[Antiracism] Immokalee workers announce "Real Rights Tour"

[Marc Rodrigues]

http://www.ciw-online.org/news.html

CIW MEMBERS, ALLIES GEAR UP FOR McDONALD'S TRUTH TOUR 2006:

"THE REAL RIGHTS TOUR"
March 26 - April 4, 2006

Major Rally April 1st, Chicago, IL

    WHERE:    From Immokalee to Chicago (home of McDonald’s) and points in
between, including Louisville, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Ann Arbor,
Madison, South Bend, and more!

    WHO:  You – and farmworkers from Immokalee.  If you’d like to join us in
Chicago or you live along the route, contact us to see how you can participate,
at workers at ciw-online.org
    
    [CIW members organizing for the "Real Rights Tour" at a recent remote
broadcast of the CIW's low-power radio station "Radio Conciencia" in Immokalee.]

WHAT: 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. 

On April 1st – the fifth anniversary of the launch of the successful Taco Bell
Boycott – 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:

    * The right to a fair wage, after more than 25 years of sub-poverty wages
and stagnant piece rates;

    * The right for farmworkers to participate in the decisions that affect
their lives, after decades of sweatshop conditions and humiliating labor relations;

    * 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 – poverty which has helped pad
McDonald’s profits for more than 50 years – the CIW is traveling to McDonald’s
backyard with a clear message: Nothing less than real rights will do!

BACKGROUND:  After a four-year national boycott of the fast-food chain Taco
Bell, the CIW and Yum Brands forged an agreement that established several
critical precedents for corporate supply chain accountability in the food
industry.  As a result of that agreement, Taco Bell is now directly contributing
to an increase in tomato pickers’ wages, an increase that would nearly double
farmworkers’ wages were it to be extended across the tomato industry.  The Taco
Bell agreement established the first code of conduct for Florida agricultural
suppliers that guarantees a meaningful role for farmworkers in the protection of
their own rights.  The agreement also set new rules for supply chain
transparency, allowing workers to track Taco Bell’s tomato purchases and so
ensure true accountability.

During the boycott, a broad range of student, religious, labor and community
organizations joined with the CIW in a growing alliance for “not just fast, but
fair food.”  With these allies by its side, the CIW has called on McDonald’s to
follow Taco Bell’s lead in recognizing its responsibility for labor abuses in
its supply chain and taking meaningful steps to address those abuses.

Farmworkers continue to be some of the most exploited and impoverished workers
in the US.  Florida’s tomato pickers earn 40-50 cents for each 32lb bucket of
tomatoes they pick.  At that rate – a rate that has remained virtually unchanged
since 1978 – workers have to pick more than two tons of tomatoes just to earn
minimum wage.  They receive no overtime pay and no benefits, and have no right
to organize in order to improve these conditions. 

As a major buyer of Florida’s tomatoes, McDonald’s benefits from farmworker
exploitation in the form of cheap produce, and actually contributes to that
exploitation by leveraging its enormous purchasing power to demand the lowest
possible price for the tomatoes it buys.  In agriculture, this translates
directly into a downward pressure on wages and working conditions for farmworkers. 

McDonald’s purchasing power also provides the fast-food giant with the
opportunity to play a meaningful role in correcting this human rights crisis. 
However, rather than follow Yum Brands’ lead and work with the CIW and its
suppliers in a genuine partnership for social responsibility, McDonald’s has
taken a path calculated both to undercut the wage gains won by farmworkers in
the Taco Bell Boycott and push workers back away from the table at which
decisions are made that affect their lives. 

In the face of mounting concern over human rights abuses in its supply chain,
McDonald’s chose to work exclusively with the leading lobbying group for Florida
growers, the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, to develop a minimal set
of supplier guidelines dubbed “Socially Accountable Farm Employers,” or SAFE. 
Designed more to address McDonald’s perceived public relations crisis than the
real human rights crisis in the fields, SAFE totally sidesteps calls to improve
farmworker wages and to respect farmworkers’ fundamental labor rights. 

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. 

The “Real Rights Tour,” the fifth such tour since the CIW’s Fair Food Campaign
began in 2001, will counter McDonald’s public relations campaign with a truth
campaign. Successful corporations must respond to the demands of consumers. 
Whether gains for farmworkers are advanced or turned back lies in our hands.  So
join the CIW in speaking truth to McDonald's power and achieving real rights for
Florida farmworkers.



***
Support the movement for farmworker justice and fair food:
www.ciw-online.org
www.sfalliance.org
***
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Notes from the Global Intifada
***
"Sólo te recuerdo que, según nosotros, la mirada alcanza más lejos cuando su
base se asienta abajo y a la izquierda"
-marcos, feb 2005