PALM BEACH POST April 9, 2007
McDonald's agrees to increase pay for workers who harvest its tomatoes Palm Beach Post Staff Writer MIAMI — The company of "the golden arches" is spreading some of that gold around. McDonald's USA, the largest fast-food burger business in the nation, Monday reached agreement with a Florida farmworkers organization to pay about 75 percent more for the tomatoes it buys from state farms. According to McDonald's and the Coalition for Immokalee Workers, which waged a two-year campaign for the increase, laborers who now receive 40 to 45 cents for a 32-pound bucket of tomatoes will earn about 72 to 77 cents for that measure, a 1 cent per pound increase. The company said the hike would not cause it to raise its prices at the counter. The workers coalition said the agreement would affect between 1,000 to 1,500 workers who labor for several Florida tomato growers. It is the second major victory for the farmworkers - similar to a pact reached in 2005 with Yum! Brands, the owner of Taco Bell and other fast food chains. That agreement, according to the coalition, affected about 1,000 workers "This is a very good day for us," Julia Perkins, a spokeswoman for the coalition, said Monday. "What it represents is a glimmer of hope that things can change across the country, with Burger King, Wal-Mart and Subway too." Those chains also are large buyers of tomatoes, and the coalition is pressing them to raise payments to tomato pickers. The farmworker organization announced that the next company it will target for higher wages for pickers is the arch rival of McDonald's, Miami-based Burger King. Lucas Benitez, leader of the farmworkers coalition, was participating in a protest caravan heading for the corporate headquarters of McDonald's in Oak Brook, Ill., near Chicago, to stage demonstrations when the agreement was reached. He said he would continue the caravan. "When we get up there to Chicago we will announce the good news of the agreement with McDonald's," he said. The caravan, which began Saturday, was in Atlanta on Monday. The McDonald's agreement was announced at the Carter Center in Atlanta, the institution former President Carter founded that's dedicated, in large part, to negotiating conflicts. Officials there had been involved in the McDonald's talks. "I welcome McDonald's commitment to work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to improve the lives of the workers who supply their 13,000 U.S. restaurants with tomatoes," Carter said in a joint statement the coalition and the fast food firm released. A McDonald's representative said Monday the number is actually 13,700. "I encourage others to now follow the lead of McDonald's and Taco Bell to achieve the much needed change throughout the entire Florida-based tomato industry, " the president's statement said. Farmworkers are some of the lowest paid workers in the country. According to Perkins, before the Taco Bell agreement, wages for tomato pickers had hardly moved in 25 years. Taco Bell, which resisted the coalition demands for about four years, was the object of a nationwide boycott until it reached its agreement. During the boycott, several universities ordered Taco Bell franchises on their campuses to close their doors. No boycott had been called yet against McDonald's. Perkins said the campaign had included some picketing outside McDonald's franchises, a letter-writing effort and meetings on university campuses and at churches. But she made it clear that the campaign had been heading toward a possible boycott. "Yes, it was looking like the campaign was going to get more aggressive," she said. Perkins said the details of the agreement had not been completed, but she expected it to work much like the Taco Bell pact. She said that Taco Bell pays the extra penny per pound directly to the workers, who receive a separate, second check - "a bonus check" - for those Taco Bell tomatoes. She said the increase did not represent a 75 percent increase in total wages for pickers because many of the tomatoes they pick are destined for other buyers who have not agreed to the increase. "But it can make a difference of 15, 30 or even 100 dollars per week for some workers depending on how many of the tomatoes are heading for McDonald's," she said. Benitez said the McDonald's pact, like the Taco Bell agreement, will ensure that all workers picking McDonald's tomatoes also will have their human rights and civil rights respected and that a system for protesting workplace violations will be instituted between the coalition and McDonald's. J.C. Gonzalez-Mendez, McDonald's senior vice president for supply chain management, said in the joint statement that the company already had higher workplace standards than Florida law required. "We believe more needs to be done," he said. "McDonald's produce suppliers are required to purchase tomatoes only from those growers that have adopted our standards." Benitez identified three growers the pact would affect: Six L's of Immokalee and Pacific Tomato and Taylor & Fulton, both of Palmetto.
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