Congress Members Back Call to Raise Tomato Pickers' Pay
Cox News Service
Friday, March 14, 2008
WASHINGTON — Some of Congress' most liberal members joined labor and human rights groups Thursday in likening the plight of tomato pickers in South Florida to slavery, and called on fast food giant Burger King to boost the pickers' pay.
"We don't want to boycott anyone," said Lucas Benitez, a co-director of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. But he warned that if Burger King does not agree to roughly double the pay of tomato pickers by paying a penny a pound extra, "it's a possibility."
 RICK MCKAY/Cox Newspapers Melody Gonzalez of Immokalee, Fla., with the Student Farmworker Alliance, listens to members of Congress speak at a rally Thursday, March 13, 2008, in Washington, DC to support a nationwide petition drive on behalf of Florida farm workers who face stagnant wages and harsh working conditions. The petition demands that Burger King and food industry leaders work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) 'to improve the wages and conditions for the workers who pick their tomatoes, and join an industry-wide effort to eliminate modern-day slavery and human rights abuses from Florida's fields.'  RICK MCKAY/Cox Newspapers Coalition of Immokalee Workers Co-Director Lucas Benitez speaks at a rally Thursday, March 13, 2008, in Washington, DC to support a nationwide petition drive on behalf of Florida farm workers who face stagnant wages and harsh working conditions.  RICK MCKAY/Cox Newspapers Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) signs a petition to improve working conditions and pay for Florida farmworkers after speaking at a rally Thursday, March 13, 2008, in Washington, DC to support th nationwide petition drive. |
A Burger King Corp. spokesman said the Miami-based company supports "fair wages and safe conditions" for tomato harvesters, but accused the coalition of refusing to negotiate.
"We absolutely agree there should be decent wages," said Keva Silversmith, Burger King's external communications director, but he said the coalition "needs to explain the mechanism of how the penny a pound would work."
Lawmakers and labor advocates likened the conditions endured by many tomato pickers to modern-day slavery.
"The plight of (tomato) workers in South Florida is a national disgrace," said Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill. He noted that six successful prosecutions for slavery have occurred in South Florida over the last 10 years, including one in the past year.
"It is unthinkable that in the United States of America someone can be successfully prosecuted for slavery in this day and age, but it has happened," Durbin said.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee headed by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., would hold hearings next month on the plight of the tomato pickers.
The coalition already has negotiated penny-a-pound agreements with McDonalds and Yum! Brands, parent company of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and other restaurant chains, but lawmakers and labor advocates said the agreements have been thwarted by the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, which has threatened to levy fines of up to $100,000 on any grower that participates in the plan.
Reggie Brown, the exchange's executive vice president, said it is a "voluntary cooperative" that has certain contractual rules and that any violation of the contract is subject to a financial penalty.
Brown said the exchange should not be involved in passing the extra payments from the restaurant companies to the tomato pickers because that would legally tie the exchange to the companies.
"We would both be liable for each other's sins," he said.
Instead of funneling the payments through the exchange, Brown said the companies could pay the workers directly, if they wanted to.
Brown said there was a practical problem in trying to implement a penny-a-pound plan because of the way tomatoes are repackaged and shipped.
"We have no way of knowing who picked what tomato," Brown said. "Tomatoes don't come with labels."
Brown acknowledged that there have been isolated cases of slave-like conditions, but he said those involved were not members of the exchange.
"It is fundamentally false," he said of the slavery allegation. He called it an "emotional hook" to gain sympathy for the workers' plight.
Tomato pickers are among the highest-paid migrant farm laborers, Brown said, noting that roughly 20,000 to 25,000 return year after year to the same jobs.
"If we didn't pay good money, how would we be able to get these people to work?" he asked.
Brown said a skilled tomato picker can make more than $12 a hour. Durbin said that would mean picking one tomato per second, or around 2,500 per hour, but Brown said studies by the University of Florida have shown that a skilled picker can harvest tomatoes at that rate.