Coalition of Immokalee Workers Wins Agreement with McDonald’s

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AFL-CIO weblog

Coalition of Immokalee Workers Wins Agreement with McDonald’s

by James Parks, Apr 9, 2007

After fighting for more than two years to get fast-food giant McDonald’s to pay better wages to workers who pick the tomatoes for the corporation’s burgers, the workers scored a victory today.

With the arrival of the 2007 McDonald’s Truth Tour in Chicago just days away, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), McDonald’s and its suppliers announced an agreement that guarantees McDonald’s will pay a penny more per pound to workers harvesting tomatoes for the company.

The pickers make, on average, less than $10,000 a year and have not had a raise in almost 30 years. At the current rate, workers must pick nearly 20 tons of tomatoes a year just to earn the minimum wage in a typical 10-hour day.


Bob Langert, left, vice president at McDonald’s and Lucas Benitez of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), shake hands on a new agreement, while Buddy McIntire of McIntire Produce (far left) and Tom Crick of the Carter Center (far right) and CIW members look on.

Also under the agreement, CIW and McDonald’s produce suppliers will work together to develop a new code of conduct for Florida tomato growers as well as increase farm workers’ participation in monitoring supplier compliance. Farm workers will also participate in investigating worker complaints and in dispute resolution.

Read more: http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/04/09/coalition-of-immokalee-workers-wins-agreement-with-mcdonalds/

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I signed a paper petition for this over a year ago. WAY TO GO Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)!!!!

[More Than A Feeling]

1. A penny?

How much of a difference will that make?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. Quite a bit actually.... I think I heard it will almost double the

incredibly low wages they are receiving now, just for fun, here is an article from the Palm Beach Post a few years back.....
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/moderndayslavery/content/moderndayslavery/


Silvia Vazquez comforts her father-in-law, Cruz Vazquez, at St. Mary's Medical Center. He was badly hurt in a van accident.


How immigrants live in Florida: Locked up, cheated out of pay, robbed of their names, stacked 10 to a room.


Desperate journey: Driven by poverty, a crossing that can kill, a broken dream.


Fresh from Florida: A favored industry, a society burdened, a deadly cycle.


The baby son of Apolonia Jimenez, 22, died beside her in bed in this trailer in Immokalee. The death was ruled sudden infant death syndrome.

Audio Slide Show
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/moderndayslavery/content/moderndayslavery/multimedia/index.html?no_owrap=true

[Omaha Steve]

2. More from the non-copyrighted article

Representatives from the Carter Center, based in Atlanta, helped facilitate the agreement. Former President Jimmy Carter told today’s press conference:

This is a clear and welcome example of positive industry partnership. It demonstrates also McDonald’s leadership in social responsibility and CIW’s importance as a voice for farm worker rights. I encourage others to now follow the lead of McDonald’s and Taco Bell to achieve the much-needed change throughout the entire Florida-based tomato industry.

Also under the agreement, CIW and McDonald’s produce suppliers will work together to develop a new code of conduct for Florida tomato growers as well as increase farm workers’ participation in monitoring supplier compliance. Farm workers will also participate in investigating worker complaints and in dispute resolution.

Additionally, CIW and McDonald’s produce suppliers will work together toward developing and implementing a credible third-party compliance-verification system.

It is more than a penney a pound. This helps keep workers from field hazards from chemicals, restrooms, etc... Look for more info in the coming weeks as this is put to work. This is good news!

[Omaha Steve]

4. Here is the CIW release!!!!

http://www.ciw-online.org/CIW_McDonald's_Release.html


back to breaking news page

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 9, 2007

Contacts:
Lucas Benitez
Coalition of Immokalee Workers
[phone] or [phone]

William Whitman
McDonald’s USA
[phone]

McDONALD’S USA AND ITS PRODUCE SUPPLIERS TO WORK WITH THE COALITION OF IMMOKALEE WORKERS

ATLANTA – The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), and McDonald’s USA, working with McDonald’s produce suppliers, today announced plans to work together to address wages and working conditions for the farmworkers who pick Florida tomatoes.

Beginning in the 2007 growing season, McDonald’s USA, through its produce suppliers, will pay an additional penny per pound for Florida tomatoes supplied to its U.S. restaurants. The increase will be paid directly to farmworkers harvesting tomatoes purchased by McDonald’s.

The CIW and McDonald’s produce suppliers will work together to develop a new code of conduct for Florida tomato growers as well as increase farmworker participation in monitoring supplier compliance. Farmworkers will also participate in investigating worker complaints and dispute resolution. Additionally, the CIW and McDonald’s produce suppliers will work together toward developing and implementing a credible third-party verification system.

“I welcome McDonald’s commitment to work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to improve the lives of the workers who supply their 13,000 U.S. restaurants with tomatoes,” said former United States President and founder of the Carter Center, Jimmy Carter. “This is a clear and welcome example of positive industry partnership. It demonstrates also McDonald’s leadership in social responsibility and CIW’s importance as a voice for farmworker rights. I encourage others to now follow the lead of McDonald’s and Taco Bell to achieve the much needed change throughout the entire Florida-based tomato industry.” Representatives from the Carter Center, based in Atlanta, helped facilitate the agreement with the Coalition and McDonald’s.

“Two years ago, our agreement with Yum Brands marked the first step toward a distant dream of ensuring human rights for workers in Florida’s fields,” said Lucas Benitez of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. “Today, with McDonald’s, we have taken another major step toward a world where we as farmworkers can enjoy a fair wage and humane working conditions in exchange for the hard and essential work we do every day. We are not thereyet, but we are getting there, and today’s agreement should send a strongmessage to the rest of the restaurant and supermarket industry that it isnow time to stand behind the food they sell from the field to the table.”

“We have always respected the CIW’s commitment to enhancing conditions for the workers,” said J.C. Gonzalez-Mendez, Senior Vice President, Supply Chain Management, McDonald’s USA. “We’ve made progress with our suppliers through our existing Florida tomato grower standards, which hold the growers accountable to standards higher than the industry, but that was only the beginning. We believe more needs to be done. McDonald’s produce suppliers are required to purchase tomatoes only from those growers that have adopted our standards.”

To foster further improvements throughout the tomato industry, the CIW and McDonald’s produce suppliers, with McDonald’s support, will also work together toward the development of a third-party mechanism that would carry out similar monitoring and investigative functions at the industry level. The third-party mechanism will be developed in such a way as to be expandable to include the participation of other willing members of the foodservice and retail food industry that buy Florida tomatoes.

CIW has ended its two-year campaign against McDonald’s and pledged to work with the company and its suppliers to drive systemic and sustainable changes in the Florida tomato industry.



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