Food Chain Workers Alliance

Food Chain Workers Alliance is a bi-national coalition of 36 worker-based organizations whose members plant, harvest, process, pack, transport, prepare, serve, and sell food.

Together with our members, we support frontline food workers to organize in their workplaces and communities for better wages and working conditions for ALL workers along the food chain. We envision a more sustainable food system that respects workers’ rights and is based on the principles of racial and economic justice, in which everyone has access to healthy and affordable food.

22 million people work in the U.S. food system, making it the largest working group in the country. It is also one of the lowest paid, as food workers earn a median annual wage of $28,000, according to our 2025 data report. Compared to the general workforce, food workers are 60% more likely to rely on SNAP to feed themselves and their families, and 81% more likely to be without healthcare coverage. Combine that with high rates of injury, low rates of unionization, and rampant wage theft, and you can understand why food workers are one of the most exploited working groups. 

Our food system is largely controlled by a handful of transnational corporations that rely on a flow of precarious workers for cheap labor. By empowering food workers to organize, unionize, and fight for the wages and protections they deserve, we can build economic security for workers and push back against the monopoly power of major food corporations. FCWA provides strategic and technical support for our members' organizing campaigns, and training programs for workers and organizers to start and lead campaigns. We provide collective spaces where workers and organizers learn, build relationships, and incubate collective fights, building a multi-racial and multi-sector food worker movement.

Support FCWA, our members, and frontline food workers by making your gift today!