This commentary is by Larissa Scaffidi, a sophomore at the University of Vermont studying public communications with a minor in public policy analysis.
The Vermont dairy industry has suffered because of large firms that buy dairy products, such as major supermarket chains and processed food producers. These large corporations strive to maximize their own profits, most often at the expense of farmworkers and farm owners.
As the farm owners’ profits decrease, it becomes less and less likely that they can afford or are willing to provide their workers with adequate pay and safe and desirable working conditions.
Migrant Justice, a Vermont-founded organization dedicated to promoting economic justice and human rights for and within the farmworker community, recognizes the consequences of large corporations on dairy workers rights and livelihoods. In 2018, Migrant Justice started the Milk with Dignity program, focused on addressing and solving injustices in the dairy industry.
Milk with Dignity is a worker-driven human rights initiative directly concerned with farmworkers in the dairy industry holding large corporations accountable in promoting workers’ rights and socially responsible dairy farming. Farmworkers are the main drivers of the movement, not companies or outside volunteers, which is crucial for ensuring that the outcomes of the movement are directly aligned with their needs.
The Milk with Dignity program requires farm labor practices to be socially just and meet the needs of farmworkers. If a farm is unwilling to improve conditions to comply with the program’s standards, as investigated regularly by the Milk with Dignity standards council, it is suspended from Milk with Dignity and loses the program’s financial benefits.
The more corporations and larger dairy buyers that participate in the movement, the more pressure there is on farms to treat workers in accordance with proper standards.
The benefits of Milk with Dignity for dairy workers are enormous. With implementation of the program at dairy farms in Vermont and New York, farmworkers now receive benefits such as paid sick days and vacations, a guaranteed day off every week, improved access to medical treatment for workplace injuries, access to protective equipment when dealing with hazardous chemicals and/or machinery, as well as overall increased wages and bonuses.
These positive changes are crucial coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic because they provide a greater sense of job security and economic stability in a time where those two benefits can be increasingly scarce.
The program has already seen incredible success in improving the Northeast dairy industry in just a few short years. The program’s first participating corporation is Ben & Jerry’s, which committed in 2017 to bring 100% of its Northeastern dairy supply chain into the Milk with Dignity program. That alone brings in over 50 farms committed to the higher standard for worker treatment in the dairy industry, protecting over 200 farm workers, and covering 20% of Vermont’s dairy industry.
Following the success with Ben & Jerry’s, farmworkers have set their sights on Hannaford Supermarkets, one of the largest dairy buyers in Vermont and the Northeast.
Migrant Justice calls on Hannaford to join the Milk with Dignity program to ensure that its dairy suppliers are complying with farmworkers’ human rights. Hannaford has seen its profits growing under Covid and in a time of rising inflation; the company can comfortably afford the changes required to co
mply with the program. The campaign brings together farmworkers and consumers to demand change, Thousands of campaign supporters have made calls, sent emails, signed postcards, and engaged with the company’s social media.
To further promote the push for Hannaford to join Milk with Dignity, Migrant Justice is going on a campaign organizing tour. The Milk with Dignity organizing tour spans all of New England and New York, covering every state with a Hannaford Supermarket, with over 50 stops total, including multiple stops in Vermont throughout April and May.
Attendees will learn about the campaign and how to get involved in revolutionizing the dairy industry. Additionally, each stop will promote a direct action participants can take to pressure their local Hannaford’s to take the pledge to acknowledge dairy workers’ rights and join Milk with Dignity.
Your support is crucial to the success of this program and to the rights of dairy farm workers, both locally and throughout the Northeast.
