Thread: Illegals Picket at Burger King Head Quarters

I have a solution for Burger King. It's called ICE let them show up and pick them up. They will soon regret their actions once placed in the Krome Detention Center.


http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16709880.htm

LABOR
Tomato pickers rally at Burger King headquartersImmokalee tomato pickers gathered outside Burger King's Miami headquarters to protest unfair wages and working conditions.
BY ELAINE WALKER
ewalker@MiamiHerald.com

MARICE COHN BAND/MIAMI HERALD STAFF
'FAIR FAST FOOD:' Farmworkers protest low wages in front of Burger King headquarters.
More photosCarrying tomato bucket-shaped signs with messages like Nuestro sudor no es gratis (``Our sweat isn't free''), farmworkers rallied on the sidewalk outside Burger King's Miami headquarters Thursday calling on the fast-food chain to help end the abuses in the Immokalee tomato fields.

More than 50 farmworkers, clergy and community leaders called for ''justice'' as they gathered to kick off their ''truth campaign,'' aimed at exposing what they say are the unfair wages and working conditions in the fields where Burger King's tomatoes are picked.

''It is a moral outrage,'' said the Rev. Noelle Damico with Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and director of the Campaign for Fair Food. 'Burger King and the other fast-food companies not only profit from the farmworkers' poverty, their purchasing practices have a hand in creating that poverty.''

Damico led the crowd in chanting, ``It's time for the King to do the right thing.''

Burger King is the latest fast-food chain targeted by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, who two years ago won a victory when Taco Bell agreed to pay a penny more per pound for its tomatoes following a four-year boycott. That extra money is supposed to be passed on to workers who pick tomatoes sold to Taco Bell.

Until now, the coalition and its supporters had been more vocal in its campaign against McDonald's. Discussions with Burger King had remained private because the Miami-Dade fast-food chain appeared willing to cooperate. That changed last week when Burger King went public announcing it would not agree to pay the extra penny for its tomatoes.

`WAITING'

''It's not that they can't do it, it's that they don't want to,'' said Lucas Benitez, coalition co-founder. ``We can't spend another two years waiting on promises and good will of corporations like Burger King.''

But Burger King says the main problem is that it buys its tomatoes from repacking companies, not directly from the farms. Burger King argues that it can't pay more because it doesn't have the accounting system necessary to trace how many pounds each worker picked.

''We have no way of assuring that any money we pass out would actually get to the workers that pick the tomatoes,'' said Steve Grover, vice president of quality assurance and regulatory affairs. ``The accounting alone is a Herculean task.''

Instead, Grover said Burger King has been willing to look at other ways to help. The company offered to remove any suppliers from its system if the coalition can show proof that they are violating federal labor laws. But none have been identified.

Burger King also looked at ways it could provide charitable contributions to the workers through its Have It Your Way Foundation, with ideas including building houses or creating a day-care program for workers' children, Grover said. The company offered to send recruiters to interview workers who might be interested in a restaurant job.

''We were legitimately trying to find a way to work with these folks,'' Grover said. ``They pretty much slammed the door on us. They were unwilling to look at any other alternatives.''

HELPING OUT

Burger King tried to make the protesters comfortable Thursday with bottles of free ice water, but that didn't go over well.

''We don't want you to give us water; we want that penny,'' said Monica Russo, head of the SEIU Florida Healthcare Union, among the group of Miami community leaders that joined in support. ``You can help lift our sisters and brothers out of poverty. They're working for it, all we need is for you to see that they get paid for it.''

The next step: Miami community groups plan to continue rallying against Burger King with another event scheduled for 4 p.m. Thursday outside corporate headquarters.

''We are not going to let this issue drop,'' said the Rev. Frank Corbishly with the University of Miami Episcopal Church Center. ``We are not going to go away.''

Burger King tried to make the protesters comfortable Thursday with bottles of free ice water, but that didn't go over well.

Oh for the love of God!!! They have to be kidding. The only reason these companies want illegals, is for the cheap wages. If they start making demands, the hand that feeds them will get disgusted, and they will get kicked out for sure. Personally, I hope that they keep making demands.

Oh Neese.....I cracked. "For the love of God".

I mean here they come and volunteer for cheap pay and take our jobs and then now demand more. Dugh? Christ sake.....do they think Burger King is a high wage employeer? I mean geeze....offers of housing, child care etc. The regular employees don't get that. I'm not positive they are even directly responsible for the produce area and what their pay is. They can just demand their way right back to Mexico.

Isn't it a joke? They have the ACLU and LaRaza backing them up left and right, and they get treated way better than we do. I have not had a single job where we didn't work through lunches and breaks, but by law we said that we took them. Or, we lost our vacation time because we were just too busy at work and could not leave. I have never demanded anything. You take your lumps and life goes on. I think these folks have a very distorted view of what the US is like. Perhaps they are smarter than the rest of us, because they seem to get whatever they want.

let burger king go out of business their food stinks anyways

Burger King also looked at ways it could provide charitable contributions to the workers through its Have It Your Way Foundation, with ideas including building houses or creating a day-care program for workers' children, Grover said. The company offered to send recruiters to interview workers who might be interested in a restaurant job.

