|
Comment on this article |
Email this Article
|
|
News :: Agriculture : Civil & Human Rights : Labor : Political-Economy |
|
Coalition of Immokalee Workers Calls on McDonalds to Pay Fair Wages to Farmworkers |
Current rating: 0 |
by via AP
(No verified email address) |
22 Nov 2005
|
|
Most tomato pickers still receive roughly the same wage they did in 1978 -- between 40 and 45 cents for every 32 pound-bucket of tomatoes. |
MIAMI (AP) -- A farmworkers' advocacy group is calling on fast-food industry leader McDonald's to pay more for the tomatoes slapped on their premium burgers so that Florida pickers can be paid more.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers on Monday urged consumers to pressure McDonald's Corp. to support a campaign to boost wages for more than 3,000 Florida pickers, who growers say provide about 90 percent of the nation's domestic fresh winter tomatoes.
The campaign comes less than a year after the group, made up mostly Mexican and Guatemalan workers, reached an agreement with Taco Bell's parent company, Louisville-based Yum Brands Inc., which said it would pay a penny more per pound of tomatoes in hopes the increase would be passed directly on to workers.
''We are hoping McDonald's takes responsibility, the same way Taco Bell and Yum Brands did, and that it uses its power to demand a just treatment and decent pay for farmworkers,'' said Gerardo Reyes, an Immokalee farmworker.
McDonald's, the nation's biggest fast-food restaurant chain, said it recently agreed to support a new tomato industry code of conduct, created by the immigrant children's advocacy group, the Redlands Christian Migrant Association, and the industry group, Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association.
''As a result of this action, McDonald's suppliers will buy product from growers that participate in this program,'' company spokeswoman Lisa Howard said in a statement. McDonald's is based in Oak Brook, Ill.
She said the program assures accurate wages and workplace safety protections.
Coalition organizer Julia Perkins said the coalition had heard about the code of conduct, but had not been included in creating it and had yet to see it.
Most tomato pickers still receive roughly the same wage they did in 1978 -- between 40 and 45 cents for every 32 pound-bucket of tomatoes, Perkins said.
------
On the Net:
http://www.ciw-online.org
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press
http://www.ap.org/ |
Copyright by the author. All rights reserved. |
