a little giant that can.....

[Guest guest]

Farmworkers Bring Down the Golden Arches

by Kerry Kennedy

On behalf

of the F. Kennedy Memorial, I congratulate the Coalition of Immokalee

Workers in their historic victory

reaching an agreement with Mc’s to assure the human rights of

farmworkers working in Mc’s supply chain.

The

Coalition of Immokalee Workers, this small group of farmworkers from

southwest Florida, over the past few years has brought together major labor

leaders like AFL-CIO’s Sweeney, faith leaders like the National

Council of Church’s Rev. Bob Edgar, human rights groups like the

F. Kennedy Memorial and even actors like Sheen and musicians Zack de

la Rocha and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine to support their cause.

The farmworkers and their allies, known as the Alliance for Fair Food, have

formed a movement for human rights winning agreements on workers’ rights

in the supply chain of major produce purchasers in the fast food industry,

first with Taco Bell and now Mc’s.

The

CIW’s courage and commitment continues to drive one of America’s most compelling

human rights campaigns. As a proud founding member of the Alliance for Fair Food, the F. Kennedy

Memorial is committed to supporting their continued efforts.

This past

Monday, Mc’s set a resounding example agreeing to the international

human rights principles laid out by the CIW. Mc’s transformed ideas

of corporate responsibility into more than words on their letterhead. Other

industry leaders like Burger King now have the opportunity to follow in

Mc’s footsteps by accepting accountability for protecting the

rights of those laboring in the fields, doing the back breaking labor of

picking the produce that ends up in their salads and sandwiches.

As

Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez taught us all in America’s first

farmworker’s movements, human rights enforcement cannot be left to

governments and law enforcement alone.

41 years

ago this month, my father, F. Kennedy, first encountered the human

rights struggle faced by farmworkers in this country in Delano, California

at a U.S. Senate field hearing. Cesar, Dolores and the United Farm Workers were

leading a boycott of California

table grapes, forcing companies and consumers involved in the buying and

selling of the fruit to see their role in continuing the cycle of poverty and

abuse.

Four

decades later, labor laws, pay and working conditions remain grim for farmworkers.

The struggle continues for farmworkers and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers

(CIW) has picked up Cesar Chavez’s torch.

My father

once said “there is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly

destructive as the bomb or the shot in the night. This is the violence of

institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay.” The farmworkers

of Immokalee, Florida toil in fields ripe with

institutional indifference.

The CIW

and their allies are overcoming historic abuses by forcing the retail-food

industry to end their indifference to human suffering. Today big produce

purchasers like Mc’s, Burger King and Subway are at the center of

human rights issues in farmworker communities like Immokalee. These companies

must realize that they have international human rights obligation to stop abuse

within their operations and supply networks. Mc’s has recognized

just that.

In 2000

the United Nations concluded ending human rights abuses were at the center of

responsible corporate citizenship in the 21st century. The United

Nations’ Global Compact and subsequent U.N. agreements on human rights

norms require corporations to make sure they are not directly supporting human

rights abuses while protecting internationally proclaimed human rights within

their supply chain and spheres of influence.

Mc’s

joined with 50 other global companies to sign on to the Global Compact and with

Monday’s agreement they follow through on their human rights commitments.

Now it is

time for Burger King, Subway, Walmart and others in the retail food industry to

acknowledge their responsibilities and partner with the farmworkers, the

victims of institutionalized human rights abuse. The Coalition of Immokalee

Workers is not asking for special treatment or handouts for its members. Their

corporate partnerships are grounded in three internationally recognized human

rights principles.

First, we

all share the right against slavery and forced labor. Still the agricultural

industry in Florida,

in the words of federal officials, has become “ground zero for modern day

slavery.” The Coalition of Immokalee Workers has helped prosecute six

slavery cases of involuntary servitude involving over 1,000 farmworkers in Florida since 1997.

The CIW

requires its corporate partners adopt a verifiable zero tolerance policy for

modern-day slavery in their supply chain. Still international human rights laws

recognize violations of economic and social rights often lay the foundation for

forced labor. Understanding this, the CIW recognizes corporations’

anti-slavery codes alone will not assure farmworkers’ freedom. Workers

freedom requires companies to acknowledge workers’ rights to economic

security and the right to participate in assuring companies comply with such

codes.

Everyone

has a human right to just working conditions, including fair wages that provide

for a decent living for workers and their families. Today the average

farmworker in Immokalee has a yearly income of less than $7,500. The CIW

demands that farmworkers be paid a penny per a pound of tomatoes picked

directly from produce purchasers like Mc’s and Yum! Foods. The

increase effectively doubles the wages of farmworkers picking for their

suppliers. If the entire industry stepped up like these two companies and made

similar agreements, farmworkers and their families could overcome extreme

poverty.

Finally

employees and their representatives like the Coalition of Immokalee Workers

have a right to participate with corporations in determining and implementing

methods to fulfill human rights responsibilities in corporate supply chains.

Internationally accepted human rights norms require companies to work with

groups like the CIW to guarantee companies and their suppliers will follow

through on their responsibilities with capable, independent and transparent

operations to monitor codes of conduct that allow workers and the victims of

abuse to have a voice.

Human

rights are held by all persons equally, universally, and forever. Corporations

must realize these rights are indivisible and interdependent. Without these

rights slavery, poverty and abuse will continue in America’s retail food

industry, tainting the salads and sandwiches of those who do not stand up for

human dignity.

Congratulations

to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and to Mc’s for their

historic accomplishment, setting the standards for human rights in the retail

food industry.

Kerry Kennedy, an internationally known author, human rights

activist and daughter of the late F. Kennedy, is the founder of the F.

Kennedy Memorial

Center for Human Rights.

Source: F. Kennedy Memorial (www.rfkmemorial.org)

Ruiz

Assistant

Director, Systems Development and Policy Administration

National

Association of Community Health Centers, Inc.

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Bethesda, MD

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Visit us regularly at www.NACHC.com for

info about the 2007 National Farmworker Health Conference - May 9-11 Newport

Beach, California