Hannaford, which has faced criticism from a group called Migrant Justice about how it handles the protection of workers' rights, said Friday that while it is aligned with Migrant Justice’s Milk with Dignity campaign, a movement that calls on dairy companies to ensure respect for human rights, it differs in its approach to the solution.
The Milk with Dignity program urges companies to adhere to five principles that help to maintain human rights for farmworkers in the state of Vermont. They include adhering to the farmworker-authored code of conduct, guaranteeing workers’ the right to receive education about their rights, third-party monitoring to enforce the code of conduct is met, increased pay for workers and farms, and a legally binding agreement to the terms, according to the organization's website.
“The concerns and issues facing agricultural workers are systemic, complex and extend far beyond Hannaford’s supply chain and the state of Vermont,” said the retailer in a statement. “The Milk with Dignity program is focused on a very small portion of the U.S. dairy supply chain, both in terms of its geographic footprint as well as the number of stakeholders involved. Because of the complexity and scope of the issues facing migrant farm workers, we do not feel this approach is scalable. Nor do we feel that these issues can be solved with a patchwork of loosely affiliated programs like Milk with Dignity working independently.”
Hannaford shared that it is engaged in partnerships to advance its human rights commitments across its supply chain, using second- and third-party auditing tools to validate its process.
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