Senators Join Florida Tomato Pickers’ Cause
By Michelle Fabio
In the ongoing battle between tomato growers and tomato pickers in Florida, there are some new players—namely four United States senators including Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), head of the Health, Education, and Labor Committee.
In response to Burger King’s threat to stop buying Florida tomatoes, Senators Kennedy, Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) are urging the fast food change to agree to pay a penny more a pound for tomatoes, similar to provisions in agreements signed by McDonald’s Corp. and Yum Brands Inc., which owns Taco Bell.
Even those agreements are in limbo, though as the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange contends that the deal could violate antitrust laws.
But in a letter to the growers, the senators counter that “[y]our expressed concern that the penny-per-pound program violates antitrust law does not hold up to even minimal legal scrutiny.”
In addition to supporting an increased wage, Senator Kennedy also plans a hearing to investigate labor conditions in the Immokalee tomato-growing area according to spokeswoman Melissa Wagoner.
