Thread: Illegals Picket at Burger King Head Quarters

2/06/07: BURGER KING ANNOUNCES PLAN TO END FARMWORKER POVERTY...

Burger giant offers to retrain Immokalee tomato pickers to work in Burger King restaurants...

Although the headline reads like a bad joke, it's not. Yesterday, Burger King issued a statement announcing that the company "has extensively considered the Coalition of Immokalee Workers 'penny per pound' request and has declined to accept the proposal." Instead, the statement went on to announce Burger King's alternative solution to farmworker poverty:

"We have spoken to CIW representatives about our interest in recruiting interested Immokalee workers into the BURGER KING(R) 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(R) 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."

Lucas Benitez of the CIW, in response to the BK announcement, said, "This suggestion might seem comical, until you stop to think that Burger King is actually responsible for keeping the workers in poverty through their leveraging of volume purchases to drive down tomato prices and, consequently, tomato pickers’ wages.” [See the article "Big fast-food contracts breaking tomato repackers," for an industry insider's perspective on how fast-food giants depress tomato prices and wages.]

In its announcement, Burger King also claimed that it would be impossible to replicate the Taco Bell penny-per-pound payment in its supply chain, explaining that the company does “not identify the specific growers, tomatoes, or workers who pick the tomatoes that are used in our restaurant.” This despite the fact that Burger King's supply chain managment team assured the CIW during talks that the ability to trace tomatoes back to the farm where they were grown would not be an obstacle to instituting a penny per pound payment as did Taco Bell.

In the CIW's response, Benitez replied, “It is ridiculous for Burger King to claim that it does not know where its tomatoes come from. If that were true, then Burger King could not tell its customers that its tomatoes aren't being picked on any of the Florida farms recently connected with slave labor. Nor could it reassure its customers that its tomatoes come from farms that are taking appropriate steps to avoid food-borne illnesses like the recent E.Coli outbreaks. In short, Burger King's statement shows as little respect for its customers as it does for the farm workers who pick the produce that goes into its products.”

Perhaps The Reverend Clifton Kirkpatrick, the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), put it best in a letter to Burger King CEO John Chidsey on January 10th of this year:

“Already at the table are the CIW’s expertise, a flexible model, and clear precedents. The only thing missing in order to end the human rights abuses of tomato pickers is Burger King’s willingness. Any company who profits from the exploitation of others is morally and ethically responsible for that exploitation.”

You can find more on Burger King's remarkable public statement and the CIW's response by clicking on the links below:

Click here to see the Burger King statement in its entirety
Click here to see the CIW's response
Click here to read "Big fast-food contracts breaking tomato repackers," an article from the produce industry journal "The Packer," cited in the CIW's response, that shows that the CIW is not alone in placing the blame for farmworker poverty with the major corporate buyers of Florida produce
Click here to see the Miami Herald coverage of the Burger King announcement

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

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.

That must have been one heck of a hurricane, if it came to Joliet, IL!!!

Originally Posted by Lone_Patriot

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.

Maybe one day, American business owners will be begging American citizens to come back to work!

That must have been one heck of a hurricane, if it came to Joliet, IL!!!

No I lived outside of Daytona Beach at that time.....it sat out there awhile and at the last minute it moved north. They had already started evacuations and expected it to come inland. Thank heavens it didn't but this place wouldn't even OK people in the evacuation areas to leave without risk of loosing their jobs. Wouldn't let people off to go board up their homes....nothing. We didn't get the hurricane but we got tornadoes as it was leaving so it was a few days of pretty turbulant weather. They didn't care about employee safety or their family. No one that wasn't evacuating was even out. It was serious batton down the hatches time. Needless to say I quit over that. That was the final straw of being expected to go beyond call of duty for 6.25 an hour. I can just imagine how HRS would have responded to a shelter who said some lady just dumped her 2 young kids off because she had to sit in a store. I'm sure I wouldn't have been up for the mother of the year award!

This is something else. We had tomato pickers bussed from Florida marching around at Yum Brands. Yum Brands doesn't grow tomatos. Farmers grow tomatos. Why don't these jackasses picket the farmers?

I hope this doesn't catch on. We'll have auto workers and chocolate workers picketing our homes to force us to pay more for what they produce.

Lucas Benitez of the CIW, in response to the BK announcement, said, "This suggestion might seem comical, until you stop to think that Burger King is actually responsible for keeping the workers in poverty through their leveraging of volume purchases to drive down tomato prices and, consequently, tomato pickers’ wages.” [See the article "Big fast-food contracts breaking tomato repackers," for an industry insider's perspective on how fast-food giants depress tomato prices and wages.]

What? Say What??

Did anyone catch this?

Now they're actually going after Capitalism thru the back door?
Huh?

Business would be foolish not to leverage the best VOLUME PRICE.

If the 'growers' weren't using SLAVE ILLEGAL LABOR the big guy would be negotiating a different volume price from the grower.

If we hadn't allowed twisted off-shoring to become the monster that it is, Capitalism wouldn't have gotten hijacked morphing into the global migration monster.

This problem is much deeper and more intricate.