The IUF-affiliated United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) and the Wisconsin Farmers Union (WFU) have jointly called on federal, state, and local governments in the United States to take stronger steps to better protect the farmers and workers who put food on our tables from the adverse impacts of COVID-19.
John Eiden, President of UFCW Local 1473 said “Empowering farmers to get a fair price, and workers to get a fair wage…is based on the sound premise that Wisconsin’s farmers and workers are more likely to spend that extra money with local businesses than are the out-of-state agribusiness conglomerates whose business model is based on paying farmers and workers as little as they can to provide ever higher returns to their shareholders. Our strategy will make Main Street the priority over Wall Street.”
“The pandemic has shown with brutal clarity that the meat supply chain works to benefit a handful of multinational corporations, while workers and family farmers are treated as expendable,” added WFU President Darin Von Ruden. “Government at every level has a role to play in restoring this balance of power.”
UFCW-WFU are also demanding:
- strengthening of freedom of association and collective bargaining to ensure better wages and safer working conditions;
- fairer prices and markets for farmers through stronger antitrust enforcement, reinstatement of Country of Origin Labeling and dairy supply management.
