By Michelle Fabio

In support of tomato pickers, the Student/Farmworker Alliance (SFA) has established the “Dine with Dignity” campaign to inform and organize students in the fight against farmworker poverty and human rights abuses by major food service providers.

The SFA is targeting Aramark, Compass, and Sodexo and urging them to join Yum Brands, McDonald’s, Burger King and others who currently work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in the effort for better wages and working conditions for tomato pickers in southern Florida.

Campus campaigns will Read the rest of this entry »

By Kira Hamman

I have been following this whole Burger King tomato thing with a mixture of interest and despair.

In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, tomato pickers in Florida are asking Burger King to pay a little more for tomatoes so that they can raise wages and work under better conditions.

The workers, who currently labor under pretty awful conditions for a below-poverty-level wage, are asking for one cent more per pound, and Burger King is claiming that it can’t possibly afford to pay that.

Now, I’m a mathematician, so let’s do a little math. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

By Michelle Fabio

In the ongoing dispute between tomato field workers and big fast food business, Burger King is threatening to stop buying their tomatoes from southwest Florida where the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has been pushing for higher wages for tomato pickers.

Burger King competitors McDonald’s Corp. and Yum Brands, owner of Taco Bell, have both signed agreements to pay a penny more per pound for the Florida tomatoes; it was understood that the growers would then pass along the extra money to field workers, but the state of the deal is in flux right now as growers have decided not to participate under pressure from the Florida Tomato Growers Association.

In late December, Burger King’s Vice President Steven Grover wrote Read the rest of this entry »