Protestors put spotlight on Whole Foods' use of prison labor

[Ichingcarpenter]

ST. LOUIS PARK
On Aug. 27, the Black Liberation Project (link is external)organized a protest against Whole Foods dubbed “Whole Frauds,” spotlighting Whole Foods’ use of prison labor. The actions took place simultaneously in two different locations: Calhoun Commons in St. Louis Park and the Grand Avenue Whole Foods in St. Paul.

At the St. Paul location, protesters blocked the aisles to the registers and chanted, “This is what hypocrisy looks like” and “Whole Frauds.” They also passed out flyers detailing why the protest was organized as well as other options to shop for organic produce that doesn’t use prison labor.

At the location in St. Louis Park, protesters explained why Whole Foods using prison labor is all in the same system as that which kills a Black male every 28 hours.

Store employees and managers quickly called the police in both locations.

The Colorado Correctional Industries (link is external) works with the Colorado Department of Corrections to match “inmates with an appropriate position within one of our manufacturing, agricultural or service industries.” Through prison labor, inmates within the CCi produce an assortment of goods from carpentry items, to cheese, and tilapia, as well as serve as inmate firefighters.

Whole Foods, who “aims to set the standards of excellence for food retailers," (link is external) has contracts with CCi to buy dairy products and tilapia labored by prisoners who get paid 60 cents a day.


http://workdayminnesota.org/articles/protestors-put-spotlight-whole-foods-use-prison-labor

[alc]

1. prisoners need real jobs and real wages

It's not rehabilitation if we aren't letting (even forcing) them live like they're going to live after prison. They need to be working (or training), making realistic wages, getting promotions/raises, and making decisions on how to spend the money. There are some life skills (like money management) that prisoners don't get a chance to learn especially if they start prison young. And having goals like promotion or raises is probably a lot healthier than only having a goal of getting to the end of the sentence (as well as being a useful skill - working toward goals and dealing with "the other guy" getting the promotion).

It's also not fair to release someone from our current system for N years then tell them to go compete for a job with people who've been getting experience and building life habits that include a job for those N years.

Of course we need to increase the number of jobs or it's not fair to have prisoners doing jobs when people who haven't been convicted of a crime (or have served their sentence) can't find work.

[Javaman]

2. libertarian mackey's hand at work. nt