Florida Farmworkers Chop Up Burger King
by Elly Leary
MRZine http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/leary300508.html
The dusty calles (streets) and campos (fields) in
Immokalee, Florida are abuzz with the news of a fresh
victory over a fast food giant: Miami-headquartered
Burger King. Those farmworkers/campesinos who remain
in Immokalee -- the tomato season there ended in April
-- will probably get their news through the low-powered
radio station, Radio Conciencia, a project of the
Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). There is every
reason to believe that through informal networks,
migrant tomato pickers, now following tomatoes up the
east coast, will hear of their victory.
The Burger King surrender is the third for the
farmworkers' organization, the Coalition of Immokalee
Workers (CIW) in a protracted campaign to force the
fast food industry to be accountable for the production
of their staples. The agreement between the CIW and
Burger King, the nation's second largest hamburger
chain, was signed on Capitol Hill on May 23, 2008.
Modeled after those the CIW struck with YUM! Brands
(parent company of Taco Bell) and McDonald's, the
agreement provides an additional penny per pound to
workers who harvest its tomatoes (as well as 1/2 cent per
pound to growers to defray administrative costs), a
zero tolerance code of conduct which terminates
contracts with growers who break the law, and a joint
process to monitor compliance.
The International Food Crisis in Florida
Recently, the US media has rightly focused on the
growing international food crisis. Daily we are
confronted in newspapers and on TV with pictures of
women, children, and men dying from starvation. Food
riots in Haiti, the Philipines, Africa, and South Asia
point to the dire consequences of even a few pennies
increase in the price of staples. The barest
subsistence living is now beyond the reach of millions
worldwide.
The food price increase is attributed to a number of
factors: the rapid increase of meat consumption by the
world's rich (including the new layer of capitalists in
China), global warming, the ascendancy of agri-business
in the aftermath of international trade agreements like
NAFTA and WTO, the imposition of neo-liberal
"adjustments" demanded by the IMF, the increase in the
price of oil which affects not only fuel-driven
machinery but the production of fertilizers and the
storage of harvested crops, and the turn toward
biofuels.
Farmworkers in Florida are part of this chain of
misery. Farmworkers in the US live in poverty.
Poverty and hunger go hand in hand. Surveys place the
farmworker income somewhere between $7,400 and $12,000/
a year. The fast food agreements would increase pay
for Immokalee tomato pickers by 75%, bringing them
closer to the $18,500 living wage figure for that town.
The story doesn't end there, however. Farmworkers in
Immokalee are part of the large migration of family and
small farmers (campesino/as) who have been displaced
from their home in Mexico and Guatemala. Mercilessly
undercut by international agri-business, now that NAFTA
and similar pacts have opened up borders, they are no
longer able to feed their families and sell the rest of
their crop. As a last resort, they have fled north to
eke out a living. Florida's fields are one of the
places they land.2
A Tasty Mix of Strategies
The CIW has long been known for its creative mix of
strategies and alliances. Founded in 1993, the CIW at
first limited their organizing activity to the fields
of Immokalee, including several strikes. In 1998, they
made front page news with a month-long hunger strike.
Even though wages were increased through these actions,
the CIW membership knew that further gains could not be
made if the focus remained solely on growers, whose
profit margins had been squeezed by food giants who
purchased their products. CIW wisely reasoned this
meant tackling farmworker wages and working conditions
at the end of the corporate chain, not the beginning.
In 2000, against all odds, the CIW initiated a boycott
of Taco Bell. After more than 4 years of struggle --
including tours (giras) criss-crossing the US,
large-scale marches, support from actors and rock
stars, hunger strikes, job actions, shareholder
pressure led by the faith-based community, and a
vibrant student movement which removed Taco Bells from
college campuses throughout the US -- the wildly
anti-union Taco Bell cracked. (For more details of
this campaign, see "Immokalee Workers Take Down Taco
Bell," Monthly Review, October 2005.)
Within weeks, the CIW took aim on McDonald's, the
leader of the fast-food burger industry with 43% of
market share. It took only two years for McDonald's to
fold. Once again the CIW used a vibrant mix of
strategies, relying heavily on media and student
activism. With networks already in place, marches,
cross-country tours, and campus actions were easier to
organize and new forces were drawn into action. By
allowing allies the freedom to create their own tactics
within a framework set by farmworkers themselves, the
McDonald's campaign reached across generations, union
and non(or anti)-union forces, religions, and classes.
