Farmworkers target Mc's to boost wages for tomato pickers

[Guest guest]

Please circulate this alert widely.

Ask Mc's to work with the CIW to change conditions in the fields!

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/mcdonalds/

For months, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and allies across

the country have called on Mc's to do the right thing: Follow Taco

Bell's lead and work with the CIW to establish fair wages and working

conditions for the farmworkers who pick its tomatoes.

In March of this year, Taco Bell agreed to take responsibility for the

abysmal conditions faced by farmworkers who pick its tomatoes. The

agreement established a partnership between Yum Brands, Taco Bell's

parent company, and the CIW and set several important precedents for

social responsibility in the fast-food industry. Among those

precedents, Taco Bell agreed to pay a penny more per pound for the

tomatoes it buys from Florida growers -- an increase that could nearly

double workers' sub-poverty wages -- and to establish the first-ever

enforceable Code of Conduct for US agricultural suppliers.

Yet despite strong public support for the ground-breaking agreement,

Mc's has steadfastly refused to follow Taco Bell's lead on this

simple path to justice.

Now comes the news that Mc's has announced that it will offer only

fair trade coffee in more than 650 of its restaurants from New York to

Maine. Fair trade coffee is a laudable initiative whereby major coffee

buyers, such as Mcs, agree to pay a premium price

-- above market price -- so that workers who grow and pick their coffee

can receive a fair wage and improved working conditions.

While Mc's should be commended for addressing economic injustice

in its coffee supply chain, it continues to pay the artificially low

market price for tomatoes, a price that leaves farmworkers locked in

poverty and sweatshop conditions.

At the press conference ending the Taco Bell boycott, CIW member and

2003 RFK Human Rights Award Laureate Lucas Benitez addressed the vast

network of boycott allies directly, saying, " Our work together is not

done. Now we must convince other companies that they have the power to

change the way they do business and the way workers are treated. "

So, this Thanksgiving season, when we traditionally celebrate the

harvest, let us also celebrate the harvesters. Join the CIW in calling

on the world's largest restaurant chain to stop dragging its feet and to

work with the CIW to improve the wages and working conditions for the

men and women who pick its tomatoes.

Contact Mc's today and demand they, too, pay a fair price for

their tomatoes and work with the CIW to end human rights violations in

the fields!

To participate in this important action go to

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/mcdonalds/

ask your friends, family, and everyone you know to do the same.

Thank you,

the Coalition of Immokalee Workers

http://www.ciw-online.org

Farm workers target Mc's to boost wages for tomato pickers. A

farm workers' advocacy group says the tomatoes slapped on that Big Mac

are worth just a little more than Mc's pays for them, and it is

calling on the company to pay more for the fruit to boost wages of

Florida farm workers.

The full article will be available on the Web for a limited time:

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/local/13226314.htm

© 2005 AP Wire and wire service sources. .

Kimber J. tti, MSW

CARe Minority Outreach Coordinator

CARe: Communities Against Rape Initiative

Purdue University

615 W. State Street AGAD Rm 214

West Lafayette, IN 47907

765-494-6871

Fax: 765-496-7383