skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Groups Call Wendy's Tomato Policies Rotten

play audio
Play

Friday, November 11, 2016   

TAMPA, Fla. – "Hold the tomatoes" until they're responsibly sourced, that's the call behind a boycott of Wendy's fast-food eateries planned for this weekend. Wendy's is the only major fast-food chain that has not joined the Fair Food Program, a farmworker-led initiative credited with helping to make strides toward corporate social responsibility in South Florida's tomato fields.

Alayne Unterberger, an organizer with the Tampa Bay Fair Food, a group helping to organize the protest, said the Fair Food Program simply asks corporations to respect human rights.

"To only buy tomatoes from growers that will respect the rights of people in the field, meaning they give them water, they give them breaks; they pay them an extra penny per pound of tomatoes picked," she explained.

A spokesperson for Wendy's said the company purchases tomatoes from Mexico and other places, and insists it holds suppliers to a code of conduct. McDonald's, Chipotle and Walmart are among the corporations that have joined the Fair Food Program since its launch four years ago. This weekend's protests are planned at Wendy's locations in Tampa and St. Pete on Saturday at one p.m.

Under the Fair Food Program, which is run by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, workers facing injustice have access to a hotline, a third-party monitoring system and an investigative body for their complaints. Some 90 percent of Florida tomato growers now participate, and Unterberger said it has completely shifted the dynamic.

"Setting an industry standard that we don't tolerate sexual harassment, we don't tolerate exploitation in the fields," she added. "And it's not that much to ask."

The program's success has led the Coalition to expand into other tomato-growing states, including Georgia, New Jersey, North and South Carolina, and Virginia. The group is also looking at adding protections for workers who harvest other crops, including strawberries and blueberries.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021