Coaltion of Immokalee Workers' "Harvest without Violence" march in NYC on 20 November 2017. Working Families Party/flickr. (CC BY-NC 2.0)
From 11 to 15 March, Florida farmworkers from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and their allies will hold a five-day Freedom Fast outside the Manhattan office of Nelson Peltz, Wendy’s largest shareholder and chair of its board of directors. They will demand that Wendy’s joins other fast food chains in supporting the Fair Food Program, a CIW initiative that has substantially improved the conditions of many women farmworkers by directly confronting the issue of gender-based violence (GBV) in the fields. The fast will culminate with a massive Time’s Up Wendy’s March on 15 March to further highlight the ongoing presence of GBV in the US agricultural sector.
Women working in low-wage sectors and women of color are especially vulnerable to GBV in the world of work. The male-dominated agricultural sector in the United States – where severe violations such as sexual violence, abuse, and harassment are endemic – is among the most salient examples. According to recent report by the Worker-Driven Social Responsibility Network, over 80% of women farmworkers experience sexual abuse and harassment, with “assault and the most extreme forms of harassment [being] so common that many women consider it unavoidable”.
