WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), which represents 1.2 million essential workers across North America, released a statement in response to the Senate Agriculture Committee’s failure to move the Senate version of the Farm Bill.
UFCW International President Milton Jones said:
“The UFCW is pleased that lawmakers failed to advance the Senate version of the Farm Bill. The legislation cowers to powerful agricultural interests and leaves working families out to dry. It also does nothing to protect the safety of workers across the food supply chain, which sends a dangerous message about how essential workers are valued in this country.
“Americans, including the hundreds of thousands of food workers represented by the UFCW, deserve a Farm Bill that reverses the devastating cuts made to SNAP last year, brings down food costs, and protects the workers who feed our communities. The committee now has the opportunity to craft a bipartisan Farm Bill that protects family-sustaining union jobs, lowers the cost of groceries for consumers, and strengthens rural communities.”
BACKGROUND
- While this bill includes a delay to the drastic SNAP cuts under H.R. 1, the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill,” it offsets the delay with even deeper cuts in the future and fails to propose a solution for the roughly 40 million Americans who rely on the program every year. Since H.R. 1’s implementation, more than 4.5 million Americans have lost access to SNAP, more than 1.5 million of whom are children.
- Members of Congress interested in addressing the rising cost of groceries and supporting food workers should instead support the Stop Price Gouging in Grocery Stores Act, which would ban surveillance pricing and electronic shelf labels in grocery stores, and the Food Secure Strikes Act, which would allow striking workers and their households to receive SNAP benefits. Lawmakers should also consider the Grocery, Farm, and Food Worker Stabilization Grant Program Act, which would create a grant program to provide stabilization payments to food workers in the case of a natural or other disaster, along with the Food and Nutrition Delivery Safety Act, which would ensure that delivery workers within the SNAP delivery program are fairly compensated and properly trained.
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The UFCW International is the largest private sector union in the United States, representing 1.2 million workers and their families in grocery, meatpacking, food processing, healthcare, cannabis, retail, and other essential industries. UFCW members serve our communities in all 50 states, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Learn more about the UFCW at ufcw.org.