News

Ohio State students to protest Wendy's produce policies

March 7, 2019

About 800 people are expected to gather for a Friday afternoon protest march against Wendy's at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. The activists are part of the university's Student/Farmworker Alliance and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers from Immokalee, Florida, where the chain sources its tomatoes, OSU student newspaper, The Lantern, reported. 

The groups are taking part in the protest as part of the national "Boot the Braids" campaign. The protesters' goal is to pressure OSU administrators to end the school's contracts with Wendy's, based in Columbus, after the chain failed to support the Fair Food Program, which works to ensure produce pickers' humane working conditions and wages. The group wants major contractors, like OSU, to provide a code of conduct for their Florida tomato growers.  

The groups involved allege that Wendy's conduct code with Florida tomato growers is neither a legally binding document nor one that addresses problems of pay, violence against workers or other issues. 

Wendy's Corporate Communications Manager Elizabeth Drake told The Lantern that the information the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has publicized is incorrect. 

"The Coalition of Immokalee Workers continues to spread false and misleading information about Wendy's," she said. "We have always been committed to fair wages and human rights for those who supply our food. We require labor and human rights assurances for all of our fresh produce suppliers."

Boot the Braids protests have taken place since 2016, the paper said. 

Friday's 2-mile protest march dis own the university's major High Street thoroughfare