Stated Clerk praises pact to improve wages and working conditions for farmworkers   [9-12-08]

Presbyterian News Service reports that Whole Foods Market has struck an agreement with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)-backed Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) to help raise wages and improve working conditions for Florida’s tomato pickers.

The Texas-based organic and natural foods grocer is the latest to join the coalition’s Campaign for Fair Food, agreeing to pay a penny more per pound for tomatoes it purchases from Florida growers. The extra money would be passed along to the harvesters.

The CIW, a Florida-based farmworkers group, receives strong support from the PC(USA) and other faith groups.

The Rev. Gradye Parsons, stated clerk of the PC(USA) General Assembly, issued a statement commending Whole Foods and the coalition on the agreement, which was signed this week.

Presbyterian News Service reports that the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly, has issued a statement commending the church-backed Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) on its recent deal with hamburger-giant Burger King Corporation (BKC).

See our earlier report on the agreement >>

In his statement, Kirkpatrick says:

On behalf of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), I write to commend the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Burger King Corporation on their recent agreement to dramatically improve farmworkers wages and working conditions in the tomato fields of Florida. The agreement stands as a plumb line of justice, granting a needed wage increase, establishing zero tolerance for illegal acts, and involving farmworkers in the creation and enforcement of a strong code of conduct for suppliers.

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) led a principled campaign in the face of attacks to their integrity and accomplishments. Their courage and dedication have inspired millions of consumers across the nation to demand a new era of accountability, transparency and human rights within the retail food and agricultural industries.

This news just in from the Rev. Noelle Damico, Campaign for Fair Food, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Today, the CIW and Burger King Corporation signed an agreement to improve farmworkers' wages and enforce human rights standards in the fields!

With great joy, I write to you from Washington, DC, where a signing ceremony and press conference took place in the US Capitol, just an hour ago, hosted by Senator Bernie Sanders. Excerpts from the joint press statement released by CIW and BKC can be found below. More news will be available soon on www.ciw-online.org and www.pcusa.org/fairfood .

Farmworkers from the CIW and representatives of Burger King Corporation (BKC) were joined by representatives of the PC(USA), the US Catholic Conference of Bishops, the United Methodist Church, the Unitarian Universalist Association and human rights and student leaders at the event. Speaking at the event were Senator Sanders, Lucas Benitez from CIW, Amy Wagner, Sr. VP, Investor Relations and Global Communications, and John Carr, Executive Director of the US Catholic Conference of Bishops.

Your prayers, your participation in marches, the incredible number of signatures you garnered in the petition campaign, and your ongoing letters and emails to Burger King made this victory possible.

We read in Hebrews 11:1 that "faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." Through faith we know that this agreement is a harbinger of that soon-coming day, when the entire fast-food and grocery industry will embrace these human rights standards, and farmworkers will enjoy a fair wage and humane working conditions. As we celebrate this human rights victory, let us also renew our commitment to keep walking together with the CIW until we see that day dawns.

Please share this good news far and wide! Some details on the agreement may be found below.

Peace,

The Rev. Noelle Damico
Campaign for Fair Food
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
noelle.damico@pcusa.org
NY Office: 631-751-7076
Mobile: 631-371-9877
www.pcusa.org/fairfood

You can also read the Presbyterian News Service report, written by Evan Silverstein >>

EXCERPTS FROM THE CIW-BKC PRESS STATEMENT

BURGER KING CORP. AND THE COALITION OF IMMOKALEE WORKERS TO WORK TOGETHER

BKC has agreed to pay an additional net penny per pound to the Florida farm workers who harvest its tomatoes. To encourage grower participation in this increased wage program, BKC will also pay incremental payroll taxes and administrative costs incurred by the growers as a result of their farmworkers' increased wages, or a total of 1.5 cents per pound of tomatoes.

BKC also joins other fast-food industry leaders and the CIW in calling for an industry-wide net penny per pound surcharge to increase wages for Florida tomato harvesters. Together, BKC and the CIW have also established zero tolerance guidelines for certain unlawful activities that require immediate termination of any grower from the BURGER KING® supply chain. The BKC/CIW collaboration additionally provides for farmworker participation in the monitoring of growers' compliance with the company's vendor code of conduct.

