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Burger King Rallies Kick Off Student Labor Week of Action |
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College students from California to New York to Florida this week are raising their voices demanding justice for workers on campuses and in their communities. Yesterday, students at more than 20 universities rallied at Burger King restaurants where they delivered a strong message to the “exploitation king” that slavery in our nation’s tomato fields will not go unnoticed nor unchallenged.
The rallies kicked off the ninth annual week of action, sponsored by the Student Labor Action Project (SLAP) and co-sponsored by the AFL-CIO, United Students Against Sweatshops and several unions. The actions take place March 28–April 4 between the anniversaries of César Chávez’s birth and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
In advance of the national action week, members of the Latino student group, MEChA, last week gathered at Sacramento State University and took part in the rally in support of the Blue Diamond workers in their struggle to join the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU).
SLAP Coordinator Carlos Jiminez told the students the week of action is about solidarity (see video above):
Solidarity means I see my struggle on campus…in my community…at the workplace is connected to your struggle and to a bigger struggle for justice.
In other actions this week, Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) members will speak to classes at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and students at Wichita State University will carry buckets of tomatoes across campus to illustrate their solidarity with the workers.
Students at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, will spotlight the need for a decent life for campus workers by releasing their proposal for a living wage for those workers. Meanwhile, students at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash., will celebrate the life of César Chávez with a campus-wide dinner and fundraiser.
Many of the student events will support the struggle of tomato workers, members of the CIW, who are reaching out to 1 million people to sign a petition demanding that Burger King and food industry leaders improve wages for workers who pick tomatoes and help eliminate slave labor-like conditions and human rights abuses from Florida’s fields.
In January, federal officials in south Florida arrested Antonia Zuniga Vargas on a 17-count indictment, charging her with conspiring to make money off workers from Mexico and Guatemala, forging documents and committing identity theft. Vargas, along with five other co-defendants, is connected to a business operation in Immokalee, Fla., allegedly created to hold workers in involuntary servitude and peonage.
Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Molloy told the Fort Myers News-Press Vargas and the others are charged with:
…slavery, plain and simple. Some of the folks have been there for years. It is the hope to send back money to their families, and they hang on to that hope. It’s just a situation that’s difficult to get out of.
Last April, the CIW won a groundbreaking agreement with McDonald’s, the world’s largest restaurant chain. The fast-food giant agreed to pay a penny more per pound to workers harvesting tomatoes, which means the workers get 72 cents to 77 cents for every 32-pound container of tomatoes they pick, up from 40 cents to 45 cents. But Burger King, the world’s second-largest hamburger chain, has rejected working with the CIW to improve farm workers’ wages and conditions.
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I notice this article doesn’t come and out say whether we’re talking legal or illegal workers here. Not that it makes any difference in the way I feel about the mistreatment of these people. It is horrific. And if law enforcement is aware that this is, in fact, taking place then they should step in and put an immediate end to it. And ALL legal workers in this country, of course, deserve to have union representation if they so choose. However, anyone and everyone who is in this country illegally should be rounded up and deported. Period! No ifs, ands or buts.
Please don’t make us go on strike at Burger King.
Everybody call up the phone number on the back of your Burger Receipts and submit your comment.
This must be a sample of the America Reverend Wright was God Damning; the one that has forever exploited the little people.
No Amnesty is absolutely correct in his thinking.I totally agree.
Good for the students and organizations who are showing the courage to stand up against the horrors of slavery, and the exploitation of our fellow workers. Don’t mind those poor souls foolish enough to believe in the idea of “illegal workers”. Those among us who wonder “if law enforcement is aware” of the plight of farmworkers, and feel that the state should be rounding them up. There is a word to describe these people, and that word is authoritarian. If that person happens to be an American then there is another word to describe them, and that word is traitor!
Dear Wobbly,just what part of mexico are you from?You are certainly not a citizen of the United States if you think standing up for your rights as a natural born or naturalized citizen is being a traitor.Would you please explain to me and others just how you arrived at that.
I understand what ‘Wobbly’ is saying. Worrying about ‘illegals’ when the real issue is really about slavery is a case of misplaced priorities. I do not want to see illegals being exploited in this country any more than I want them to be in this country, but they are here, and we must address the issue as to WHY they are here and take care of that first. No matter who they are, they should not be victimized nor mistreated, yet they are, everywhere in this country. Even ‘legals’ are being treated the same way, simply because of proximity and national origin. We are so prejudiced! In order for our country to be as good as it claims to be, it must address this issue first.
Dear Dr. It’s Simple. When I hear a person using the same hate filled propaganda as Americas enemies, then I have no choise but to conclude that the person is a traitor. How many Americans died fighting the Nazis, and facsist Japan? How dare we as Americans betray thier cause by embracing nationalism! O.K, O.K… maybe traitor is a strong word, but this subject is very important to me and my family, and nothing makes me madder than when all workers suffer because of the misguided opinions of a certain number of us. That being said, I owe No Amnesty an apology, sorry man, this page should be a space for workers to debate issues, not a run of the mill internet blog full of personal attacks.