Farm Workers Win at McDonald’s. Burger King Next

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers asks us to post this note of thanks and report on its campaign for justice for the workers who pick tomatoes for the nation’s fast-food industry. 

Just last month, farm workers from southwest Florida, represented by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), won a groundbreaking agreement with fast-food giant McDonald’s to improve wages and working conditions in the fields that supply McDonald’s with its tomatoes. This victory came after a two-year campaign by the CIW and its allies in the labor, student, youth and faith communities.

Farm workers who pick tomatoes for the fast-food industry are among this country’s most exploited workers. They earn sub-poverty wages, have no right to form unions or to benefits of any kind and have not received a significant raise in nearly 30 years. In the most extreme cases, farm workers are held in modern-day slavery and forced to work against their will.

The McDonald’s agreement builds and expands upon an earlier agreement won by the CIW and its allies after a four-year boycott of Taco Bell and sets a clear path to real rights and decent pay for farm workers. The agreement guarantees:

• A penny more per pound to workers harvesting tomatoes for McDonald’s, which means the workers will get 72 to 77 cents for every 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they pick, up from 40 to 45 cents;
• A stronger code of conduct based on the principle of worker participation;
• A collaborative effort to develop a third-party mechanism for monitoring conditions in the fields and investigating workers’ complaints of abuse.

As we reflect on this monumental victory, the members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers would like to extend our deep gratitude to the labor movement, the AFL-CIO and its many member unions for their support and solidarity with our cause ever since we began the Campaign for Fair Food with the Taco Bell boycott in 2001.

The AFL-CIO, President John Sweeney, the Communications Workers of America and Jobs with Justice all threw their weight behind our campaign by officially endorsing the Alliance for Fair Food.

Along the way, the AFL-CIO helped to mobilize the support of thousands of its members for letter-writing campaigns and pickets and was greatly helpful in the shareholder front of our struggle. President Sweeney and AFL-CIO Organizing Director Stewart Acuff joined us in Chicago for the two historic days of action and celebration we held this past April 13-14.

But even as we celebrate this victory, we know our work is not over. The campaign has shifted its focus to Miami-based Burger King, the world’s second-largest burger chain. Burger King has rejected working with the CIW to improve farm worker wages and conditions, even as it recently announced an initiative to improve the living conditions of farm animals in its supply chain.

Once again, the participation and solidarity of our sisters and brothers in labor will be crucial. Burger King has been put on notice that if it does not do the right thing by Thanksgiving 2007, our campaign will escalate. With the solidarity of the AFL-CIO, its member unions and their members, we are confident that victory is not a matter of if—but of when.

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