August 31, 2007

Third massive protest in a week for Fair Food!… This time the action hits home outside BK headquarters in Miami!…

Protesters lined the streets outside Burger King headquarters in Miami yesterday, warning company representatives of far bigger protests to come if the hamburger giant continues to ignore calls to end exploitation in its tomato supply chain.

Click here for a Flickr slideshow from the protest!

Students and youth attending the Student/Farmworker Alliance’s third annual “Encuentro” in Immokalee climbed onto buses and, together with workers from the CIW, crossed South Florida for the noontime protest. There they joined with Miami Fair Food allies to demand that Burger King stand with Florida’s tomato pickers in their fight for fundamental human rights in the fields — and not with the Florida growers in their desperate efforts to maintain an unconscionable status quo.

Student/Farmworker Alliance representatives delivered a sharply worded letter to BK executives, who, though reluctant at first, agreed to take the oversized copy of the letter (pictured here on the right) after some spirited encouragement from the crowd… Here’s an excerpt from the SFA letter:

“Your recent responses to the CIW have not only proven to be dismal failures, but have actually been destructive, serving to give comfort to growers who, for the first time in decades, are under pressure to institute real labor reforms in the wake of the historic Yum and McDonald’s agreements.

As a result of your actions, your company now stands on the brink of a protracted conflict. Your only exit is to work directly with the CIW to ensure fairer wages and real rights for farmworkers. We firmly believe these changes are inevitable. The question is simply how long will it take…” Read the letter in its entirety here.

Religious leaders also delivered their own message, this one in the form of a letter from Rev. Kent J. Siladi, Conference Minister of the Florida Conference of the United Church of Christ. Read the UCC letter here.

And last but not least, CIW members helped close the protest with an animated rally. Gerardo Reyes, pictured here on the left, spoke on behalf of the CIW, his speech echoing the SFA message of the inevitability of change. Here’s an excerpt:

“Today, the movement for Fair Food is writing a new story for the fast-food industry. In Hollywood, script writers write the story for actors to play out. But in this movement, all of us gathered here today are the actors, and together, we are writing our own script and making our own history. And though we may not know exactly when, we have absolutely no doubt as to how this story ends!”

The CIW also took the opportunity to announce three days of protest at the end of November, with plans for a massive, 8-mile march through Miami and rally at BK headquarters on Friday, November 30th. Stay tuned to the site for more details on the November protest in the weeks ahead.

Click here for the Flickr page from the protest, with more pictures and a slideshow!