Improving Working Conditions for Migrant Dairy Farm Workers

Migrant Justice builds worker power for vulnerable farmworkers. With a goal to improve labor and housing conditions and raise industry standards, their Milk with Dignity program earned them a $150,000 cash prize from our 2019 Innovation Fund to raise standards for dairy migrant farmworkers.

We love this write up from Vermont’s Seven Days weekly: 

The Milk with Dignity program enlists dairy companies to sign enforceable agreements that set requirements on wages, work schedule, health and safety, and housing. It also establishes an independent council to monitor and enforce the standards.

Migrant Justice plans to use some of the grant on a public campaign urging Hannaford to join the Milk with Dignity program, an expansion that would help cover "hundreds more [workers]," Lambek said. He added the organization plans to discuss further uses of the money at its annual retreat this weekend.

Read the full article on Milk with Dignity on Seven Days

About The Workers Lab Innovation Fund 

The Workers Lab gives new ideas that build worker power a genuine chance to succeed and flourish. We value solutions that emerge from deep engagement with working people, especially those intentionally marginalized by those in power, because they have the most effective solutions and are the most viable sites for experimentation.

Since our inception, The Workers Lab has invested more than $2,235,000 in 38 bold, new ideas through our signature program, The Innovation Fund. Each cycle, we invite entrepreneurial leaders in the nonprofit, public and private sectors to submit innovative ideas to improve worker power. Winners receive $150,000 to test their solution and 12 months to evaluate its potential for long term sustainability and scale. Winners are placed in a cohort for a year to share learnings, get technical assistance with their business plans, and potentially receive follow up funding.

A new Innovation Fund cycle begins in Spring 2020. We’ll start accepting applications again in March 2020. To receive a notification and more information on how to apply, sign-up to be the first to know when we begin accepting new applications.