07191
March 29, 2007

Tomato pickers to put squeeze on McDonald’s

‘Truth Tour’ targets hamburger giant over wages, work conditions

by Evan Silverstein

Chicago Presbyterians march in McDonald's Truth Tour in 2006. Photo by Gary Cozette

LOUISVILLE — A group of church-backed Florida farmworkers will embark on a 10-day regional tour through the Southeast and Midwest next month to carry their struggle for higher wages and better working conditions to fast-food behemoth McDonald’s Corp.

     About 60 members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) will travel by bus and van from Immokalee, FL, on the six-state multi-city trek, which runs from April 7-17, with stops in Georgia, Kentucky and Alabama.

     Highlights will include a peaceful rally April 13 outside the hamburger company’s corporate headquarters in Chicago’s western suburb of Oak Brook, IL.

     The demonstration is expected to feature national human-rights leaders, clergy, labor union leaders, student activists and musicians. The next day, the farmworkers and their allies will lead a march for fair food through downtown Chicago, culminating with a rally outside McDonald’s flagship restaurant.

     The CIW — which receives support from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and other faith groups — is organizing the event, the “McDonald’s Truth Tour 2007: Behind the Golden Arches.”

     “McDonald’s, which everybody knows for these beautiful shinning golden arches, doesn’t seem worried about the welfare of the very workers that bring the products to the table at McDonald’s,” said Lucas Benitez, a CIW staff member. “It seems like McDonald’s is obscuring the reality that actually goes on in their supply chain. The fact is the farmworkers are very much a part of the food industry as a whole. They’re at the base of it.”

     The aim of the Truth Tour is to raise awareness of the egregious conditions in the Florida fields where tomatoes are picked for McDonald’s, the world’s largest restaurant chain.

     “It’s to raise the consciousness of the public,” Benitez said. “It’s also to shed light on the greed of this corporation that doesn’t want to respect even the most basic human rights.”

     Two years ago the CIW, a group of farmworkers who pick tomatoes that McDonald’s uses in its products, won a victory for some Florida tomato workers after a nearly four-year-long boycott of another fast-food giant, Taco Bell, owned by Louisville-based Yum! Brands Inc. Yum! Brands agreed to pay tomato pickers a penny more for each pound of tomatoes they harvest for Taco Bell.

    The CIW-Yum! Brands agreement set other important precedents including the company's development of the first ever code of conduct for agricultural suppliers which names the CIW as a monitoring body and complete transparency for Taco Bell's tomato purchases from Florida.

     Coalition leaders say McDonald’s is undermining the Taco Bell agreement by resisting the group’s demands and not giving farmworkers a voice in decisions it is making that affect their lives.

     The Coalition wants McDonald’s and other fast-food companies, such as Burger King and Chipotle Mexican Grill, to follow Yum! Brands’ and Taco Bell’s lead.

     “We’re not asking to reinvent the wheel because the wheel is already rolling along,” Benitez said. “The wheel started with Taco Bell. We’re just saying for McDonald’s to also participate with us. Right now, McDonald’s can’t guarantee their tomatoes aren’t picked by workers who are either held in modern-day slavery or in sweatshop conditions.”

     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.

     One cent per pound more would raise the pay rate to 77 cents, providing the workers a 71-percent increase in wages.

     This will be the sixth Truth Tour. The first four were part of the national boycott of Taco Bell. Past tours have featured educational events, community forums, worship services, marches, protests near Taco Bell restaurants and demonstrations outside the Louisville headquarters of Yum! Brands. 

     Although some details are still being worked out, the upcoming tour is expected to be much like the others the Coalition has staged, “an energetic, colorful, informative and peaceful mobilization of people of all ages,” Benitez said.

     During the tour the tomato pickers will be joined at each stop, organizers say, by supporters including Presbyterians and other people of faith, student activists, farmers, labor groups and community leaders.

     On their way to Chicago, the farmworkers will bring their stories of abuse and exploitation to Venice, FL, and Gainesville, FL, on April 7, before arriving in the Atlanta area later that day where they will be hosted by two Presbyterian churches in Decatur, GA.

     A dinner for the CIW will be held at North Decatur Presbyterian Church before the farmworkers split into two groups. One group will stay overnight at the North Decatur congregation and the other at Oakhurst Presbyterian Church in Decatur.

     “The two churches were really pleased that they (the CIW) thought of us to host the group because both churches are very active in a lot of different social justice issues,” said Sarah Humphrey, a staff member of Greater Atlanta Presbytery who is coordinating the CIW’s visit to the Atlanta area. “We’re really aware of the labor issues particularly in Georgia with all of the people that work in the chicken factories and our agriculture in south Georgia. We’re well aware of what folks are up against, particularly with salaries and wages.”

