Migrant Justice releases landmark report documenting unprecedented progress in Vermont dairy industry under Milk with Dignity Program!

Worker under MWD Program: “Before we never spoke up, now we have the freedom to speak, without any fear that we’ll be fired. You feel more secure, with all the benefits and knowing all your rights.”;

Participating Farmer: “The [Milk with Dignity premium] might make the difference between us still having a farm a year from now or not.”

Here below is a story of human rights progress on one of Vermont’s iconic dairy farms that you will not hear from any other corner of the country’s $628 billion dairy industry:

The story of Yaya and David’s successful efforts to humanize their workplace is recounted in the Milk with Dignity Program’s first biennial report, released last week by the program’s architect, Migrant Justice. Migrant Justice is a human rights organization based in the dairy worker community of Vermont that in 2017 announced the signing of an agreement with the ice cream giant Ben & Jerry’s and launched the Milk with Dignity Program on over 60 farms in Ben & Jerry’s supply chain.

The report chronicles two years (2018, 2019) of what Migrant Justice describes as “tremendous progress” on participating farms, signaling “a new day for human rights in the dairy industry.” Here’s an excerpt from the report’s Executive Summary:

On October 3rd, 2017, dozens of farmworkers stood alongside the CEO of a major global dairy company on a crowded street in Burlington, Vermont and announced a monumental achievement. For the first time in history, the immigrant workers who milk cows and scrape stalls – those who work at the bottom of the supply chain – had partnered with a corporation at the top: together they signed a contract making Ben &Jerry’s the first company to join the Milk with Dignity Program...

Coalition of Immokalee Workers

(239) 657 8311 | [email protected] | www.ciw-online.org