MIAMI HERALD

April 10, 2007

McDonald's to pay penny more per pound of tomatoes

BY ELAINE WALKER

A decision by McDonald's on Monday to pay a penny more per pound for its Florida-grown tomatoes puts the heat on Burger King to do its part to improve the lives of migrant workers.

Both fast-food chains had been the subject of campaigns by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers that urged the companies to help guarantee fair wages and working conditions for the laborers who pick the tomatoes in Florida fields.

Under the terms of the agreement with McDonald's announced at the Atlanta-based Carter Center, a third party will verify that the additional penny per pound will go directly to the migrant workers who harvest McDonald's tomatoes. McDonald's and the workers will also work together to develop a workplace code of conduct that suppliers must follow.

The agreement is similar to the one reached in 2005 with Taco Bell's parent company Yum! Brands.

''Now we are going to focus on the other corporations in the fast-food industry like Burger King and Subway,'' said Lucas Benitez, coalition co-founder and farmworker. ``Burger King turned their back on us when we approached them with our demands.''

Burger King announced in February that it would not agree to the penny per pound program because of the accounting difficulties in tracing how many pounds each worker picked. McDonald's and Burger King had argued in the past that since they don't buy directly from the growers themselves, it was impossible to ensure that the additional money gets back to the workers.

Instead, Burger King offered to remove any suppliers from its system if the coalition can show proof that they are violating federal labor laws. Burger King also offered to send recruiters to Immokalee to interview workers for restaurant jobs and make charitable contributions such as building houses for them and creating a day-care program for workers' children.

Burger King spokesman Keva Silversmith said Monday the company has ''no plans to change its position'' regarding the tomato workers, despite McDonald's decision.

''We still continue to be open to a dialogue with them over the things we've discussed,'' Silversmith said.

The McDonald's agreement came as Benitez and other Immokalee workers were already on a bus tour heading for Chicago where a massive rally against McDonald's was scheduled for the end of the week. The group will continue its trip to Chicago, but the rally will be a celebration and an announcement of the next step in the fight.

A sign of things to come is a quote on the coalition's website Monday: ``In the words of the Bard, uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.''