A delegation of laborers from Florida’s tomato fields will take their pleas for higher wages and better working conditions to the doorstep of corporate giant McDonald’s Corp. in Oak Brook this week.
One year after their boycott of Taco Bell helped spur that fast-food chain’s corporate parent to act, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers is hoping that McDonald’s will follow suit by pressuring farmers to pay workers 1 cent more for each pound of tomatoes they pick.
The farmers, mainly low-wage immigrants from Latin America, have drawn national support for their campaign at churches, college campuses and union halls.
As part of a national caravan the tomato pickers will hold a vigil March 31 at McDonald’s corporate headquarters in Oak Brook. Supporters are also planning a march from a McDonald’s restaurant in the Mexican neighborhood of Pilsen to the Rock `n’ Roll McDonald’s in River North.
Officials at McDonald’s, which closely guards the company’s image, have previously responded by pushing a code of conduct that ensures that growers provide housing and health care. While McDonald’s has not committed to a higher price for tomatoes, the officials say the added benefits would help workers.
The company, meanwhile, has teamed with Florida growers to create a group called the Socially Accountable Farm Employers (SAFE). The group already includes nine farms that meet a minimum standard for safety and labor conditions.
Both corporate interests and labor groups say they realize that it will not be easy to transform a food industry that has benefited from a low-wage immigrant workforce.
“If someone said `corporate social responsibility’ five years ago, no one would have known what it meant. Today it is a top priority for a large corporation that has a reputation to watch over,” SAFE spokesman Ray Gilmer said. “But we can’t go out and achieve everything that everyone wants on the first day.”
Industry mentality
Melody Gonzalez, national co-coordinator of the Student/Farmworker Alliance, agreed. “It’s not just McDonald’s. It wasn’t just Taco Bell,” she said. “This is about changing a whole industry mentality. It’s going to be a long battle.”
Companies such as McDonald’s rely on a network of growers in several states, including Florida and California. In the United States, growers say they must turn to immigrant workers to do the work few U.S.-born workers will do at the wages they offer. Industry officials say they must keep prices low to compete with tomato producers such as Mexico.
The workers’ plight first drew attention five years ago when a small cadre of liberal groups targeted Taco Bell and its parent company, Yum Brands Inc. What started with teach-ins and vigils led to a nationwide boycott. About 20 colleges and universities, including the University of Chicago, removed Taco Bell from campus after pressure from student activists.
Last year, after former President Jimmy Carter intervened, Taco Bell’s parent company agreed to pay a cent more per pound of tomatoes, with the hike going directly to workers’ wages. The Immokalee Coalition estimates that, for many workers, the increase would nearly double their salaries.
Building on the Taco Bell effort, a broader group of activists this month formed the Alliance for Fair Food this month to transform the food industry. Its first target: McDonald’s.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney wrote a letter to McDonald’s board members urging them to follow Taco Bell’s lead. “McDonald’s is in a unique position to set standards around the world,” he wrote.
But the heart of the workers’ case comes from their own ranks.
Cruz Salacio, 21, has been picking tomatoes for more than a year after arriving from Guatemala. He said workers must meet a quota and “must give it our all” just to pick enough tomatoes to earn minimum wage. Often, they earn less. In advance of the march Salacio told his story at churches and colleges in the Chicago area.
“As a worker, I came here to raise people’s consciousness,” Salacio said.
J.C. Gonzalez-Mendez, McDonald’s senior vice president for North America supply chain management, would not commit to a wage increase but said the company’s reforms are going beyond that proposal. By vowing to work only with growers certified by the SAVE group, Gonzalez-Mendez said, the company is putting money in the pockets of workers.
“More than likely we are paying more for our tomatoes. But we don’t care,” he said. “We would do the same thing for any socially responsible cost because it is the right thing to do.”
Gonzalez-Mendez said a third party is studying the benefits workers gain because of the company’s new standards. The company expects to have preliminary results next month.
One Florida grower, Jay Taylor, said he has embraced the new guidelines and plans to hire an ombudsman to address worker complaints.
The SAFE program, meanwhile, plans to expand, with 12 more farms having applied for certification.
Competitive disadvantage
But as activists call for higher wages throughout the food industry, some Florida growers worry that they will be at a competitive disadvantage with growers from other states and especially from Latin America.
“Artificially adding a penny a pound to whatever goes into a salad and a sandwich is good for corporate relations,” Gilmer said. “But all it takes is for a larger buyer to say this program is costing us too much money and we can buy from somewhere else.”
Some workers say they think the SAFE program is toothless because growers have little incentive to change. When they come to Chicago, the Florida laborers will reiterate that they want a pact modeled after the Taco Bell agreement that incorporates workers in the decision-making.
“The fact that [growers] have even begun to talk about it shows just what McDonald’s has the power to do,” said Julia Perkins, an official with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.
“But this requires more than good PR,” Perkins said. “These are real issues faced by real working people and supported by real consumers.”
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Successful campaign spurs group
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a community-based organization made up of immigrant workers in low-paying jobs throughout Florida, is pressuring McDonald’s Corp. to increase wages for tomato pickers. The group successfully organized a boycott of Taco Bell.
CONCESSIONS WON IN TACO BELL BOYCOTT
– Taco Bell agreed to pay one cent more per pound for all tomatoes it buys from Florida growers. This resulted in a pay increase of roughly 75 percent.
– The company worked with CIW to monitor and enforce the buying process.
– The agreement prohibits growers who fail to pass the penny on to their workers from doing business with Taco Bell.
– Taco bell and CIW will work to convince the Florida Tomato Committee to institute an industrywide, penny per pound surcharge on all Florida tomato buyers, which would then be passed on to all tomato pickers in the form of increased wages.
Source: Coalition of Immokalee Workers
Chicago Tribune
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