Trader Joe’s Northeast Tour August 2-12, 2011

Days 1 and 2
Baltimore, MD, Washington DC

(click here for full schedule)


The Northeast Tour started out with a visit by several of the Tour participants to the watermelon fields of Delaware’s eastern shore, where members of the CIW’s watermelon cooperative (above) were hard at work harvesting melons. Fortunately for the Tour crew, the recent record-breaking heat wave had broken and they were spared the triple digit temperatures endured by the watermelon cooperative the week prior to the visit!


But the Tour crew couldn’t linger in Delaware’s fields for long, they had their own job to do. And so they crossed the Chesapeake Bay and landed at the Tour’s first stop, Baltimore, MD, where they met up with members of the United Workers and other allies for a protest at a Trader Joe’s just outside of Baltimore, in Towson.

The action provided an opportunity for CIW members to reconnect with old friends from the United Workers, many of whom had made the long journey to Florida earlier this year to join us for the Do the Right Thing Tour’s finale in Tampa. Their exciting and innovative organizing for Fair Development in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor is an inspiration to CIW members and low-wage workers everywhere.


The protest also provided an opportunity for some very effective communication with Trader Joe’s customers. The man shown here (holding a colorful Trader Joe’s reusable shopping bag) is a local Fair Food ally and longtime Trader Joe’s customer, which allowed him to connect easily with shoppers as he shared the story of Trader Joe’s refusal to work with the CIW. Many of those with whom he spoke were quick to ask what they could do to help and took home postcards and Manager Letters.

Even the Towson Trader Joe’s location seemed to cooperate in getting the message out, as the store was located under a road, creating a perfect setting for an impromptu banner drop!

Then it was on to the Nation’s Capital, where the DC Fair Food committee has been hard at work for years building support for the campaign.

The picket line swelled as more and more DC allies arrived and saturated the sidewalk in front of the Trader Joe’s store, catching the attention of shoppers, pedestrians, and cars alike.

No action in DC would be complete without our friends from United Students Against Sweatshops and MEChA, who came out in force to let the cheap chic retailer know that young people see through its empty public relations response to the Campaign.

Allies from Code Pink made it out, too, including one of its co-founders, Medea Benjamin (above right). Medea has been a supporter of the Campaign for Fair food since the early days of the Taco Bell boycott, and seeing her on the picket line in DC brought back some great memories from those days of old!

The action was so large and spirited that it caught the attention of the local media (here, Joe Parker, the newest addition to the Student/Farmworker Alliance staff in Immokalee, speaks to the press — Welcome aboard, Joe!)…

… and sent a powerful message to the DC Trader Joe’s store: Make no mistake, the DC Fair Food committee will be back, again and again, until Trader Joe’s ends its resistance and joins the Campaign for Fair Food!