The McDonald's campaign had two new features: One was
support from former President Jimmy Carter (and several
other politicians) as well as support from John
Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO. Sweeney wrote an
open letter in support of the farmworkers campaign,
made public letters to McDonald's Board of Directors,
toured Immokalee with the CIW in April 2006, and spoke
publicly on their behalf. Within two months, the
AFL-CIO had generated nearly 125,000 letters to
McDonald's demanding better pay and working conditions.
A second wave of support came from 30 labor and
economics scholars who quickly debunked McDonald's
April 2006 survey claiming workers made nearly $18.00
an hour.
McDonald's signed an agreement with CIW in April 2007.
Burger King: An Unsavory Meal of Dirty Tricks
Once again, the CIW didn't waste time taking on another
fast food giant. The Burger King campaign had many of
the winning features of the Taco Bell and McDonald's
campaigns -- marches, tours of farmworkers, student
activities, media blasts (check out YouTube!),
shareholder actions, concerts/cultural events, and
conferences. There were also some new developments all
of which have significantly raised the profile of
struggle in the fields.
* CIW consolidated its network of supporters and allies
and helped form in late 2007 the Alliance for Fair Food
(AFF) which is anchored by the Presbyterian Church
(USA), Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human
Rights, National Economic and Social Rights Initiative,
Student/Farmworker Alliance, and Interfaith Action.
The group expanded rapidly to nearly 100 organizational
endorsements, including labor groups (AFL-CIO, SEIU,
Jobs with Justice, Central Labor Councils), faith-based
organizations (the Episcopal Church USA, Tikkun,
Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Pax Christi), groups in the
sustainable food and agricultural sector (National
Family Farm Coalition, Food First, Just Coffee), human
rights groups (Amnesty International, Witness for
Peace, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights), community
organizations (Miami Workers Center, and many, many
Latino-centered groups all over the US),
left/progressive political organizations (Rukus
Society, Socialist Party, Green Party), and even
anti-war groups (Code Pink, Broward Anti-war
Coalition).
* Slavery in the fields has been an ongoing problem in
southwest Florida. Since 1997 the CIW, with its unique
grassroots approach to ending slavery, has been part of
seven federal lawsuits involving about 1,000 workers.
This year, with the help of its broad base of allies,
including the AFF, the CIW began a massive petition
drive "to end modern day slavery and sweatshops in the
fields." On April 28, 2008 more than 200 workers and
allies delivered the petitions, signed by more than
85,000, to Burger King headquarters.
* The active involvement of Senator Bernie Saunders
(IN, VT) has made a real difference. In mid January
2008, Bernie Saunders toured Immokalee. Like AFL-CIO
President John Sweeney, Saunders was shocked at the
"third world" conditions farmworkers live and work in.
Sen. Saunders then took action of his own. On April
15, 2008, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions Committee convened the first ever hearing
specifically called to look into labor conditions in
Florida's fields. Senator Dick Durbin, (D, IL) was
particularly effective in discrediting claims by
Florida's Tomato Growers Exchange and other industry
leaders that farmworkers make $12.50 an hour. These
congressional hearings were extremely important in
breaking the back of Burger King and their allies.
Burger King settled just 37 days later.
CIW wasn't the only one to break new ground. In the
past, corporate fast food giants have taken a similar
approach: At first they ignore the CIW challenge; then
stonewall; issue half-baked statements or studies that
CIW claims are false. But neither Taco Bell nor
McDonald's actively tried to undermine the CIW and its
allies' campaigns. In this regard, Burger King has set
a new standard. Headquartered in Miami, Burger King is
a major player in Florida agriculture and politics.
Like other growers, Burger King is part of the
long-standing lobbying group, Florida Tomato Growers
Exchange (FTGE). When YUM! and McDonald's signed the
agreements giving a penny more a pound, growers in
Immokalee complied. For two years, workers picking for
YUM and McDonald's got the wage increase. FTGE, while
unhappy, did nothing to prevent the new wage increase.
