Anna Canning of Fair World Project interviews Crispin Hernandez of Workers’ Center of Central New York about what he’s hearing from farmworkers at Fair Trade USA’s Fair Trade Certified dairy farms.

“Fair Trade USA’s new “fair trade” dairy label has been on Chobani’s Greek yogurt for nearly a year now, but little has changed for farmworkers. Instead, most of them don’t even know what “fair trade” is and haven’t seen the benefits that are getting sold to ethical consumers. “

Excerpt from the episode:

Anna Canning:
For people to build power, first they have to know what they’re participating in, and what their rights are.

And the part where Chobani and managers selected the people? That’s absolutely not how Fair Trade USA is presenting it in the media.

In a recent article in Jacobin magazine, Fair Trade USA’s Producer Services Manager, Jamie Padilla said of the Fair Trade Committees, “The members are democratically elected by all workers. It’s a huge responsibility and, honestly, one of the most empowering things I’ve seen.”

That’s not what Crispin’s hearing from workers however.

And it’s actually also a bit of a misrepresentation of how the process actually works. At least on paper, in the standards. Initially, the “certificate holder” helps to set up these fair trade committees, guiding their structure to ensure that they’re properly representative of the people they are supposed to benefit. There’s a handy little flow chart in the standards to show how it’s supposed to go. By year one, or before premium money has been spent, “premium participants,” which means workers in this case, are supposed to have done the following: One, understand fair trade, two, elect their Fair Trade Committee, and then write and approve a constitution for that committee. Then, they’re supposed to conduct a “Needs Assessment” and communicate those results. From what Crispin’s telling me, it still sounds like things are right at about step 1, or more like step 0, since workers still don’t know what fair trade is. Meanwhile, people buying “fair trade dairy” have been sold a story of worker empowerment since about April of last year.

Crispin Hernandez:
And I’m going to add a little bit here. The workers I talked to told me that they give them a paper that they have to sign to say they agree with what Chobani is doing. But in reality, many don’t understand it but many go along and sign because they  think their other coworkers have already signed it. And because what Chobani has said is that if you agree, sign this paper, and what this paper means is that they’re going to give them some resources. For example at the end of last year, they gave them a card for $500 to buy the things they need like boots or their food.

Anna Canning:
This is a serious thing that Crispin’s telling me. From his accounting, the workers he’s talking to understand that they need to sign a paper, sort of a loyalty agreement, and then they’ll get money. Is this a fair trade premium payout? Encouragement to stay quiet and stay away from organizers like Crispin?  Since the workers don’t even know what fair trade is, it’s really hard to get a clear picture.

But Crispin is plenty clear: even if workers need the money, getting a one-time $500 gift card is not the same as dignified work and living conditions.

Crispin Hernandez:
But I want to point out something very important about what I just mentioned. This isn’t real change. For example, I had the opportunity to visit workers in their housing that the farmers provide and there are still cockroaches. And the housing they live in, it’s not a real house.

It’s not just about cockroaches though. The most important thing is the conditions in their workplace, what they deal with every day. In the workplace, there are many things that aren’t good and many things that should be fixed to make sure accidents aren’t happening, and also to address the treatment of the animals. Chobani needs to protect the workers who are working 365 days a year so Chobani can have milk processed every day.

Another of the things that Chobani is doing is offering bottles of water to the workers. And we’ve heard that they’ve donated to schools. But all of this is just charity, it helps them reduce their taxes. But this isn’t the right thing. We believe that Chobani needs to do the right thing and really listen to all the workers in their supply chain. Not just in the dairy industry but on other farms that, for example, Chobani buys apples, grapes, strawberries from.

So what we’re asking Chobani is to listen to us. In 2017, we sat down with them at the table and brought them a memorandum: what we want is that they recognize all the workers in their supply chain.

We want the people who are consuming Chobani’s products to know this is what is happening with Chobani and what we’re asking is for justice for the workers.