08355
May 6, 2008
Presbyterians and farmworkers deliver petitions to Burger King
Signatories demand burger chain improve conditions for Florida tomato pickers; online posts vilifying farmworker group traced to BK executive
LOUISVILLE — A delegation of Presbyterians joined a group of farmworker advocates in delivering 85,000 signatures to Burger King’s Miami headquarters last week urging the fast-food giant to join McDonald’s Corp. and Taco Bell to help increase the wages of Florida tomato pickers and improve working conditions in the growing fields.
The signatures from all 50 states and 42 countries were gathered as part of a national petition campaign launched in February by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a community-based labor rights group in Immokalee, FL that works in partnership with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and other faith-based, human-rights and student organizations.
CIW members carry an eight story-long petition signed by more than 4,000 farmworkers to the Burger King headquarters building in Miami. Photo by Brigitte Gynther The CIW is pressuring the Miami-based Burger King and other food industry leaders to pay a penny more a pound to farmworkers harvesting tomatoes and put a stop to farmworker “exploitation” and “modern-day slavery” in the fields, the petition states.
The extra penny-per-pound of tomatoes would add about $20 to a daily wage of $50, workers said.
“We want Burger King to come to the discussion table and enter into an agreement with the Coalition,” said CIW member Gerardo Reyes-Chavez. “We are making the same demands we have made of the rest of the fast-food industry.”
Delivery of the petitions on April 28 came the same day a Florida newspaper reported that Burger King vice president Steve Grover had used his young daughter’s screen name to spread misinformation about the farmworker group on the Internet.
Officials for Burger King did not receive the petitions, which were left outside its headquarters. The company said the comments attributed to Grover on his daughter’s computer do not reflect its official policy, according to Keva Silversmith, Burger King’s director of external communications.
“Comments attributed to Steve Grover do not reflect Burger King’s desire to find a way to assure decent wages and modern working conditions for the tomato harvesters in Immokalee,” Silversmith said in a statement emailed to the Presbyterian News Service. “We have a robust vendor code of conduct which mandates zero tolerance for worker exploitation and abuse, and we are open to any responsible suggestions for improvement.”
The Rev. Arlene Gordon, left, speaks at a news conference outside Burger King’s headquarters as Presbyterian minister the Rev. Kennedy McGowan, holding a tomato-shaped petition with signatures, looks on. Photo by Brigitte Gynther Burger King has refused to sign a deal with the Coalition, citing an array of concerns —including how the extra money would be distributed. At one point, Grover told reporters he was concerned the CIW was pocketing the extra money, a position the company never publicly retracted, despite calls to do so from PC(USA) General Assembly Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick and the Carter Center.
“What has never been clear is Burger King’s true position and why it continues to refuse to lend its support to change,” Reyes-Chavez said at a press conference during the peaceful gathering of nearly 200 farmworkers and supporters outside Burger King’s corporate offices.
Quoting some of the online posts attributed to Grover, Reyes-Chavez asked: “How is it possible in Mr. Grover’s eyes that a community of farmworkers struggling . . . to defend our fundamental human rights can be considered something without humanity, ‘the lowest form of life,’ ‘exploiters’ for bringing six cases of slavery to federal court, ‘bloodsuckers’ for demanding publicly that the fast-food industry, which is worth over $100 billion, take measures to end human rights abuses?”
Other comments were repeated on various Internet blog posts, according to a story published April 28 in The News-Press in Fort Myers, FL. The paper traced those posts to the online user name of Grover’s daughter. The girl, who is in middle school, later confirmed to the paper that her father had used her online screen name.
The paper said that in a post on YouTube, an individual with the girl’s screen name wrote: “The CIW is an attack organization lining the leaders’ pockets by attacking restaurant companies. They make up issues and collect money from dupes that believe their story. ...”
Despite the comments allegedly made by Grover, Burger King says the company supports the petition campaign.
“We believe in the principles articulated in the CIW’s petition and we want to work with the CIW to improve conditions in Immokalee,” said the statement issued by Silversmith. “We want to resolve the dispute with the CIW and we look forward to continuing our dialogue.”
Silversmith’s statement did not address a request by the Presbyterian News Service to interview Grover, who is Burger King’s vice president of food safety, quality assurance and regulatory compliance.