But once Burger King became a target, FTGE assumed a
very aggressive posture. At first they claimed the
pacts to be "un-American," then illegal, and threatened
to file a RICO suit against the CIW. Finally in
November 2007 they decided to levy $100,000 fines on
any grower who participated in the penny per pound wage
increase. This stopped all growers from complying with
the agreements.
But Burger King didn't stop there.
* In January 2008, Steven Grover, the fast food chain's
vice president of food safety, quality assurance, and
regulatory compliance, used his young daughter's online
alias to make derogatory comments about the CIW. When
the AP story broke, Burger King claimed that the
comments were not sanctioned by the company and pledged
to investigate further.
* Also in January, AP reported that it received an
e-mail that contained a leaked a memo from Grover
warning that it might stop buying Florida tomatoes.
The AP traced the e-mail's Internet protocol address to
Burger King corporate headquarters in Miami. The
e-mail's address -- [log in to unmask] -- was
the same one used by someone claiming to be a student
at the University of Virginia asking to be included in
the Student/Farmworker Alliance organizational meetings
and conference calls. When SFA member Marc Rodrigues
wrote back asking for a physical address to which he
could send a packet, stopcorporategreed never
responded.
* In March, Rodrigues fielded an almost identical
request -- this time from Cara Schaffer, claiming to be
a student at Broward Community College. Schaffer said
she wanted to organize campus events to support the
group and she asked to listen in on alliance conference
calls, which she did twice. Schaffer is not a student.
She actually owns Diplomatic Tactical Services (DTS),
a Hollywood, Florida-based security and investigative
firm that advertises its ability to place operatives in
the ranks of target groups. DTS, it turns out, was
hired by Burger King.
These dirty tricks might have remained a flash in the
pan, if Eric Schlosser,3 a long-time ally of the
farmworkers, had not written a guest editorial for the
New York Times (May 5, 2008) describing Burger King's
tactics.
The first hint that Burger King would be dethroned was
an out-of-the-blue call from the FTGE to the Fort Myers
News Press, on May 4th that fines would no longer be
levied on growers who participate in the CIW
agreements. Then, on Friday, May 5th, Burger King
signed the agreement.
The CIW has outmaneuvered one of the world's largest
corporations, proving once again that the working class
and it allies can be strategic, thoughtful, and
absolutely capable.
Sea Change in the Fields?
With Burger King on board, nearly 10% of all tomatoes
grown in Immokalee, the center of east coast tomato
production, will be under agreement. Ten percent may
not seem like much. But with just 6-8 major growers in
Immokalee, coupled with the terms of the agreements
which obligate the three major fast food purchasers to
buy tomatoes only from growers who sign on, conditions
of tomato production could shift dramatically.
Finally, there is already evidence that the CIW isn't
going to take their foot off the gas pedal. At the
signing with Burger King, co-founder of CIW, Lucas
Benitez said:
There are companies -- like Chipotle in the restaurant
world and Whole Foods in the grocery industry -- that
already make claims to social responsibility yet, when
it comes to tomatoes, fall far short of their lofty
claims. It is time, now, that those companies live out
the true meaning of their marketers' words. And there
are companies -- like Subway and WalMart -- that, by
the sheer volume of their purchases, profit like few
others from the pernicious poverty of workers in
Florida's fields. They, too, must step up now. Stay
tuned, la lucha continua!
foot notes:
1 The National Agricultural Workers Survey (2005)
places the farmworkers earning between $10-12,000.
However, 21% of those surveyed by NAWS were managers
and supervisors, thus skewing upwards their final
figures.
2 For many the migration from home begins with a job
in the maquiladoras. Maquilas are notorious for their
low wages and poor working conditions. Typically,
workers were unable to meet their own basic needs, much
less support family members back home. Now in decline
as manufacturing has moved on to even lower wage
countries, maquila employment options are even more
limited.
3 Schlosser is the author of the groundbreaking Fast
Food Nation.
Elly Leary is a retired UAW member, local union
officer, and negotiator living in Florida. For the
last five years she has volunteered at the CIW, helping
coordinate CIW initiatives with unions. Leary is one
of the founders of the Center for Labor Renewal and
remains active in international and nation labor
education. She urges everyone to check out the CIW
website for information, hip videos, and suggests for
action: <www.ciw-online.org>.
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