US fast food chain Wendy’s, which has some branches in the UK, faces a long-standing boycott because it refuses to join the Fair Food Program.
The Fair Food Program was set up by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) to address the rampant exploitation of workers in the Florida tomato industry. Burger King, McDonald’s, Subway, Taco Bell all joined the programme over a decade ago but Wendy’s has refused to do so. CIW tried to pressure Wendy’s into joining since 2005, and escalated its campaign to a boycott when Wendy’s moved its tomato sourcing from Florida to Mexico instead.
Several cases of modern day slavery have emerged on farms in the US and Mexico, which has seen the campaign calling on Wendy’s to join the program return to the spotlight.
CIW said to Ethical Consumer in a May 2025 email: “As instances of extreme exploitation and even modern-day slavery are on the rise, farmworkers and conscious consumers have been continuously calling on Wendy's to join the Fair Food Program for over a decade. Major actions have taken place against Wendy's including a multi-day fast outside the major investment firm Trian Partners Headquarters in New York in 2018 and several marches and demonstrations through Palm Beach — hometown of major Wendy's shareholder Nelson Peltz, in 2022, 2023, and 2024.”
Read more about this in our article on the Wendy's boycott.