TAMPA TRIBUNE April 18, 2007
Farmworker Coalition Returns TriumphantPLANT CITY - The campaign lasted 10 days. The larger struggle took two years. After garnering another victory in the fight for farmworkers' rights, members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers stepped out of a tour bus Tuesday, strolled through the spring sunshine and into a room filled with applause.
"Bienvenidos!" Maria McCourt, volunteer with the Hillsborough County chapter of the National Farm Worker Ministry, said as she welcomed the crowd.
Although weary from their road trip, the 55 members of the coalition answered with a hearty "Gracias!" that resounded through St. Clement Catholic Church's David R. Cronin Hall.
When the cheers faded, coalition co-founder and farmworker Lucas Benitez addressed the crowd about the reason to celebrate: After two years of negotiations, McDonald's had reached an agreement with the coalition to pay a penny more per pound for its Florida-grown tomatoes.
The workers who pick the tomatoes can expect their wages to nearly double to about 72 cents a bucket starting in October, Benitez said. Florida pickers are currently paid about 40 cents per 32-pound bucket of tomatoes. The penny increase will not be passed on to consumers, McDonald's has said.
Benitez and the Immokalee workers had planned a cross-country bus tour to protest the low wages before the world's biggest fast-food chain and the coalition reached an agreement April 9. When the deal was negotiated, the 10-day tour to cities such as Chicago, Louisville and Atlanta became a campaign to raise awareness of workers' rights, Benitez said.
Before Benitez's group returned home to Immokalee, a major tomato-growing area in Collier County, National Farm Worker Ministry volunteers prepared a barbecue lunch at St. Clement to celebrate the coalition's victory.
"They're workers, hard workers," said McCourt, whose nonprofit group offers food and clothes to farmworkers in Hillsborough. "They should be recognized as human beings."
Farmworker and coalition member Gerardo Reyes-Chavez said corporations and suppliers can easily take advantage of workers because in the fields, there is "no union, no overtime pay and no health benefits."
As part of its commitment to the coalition, McDonald's will also create a code of conduct - which involves the participation of a third party - to ensure workers are not physically or verbally abused or forced into indentured servitude, Reyes-Chavez said.
Yum Brands, the parent company of fast food franchises Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC, agreed to similar concessions with the coalition in 2005. Burger King rejected coalition requests in February.
Benitez said he was grateful for the National Farm Worker Ministry's support and for the buffet lunch. But the deal brokered with McDonald's only marked the beginning, he said. The coalition also has targeted Wal-Mart and fast food chains such as Wendy's and Subway.
"The agreement protects all workers in the state of Florida," Benitez said of the proposed code of conduct. "But this is a long-term struggle. We only ask for respect and dignity, and fair wages for all farmworkers."
|