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07117 March 1, 2007
Burger King rejects request to pay extra penny to tomato pickers
Farmworkers protest decision outside hamburger company's HQ
by Evan Silverstein
LOUISVILLE - Fast-food giant Burger King has told the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) that it will not pay a penny more per pound to farmworkers harvesting its tomatoes.
The CIW, a Florida-based group of farmworkers receiving support from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and other faith groups, is calling on some of the nation's largest fast-food companies to do their part to improve wages and working conditions for the laborers who pick their tomatoes.
It wants Burger King and other fast-food companies, such as McDonald's Inc. and Chipotle Mexican Grill, to follow the lead of Taco Bell's Louisville-based parent company Yum! Brands, Inc.
Yum! agreed in March 2005 following a nearly four-year national boycott to pay its tomato suppliers the additional penny per pound, which is passed along to the workers picking the tomatoes.
The agreement not only improved farmworker wages, but guaranteed transparency in Taco Bell's tomato supply chain and established the first code of conduct for Florida agricultural suppliers that guarantees a meaningful role for farmworkers in the protection of their own rights.
However, Burger King officials said in a statement Feb. 5 that it has decided not to accept a request by the CIW to pay a penny more per pound for its tomatoes, despite stating that it's "sympathetic and concerned" about the "substandard" living conditions faced by the workers.
The announcement prompted the CIW, which is currently engaging McDonald's about wages and working conditions, to hold a press conference outside Burger King's corporate headquarters in Miami, FL.
More than 50 farmworkers, clergy, students and community activists attended the press conference on Feb. 15, demanding the company look closer at conditions in the Florida fields where many of its tomatoes are picked.
The event kicked off what the CIW is calling a "truth campaign" to highlight the treatment of Florida farmworkers who pick the tomatoes for Burger King. The news conference took on the spirit of a rally as the crowd picked up the chant: "It's time for the King to do the right thing!"
"This will not be the last time that we will be protesting Burger King. It's just the beginning," said Gerardo Reyes, a CIW staff member. "Right now the focus is on McDonald's. But we will be visiting Burger King once in a while so they don't think that this is going to just fade away."
Burger King said that increasing the cost of tomatoes would do nothing to ensure support for the workers directly because the fast-food company and its purchasing agent, Restaurant Services of Coral Gables, FL, do not have a direct relationship with any tomato grower or its employees - the same argument Yum! gave initially.
Tomatoes for the company, which is owned by Burger King Holdings Inc., are bought from repacking companies, which Burger King said does not identify the specific growers or workers who pick the tomatoes used in its restaurants nationwide.
"To ask Burger King Corporation to pay a penny more a pound for tomatoes to increase workers' wages is similar to asking shoppers to voluntarily pay a penny more per pound at the grocery store for tomatoes to increase workers' wages," said Burger King's statement. "Both Burger King Corporation and grocery store shoppers have no business relationship with the workers and cannot get the extra penny to them."
Reyes said Burger King's argument doesn't add up because if they cannot trace where tomatoes came from in the supply chain, how would they be able to react in the case of a food-borne illness like an E-coli outbreak?
"They are using excuses that have been said before to try to escape their obligation, their responsibility on this matter in the same way that McDonald's is doing now and other fast-food corporations are doing," he said. "They are getting profits using their incredible buying power to keep buying cheap tomatoes that come cheap to the restaurants because of the human exploitation that is behind it."
The Rev. Noelle Damico, associate for Fair Food and coordinator of the PC(USA)'s Campaign for Fair Food, concurred with Reyes.
"Simply put, if Yum! Brands can manage to get a penny more to the workers in its supply chain so can Burger King. It's a matter of willingness," Damico said. "During the Taco Bell boycott, Yum! Brands initially said it couldn't do this, but reversed its position and established a working model that Burger King could emulate if it so desired."
The development follows more than a dozen meetings over the past year and half between Burger King, the CIW and religious groups that support the farmworkers, including the PC(USA).
The CIW dismissed Burger King's explanation for rejecting the increase, saying the company never intended to act in good faith despite the meetings.
Instead of offering to pay a penny more per pound, Burger King has offered to send recruiters to the Immokalee area in southwest Florida to speak with farmworkers who might be interested in working for the company. Burger King's Have It Your Way Foundation is also offering to work with the CIW and other charitable organizations to find ways to help workers and their families.
That suggestion from the restaurant chain also was not taken seriously by the Coalition, Damico said.
"Sadly, under the banner of charity, Burger King is attempting to avoid responsibility for the farmworker poverty that its high volume, low cost purchasing practices create," Damico said. "Burger King is the only entity in its supply chain that is able to improve wages because its very practices are what are holding farmworkers' wages down. The re-packers who supply Burger King have said as much. Farmworkers who labor six days a week, 12 hours a day don't need charity, they need a fair wage."
Though no new boycott of any fast-food company has been called, Reyes did not rule out the possibility of such a campaign in the future.
"I would tell you this, there's always time for everything," Reyes said when asked if any boycotts were under consideration. "Because of the conditions that we face there's urgency in this matter."
PC(USA) General Assembly Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick said in a statement to Burger King in January that workers who pick tomatoes in Florida for Burger King continue to face poverty wages and exploitative working conditions.
"They still lack rights enjoyed by workers in other industries," Kirkpatrick wrote.
Kirkpatrick said in his letter that Burger King is "morally and ethically" obligated to correct the deficiencies because the company profits from the exploitation of the workers.
Most tomato pickers still receive roughly the same pay as in 1978 - 40 to 45 cents for every 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they pick. To earn $50 a day, considered a good haul, workers must pick about 125 buckets of tomatoes, or about two tons.
A penny more for each bucket would raise the pay rate to 77 cents, providing the workers a 71-percent increase in wages.
In June, the PC(USA)'s 217th General Assembly approved a resolution calling for ongoing work with the CIW in the campaign to get fast-food corporations to ensure the human rights of farmworkers harvesting their tomatoes by partnering with the CIW and advancing the precedents established in the Taco Bell-CIW agreement.
The CIW, which is led by and represents more than 3,000 mostly Mexican, Guatemalan and Haitian farmworkers throughout Florida, said discussions with McDonald's and Chipotle Mexican Grill have not been productive.
The Office of the Stated Clerk, the PC(USA)'s Campaign for Fair Food, which is a ministry of the Presbyterian Hunger Program; and Presbyterians across the country have joined the CIW in these efforts.
On April 13, the Coalition will stage demonstrations outside McDonald's corporate headquarters in Oak Brook, IL. A day later it will lead a march for fair food through downtown Chicago, culminating in a rally at McDonald's flagship restaurant and a concert with top recording artists in the Windy City.
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