Burger King Scuttles 1¢ Raise for Tomato Pickers

[slkinsey]

Today's NY Times ran an Op-Ed by Eric Schlosser entitled Penny Foolish:

THE migrant farm workers who harvest tomatoes in South Florida have one of the nation’s most backbreaking jobs. For 10 to 12 hours a day, they pick tomatoes by hand, earning a piece-rate of about 45 cents for every 32-pound bucket. During a typical day each migrant picks, carries and unloads two tons of tomatoes. For their efforts, this holiday season many of them are about to get a 40 percent pay cut.

[.  .  .]

In 2005, Florida tomato pickers gained their first significant pay raise since the late 1970s when Taco Bell ended a consumer boycott by agreeing to pay an extra penny per pound for its tomatoes, with the extra cent going directly to the farm workers. Last April, McDonald's agreed to a similar arrangement, increasing the wages of its tomato pickers to about 77 cents per bucket. But Burger King, whose headquarters are in Florida, has adamantly refused to pay the extra penny — and its refusal has encouraged tomato growers to cancel the deals already struck with Taco Bell and McDonald's.

Like I needed any more reasons to avoid eating there.

[divalasvegas]

Wow, the Creepy King really is a CREEP.

[SundaySous]

These people will give you a look at being a farm laborer. Haven't been there in a while and it can be quite biased but you do get a look into an industry I at least rarely think about.

Old Victor Chavez organized a boycott of California grapes back in the early 70's. I liked grapes but mom said we aint buying any for a while. I'm pretty sure by the late 70's union migrant farm workers in California were earning close to $8 dollars an hour and got things like portable toilets out there in the fields with them.

I don't know about you but I sleep better at night knowing there are portable toilets in the fields my lettuce comes from.

Edited November 30, 2007 by SundaySous (log)

[mrsadm]

This is such a Scrooge story it baffles the mind. Quote from the story:

" Three private equity firms — Bain Capital, the Texas Pacific Group and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners — control most of Burger King’s stock. Last year, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd C. Blankfein, earned the largest annual bonus in Wall Street history, and this year he stands to receive an even larger one. Goldman Sachs has served its investors well lately, avoiding the subprime mortgage meltdown and, according to Business Week, doubling the value of its Burger King investment within three years.

Telling Burger King to pay an extra penny for tomatoes and provide a decent wage to migrant workers would hardly bankrupt the company. Indeed, it would cost Burger King only $250,000 a year. At Goldman Sachs, that sort of money shouldn’t be too hard to find. In 2006, the bonuses of the top 12 Goldman Sachs executives exceeded $200 million — more than twice as much money as all of the roughly 10,000 tomato pickers in southern Florida earned that year. Now Mr. Blankfein should find a way to share some of his company’s good fortune with the workers at the bottom of the food chain. '

I'm going to tell everyone I know about this and ask them to avoid Burger King

[Toliver]

Old Victor Chavez organized a boycott of California grapes back in the early 70's. I liked grapes but mom said we aint buying any for a while. I'm pretty sure by the late 70's union migrant farm workers in California were earning close to $8 dollars an hour and got things like portable toilets out there in the fields with them.

I don't know about you but I sleep better at night knowing there are portable toilets in the fields my lettuce comes from.

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That would be César Chávez.

And your mom rocks.

I don't usually eat at BK but they're definitely on my boycott list now.

[Qwerty]

A more effective solution would be to avoid the tomatoes all together...yeah Burger King uses them but so do the grocery stores (or at least similar tomatoes) we all probably shop in.

I don't blame Burger King (only a symptom), I blame our cheap-food culture.

[Andrew Fenton]

" Three private equity firms — Bain Capital, the Texas Pacific Group and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners — control most of Burger King’s stock.

Hey, that's the company Mitt Romney founded. I don't know what his current involvement with Bain is, but it'd be awfully interesting if a reporter on the campaign trail asked Governor Romney whether he thinks farm workers ought to get that extra penny.

Edited November 30, 2007 by Andrew Fenton (log)

[Fat Guy]

Old Victor Chavez organized a boycott of California grapes back in the early 70's. . . .

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That would be César Chávez. . . .

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And that would be the late 1960s. I know because when my mother was pregnant with me, in 1968-1969, she had intense grape cravings but the grape boycott was on -- an impossible situation for a pregnant Upper West Side Jewish intellectual craving grapes in the 1960s. The boycott ended in 1970.

At $250k, you'd think Burger King would be non-stupid enough to do this just for the PR benefit, never mind the humanitarian aspects.

[rancho_gordo]

And that would be the late 1960s. I know because when my mother was pregnant with me, in 1968-1969, she had intense grape cravings but the grape boycott was on -- an impossible situation for a pregnant Upper West Side Jewish intellectual craving grapes in the 1960s. The boycott ended in 1970.

I think it was close to 1980 before the boycott ended. I was very active here in California and even got to meet Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. We were asking people to "Boycott lettuce! Boycott grapes! Boycott the Wine that Gallo makes!" well into the mid-70s.

I know that on the retail level, the price of iceberg lettuce went up an average of 2 cents a head in exchange for a living wage and the choice of unions. (The farm workers were forced to join the Teamsters in a sweetheart deal with the growers to make it seem as if unions were allowed.)

[Fat Guy]

There were three grape boycotts. The original one -- the one that made a name for Chavez -- was 1965-1970. The Gallo-and-lettuce boycott was 1973-1977. There was also one in the 1980s.

