May 1st: Celebrating International Workers Day in solidarity with workers everywhere!

Image Credit: @layqanunayawar

CFPAC will be closed May 1st in solidarity with workers everywhere. We honor International Workers Day and uplift the power of organizing and collective action. International Workers Day was born in Chicago. For many workers this resistance brought about significant change: shorter workdays, longer weekends, and the acknowledgement that life is more than labor. 

There remain classes of workers who have not yet won these labor protections. The food chain workers who plant, grow, harvest, process, cook, and serve the food that sustains us all, are still deeply exploited. Almost all workers in the country have a federally protected right to collectively bargain. Farmworkers do not. In Illinois, farmworkers are exempt from many worker protections and fair pay policies. Meat processing workers are denied safe working environments. Food service workers are some of the lowest paid members of our communities, often relying on SNAP and other safety net programs to make ends meet. For all of these groups, our country’s immigration system leaves many workers vulnerable to even deeper exploitation. 

Massive fights remain for even workers with improved work weeks and labor standards. Worker exploitation tactics continue and expand in the era of billionaires and historic income disparities, while corporate consolidation and power grows unchecked. Private sector and nonprofit workers alike are chronically undervalued and underpaid, yet the CEO-to-worker pay gap increases. The right to organize is assaulted from every direction. Even governmental workers, who are vital for  the social and regulatory systems we all rely on, are targeted by “efficiency” drives as a cover for massive cuts to the social safety net to subsidize tax cuts to the wealthy.

CFPAC envisions a world where every person has abundant, delicious, healthy, culturally relevant food. We believe that food must be made in a way that honors people and the earth, and this can only be done by valued and respected workers. We know this is not possible in a vacuum. For this system to be transformed, all of our systems must be transformed. We are proud to join in solidarity with workers across the country to pursue that transformation together as we fight for the world we all deserve.

Artwork Credit: Layqa Nuna Yawar