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Burger King to Farmers: Pick Tomatoes, Find a Job NewsMax.com Wires MIAMI -- Burger King said it won't help boost wages for Florida farmworkers by paying more for the tomatoes on its Whopper, but it will send recruiters to help the workers find a job at one of its restaurants.
Florida tomato pickers won a penny-per-pound raise through a boycott against Taco Bell two years ago and had been in talks with Burger King about a similar plan. But negotiations fell apart, and the world's second-largest burger chain said Monday it rejected the call by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. "If you're going to pay people for a measure of work, it's important to measure the work and a person accurately," said Steve Grover, head of quality assurance and regulatory affairs for Miami-based Burger King Corp. He said he wasn't convinced that could be done under the coalition's proposal. Burger King said that it based the decision on the fact that it has no direct relationship with the growers. Unlike Taco Bell, it purchases tomatoes from repackaging companies, generally located near the farms where the tomatoes are picked. "We do not identify the specific growers, tomatoes or workers who pick the tomatoes that are used in our restaurants," the company said in a statement, adding that it saw no guarantee that paying more for tomatoes would lead to higher wages for workers. The chain owned by Burger King Holdings Inc. also cited results from a now-discredited April 2006 study by the nonprofit Center for Reflection, Education and Action. That study, commissioned by McDonald's Corp., showed many workers earned well above the state's minimum wage of $6.40 per hour. Instead, Burger King offered to send recruiters to the farming town of Immokalee to help the tomato workers find jobs at its franchise restaurants.
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"Burger King Corporation offers ongoing professional training and advancement opportunities around the country for both entry-level and skilled employee jobs, and we hope the CIW will accept our offer," the company said. It also offered to have its charitable foundation work with local farmworker advocates to identify nonprofit organizations in the area deserving of aid. Lucas Benitez, a farmworker and organizer for the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, said Burger King's statement amounted to little more than a public relations effort and "a slap in the face." Of the offer to retrain tomato pickers to work in Burger King stores, Benitez said: "Who, exactly, would be left to pick their tomatoes?" The coalition said Burger King would likely be able to identify its tomato producers in case of a health or safety issue such as the recent E. coli outbreak.
The company said it could trace the tomatoes back to the farm but not necessarily to the person who picked them. Still, Benitez contrasted Burger King with Taco Bell, which does pay more for its tomatoes and requires Florida growers that provide its tomatoes pass the surplus on to workers. Taco Bell also supported the development of a code of conduct and standards that tomato workers helped create. The coalition has also targeted McDonald's in its efforts to boost the wages of tomato pickers, protesting at the company's corporate headquarters in Illinois. McDonald's has also refused to pay more for tomatoes but did work with local growers to draw up a code of conduct. The coalition criticized the code for being too weak and for not including input from the workers.
© 2007 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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