Florida Catholic | Farmworker Protest

Tomato workers’ penny-a-pound protest targets BK

CESAR J. BALDELOMAR AND MARLENE QUARONI | FLORIDA CATHOLIC CORRESPONDENTS

Published: 12.07.07

Protesters set up a mock Burger King mascot called “Exploitation King” in front of the fast-food giant’s corporate headquarters Nov. 30 in Miami.
MARLENE QUARONI | FC

MIAMI | Students waved signs demanding justice for Florida tomato pickers. Voices of religious leaders blared from loud speakers. Union leaders, people of faith and of no faith, and physically disabled individuals in wheelchairs all united in one common cry outside Burger King’s corporate headquarters here Nov. 30.

“Un centavo mas, one more penny,” chanted the 300 or so people who participated in the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ daylong rally and vigil, intended to persuade the fast-food giant to join its competitors in an agreement aimed at increasing tomato pickers’ pay by a penny a pound.

If Burger King were to agree to the proposal put forth by the southwest Florida coalition, it would be joining McDonald’s and Yum Brands!, the parent company of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Supporters of the agreements, including many in the Catholic Church, say the extra money would go a long way to improving the standard of living for workers who are currently paid about 45 cents for each 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they harvest. According to the coalition, complying with the proposal would cost Burger King about $250,000 a year.

But Burger King so far is balking at the proposal, and the state’s alliance of tomato growers is challenging the legality of the MacDonald’s and Taco Bell agreements already in place.

During the rally, Burger King spokeswoman Diane Wilson accepted a letter from the activists meant for Burger King chief executive officer, John Chidsey. Wilson said the company’s reluctance is based on legal and technical hurdles.

“We just can’t figure out how to do this legally. How do we pay workers and not have that worker be our employee? I don’t think we want to be in a position of paying workers we have no control over,” Steve Grover, the company’s vice president of food safety, quality assurance and regulatory affairs, recently told the Miami Herald. “I have a problem ethically with agreeing to something I know can’t be implemented. If we as a company agree to something, we ought to have a good intention of carrying it out.”

That stance puts Burger King on the same side of the argument as the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, which represents 90 percent of Florida’s tomato growers. Exchange officials have told the media that none of its members will participate in any of the agreements this season, even though a few participated in the Taco Bell agreement in the past.

That leaves a big unanswered question: If the fast-food companies have pledged to buy tomatoes only from growers that participate and no growers participate, where will the companies get tomatoes for the burgers and burritos?

On its Web site, the growers exchange said the agreements may violate federal antitrust, labor and racketeering laws. In multiple statements to the media, the head of the group, Reggie Brown, has called it “un-American” for a third party such as the coalition to insert itself between growers and their employees.

The coalition maintains it had to go directly to the fast-food companies because the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange never expressed interest in negotiating.

But what seems to most anger farmworker advocates such as those who attended the Nov. 30 protest is the growers’ claims that the coalition “continues to mislead the public about the working and living conditions of Florida’s tomato workers.” The growers exchange Web site contends that tomato workers are guaranteed the minimum wage, with some even earning an average of $12.46 an hour.

“They live in miserable conditions, sleeping on bare mattresses, 12 people crowded into a trailer with no air-conditioning. The rents are obscenely high,” said Father Patrick O’Connor, a member of the Oblates of St. Francis De Sales and pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Immokalee, who drove across Alligator Alley with his dog, Tequila, to attend the rally.

He was one of several Catholic priests and parishioners from across the state who came to support the farmworkers.

Immokalee is one of the poorest communities in the country, he said, adding that about half the population works in the fields.

“Christian life is about sharing, not simply giving,” said Father O’Connor. “The best thing we Catholics can do is to befriend Immokalee.”

Denise O’Toole Kelly of the Florida Catholic staff contributed to this story.

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