Farm Workers to McDonald’s: We’re Tired of Waiting

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/02/04/farm-workers-to-mcdonald%e2%80%99s-we%e2%80%99re-tired-of-waiting/

Farm Workers to McDonald’s: We’re Tired of Waiting

Last year, the Student Labor Action Project’s week of action featured the first-ever McDonald’s Truth Tour. Led by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), the Truth Tour joined a caravan of farm workers traveling from Immokalee, Fla., to Chicago—home of McDonald’s—to educate consumers about labor conditions in McDonald’s tomato supply chain and to demand real rights for farm workers. Check out the video from last year’s exciting street protest.

Lucas Benitez of CIW tells us that this coming April, the farm workers are going back to Chicago to tell McDonald’s: “We are tired of waiting!” He also explains how you can help the farm workers gain a decent living and justice in their workplace.

Nearly two years have passed since we stood with representatives of Taco Bell to announce an historic initiative to address the ever-deepening poverty and decades of degradation faced by farm workers in Florida, including:

* Farm workers who pick tomatoes for the fast-food industry are among this country’s most exploited workers. They face sweatshop conditions every day in the fields, including sub-poverty wages. Tomato pickers make, on average, less than $10,000 a year.
* No raise in nearly 30 years. Pickers are paid virtually the same bucket piece rate today as they were in 1980. At the going rate, workers have to pick nearly 20 tons of tomatoes just to earn minimum wage for a typical 10-hour day.
* Denial of fundamental labor rights. Farm workers in Florida have no right to overtime pay and no right to organize or bargain collectively.
* Modern-day slavery. Federal civil rights officials have prosecuted five slavery operations involving over 1,000 workers in Florida’s fields since 1997.

The Taco Bell agreement established a pay raise nearly doubling the going piece rate when workers pick for Taco Bell, a verifiable zero-tolerance policy for modern-day slavery and the right for workers to participate in defining and implementing an enforceable code of conduct.

Taco Bell also challenged its fast-food industry counterparts to follow its lead and demand fair wages and humane treatment for the workers who pick their tomatoes.

But nearly two years later, McDonald’s, the undisputed leader of the $100 billion fast-food industry, has refused to meet that challenge. Despite increasing public pressure on the fast-food giant—including the endorsement of labor, community and human rights leaders from AFL-CIO President John Sweeney to Nobel Prize winner Jody Williams—McDonald’s has refused to work with the CIW to meaningfully address the exploitation of farm workers in its supply chain.

FULL story at link.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

1. Stop going to McDonald's.

And let them know why.

[PresidentObama]

2. Ew, I ate McDonalds earlier.

This makes me regret it. I used to work with McDonalds, they are horrible from top to bottom. From the big corporate big shots down to the burger boy who could care less about food safety as long as he gets his $6.25 an hour.

[donco6]

3. No McDs for me.

Which isn't too hard, I must say.