John Chidsey, chief executive officer of Burger King Corp., said, "We are pleased to now be working together with the CIW to further the common goal of improving Florida tomato farmworkers' wages, working conditions and lives. The CIW has been at the forefront of efforts to improve farm labor conditions, exposing abuses and driving socially responsible purchasing and work practices in the Florida tomato fields. We apologize for any negative statements about the CIW or its motives previously attributed to BKC or its employees and now realize that those statements were wrong. Today we turn a new page in our relationship and begin a new chapter of real progress for Florida farmworkers.

"For more than 50 years, BKC has been a proud purchaser and supporter of the Florida tomato industry. However, if the Florida tomato industry is to be sustainable long-term, it must become more socially responsible. We, along with other industry leaders, recognize that the Florida tomato harvesters are in need of better wages, working conditions and respect for the hard work they do. And we look forward to working with the CIW in the pursuit of these necessary improvements. We also encourage other purchasers and growers of Florida tomatoes to engage in dialogue with the CIW in support of driving industry-wide socially responsible change. "

Lucas Benitez of the CIW added, "The events of the past months have been trying. But we are prepared to move forward, together now with Burger King, toward a future of full respect for the human rights of workers in the Florida tomato fields. Today we are one step closer to building a world where we, as farmworkers, can enjoy a fair wage and humane working conditions in exchange for the hard and essential work we do everyday. We are not there yet, but we are getting there, and this agreement should send a strong message to the rest of the restaurant and supermarket industry: Now is the time to join Yum! Brands, McDonalds, and Burger King in righting the wrongs that have been allowed to linger in Florida's fields for far too long."

Presbyterians and farmworkers deliver petitions to Burger King
[5-7-08]

A May 6 report from Presbyterian News Service begins: A delegation of Presbyterians joined a group of farmworker advocates in delivering 85,000 signatures to Burger King’s Miami headquarters last week urging the fast-food giant to join McDonald’s Corp. and Taco Bell to help increase the wages of Florida tomato pickers and improve working conditions in the growing fields.

The signatures from all 50 states and 42 countries were gathered as part of a national petition campaign launched in February by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a community-based labor rights group in Immokalee, FL that works in partnership with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and other faith-based, human-rights and student organizations.

An update from Noelle Damico, of the PC(USA) Campaign for Fair Food
[5-2-08]

Presbyterian leaders joined farmworkers in delivering petitions with 85,000 signatures from all 50 states and 42 countries to Burger King headquarters in Miami on April 28, calling for an end to slavery and sweatshop conditions in Florida's fields. Petition signers pledged they are "prepared to boycott Burger King." Is your signature on the petition? You can add it by visiting http://fairfoodnation.org/petition .

That morning the Fort Myers News Press broke that Burger King vice president Steve Grover had used his middle-school aged daughter's email address to post unfounded and derogatory information about the CIW on web sites.

The VP's online postings included claims that CIW was taking money from Yum and McDonald's. Burger King told the Associated Press Mr. Grover's comments were not the company's official position. However, these comments quite accurately reflected the company's position this past fall – a position they've never publicly retracted, despite calls from Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly and The Carter Center.

Addressing the press on Mr. Grover's postings, Gerardo Reyes Chavez of the CIW noted, "In these commentaries, he has called us "the lowest form of life," "bloodsuckers," and has accused us of being ourselves "exploiters". How is it possible, in Mr. Grover's eyes, that a community of farmworkers struggling precisely to defend our fundamental human rights can be considered something without humanity, "the lowest form of life"? "Exploiters"? For bringing six cases of slavery to federal court? "Bloodsuckers"? For demanding publicly that the fast-food industry -- which is worth over $100 billion -- take measures to end human rights abuses?"

"Burger King has the obligation to clarify if the words of their vice president reflect also Burger King's position as a corporation. If that is in fact the case, then they should have the courage to declare it openly, now, and not like cowards hiding in the shadows of the internet. And if their position is different, they must clarify that today, and not with words, but with concrete actions," concluded Reyes-Chavez.

In light of the enormous number of signatures on petitions and the urgent human rights crisis in the fields, the Rev. Dr. Arlene Gordon, Executive Presbyter of the Presbytery of Tropical Florida stated during the press conference on Monday, "It is my sincere hope that Burger King will heed the call of its customers and the farmworkers who make its business possible, and use its considerable power together with the CIW to advance human rights for farmworkers without delay."

