Farm workers march on Ben & Jerry’s

Scores of dairy farm workers and activists marched Saturday on a Ben & Jerry’s factory to push for better pay and living conditions on farms that provide milk for the ice cream maker that takes pride in its social activism.

Protesters said Ben & Jerry’s agreed two years ago to participate in the so-called Milk With Dignity program, but the company and worker representatives have yet to reach an agreement.

“We can’t wait any more. We are going to pressure them and see what happens,” said Victor Diaz, a Mexican immigrant now working on a farm in Vergennes.

Ben & Jerry’s spokesman Sean Greenwood said before Saturday’s march from the Statehouse to the Waterbury factory that the company was eager to reach an agreement and negotiations were underway.

About 85 percent of the milk Ben & Jerry’s uses in its ice cream made in North America comes from about 80 Vermont dairy farms. Its Caring Dairy program promotes sustainable farming by offering farmers cash incentives for keeping up with best management practices.

The Milk With Dignity program was developed in 2014 by farm workers and the Vermont group Migrant Justice to ensure that farms provide them fair wages and working conditions and decent housing. In 2015, Ben & Jerry’s agreed to join the program. Since then, the two sides have been negotiating over the details.

announced Friday.

Jim Abrams, the chief operating officer of medical supply giant Medline Industries Inc., and Alan King, the husband of 4th Ward Alderman Sophia King, both were found to have broken the city’s ethics rules for seeking to influence the mayor and City Hall action without registering as a lobbyist, as the law requires.

Abrams, a longtime friend of the mayor’s, emailed Emanuel to ask him to consider a friend’s pitch to receive an exemption in an ordinance the mayor was pursuing to increase the city’s minimum wage. King, a D J, emailed Emanuel to have a fence removed from a Chicago park to accommodate the “Chosen Few House Music Picnic.”

The ethics board made the two violations public Friday but will not determine how much to fine Abrams and King until after its meeting next month.