|
Comment on this article |
Email this Article
|
|
Announcement :: Agriculture : Civil & Human Rights : Globalization : Labor : Latin America |
|
Farmworkers to visit UC |
Current rating: 0 |
by Coalition of Immokalee Workers
Email: workers (nospam) ciw-online.org (verified)
Phone: 239-986-0891 |
22 Mar 2006
|
|
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers will be stopping in Urbana-Champaign as part this year's Truth Tour. Following unprecedented success in the Taco Bell boycott, this year's tour is headed to Chicago and McDonald's Corporation HQ |
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers announces: McDonald's Truth Tour
2006: "The Real Rights Tour," March 26 - April 4, 2006
Tour stop in Urbana-Champaign afternoon and evening of MARCH 28th
Visit the CIW website, www.ciw-online.org, for more details, or email us at workers (at) ciw-online.org if you are interested in helping out with the UC stop. We still need dinner for the tour participants.
SUMMARY: Farmworkers from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and their allies will travel by caravan from Immokalee, FL, home of one of the largest farmworker communities in the country, to Chicago, IL, home of the world's largest restaurant chain, McDonald's.
The caravan will stop in over a dozen cities along the way -- including Louisville, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Ann Arbor, Madison, and South Bend -- spreading the truth about the sweatshop conditions in the fields where McDonald's tomatoes are picked and how McDonald's is collaborating with Florida tomato growers to roll back gains won by Immokalee workers in the Taco Bell boycott victory.
On April 1st β the fifth anniversary of the launch of the successful Taco Bell Boycott β the caravan will be joined by supporters from throughout the region for a major rally in Chicago, where they will call on the fast-food giant McDonald's to work with the CIW and help establish real labor rights for the workers who pick tomatoes for McDonald's suppliers. Specifically, workers and their allies will be calling for:
1) The right to a fair wage, after more than 25 years of sub-poverty
wages and stagnant piece rates;
2) The right for farmworkers to participate in the decisions that
affect their lives, after decades of sweatshop conditions and
humiliating labor relations;
3) The right to a real code of conduct based on modern labor
standards, after McDonald's and its suppliers unilaterally imposed a
hollow code of conduct comprised of minimal labor standards and
suspect monitoring.
The Taco Bell boycott victory on March 8th, 2005, established important new precedents for corporate social responsibility in the fast-food industry. But since that time, McDonald's has taken a path that threatens to undercut the wage gains won by farmworkers in the Taco Bell Boycott and to push workers back away from the table where decisions are made that affect their lives.
McDonald's clearly knows how to do better. The fast-food giant recently announced an agreement to purchase only fair-trade coffee for over 650 of its restaurants, paying a reasonable premium over market price so that the workers who pick their coffee can receive a fair wage and enjoy humane labor conditions. Yet McDonald's refuses to pay even a penny more per pound for its tomatoes so that Florida farmworkers can earn a better wage. Likewise, McDonald's requires its toy suppliers in China to respect internationally recognized labor rights, including the right to overtime pay and the right to organize, but refuses to require its tomato suppliers in Florida to respect those same fundamental rights.
In the face of McDonald's steadfast refusal to treat farmworkers with respect, demand truly humane labor standards of its suppliers, and pay a fairer price for tomatoes in order to address farmworker poverty β poverty which has helped pad McDonald's profits for more than 50 years β the CIW is traveling to McDonald's backyard with a clear message: Nothing less than real rights will do! |
See also:
http://www.ciw-online.org
http://www.ciw-online.org/2006truthtour/dailyupdates.html
|
This work is in the public domain |
