“BUT HE HAS NOTHING ON”... Like the child who was not afraid to speak the truth about the powerful king in the fairy tale “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” the CIW spoke the truth outside Burger King’s corporate headquarters in Miami yesterday, responding to Burger King’s public statements about farmworker wages and the impossibility of implementing the principles of the Taco Bell agreement in the company’s supply chain.
You can check out a short video from the action by clicking on the play button on the image to the right now!
See pictures and a report from the press conference here.
Backed by Florida’s most respected labor experts and dozens of religious, student, labor, and community allies, workers from the CIW stood their ground in the growing dispute with the Miami-based fast-food giant. CIW representatives also declared that, while the wages and working conditions in the fields may be the worst this country has to offer, the work of harvesting our food is a dignified job and workers in Immokalee do not need Burger King’s offers of charity or “re-training” to work in BK’s restaurants. Instead, what workers need, and demand of Burger King, is that the company stop squeezing its suppliers and pay a fair price for its tomatoes, a price that would allow workers to earn a fairer wage.
Together with their allies, the CIW promised to preach about farmworker exploitation in churches, teach about farmworker abuse in schools, and take their campaign for farmworker justice to the streets, in a campaign to expose the truth about the sweatshop conditions in the fields where Burger King’s tomatoes are picked.
- Read the AP report from the press conference here
- Read the Miami Herald story here
- Read the CIW press release in its entirety here.
- Click here to see the CIW’s response to Burger King’s statement