May it be so! Let the company hear from you by signing the petition today http://fairfoodnation.org/petition .

Read the PC(USA) report with photos, quotes and links to speeches and more information about our delegation at www.pcusa.org/fairfood

Read the CIW's report with photos and narrative at www.ciw-online.org

Read Clifton Kirkpatrick's fall 2007 public letter to BK to retract false statements http://www.ciw-online.org/images/CKirkpat to SGroverBK.pdf

The Rev. Noelle Damico Campaign for Fair Food Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
noelle.damico@pcusa.org
NY Office: 631-751-7076
Mobile: 631-371-9877
www.pcusa.org/fairfood

Last chance to sign petition to Burger King to end slavery in the Florida fields
[4-25-08]

On Monday, the CIW and its allies, including a national delegation of Presbyterians, will be presenting signed Petitions to End Modern-Day Slavery and Sweatshops in the Fields to Burger King in Miami. Please keep this historic action and all who are involved in your prayers. If you haven't signed the petition or circulated it among your friends, now is the time! http://fairfoodnation.org/petition

In this update you'll find:

1. CIW Petition – sign online; delivery on 4/28
2. Congressional Hearings Expose Tomato Pickers' Exploitation
3. Is Burger King Spying on Fairfood Group?
4. Interfaith Action is seeking interns for summer and fall

A delegation of Presbyterians will join the farmworkers and other religious, human rights and student leaders at the ceremonial delivery, including Dr. Arlene Gordon (Executive Presbyter of the Presbytery of Tropical FL, where BK is headquartered); the Rev. Greg Bentley (President of the National Black Presbyterian Caucus); Ms. Nelia Senti (Treasurer of the National Hispanic Latino Caucus); Rev. Miguel Estrada (Pastor of the Immokalee-based Mision Peniel church); and the Rev. Kennedy McGowan (Pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, FL). We hope they'll be able to carry your petition signature! The ceremony will take place at Burger King's Miami headquarters on 4/28 from 3:30-5:30pm. For more information on how to participate in this event, visit www.ciw-online.org .

Thank you to everyone who has already mailed petition signatures that you have collected to CIW or who has signed online! If you have not yet sent your petitions, please call CIW at 239-657-8311 to arrange a way for them to arrive so that we can ensure they are included in the delivery to BK Headquarters. You can also fax petitions to 239-657-5055.

2. CONGRESSIONAL HEARING EXPOSES TOMATO PICKERS' EXPLOITATION On Tuesday, April 15, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee of the U.S. Senate held the first-ever hearing into the labor conditions of farmworkers in Florida. The Senators lambasted the FTGE for obstructing the penny-per-pound payments to farmworkers that are a part of the CIW's agreements with Yum! Brands and McDonald's. You can see photos as well as listen to the Senators remarks and testimony from CIW, the Collier County Police officer responsible for Human Trafficking, the Southern Poverty Law Center, as well as Reggie Brown of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange and Roy Reina of Granger Farms at www.ciw-online.org . Read the Presbyterian News Service story: http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2008/08309.htm .

3. IS BURGER KING SPYING ON FAIRFOOD GROUP? Amy Bennett Williams of the Ft. Meyers News-Press has published a chilling article that ties Burger King to email and web attacks on the CIW and which further alleges that Burger King may have hired a private security firm to infiltrate the Student Farmworker Alliance. The story was picked up and developed by Democracy Now, the Center for Media and Democracy as well as The Nation. Read and listen to the reports which include responses from Burger King.

For all links visit www.ciw-online.org and scroll down.

Link to the original story at http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080412/NEWS01/80412019/1014  and the 4/23/08 Nation editorial at http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20080423/cm_thenation/7314827

4. INTERFAITH ACTION SEEKING INTERNS FOR SUMMER/FALL

Interfaith Action, the Immokalee-based group that coordinates religious support for the CIW, is looking for summer and fall interns to work in Immokalee on the Campaign for Fair Food. Applicants may apply for Summer, Fall, or both, and should be flexible to organize with both Interfaith Action (http://interfaithact.org ) and Student Farmworker Alliance (http://sfalliance.org ) – in partnership with the CIW. For more information, and to apply, visit http://www.sfalliance.org/internship.html or contact info@interfaithact.org or 239-657-8311. 

