Vermont immigrant activist group Migrant Justice is set to begin negotiations with Hannaford’s parent company over working conditions on Vermont dairy farms.
The activist group has long pressured Hannaford, a major New England grocery chain, to join its “Milk With Dignity” program, an agreement that would give immigrant workers hard-to-come-by labor protections for those who work on dairy farms that supply its stores.
If Hannaford joined the labor rights program, its suppliers would need to agree to give workers paid sick leave, better wages, a guaranteed process to document hours and wages, and a safe and healthy work environment.
After Hannaford declined to commit to the program in 2019, Migrant Justice organized protests against the chain across northern New England to bring awareness to the abuses immigrant dairy workers say they face at work.
In 2025, the group took its grievances a step further. It filed a complaint against Ahold Delhaize, the Dutch parent company of Hannaford, with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The Paris-based global organization sets standards for multinational companies.
In its complaint, Migrant Justice accused the Dutch company of violating OECD’s business guidelines.
The complaint describes “severe human rights violations” in the company’s supply chain including overcrowded and makeshift housing, 72-hour work weeks, threats from employers and withholding of wages.
Then in late May, OECD’s responsible business contact point for the Netherlands said that activist complaints warranted further investigation, moving for mediation between Ahold Delhaize and Migrant Justice.
Migrant Justice has a clear goal for a resolution: “We want Hannaford to join the Milk With Dignity program,” said Will Lambek, an organizer for Migrant Justice.
If the OECD did find that Ahold Delhaize violated its guidelines, the decision would have no binding effect other than potentially staining the publicly traded company’s reputation, theoretically affecting its shareholders.
Lambek said he isn’t sure when mediation will begin, how long it could take or what it will involve.
Ahold Delhaize owns over 9,551 stores across nine countries, according to its website. In the United States, it owns Hannaford, Food Lion, Stop & Shop, Giant Food and the Giant Company. Neither Ahold Delhaize nor Hannaford responded to multiple emails from VTDigger seeking comment.
Lambek said Migrant Justice has particularly pressured Hannaford to join its program because, as the largest grocer in northern New England, any protections for workers on dairy farms that supply the chain would have large-scale impacts.
Although Hannaford does not publicly disclose its supply chain, Lambek said his group has discerned through the company’s purchasing practices that it buys bottled milk from HP Hood, a Massachusetts-based dairy company that buys milk from a large swath of farms across Vermont. Most of those farms are owned by dairy giants Dairy Farmers of America and Agri-mark, according to Lambek.
In an interview, Emilio Morales, a leader of Migrant Justice who worked on a Vermont dairy farm for about seven years, said through an interpreter that he often worked in unsafe and unhealthy living conditions.
When Morales lived on a farm, workers lived right above the milking parlor, above heavy machinery and propane tanks. Living with animals meant chronic pest infestations, he said.
“We would live with rats, with cockroaches, with bedbugs,” Morales said. He would cook his lunch and see cockroaches walking across the counter, he said.
“We would talk to the boss about it and it would be months and months before he did anything about it,” Morales said.
He was never given any health or safety training when he started the job with no farmworking experience at age 18, he said. That led to an injury, he said, when a cow stepped on his hand. And his boss wouldn’t let him take a break from work or take time off, Morales said.
OECD documents shed a light on the Dutch company’s perspective.
In the assessment of activist complaints by the OECD contact point for the Netherlands, it says that Ahold Delhaize maintains it has taken steps over the past six years to identify and address human rights risks in its supply chain. It also said the company has worked to mitigate issues, including creating a tip line to field worker complaints.
“In the company’s view, this demonstrates that it is conducting appropriate due diligence and engaging with stakeholders, even if Migrant Justice disagrees with the outcomes, in particular Hannaford’s decision not to join Milk with Dignity,” the assessment says.
