Burger King bosses launch anti-farmworker offensive

Last year, the top 12 executives of Goldman Sachs took home $200 million in holiday bonuses, more than double the entire combined annual pay of South Florida’s 10,000 farm workers.

The Miami-based Burger King Corp., of which Goldman Sachs is one of the largest shareholders, made $148 million

Member and supporters of the Party for Socialism and Liberation march with farmworkers, Nov. 30.

in profits last year—an increase of $121 million from the previous year. But now that the Coalition of Immokalee Workers is demanding one penny more per pound of harvested tomatoes, Burger King is claiming they are financially strained. The one penny raise would cost the corporation $250,000 annually—little more than one-tenth of a percent of last year’s profits.

Fast food giants like Burger King are able to dictate the prices of the tomatoes they buy because they own thousands of restaurants. They demand volume discounts, which puts a downward pressure on farmworker wages.

Florida produces virtually the entire fresh market of field-grown tomatoes in the United States from December through May each year. The state accounts for about 50 percent of all the domestically produced fresh tomatoes. Nearly all are handpicked. 

To highlight the contradictions between the wealth of the bosses and the poverty of the farmworkers they exploit, the CIW organized a nine mile march on Nov. 30. It started at the offices of Goldman Sachs in downtown Miami and ended with a rally at the corporate headquarters of Burger King. Approximately 1,500 farmworkers, students, union members, and other activists marched for six hours. They sent a strong message to the shareholders’ meeting simultaneously taking place: the farm workers’ struggle is serious.

The march maintained a vibrant spirit and received an overwhelmingly positive response from the Miami community. At one point, city firefighters chanted over their truck speakers: “Fight Burger King bosses!”

The rally at Burger King’s headquarters featured speakers from the CIW, labor leaders, anti-war activists and musical performances, including a women’s group from Cuba that rapped about workers’ power.

A flatbed truck full of the shoes of farmworkers who could not attend the rally was presented to corporate representatives in response to claims made by Burger King CEO John Chidsey. He said that farmworker poverty was a “myth.” A sign on the truck refuted Chidsey: “Doubt our poverty? Walk in our shoes.”

Boss and grower offensive

Chidsey’s comments are but one example of an intense public relations offensive that Burger King and Florida tomato growers initiated in the weeks leading up to the march.

The Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, an agricultural cooperative representing more than 90 percent of the state’s growers, and Burger King executives have falsely asserted that tomato harvesters are paid $12.46 an hour.

An average hourly wage of $12.46 translates into $24,920 per year for a full-time job.  Yet, according to a U.S. Department of Labor report, farmworkers’ average yearly income in 2001 was only $7,500. It is hardly more today.

So, where does the discrepancy come from?

Burger King and the growers cite to a study commissioned by McDonald’s in April 2006. The study was highly discredited by scholars in various fields. Bruce Nissen, director of the Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy at Florida International University, said that that the report “is so riddled with errors both large and small that it cannot be accepted as factually accurate on virtually any measure.”

But the struggle is about more than wages. Workers are also fighting for a code of conduct agreement that would resemble the one agreed upon with Yum! Brands and McDonald’s. This agreement was designed and implemented in partnership with workers. Burger King, on the other hand, has announced it will buy tomatoes only from growers certified by the employer-controlled monitoring program Socially Accountable Farm Employers, or SAFE.

SAFE is described as an independent initiative of the Florida agricultural industry. But it is no coincidence that it emerged in 2006 precisely when McDonald’s came under fire for poor labor conditions in its Florida tomato supply chain. The SAFE program counts only two known participants at this point: the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association (FFVA), and a related organization, the Redlands Christian Migrant Association (RCMA).

The FFVA is Florida’s largest and most influential agricultural employers’ lobby with a staunchly anti-labor record. The

RCMA is a charity that receives large annual donations from the agricultural lobby. The FFVA’s vice president has served as the president of the RCMA Board of Directors for many years.

Since creating the SAFE program, former FFVA chairman Frank Johns was named numerous times, although not charged, in a case where his longtime crew leader Ron Evans was sentenced to 30 years in prison for keeping workers in slave conditions.

In the midst of Burger King’s anti-worker offensive, two fresh allegations of human slavery emerged from the tomato fields of Immokalee in November. The CIW reported that the workers were locked in trucks, chained and beaten by bosses for trying to escape.

The Florida Tomato Growers Exchange has also instituted a fine of $100,000 for growers who participate in the deals with Yum! Brands and McDonald’s.

Mark Rodriguez, a leader in the Student Farmworker Alliance, an organization that works closely with the farm workers, told Liberation newspaper that “It makes it all that more important to keep pressure on Burger King. In effect the [Florida Tomato Growers Exchange] is not only working with Burger King against the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, but also trying to roll back advances with Yum! and McDonalds.”

Immokalee farmworkers and student supporters are now evaluating the next steps in their struggle. They plan to return to Miami in January or February to establish a Fair Food Committee and are considering a nationwide Burger King boycott.