Saturday, May 17, 2008

Whole Foods Breaks Their Promise

From the United Farmworkers:

On April 14, a delegation of workers from Beef Northwest met with Whole Foods' Vice-President Edmund La Maccia and presented a copy of the online petition that more than 13,000 people signed. During the meeting, the Whole Foods representative said he was moved by the workers' stories. He said he would contact Beef Northwest and urge that they sit down with the UFW to resolve this issue. He told the workers he'd let us know how Beef Northwest responded.

His promises excited the workers. However, it appears they were only words. To date, Whole Foods is back to ignoring the UFW’s e-mails and phone calls.

Meanwhile, the Beef Northwest continues to pressure farm workers who support the UFW. Workers are afraid for their jobs and tired of company pressure. Fortunato Diaz, one of the workers who went to Austin, tells us about the increasing pressure he must endure since he went to talk to Whole Foods. He said, "The attention in my work has been more towards myself from the supervisors of this company because they are checking my work more that what they used to. Basically what they are doing is spying on me and the supervisors are just waiting for any little mistake from me so they can fire me."

Whole Foods sells approximately 60% of all Country Natural Beef produced at the Beef Northwest Feedlots. Tell Whole Foods that their lack of response is not acceptable.

Send Whole Foods an e-mail today. It's time for Whole Foods to do the right thing and not just talk.

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