The Rev. Arlene Gordon, executive presbyter of Tropical Florida Presbytery, which includes the area in which Burger King is headquartered, spoke at the news conference outside Burger King’s corporate offices.
“It is my sincere hope that Burger King will heed the call of its customers and the farmworkers who make its business possible, and use its considerable power together with the CIW to advance human rights for farmworkers without delay,” said Gordon, who has signed the petition.
Another petition signer, the Rev. Greg Bentley, president of the National Black Presbyterian Caucus, also spoke at the news conference.
“What we are doing here today is nothing less than historic, and we are accountable not only to the farmworkers but to our whole society and to the generations who will follow us for how we respond to this human rights crisis,” said Bentley, noting that the U.S. Department of Justice was currently prosecuting the seventh case of modern-day slavery to emerge from Florida’s fields in the last 10 years.
Other Presbyterians in attendance included Nelia Senti, treasurer of the National Hispanic/Latino Presbyterian Caucus; and the Rev. Kennedy McGowan, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Hollywood, FL, which collected hundreds of signatures for the CIW-sponsored petition drive.
The delegation of Presbyterian leaders who carried petitions to Burger King’s doorstep also included the Rev. German Vega-Feliciano, a Presbyterian minister who coordinates work with Hispanic churches in Tropical Florida Presbytery in his role as moderator of the south chapter of the (Presbyterian) Hispanic Council. He is also pastor of First Hispanic Mission, a Presbyterian fellowship located in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
The Rev. Miguel Estrada, pastor of Misión Peniel, a Reformed spiritual community of farmworkers in Immokalee that receives support from the PC(USA), traveled with the farmworkers from Immokalee to Miami bearing petitions as well
In addition to the leaders who were present at the petition delivery, other notable Presbyterians that have signed petitions are Kirkpatrick; Linda Bryant Valentine, executive director of the PC(USA)’s General Assembly Council (GAC); and the Rev. Tom Taylor, GAC deputy executive director for mission. Former General Assembly moderators Rick Ufford-Chase and the Rev. Susan Andrews have also signed on.
National Black Presbyterian Caucus President the Rev. Greg Bentley, left, is joined at Burger King’s headquarters by Nelia Senti, treasurer of the National Hispanic/Latino Presbyterian Caucus, and the Rev. German Vega-Feliciano, a Presbyterian minister and moderator of the south chapter of the (Presbyterian) Hispanic Council. Photo by Brigitte Gynther While the CIW has not yet called for a boycott of Burger King, those who signed the petitions expressed their willingness not to eat at the burger chain if the company does not work with the Coalition to improve the wages of farmworkers and create and enforce a human rights-based code of conduct.
The CIW, which is one of the nation’s most respected anti-slavery groups, waged a successful national boycott against Taco Bell parent Yum! Brands Inc. several years ago.
The PC(USA)’s 214th General Assembly in 2002 endorsed the Taco Bell boycott and called for discussions involving the Mexican-style fast-food chain, its tomato suppliers and CIW representatives.
Both McDonald’s and Yum! Brands have agreed to pay growers a penny more per pound for the tomatoes they buy. The money is passed onto the workers through a third-party administrator. The deal also calls on the companies to work with the CIW to establish a code of conduct for their suppliers.
Yum! Brands had been paying the increase to farmworkers since 2005 and McDonald’s was set to begin paying the penny-per-pound increase in the fall of 2007 as a part of the agreements with the CIW.
Both companies are currently paying this money into an escrow account, but the money isn’t reaching farmworkers because the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, an agriculture cooperative opposed to the increase, is prohibiting its grower-members from participating in the agreements, saying it believes farmworkers are treated fairly.
During a U.S. Senate hearing last month in Washington, DC, federal lawmakers called for an investigation into Florida tomato picker wages and labor conditions. The statement issued by Silversmith said that Burger King welcomed the congressional investigation.
Burger King Corp. is the second largest fast-food hamburger chain in the world with more than 11,300 restaurants in all 50 states and 69 countries and U.S. territories worldwide, according to the company’s Web site. Approximately 90 percent of its restaurants are owned and operated by independent franchisees, many of them family-owned operations that have been in business for decades.
For information about the PC(USA)’s Campaign for Fair Food, click here.
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