Ozomatli, La Santa Cecilia Rock Out for Farmworkers' Rights, Students Declare Nationwide Boycott of Wendy's for Not Joining Fair Food Program [Photos]
You might want to think twice if you're planning on sinking your teeth into a Wendy's burger, for its ethics might leave a bad taste in your mouth.
This past weekend, thousands of students from around the country rocked out and rallied together in St. Petersburg, Florida at the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' Concert for Fair Food. Determined to be heard and get their point across, the Student/Farmworker Alliance (SFA) also used the stage as their platform to declare a nationwide student boycott of fast-food chain Wendy's.
The concert, which featured Grammy-winning artists Ozomatli and La Santa Cecilia as well as Son Solidario and Ruby Velle & the Soulphonics, was "the latest development in a two-year campaign calling on Wendy's to help eliminate farmworker poverty and abuse through the Fair Food Program (FFP)."
"We are proud to be part of the Concert for Fair Food in support of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the rights they've won for farmworkers," La Santa Cecilia told Latin Post before the Concert for Fair Food. "We honor the dignity of their work in the fields that sustains us all. We hope that our fans will be inspired by the concert to get involved in this beautiful movement and demand that Wendy's and Publix join the Fair Food Program."
The highly regarded FFP was reportedly referred to as "the best workplace monitoring system... in the U.S.," a statement declared on the impressionable front page of the New York Times.
"The student-led boycott will be launched at Ohio State University and will snowball over the coming months as dozens more universities adopt the boycott," according to an official press release. "The action comes as part of the larger student-led campaign, 'Boot the Braids,' which is aimed at ending Wendy's contractual relationships with universities around the country until the company joins the FFP."
"All of Wendy's fast food competitors have committed to buy only from farms where farmworkers are guaranteed basic human rights, and yet Wendy's has so far rejected that responsibility," said Amanda Ferguson, a member of the Student/Farmworker Alliance at the Ohio State University. "Now we're declaring a nationwide student boycott and we will continue to escalate our efforts until Wendy's joins the Fair Food Program."
This isn't the first boycott of this nature.
2002 marked the only other boycott in the history of the 15-year Campaign for Fair Food, which was declared by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) against Taco Bell.
"Then-president Emil Brolick witnessed Taco Bell signing the first Fair Food Agreement with CIW in 2005, declaring in a press release that 'any solution must be industry-wide.' Now, as president and CEO of Wendy's, Emil Brolick has refused even to talk with CIW, much less commit Wendy's to the Fair Food Program."
During the three-mile Fair Food Parade, which took place before the Fair Food Concert, the Freedom University Singers sang among thousands of banners, home-made signs and floats, as well as a massive puppet painted in the image of Brolick.
How successful was the Taco Bell Boycott?
During its peak, students at over 300 universities, colleges, and high schools backed the Taco Bell Boycott. In addition, students at 25 educational institutions also showed 'em who was boss by successfully organizing 'Boot the Bell,' thus ending or preventing Taco Bell contracts with their schools.
"With 'Boot the Braids' and the Wendy's student boycott, we are reminding Emil Brolick of the power students have in the Campaign for Fair Food," Ferguson added. "The Concert for Fair Food was not only a celebration of the transformation taking root in the agriculture industry as a result of the Fair Food Program, but also a call to action going out to thousands of students across the country to boycott Wendy's until they, too, are part of the solution."