Image from Coalition of Immokalee Workers.

Protest at Chipotle Shareholders Meeting for Farmworker Justice

Join us, bright and early, outside Chipotle Mexican Grill's annual shareholders Meeting to demand that it ensure fair wages and human rights for the workers who pick tomatoes that fill its tacos and burritos!

WHEN: Wednesday, May 21
7:30 AM to 8:15 AM

WHERE: Oxford Hotel
1600 17th St. (Wazee St. and 17th)
Downtown Denver

Coffee and food will be provided for participants.

BACKGROUND: The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)--a Florida-based organization of Latino, Haitian, and Mayan farmworkers--has called on Chipotle Mexican Grill to ensure fair wages and human rights for the workers who pick tomatoes that fill its tacos and burritos.


Image from CIW website linked above.

Tomato pickers in Florida earn sub-poverty wages, have no right to form unions or to benefits of any kind, and have not received a significant raise in nearly 30 years. In the most extreme cases, workers are held in modern-day slavery and forced to work against their will. Chipotle's demand for the cheapest tomatoes, without regard for the human cost to workers, has contributed to the sweatshop conditions in the fields.

Chipotle, however, has refused to even meet with the CIW and has even claimed to have switched tomato suppliers in an effort to avoid improving conditions for farmworkers.

Chipotle claims to serve "food with integrity," using sustainably-raised ingredients and free-range meat. Yet, it refuses to take simple steps to ensure that its tomatoes are not picked by exploited workers.

Tell Chipotle that it cannot continue sidestepping the human rights – that "food with integrity" must include "work with dignity" for those who harvest its tomatoes.

Denver Fair Food Committee
robert@sfalliance.org 505-980-4220

_________________________________AND__________________________________

A message from Indigenous Support Network (ISN):

We hope you can lend your support to the Student Farmworker's Alliance, a national student group who has been successful in campaigns against major fast food corporations who buy their tomatoes too cheap for the pickers to make a living off of, who are often abused and paid below minimum wage in America's own "modern day slavery."

For more info go to their website:

www.sfalliance.org

Or to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers site:

http://ciw-online.org

Please attend this if you can- these have been very effective actions and will continue to be so with the pressure our communities can put on shareholders and others controlling policies at Chipotle. Chipotle's own website entails their strong commitment to ethical food practices, although they ignore the rights of the people picking their tomatoes to earn a decent living wage! By only paying 1 or 2 cents more per tomato they would be helping the Immokalee workers in raising wages which have been stagnant for over 20 years!

Thank you for your time, and I hope we see you there!

Ahee'hee,
Leslie Andrews (Mano)


Thank you Mano, and I'll be there.

Evan Herzoff (Antidote)