For more than a century, The Workers Circle has drawn upon Jewish values to confront and resist workplace exploitation and to build a society centered on respect and dignity. In line with their storied history, last week The Workers Circle convened leaders from Jewish and labor organizations from across the five boroughs for a powerful forum on Fair Food headlined by NYC Council Member Mark Levine, Oscar Otzoy of the CIW, Uriel Perez of the AFF, and Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster of T’ruah.
Supporters of the Campaign for Fair Food since its inception, The Workers Circle hosted the event, and their Executive Director, Ann Toback offered opening remarks, reminding us of the power we have when we stand united.
Oscar then took the mic, recounting how, against all odds, farmworkers from Immokalee organized themselves, reached out to consumers and together confronted and convinced 14 of the world’s largest food retailers to sign legally-binding agreements that are the bedrock of the Fair Food Program. He described the rights won and urgent need to expand these gains by bringing Wendy’s on board.
After greeting Oscar in Spanish and joking to the rest of the room that the rest of the program would be in Yiddish (much to the delight of all), Council Member Levine expressed how much it means that the Jewish community has stepped up in this fight and stood with workers from Immokalee. Levine, who, this past November, introduced NYC Resolution 1156 urging Wendy’s to join the Fair Food Program, then paused to underscore the significance of this undertaking.
“Immokalee is not just, in my opinion, one of the best examples of worker power in America, but globally. What you’ve done proves the power of organizing and I hold it up as an example here in NYC constantly. But you need allies in this fight. Especially when you’re going up against a corporate Goliath like Wendy’s and that’s why we’re here. We’re here to apply consumer pressure, public pressure, political pressure. We know this company is vulnerable to that pressure. And we are going to squeeze them hard until they do the right thing...”
