FLORIDA STATE NEWS (Tallahassee, Florida)

October 4, 2007

Rally on Burger King

Groups visit Tallahassee during nine-day statewide tour about working conditions

Chris Whitmore

As part of a nine-day, statewide tour covering Florida, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), members of the Interfaith Action (IA), the Student/Farmworker Alliance (SFA) were in town Wednesday, Oct. 3 to visit the Burger King at 1060 W. Tennessee St.

The CIW have been making their rounds throughout Florida to bring attention to the working conditions of workers who pick tomatoes for Burger King. Currently, workers make 45 cents for every 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they pick.

"What the Coalition is doing is asking fast food companies to pay one penny more per pound of tomatoes," said Meghan Cohorst, Co-Coordinator for the SFA. "We want to ensure the farm workers are treated with dignity and that their human rights are being respected in the field because there are many cases of abuse and stolen wages."

The CIW has already reached agreements to pay another penny per pound with McDonalds and Yum Brands. Yum Brands owns A&W All American Food, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Long John Silver's, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. Efforts to persuade the Burger King Corporation have all been denied.

The CIW will plan to spend the rest of their time in Tallahassee meeting with different student groups, youth groups, giving presentations in classrooms around town and having a lunch with the Florida Catholic Council.

"Students are very important," said Cohorst. "Young people from 16 to 24 are essentially the target market for the fast food industry and proved vital in the victory in the Taco Bell campaign. The best way students can get involved are by organizing groups on their own campus, get information from the SFA, passing out postcards and sending them to the Burger King CEO."

Cohorst said the SFA is asking students who really want to get involved to join up for a 9.5-mile march in Miami Nov. 30, which will go from the headquarters of Goldman Sachs in downtown Miami to send them a message of a pubic disinterest in Burger King due to their working conditions.