We have reported earlier on the Senate hearing on April 15 on working conditions for tomato pickers in Florida. Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation, has now published a more detailed story on that event. She and co-author Greg Kaufman write: 

The hearing revealed that even when multibillion-dollar corporations like McDonald’s and Yum! Brands (whose subsidiaries include Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC, Long John Silver’s and A&W) attempt to do the right thing — and pay the workers more — powerful agribusiness interests have stood in the way. These corporations agreed to supplement the workers at a rate of an additional penny per pound for the tomatoes they purchase. Doesn’t sound like much — and it isn’t for the corporations — but it would result in about a 75 percent salary increase for workers who a 2001 US Department of Labor report described as “a labor force in significant economic distress… [with] low wages, sub-poverty annual earnings, [and] significant periods of un- and underemployment.”

As some growers began to implement the Yum/McDonald’s agreement — an extra paycheck cut to the farmworkers by the buyers, not the growers, mind you — the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange (FTGE), representing 90 percent of the state’s growers, said any members who adopted this policy would be fined $100,000 per worker benefiting from the agreement.     The whole story >>

And don’t miss the report from the Coalition of Immokalee Farmworkers >>

[4-17-08]

The Palm Beach Post reported on April 16 about the testimony given to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee about the realities of “slavery” in the tomato fields of Florida. For the hearing, held on Tuesday, April 15, no Republican committee members were in attendance.

Collier County Sheriff’s Detective Charlie Frost said that “Today’s form of slavery does not bear the overt nature of pre-Civil War society, but it is nonetheless heinous and reprehensible,” explaining that workers are held in “involuntary servitude” through threats and actual violence against them and their families – often in Latin America – and in a system of “perpetually accruing debt,” in which they are overcharged for housing, food, water and transportation.

Lucas Benitez, a co-founder of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, told the panel that tomato pickers regularly are abused, harassed, intimidated and kept so deeply in debt that they are virtually in bondage. Benitez said female pickers additionally are subjected to sexual harassment and abuse.

But Reginald Brown, executive vice president of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, disputed the characterization as slavery in the commercial tomato industry. Isolated cases have occurred among private growers, he said, but “Florida’s tomato growers abhor and condemn slavery. . . . We are on the same side on this issue.”

The staff of Interfaith Action of Southwest Florida sent their own report, with links to reports from CNN/AP, and The Nation.

Hello everyone,

During yesterday's U.S. Senate hearing, Lucas Benitez of the CIW; Detective Charlie Frost of the Collier County Sheriff's Department Anti-Trafficking Unit; Mary Bauer, Director of the Southern Poverty Law Center; and author Eric Schlosser testified before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee about the poverty and abuses faced by Florida tomato pickers.

Reggie Brown of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange (FTGE) also testified before the committee, where many of the FTGE's claims came under intense scrutiny. Senator Richard Durbin asked those in attendance to "join me in doing the math" to examine the growers' claim that farmworkers earn an average of $12.46/hour. He pointed out that to do so workers would have to fill and empty a 32-pound bucket of tomatoes about every two minutes all day long. "Is that possible?" Senator Durbin asked, "I don't think it is." Senator Sanders subsequently asked Mary Bauer of the Southern Poverty Law Center about how easy it is for agricultural employers to falsify wage and hour records. “Very easy,” she replied. After repeated requests, Brown reluctantly agreed to turn payroll records over to the General Accounting Office.

Senator Sanders also questioned Brown about the FTGE's threatened fines for tomato growers that participate in the McDonald's and Yum Brands agreements. Sanders explained that two top law firms found the agreements sound and legal and entered into the record a letter from 26 legal professors specializing in labor law – including antitrust dimensions of labor standards, who found that "The growers' ostensible concerns over antitrust law are flatly mistaken. The only real antitrust concern would arise if several growers agree among themselves to not participate in the CIW-Yum or CIW-McDonald's monitoring program."

Senators Kennedy, Durbin, and Sanders all remarked that the hearing marked "just the start" of Congressional inquiry into the wages and conditions faced by Florida tomato pickers.

You can see the full report, a link to the hearing and testimonies, and the extensive press coverage at www.ciw-online.org

Read the CNN/AP article >>

We can help by circulating the petition, too.
[3-17-08]

Dear Friends:

Congressional leaders are doing their part to sign and circulate CIW's petition. Please do yours! Visit www.ciw-online.org to download a copy of the petition, learn more about modern-day slavery and the role of consumers in holding the food industry accountable for bringing about change.

