of physical violence. Since 1997, there have been nine cases of forced labor prosecuted in Florida’s fields, involving over 1,200 workers.

But today, for the first time, there is hope for real, durable respect for human rights in Florida’s fields. Indeed, thanks to the combined efforts of thousands of workers from Immokalee, tens of thousands of Fair Food activists across the country, several of the state’s largest tomato growers, and nine multi-billion dollar food industry leaders, we stand today on the threshold of an unprecedented transformation in agricultural labor conditions in Florida. For the first time in Florida’s history, workers, growers and food industry leaders are working together to implement worker created Fair Food principles, educating workers on their rights under the worker-created code of conduct, passing along a penny more per pound from corporate buyer directly to tomato picker, and providing a system to report abuse without fear of retaliation from their bosses. 

Despite this new dawn in the fields, Quiznos stand conspicuously on the side of business as usual. While there have been discussions with the CIW, those talks continue to drag on because Quiznos won’t agree to the same Fair Food principles that the entire Florida tomato industry has already adopted.

Join us to keep the pressure on Quiznos! We’ll be meeting up at LUPE’s San Juan office at 11:30 am and car pooling to the Quiznos located at 1504 W Expressway 83, Ste A in Weslaco.

Make plans to join us for the encuentro and action. Cal or text for more information: 956-358-3547.

For some background info on the Quiznos’ campaign, check out: http://www.ciw-online.org/fast_furious_two.html and enjoy some holiday cheer with a recent video shot right here in the Rio Grande Valley: http://youtu.be/mBzQmtYcEA0 

Thanks for your support,

John-Michael Torres
Rio Grande Valley Fair Food

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Source: rgvalternative