BK ANNOUNCES RESULTS OF INTERNAL INVESTIGATION; CALLS CONTINUE FOR INDEPENDENT INQUIRY

As news broke of Burger King’s decision to fire two highly-placed executives for their roles in the dual scandals that have rocked the fast-food giant in the past several weeks, calls continued for an independent inquiry aimed at finding out, "how far up the corporate ladder this scheme went."

In an Associated Press article entitled, "Burger King fires 2 over executive’s secret blog criticizing farm worker’s group," Burger King also announced that it would discontinue its use of Diplomatic Tactical Services, "a private investigation firm whose president allegedly posed as a student activist to infiltrate the farmworker group and its supporters."

The AP article continued, "Coalition co-founder Lucas Benitez said in a statement the group welcomed Burger King’s actions but said more needed to be done ‘to clear the path toward a sincere partnership for more humane conditions in Burger King’s tomato supply chain.’"

Others apparently agreed. Senator Bernie Sanders (shown speaking on the right at a March press conference announcing the CIW’s national petition campaign in Washington), who has taken a strong interest in the fast-developing campaign since his visit to Immokalee this past January, said in a statement reported in today’s Ft. Myers News-Press:

"A major corporation like Burger King should not have a vice president posting inflammatory anti-worker messages on the Web, nor should it be hiring spies to infiltrate non-violent, pro-worker organizations. That is outrageous.

Sanders also called for further investigation.

"… we should make sure that we find out how high up the corporate ladder this scheme went."

Is this the end of the story?… A steady drumbeat of revelations of wrongdoing over the past several weeks (scroll down for more on those revelations) appears to have led directly to the highest levels of the world’s second-largest burger chain. Whether Burger King’s announcement will be sufficient to control the damage from those revelations — or whether other investigations will continue until there is no longer any doubt that all those responsible for the malfeasance are identified — is still to be determined.

One thing, however, is clear. Burger King’s campaign of resistance to more humane conditions in Florida’s tomato fields — its refusal to pay a fairer price for tomatoes so that workers may earn a fairer wage, its decision to join forces with the most conservative elements of the Florida tomato industry to deny the existence of a human rights crisis in the fields today, and its efforts to undermine the integrity of the farmworker community organization fighting to address that crisis — must now end.

At long last, Burger King must join Yum Brands and McDonald’s in support of the principles of Fair Food. That is, in the words of Senator Dick Durbin from the same Ft. Myers News-Press article, "the only way to end this honorably for BK."