     On April 8, the farmworkers will have Easter breakfast and worship at the two Decatur congregations before traveling to Louisville for Easter dinner with supporters later that day at Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church.

     Some CIW members will sleep at the Crescent Hill church while others will stay over night at another Louisville congregation: James Lees Memorial Presbyterian Church.

     On April 9, the Coalition and its allies will descend on a McDonald’s restaurant at Second Street and Broadway in downtown Louisville for an early morning protest at 7:30 a.m.

     Later that day the activists will arrive in Urbana, IL, where they will hold an educational program, dine with supporters, and spend the night at First Presbyterian Church in Urbana. The next day the group will hold a peaceful rally on the campus of the University of Illinois, which has a McDonald’s restaurant inside its student union center, according to organizers. Lunch will be provided by McKinley Memorial Presbyterian Church in Champaign, IL.

     Chicago Presbyterians from many different congregations, including seminarians and professors from McCormick Theological Seminary, will join in both events. From across the country, buses organized by supporters from as far as Boston, Austin, TX, and Long Island, NY, will arrive in Chicago beginning April 12, swelling the number of consumer allies joining the CIW at McDonald’s headquarters.

     The farmworkers will then travel to the Chicago area to prepare for the April 13 rally outside McDonald’s headquarters in Oak Brook and the march the next day in downtown Chicago.

     Among scheduled speakers for the rally and march are John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO; Dolores Huerta, co-founder of United Farm Workers of America (UFW); the Rev. Michael Livingston, president of the National Council of Churches; Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU); and Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, D-IL.

     Also expected are musical guests such as Rage Against the Machine band members Tom Morello and Zack de la Rocha.

     On the way home to Florida, the farmworkers will stop in Nashville, TN; Birmingham, AL; Tallahassee, FL; and Tampa/St. Petersburg, FL. Along the way, Presbyterians will support the workers by offering their churches as places to sleep and by sharing meals together.

     On April 16, the farmworkers will stage a rally at a local McDonald’s in Tallahassee after making a presentation at Florida State University. They will be hosted overnight by First Presbyterian Church of Tallahassee.

     “From Florida to Chicago and Atlanta to Urbana, Presbyterians of all ages are on the move; hosting the CIW in their congregations, sharing in worship and education, and joining the farmworkers at protests that demand McDonald’s work with the CIW to end sweatshop conditions in the fields of its tomato suppliers,” said the Rev. Noelle Damico, associate for Fair Food and coordinator of the PC(USA)’s Campaign for Fair Food. 

     Damico said she believes church members are “determined and hopeful” that gains in farmworkers’ rights made possible by the Taco Bell pact would not be lost in the fight against McDonald’s

     “Presbyterians are not about to let those advances be turned back,” Damico said.

     In the last year, the Coalition has helped organize similar campaigns across the United States targeting McDonald’s. The group was quietly in talks with Burger King over an agreement until last month, when the company announced on Feb. 5 that it would not sign on.

     Benitez described the upcoming rally outside McDonald’s as the company’s last chance.

     “April 13 is the final opportunity for McDonald’s to work together with the CIW, otherwise we have to intensify the campaign,” he said.

     That could mean more direct actions against the fast-food restaurant chain across college campuses and in communities and throughout churches and “wherever the CIW has allies who support the campaign,” Benitez said.

     Though no new boycott of any fast-food company has been called, Benitez did not rule out the possibility of such a campaign in the future.

     “It’s possible,” Benitez said. “In this campaign we’ve always said anything is possible as long as it’s a peaceful and nonviolent action. But at this point we still believe there’s an opportunity to move forward with McDonald’s. That they would talk to us in good faith and work with us.”

     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.

     McDonald’s declined to comment on the Coalition’s demands, saying only in a statement that it was an advocate for working with its suppliers and producers to help improve the standards for Florida’s tomato workers.

     “McDonald’s has a legacy of leadership in social responsibility,” McDonald’s statement said. “We believe that all individuals, including those who work for our business partners, should be treated with dignity and respect in every aspect of the employment relationship.”

     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 calling on McDonald’s and other fast-food corporations to ensure the human-rights of farmworkers by working with the CIW.

     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 CIW-Yum! Brands agreement.

     More recently, Presbyterians from around the country compiled a variety of Lenten and Easter lectionary commentaries about the CIW and its campaign for fair food. The materials are currently available through the second week of Easter on the PC(USA)’s Fair Food Web site.