Why the solidarity group “Migrant Justice at Midd” matters

If you walked into Proctor or Ross dining hall on Thursday for lunch last week, you probably saw a couple students tabling outside to promote the Migrant Justice Milk with Dignity campaign. On that day, around 80 Middlebury students called Hannaford Supermarket to demand the grocery store chain join the Milk with Dignity program and guarantee humane working and living conditions for the farm workers that produce their dairy products — many of whom are undocumented immigrants. 

Migrant Justice is an organization based in Vermont that works “to build the voice, capacity, and power of the immigrant farmworker community to organize for economic justice and human rights.” This spring, Middlebury students re-started Migrant Justice at Midd (MJ@M), an independent group that supports Migrant Justice’s campaigns. In a time of increased fear surrounding the Trump administration’s targeted attacks against undocumented people, Migrant Justice at Midd, through a combination of advocacy, community building, education and direct support, provides a compelling opportunity for concrete solidarity work with the immigrant community of Vermont. 

As many Middlebury students are frequent customers of Hannaford’s, it is essential to consider the labor conditions out of which the products we purchase arise. We cannot allow the mediating factors of a few delivery trucks to separate us from the concrete reality of the lives of the people who produce our food.  

Furthermore, this solidarity work with Migrant Justice is an essential response to the Trump administration’s targeting of undocumented people, particularly those who speak out in resistance to authoritarianism and state violence. Just last week, Alfredo “Lelo” Juarez, a farmworker activist in Washington was detained by ICE. The fear generated by these targeted attacks is isolating and paralyzing, and this can function to silence people. This is what it’s designed to do. By organizing in solidarity — as Migrant Justice at Midd has done — we can work together to build networks that fortify the communities of Vermont. 

In 2009, José Obeth Santiz Cruz, an 18-year-old Vermont dairy farm employee was killed in a workplace accident by a machine lacking adequate safety equipment. The network of people who worked to return his body to his home in Chiapas led to the formation of Migrant Justice. Over its short history, the organization has won numerous successful campaigns that have improved the lives of dairy farm workers and the wider immigrant community in Vermont. Because of their work, anyone in the state of Vermont regardless of immigration status can get a driver’s license and receive healthcare through the state. Immigration agents are no longer allowed to detain people while they are visiting the courthouse for a hearing, and the Fair and Impartial Policing Act severely limits the ability of ICE officers and local law enforcement to cooperate with each other. These are the impacts of just a few of Migrant Justice’s successful campaigns.

A 2014 survey put out by Migrant Justice found that “on average, farmworkers work 60–80 hours a week” oftentimes in substandard and dangerous conditions. Many migrant dairy workers are paid below the Vermont minimum wage, and some have had their pay illegally withheld. In response, Migrant Justice created the Milk with Dignity Program. The Milk with Dignity program demands that food industry leaders source their milk while complying with dairy workers’ human rights, improving labor conditions, and offsetting the associated cost by paying farmers premium prices for milk.

After three years of campaigning, in 2017, Ben & Jerry's signed onto the Milk with Dignity campaign, becoming the first major dairy corporation to join the program. Ben and Jerry’s committed to requiring its supplying farms to comply with the organization’s Code of Conduct that ensures the human rights of dairy workers. In 2019, Migrant Justice turned its sights toward the Hannaford franchise and began a campaign to pressure the corporation to join the Milk with Dignity program to fundamentally improve the lives of the workers whose labor produces their profits. Migrant Justice is asking Hannaford customers to fill out their Consumer Pledge for Farmworker Rights. As the next campaign step, they are encouraging people to save and document Hannaford receipts to build consumer purchasing power and show just how much money the franchise would lose with a potential boycott. To sign the pledge and submit your receipts, fill out this form.

In the pre-Covid-19 universe, Middlebury had an active Migrant Justice solidarity group on campus. It’s been in dormancy over the past couple years, but this winter and spring has seen a resurgence of energy for organizing with Migrant Justice on campus. The group, which meets weekly on Mondays, has held three Milk with Dignity call-in days over the course of the spring so far, hosted a movie screening of the film “La Cosecha,” continued coordination to provide transportation, childcare, and direct support for Migrant Justice and attended a community-building and campaign-sharing dinner with Migrant Justice leaders. In the upcoming weeks, they are hosting a movie screening of Migrant Justice Films, planning a creative project for Nocturne, collaborating with other student groups such as Juntos, and organizing Middlebury student transportation to the Migrant Justice May Day 16-hour picket rally at the Hannaford in Williston on May 1. To get involved, sign up for the group’s newsletter, follow them on instagram @migrantjusticemidd, or just come to a Monday meeting!

Migrant Justice at Midd’s aim to focus their efforts on solidarity means they only support and participate in action-steps already set up by Migrant Justice, understanding that, while Middlebury students and immigrant dairy farm workers are positioned differently in the system of capital that relies on the violent extraction of labor, our liberation from that system is intertwined.