Tag: CSR

What if the lion lays down with the lamb… and just tries to eat it?

In the recent merger between Ahold and Delhaize (owner of the Food Lion and Hannaford grocery chains), the jury is still out on whether Ahold’s commitment to the Fair Food Program will pull Delhaize up, or Delhaize’s outdated approach to social responsibility will drag Ahold down…Sometimes when one company merges with another, good things follow.  Greater size and market power provide an >> Read More

CIW speaks at OSCE conference in Moscow on stopping human trafficking…

[caption id="attachment_26529" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Greg Asbed of the CIW (second from left) participated on the first day of the OSCE conference as part of a panel titled "Private Sector Initiatives and Practices Addressing Human Trafficking". He described the Fair Food Program and its well-documented success in fighting forced labor, and challenged the assembled corporations, government representatives and NGOs to aim >> Read More

ANALYSIS: Lofty goals… or empty promises?

[caption id="attachment_25182" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Auditor from the Fair Food Standards Council, the third-party monitoring body tasked with ensuring the enforcement of the Fair Food Program, conducting an interview with workers on a tomato farm in Florida.[/caption] First draft of new industry-led initiative charts uncertain course toward "responsible labor practices" in US produce sector... Brief: There's nothing like the "power of the >> Read More
And you thought the presidential debates were maddening…

And you thought the presidential debates were maddening…

Wendy's issues statement on boycott after months of silence.  Silence was better. As we write this on Wednesday evening, the nation prepares (and by "prepares" we mean curls into the fetal position on the couch in front of the TV...) for the third and final presidential debate.   But if you are like us and happened to catch Wendy's new statement >> Read More

The enforcement imperative at the heart of Worker-driven Social Responsibility…

[caption id="attachment_23953" align="aligncenter" width="600"] A Fair Food Standards Council auditor interviews a worker at Participating Grower's farm earlier this year.[/caption] Worker-driven Social Responsibility (WSR) -- the emerging paradigm for the protection of fundamental human rights in corporate supply chains born of the uniquely successful experience of the Fair Food Program -- is founded on two distinct and equally important philosophical pillars: worker >> Read More

A Battle for the Soul of Social Responsibility…

Wendy's new code of conduct is a prime example of the discredited standards-without-enforcement model of corporate social responsibility; Workers' Voice Tour to contrast Wendy's code with the proven success of the Fair Food Program and the Worker-driven Social Responsibility model... What would you do if you could cheat on your taxes and know that you would get away with it? Not just >> Read More

Question: What are the three most important elements of a successful social responsibility program?

Answer:   1) Enforcement 2) Enforcement  3) Enforcement The litany of brutal human rights abuses in corporate supply chains around the globe just keeps getting longer by the day, and more horrifying with each new exposé. Longtime readers of this site are familiar with the extensive history of labor abuse in America's fields, including Florida's own "Harvest of Shame."  From federal prosecutors >> Read More
Kroger executives reject Fair Food Program (again), offer yet more empty answers at annual shareholder meeting…

Kroger executives reject Fair Food Program (again), offer yet more empty answers at annual shareholder meeting…

[hupso title=".@Kroger executives reject @FairFoodProgram (again) at Annual Shareholder Meeting" url="https://ciw-online.org/blog/2015/06/kroger-shareholder/"]Kroger CEO: “We expect all our suppliers... to follow our strict code of conduct...”Farmworkers and their consumer allies have attended countless shareholder meetings over the years, from the very first shareholder actions back in the Taco Bell Boycott days, to the Wendy's annual meeting earlier this month in Dublin, Ohio.  But no >> Read More

“They treated us like slaves”…

[hupso title="They treated us like slaves... 2nd installment of @latimes investigative report on devastating conditions in #Mexican tomato industry " url="https://ciw-online.org/blog/2014/12/latimes-2/"] Devastating tale of criminal brutality and cruel indifference at one labor camp in Mexico's tomato industry is a case study in the abject failure of the traditional model of Corporate Social Responsibility First things first.  If you haven't done so already, put aside >> Read More