It seems to me that they are making nice offers. Everyone I know has to pay for day-care, and buy or rent homes to live in.
AND THEY EVEN OFFERED TO SEND OUT RECRUITERS TO SEE IF ILLEGAL ALIENS WANT A JOB!

i think this is great news! what low lifes, breaking into a country that doesn't want you, but big business is willing to enslave you and then demand better wages??? are they for real? they came in clamoring to be slaves and when big business obliges they get upset.

Hullabaloo x 2

I have not had a single job where we didn't work through lunches and breaks, but by law we said that we took them. Or, we lost our vacation time because we were just too busy at work and could not leave. I have never demanded anything. You take your lumps and life goes on

Same here......except I never even managed to get my vacation time either. They used to roll over time and then they stopped. Ok...No one takes a vacation from mid- oct to mid january. You can from mid-jan to 2 wks before Easter. Then no vacations till late August. Then you get late August to mid oct. But all managers and supervisors get the first pick. Then there's the people that have seniority...so by the time it got to you...there wasn't any time left. So people would try and just grab a day here and there and you always got told at the last minute you couldn't go. You couldn't cash them for money and so you lost them. You couldn't substitute them for sick days because you had to give a 2wk advance notice. I've put in hours worth of time for free to be ready for some district manager without even a thank you. Took pay cuts. Worked overtime for nothing. Been injured and didn't report it because you knew if you did you were out of a job very shortly after that because the top people got bonuses for their "safety record" and it ment them loosing out on some big bucks if you reported it. Heck they expected me to put my kids in a shelter so I could sit in the store all night to make sure the illegals were cleaning when there was a cat 5 hurricane stalled off shore.

They really must think we all just live the big life. Little do they know they aren't "targeted" for some pretty unfair stuff anymore than the rest of us. Fair? No...sorry.....life isn't fair.

February 05, 2007 01:17 PM Eastern Time

BKC Issues ''Penny Per Pound'' Statement

MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Burger King Corporation has extensively considered the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ (CIW) “penny per pound” request and has declined to accept the proposal. Burger King notified the CIW of our decision today, Feb. 5.

Over the course of the past year and a half, Burger King Corporation executives have met with CIW representatives more than a dozen times, as well as with religious groups who support the CIW and the Immokalee workers. In addition, Burger King Corporation executives traveled to Immokalee to meet with the group's leadership and to view living and working conditions first-hand. We agree with the CIW that the workers' living conditions are, in fact, substandard, and we are sympathetic and concerned about the housing.

We reached our decision for several reasons. Burger King Corporation and its purchasing agent, RSI, do not have a direct relationship with any tomato grower or its employees, as is the case with some of the other large chain restaurants. Instead, we purchase tomatoes -- based on best market price -- from tomato re-packing companies. It is these re-packing companies that have a relationship with the actual growers who employ the CIW. As a result, we do not identify the specific growers, tomatoes or workers who pick the tomatoes that are used in our restaurants.

To ask Burger King Corporation to pay a penny more a pound for tomatoes to increase workers' wages is similar to asking shoppers to voluntarily pay a penny more per pound at the grocery store for tomatoes to increase workers' wages. Both Burger King Corporation and grocery store shoppers have no business relationship with the workers and cannot get the extra penny to them.

Increasing the cost of tomatoes by a penny per pound does nothing to ensure support for the workers directly. Burger King Corporation has no business relationship with the workers and cannot control how they are compensated.

In addition, the Immokalee workers’ typical wages are unclear because of conflicting reports and a general lack of IRS reporting. In an April 2006 study by the Center for Reflection, Education and Action (CREA), the average hourly wage for Immokalee tomato pickers ranged from $9.65 per hour for the slowest workers to a high of $18.27 per hour for the fastest. The average pay for workers is clearly well above the Florida minimum wage of $6.40 per hour and well above standard wages for similar work.

We have spoken to CIW representatives about our interest in recruiting interested Immokalee workers into the BURGER KING® system. We have offered to send Burger King Corporation recruiters to the area to speak with the CIW and with workers themselves about permanent, full-time employment at BURGER KING® restaurants. Burger King Corporation offers ongoing professional training and advancement opportunities around the country for both entry-level and skilled employee jobs, and we are hopeful the CIW will accept our offer.

We have also spoken to the CIW about the strong interest from the charitable arm of Burger King Corporation, the HAVE IT YOUR WAY™ Foundation. The Foundation’s mission is to contribute to non-profit organizations whose goal is to improve education, alleviate hunger or disease or to support youth programs. The Foundation is keenly interested in working with the CIW and others to identify charitable organizations that could improve the lives of the workers and their families.

Additionally, Burger King Corporation stands ready to cooperate with state and federal officials to identify any possible violations of U.S. labor laws, including minimum wage, overtime and child labor provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Burger King Corporation, Miami
Edna Johnson, 305-378-7516
or
Lauren Hammann, 305-378-3120

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