[SundaySous]

from the article:

During the past decade, the United States Justice Department has prosecuted half a dozen cases of slavery among farm workers in Florida. Migrants have been driven into debt, forced to work for nothing and kept in chained trailers at night.

Wow I had no idea. I gotta start reading the papers again. I have worked with former migrant workers. Fascinating sub culture going on there.

If a farmer pays and or treats their workers too well they may suffer retribution from other growers. Even harassment by government agencies.

Migrants themselves form and manage crews. If you own a truck that can transport workers you become a boss and are paid more. This works well for unethical growers because it is the boss he contracted with abusing the workers.

The most common injury among farm workers is infected insects bites. Some of these guys told us about sleeping out in the fields. Not even tents.

There is also migrant on migrant crime. Sabotaging others trucks so they can't compete. Turf wars as in "we" work this area not you. Stuff like a body found in an orchard maybe a week old. Try and track down the crew that worked there a week ago.

[rancho_gordo]

Wow I had no idea. I gotta start reading the papers again. I have worked with former migrant workers. Fascinating sub culture going on there.

I don't know what the situation is like now (I am almost afraid to find out) but in the 70s, newly arriving workers would discover they could only live in the provided housing and had no real way to shop except at the company store and they'd be forever in debt and it really was close to slavery.

Governor Jerry Brown outlawed the short handled hoe as it was breaking their backs. Growers like the short hoes because they could tell who was working and who was standing around.

Until relatively recently, we've been encouraging seasonal ag workers. Now, the climate is changing but rather than pay a decent wage, the growers are moving the whole show to Mexico. So in an effort to keep Mexicans out so they can't do the jobs we won't do, we are now going to lose our agriculture industry and be dependent on another country for our food!

I've oversimplified it and a lot can change. I just don't trust anyone who things they know exactly how we should be solving the problems. They are very complicated and require brains and nuance.

[SundaySous]

I would think organic farming would be the best opportunity for a farm worker. Saw an add that offered room and board, year round work but the compensation $8,000. I wonder how many other farm workers have $8K as disposable income.

[Terrasanct]

The fast food companies have a lot of power to do good but they don't; they would rather make a few million more that they don't need and couldn't spend if they tried. But they'll pay attention if consumers avoid them. Money talks--it's the only language they understand.

[Eden]

I'm a big fresh grape fan and I remember as a kid not being able to have grapes because of the boycott, and how happy I was when we could finally buy them again

Also just wanted to add that if you want to talk with your money on this or the Whole Foods Fois Gras issue or what have you, you have to do more than just not patronize a company, you need to let them know why or it does no good. Spelling out how much you usually spend with them is a big plus, cause from their point of view it's all about the bottom line...

[mojoman]

At the risk of being criticized for being pro-industry, pro-chain here, I suspect that there's more than meets the eye in this issue. Perhaps BK conceded something else but what is being publicized is the 1 cent issue because it sounds incredible?

[FabulousFoodBabe]

At the risk of being criticized for being pro-industry, pro-chain here, I suspect that there's more than meets the eye in this issue.  Perhaps BK conceded something else but what is being publicized is the 1 cent issue because it sounds incredible?

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I'm afraid you're probably right, mojoman. I'm not sure pro-industry/pro-chain is such a bad thing to be 100% of the time.

Your comment sounds more like pro-truth, anti-spin.

[Fat Guy]

I imagine the "pro-industry" argument is simply that if you pay an extra cent here and an extra cent there, eventually it adds up to real money. I don't disagree with that position as a general theory of doing business, but this is pretty clearly a case where it has been taken too far. McDonald's and Taco Bell are already paying the penny. This was a silly place for Burger King to draw the line, and Burger King got busted on it. At this point, the decision will probably cost Burger King more than it ever could have saved. Just the fees Burger King is probably paying to communications companies this month for crisis management advice on this issue could easily exceed $250,000. So it will have been, in the end, a bad business decision.

[mojoman]

FG, your post makes it sound as if you have determined that there are no mitigating circumstances. If that is the case, BK's decision is both financially stupid and morally despicable.

As an aside, I'm watching Food Network's "Gotta get it" and it sucks.

Edited December 1, 2007 by mojoman (log)

[Busboy]

At the risk of being criticized for being pro-industry, pro-chain here, I suspect that there's more than meets the eye in this issue.  Perhaps BK conceded something else but what is being publicized is the 1 cent issue because it sounds incredible?

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I'm afraid you're probably right, mojoman. I'm not sure pro-industry/pro-chain is such a bad thing to be 100% of the time.

Your comment sounds more like pro-truth, anti-spin.

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Perhaps you could let us know what the mitigating circumstances are. There is nothing in the press coverage to suggest that -- aside from a modest profit increase for BK and solidarity amongst exploitative tomato growers -- there's any upside to this.

[rancho_gordo]

At the risk of being criticized for being pro-industry, pro-chain here, I suspect that there's more than meets the eye in this issue.  Perhaps BK conceded something else but what is being publicized is the 1 cent issue because it sounds incredible?

←

I'm afraid you're probably right, mojoman. I'm not sure pro-industry/pro-chain is such a bad thing to be 100% of the time.

Your comment sounds more like pro-truth, anti-spin.

←

Perhaps you could let us know what the mitigating circumstances are. There is nothing in the press coverage to suggest that -- aside from a modest profit increase for BK and solidarity amongst exploitative tomato growers -- there's any upside to this.

←

I'm thinking they should give them 10 cents more a pound and make the tomatoes actually taste like something.