Buying your monthly groceries at the Union Square Trader Joe’s yesterday might have been a bad decision. As mentioned last Friday, the NYC Community/Farmworker Alliance (CFA) and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) protested TJ’s low farmworker wages by hosting a full onslaught of events during the weekend, culminating in a massive march from the Union Square location to the newly opened Chelsea store on Sunday.

Indeed, yesterday’s rally of about 80 protesters began with Aztec dancers offering prayers on 14th St. and ended with a modified version of Lady Gaga’s “Alejandro” being sung on 6th Ave. — “We want fair food/and we want it now/Trader Joe’s, Trader Joe’s…” — all in the name of fair wages (and fun?).

Even CAS sophomore Gaia Dell’eugenio attended the protest with a pillow stuffed under her bright red shirt, representing the tomatoes farmworkers pick and supply to food purchasers for 40 to 50 cents a bucket. Dell’eugenio and other protesters marched from the Union Square to Chelsea chanting, “Trader Joe’s, shame on you! Farm workers deserve rights too!”

Protesters also handed out fliers to passersby explaining their demands: that Trader Joe’s sign an agreement with CIW to “increase wages, give workers a voice in the workplace, and eliminate the conditions that allow slavery to persist.” Corporations such as Whole Foods and Subway have already signed similar agreements.

CAS senior Katherine Diaz also attended the protest and urged that other NYU students need to get involved in the Campaign for Fair Food, pointing out that the Trader Joe’s in Union Square leases space in the Palladium complex. “NYU should put pressure on Trader Joe’s to sign an agreement,” Diaz said. “If you support human rights and labor rights, you should be able to support a simple agreement.”