Squabbling Over Pennies Won't Help Tomato Pickers

Published: Dec 8, 2007

Protesting farmworkers picketed Burger King headquarters in Miami last week, trying to shame the fast-food giant into joining two competitors that have agreed to pay field hands an extra penny per pound for the tomatoes the companies buy to garnish their food.

Yet Burger King has refused to bargain with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), an alliance of farmworkers, and the company is today paying the price in bad publicity.

The coalition has the emotional advantage. Over a span of years it has ingeniously pitted the plight of poor laborers - mostly migrant workers, many here illegally - against the growers who supply the grocers and against fast-food companies that buy their produce. The CIW has the support of unions, churches, social justice advocates and former President Jimmy Carter.

Indeed, the coalition has done a service in investigating and documenting abuse in the fields. Just last month the CIW accepted the 2007 Anti-Slavery Award in London.

We suspect most patrons of Burger King wouldn't mind paying an extra penny for the food they buy if the knew it would increase the wages of tomato pickers. No one denies the work is back-breaking and tough.

But is it fair to employ an anti-branding campaign in order to squeeze Burger King and force wage-rate negotiations with workers the company does not even employ? The strategy sounds a lot like extortion.

CIW is playing hard ball, saying this is a step-by-step process in a long-term struggle to raise wages and improve working conditions. Not coincidentally, the coalition's long-term survival necessarily depends on continued conflict.

The history is this. The coalition tried to convince growers to increase workers' wages, but when that failed, it went over the growers' heads and targeted the fast-food companies.

Yum Brands, the parent company of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC, agreed two years ago to the penny-per-pound increase; earlier this year, McDonald's did as well.

Burger King chose to draw the proverbial line in the sand - at least for now - aligning itself with the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, which represents 90 percent of the state's tomato growers. The exchange has threatened its members with $100,000 fines if they participate in the penny-per-pound deal.

Reggie Brown, executive vice president of the exchange, acknowledges the difficult conditions pickers endure but insists they are not mistreated. He points out that growers under the gun from foreign competition have had no trouble finding workers to harvest their fields. Not once has the coalition been able to execute a work stoppage.

Indeed both sides throw out numbers that obscure the complexity of the situation.

The coalition points out the farmworkers earn on average less than $15,000 a year. They are paid according to how much they pick - on the order of 45 cents per 32-pound bucket - that's $55 a day if there is enough to pick.

The growers, on the other hand, point to records that indicate an average per-hour wage of $12.46 when tomatoes are in season, which is well above Florida's $6.40 minimum wage and not a bad wage for minimally skilled workers.

The seasonal aspect of the work, the health of the plants and the point at which the tomato is ripe enough to pick also affect how much a farm hand can earn.

Both parties in the tomato war may be acting on principle - but both also seem most concerned with forcing the other side to submit.

The focus on the penny per pound - which does not seem an unreasonable request but would do little to improve the status of field workers - is misdirected.

If the two sides devoted as much energy to addressing the need for better housing, health care and education for workers, they might come up with with solutions that would have a far greater and lasting impact on the people who help put food on our tables.