Fast Food Nation Author Eric Schlosser adds his voice — in the pages of the New York Times — to the growing editorial chorus condemning BK’s decision to move against landmark agreements…
“The prominent role that Burger King has played in rescinding the pay raise offers a spectacle of yuletide greed worthy of Charles Dickens.”
Award-winning author and journalist Eric Schlosser has written a biting opinion piece, entitled “Penny Foolish,” in today’s New York Times, taking Burger King to task for its recently revealed partnership with conservative tomato growers in Florida. The piece also points to the private equity firms behind Burger King as a possible solution to the current stand-off. Here’s an excerpt:
“In 2005, Florida tomato pickers gained their first significant pay raise since the late 1970s when Taco Bell ended a consumer boycott by agreeing to pay an extra penny per pound for its tomatoes, with the extra cent going directly to the farm workers. Last April, McDonald’s agreed to a similar arrangement, increasing the wages of its tomato pickers to about 77 cents per bucket. But Burger King, whose headquarters are in Florida, has adamantly refused to pay the extra penny — and its refusal has encouraged tomato growers to cancel the deals already struck with Taco Bell and McDonald’s…
Now the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange has threatened a fine of $100,000 for any grower who accepts an extra penny per pound for migrant wages. The organization claims that such a surcharge would violate “federal and state laws related to antitrust, labor and racketeering.” It has not explained how that extra penny would break those laws; nor has it explained why other surcharges routinely imposed by the growers (for things like higher fuel costs) are perfectly legal.
The prominent role that Burger King has played in rescinding the pay raise offers a spectacle of yuletide greed worthy of Charles Dickens. Burger King has justified its behavior by claiming that it has no control over the labor practices of its suppliers. “Florida growers have a right to run their businesses how they see fit,” a Burger King spokesman told The St. Petersburg Times.
Yet the company has adopted a far more activist approach when the issue is the well-being of livestock. In March, Burger King announced strict new rules on how its meatpacking suppliers should treat chickens and hogs. As for human rights abuses, Burger King has suggested that if the poor farm workers of southern Florida need more money, they should apply for jobs at its restaurants.”
He ends the piece by shedding some light on the three private equity firms that are major shareholders in Burger King — Goldman Sachs, Texas Pacific Group, and Bain Capital. He writes:
“Telling Burger King to pay an extra penny for tomatoes and provide a decent wage to migrant workers would hardly bankrupt the company. Indeed, it would cost Burger King only $250,000 a year. At Goldman Sachs, that sort of money shouldn’t be too hard to find. In 2006, the bonuses of the top 12 Goldman Sachs executives exceeded $200 million — more than twice as much money as all of the roughly 10,000 tomato pickers in southern Florida earned that year. Now Mr. Blankfein should find a way to share some of his company’s good fortune with the workers at the bottom of the food chain.”
Read Mr. Schlosser’s article in its entirety by clicking here. The article comes on the morning of Burger King’s annual shareholder meeting in Miami, and on the eve of the March on BK headquarters. CIW members will be addressing today’s meeting, bringing to the shareholders’ attention the fact that the position taken by Burger King management stands not only to harm farmworkers, but to damage the company’s image as well, as evidenced by the flood of editorial opinions across Florida, and across the country, condemning the company.
PLUS: Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to BK and FL Growers: “We Are Prepared to Go the Distance!”
On the heels of public revelations that Burger King and the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, the growers’ lobby, have been cooperating to roll back the CIW’s agreements with Yum! Brands and McDonald’s, the Rev. Dr. Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, writes:
“In the course of history there have always been those who have opposed the advancement of human rights. But the fundamental truth of human dignity has always triumphed, if not immediately, then eventually. Burger King and the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange (FTGE) are using their power to try and turn back the inevitable progress of human rights for farmworkers. And their coordinated tactics, which squarely target some of the poorest, most vulnerable members of our society, are as morally repugnant as they are in vain ….
“The intransigence and duplicity of Burger King and the FTGE may delay justice for those who supply their tomatoes. And as Dr. King said, ‘Justice delayed is justice denied.’ But they will not prevail. We are prepared to do what it takes, as long as it takes, walking hand in hand with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and all consumers of conscience to achieve the basic human rights for these farmworkers to which other industry leaders have committed.”
Be sure to read this remarkable testament of faith and commitment to justice by one of the country’s most important religious leaders. You can find it in its entirety here.