CIW, McDonald’s, McD’s suppliers reach agreement to improve farmworker wages and working conditions!

With the arrival of the 2007 Truth Tour in Chicago just days away, the CIW, McDonald’s, and its suppliers gathered at the Carter Center in Atlanta on Monday, April 9, to announce an agreement that guarantees:

1. A penny more per pound to workers harvesting tomatoes for McDonald’s;

• A stronger code of conduct based on the principle of worker participation;
• And a collaborative effort to develop a third party mechanism for monitoring conditions in the fields and investigating workers’ complaints of abuse. Read the press release here!

Read the media reports here:

• Miami Herald (4/10): “Now the pressure is on Burger King”
• NewStandard (4/19): “After McDonald’s victory, labor activists target Burger King”
• Orlando Sentinel (4/17): “What’s the big deal about an extra penny?”
• In These Times (4/12): “A win for the Coalition of Immokalee Workers”
• Chicago Tribune (4/13): “Burger King next target of Coalition”
• The Guardian, London (4/11): “Farmworkers win case against McDonald’s”
• Palm Beach Post, Op-ed (4/15): “Pickers get this break”
• St. Petersburg Times (4/16): “Tomato pickers pressure brings extra penny”
• Ft. Myers News Press (4/14): “Farmworker advocates protest Burger King”
• Palm Beach Post (4/10): “McDonald’s agrees to increase pay for workers who harvest its tomatoes”
• Chicago Tribune (4/10): “McDonald’s case could set standard”
• Business Week (4/9): “McDonald’s to pay more for tomatoes”
• CNN (4/9/07): “McDonald’s agrees to pay spike for tomatoes”
• La Jornada, Mexico (4/10): “Ganan campesinos inmigrantes de Florida demanda contra McDonald’s”
• WireTap Magazine (4/11): “Huge victory for immigrant farmworkers and student activists”

Check back in the coming weeks as we chart the course for the continued expansion of farm labor justice through the fast-food industry. In the words of the Bard, uneasy lies the head that wears a crown…