And check out our new Burger King Campaign webpage which provides a chronology of the PC(USA)'s engagement with Burger King and frequently asked questions at www.pcusa.org/fairfood (link to it from the right margin!)

Peace,

PC(USA) Campaign for Fair Food

Congressional Leaders Sign CIW Petition and Call Hearings

On Thursday, March 13th Congressional leaders and representatives from the human rights, labor, religious and student communities gathered on Capitol Hill to sign the CIW's Petition to End Modern-Day Slavery and Sweatshops in the Fields.

A press conference overlooking the Capitol building was organized by Senator Bernie Sanders who was joined by Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, and RFK Center Director Monika Kalra Varma. The Rev. Noelle Damico, National Coordinator of the PC(USA) Campaign for Fair Food, was among religious leaders who participated in the signing ceremony.

In addition to decrying the exploitative conditions under which farmworkers in Florida labor and the refusal of Burger King to work with the CIW as McDonald's and Yum! Brands have done, Senator Sanders also announced that a Congressional Hearing into the business practices of Burger King and other food industry leaders and the role of those practices in creating adverse conditions for men and women harvesting tomatoes in the Florida fields, has been scheduled for later this spring.

Senators Durbin and Sanders also sent letters, along with Senators Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH), to seven of the largest grocery and food service companies urging them to participate in a proposed initiative to increase the piece rate that tomato workers in Immokalee, Florida are paid. These companies supply produce to the US government.

Read an account of proceedings from Senator Sanders' website.

Stay tuned for CIW's update on www.ciw-online.org

Top officials of the PC(USA) sign CIW petition to end modern-day slavery and sweatshops in the fields

On Monday, March 10th, the Rev. Dr. Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, and Ms. Linda Bryant Valentine, Executive Director of the General Assembly Council, signed the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' National Petition to End Modern-Day Slavery and Sweatshops in the Fields.

"It is my sincere hope that by my signing this petition other people of faith and conscience will be inspired to make this commitment to advance human rights as well," Dr. Kirkpatrick said. "And that Burger King, which has worked so assiduously to avoid responsibility for shameful conditions in the tomato fields of its suppliers, would change course now and work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers."

Read the Presbyterian News Service story, "Petition drive to end 'modern-day slavery' launched by church-backed farmworkers: Campaign threatens boycott of Burger King."

Read Dr. Kirkpatrick's public statement on the signing

Read the CIW's petition and about the most recent slavery case

Dr. Kirkpatrick and Ms. Valentine join Presbyterians across the country who are already at work collecting signatures for this petition which calls on Burger King and other food industry leaders to work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers now to end exploitation in the fields and indicates that signatories are prepared to boycott Burger King now if the company fails to do so.

The Presbyterian News Service story also describes the context of the petition and the creative signature campaigns underway at First Presbyterian Church in Hollywood, FL and at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Check out the links above and be inspired to circulate this important petition creatively within your own congregation, presbytery and community. Be sure to let us know how you're circulating the petition by writing to noelle.damico@pcusa.org .

Peace,

Taking a page out of abolitionist history, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has launched a petition campaign calling on Burger King and other food industry leaders to work with the CIW to pay a penny more per pound to farmworkers harvesting tomatoes and to establish a enforceable, human-rights based code of conduct to end modern-day slavery and other abuses in the fields. The petition puts the industry on notice that signatories "are prepared to stop patronizing Burger King now and other food industry leaders in the future, should they fail to do so." The petitions will be presented to Burger King later in the spring during a peaceful action at the company's Miami headquarters.

Presbyterians across the country are already hard at work collecting signatures and drawing attention to the exploitative effect that the purchasing practices of Burger King and other retail food corporations are having on the men and women who harvest our tomatoes. [Read more and take action www.ciw-online.org ]

The launch of this petition campaign comes on the heels of a January 2008 federal indictment for the seventh case of modern-day slavery to emerge from Florida's fields in the past ten years. Petition campaigns and consumer actions by British citizens helped hasten the abolition of the British slave trade in 1807. The CIW petition campaign honors the 200th anniversary of the US ban against the importation of slaves (1808), and echoes the petition strategy of the early abolitionist movement.

The PC(USA) Campaign for Fair Food encourages Presbyterians to circulate this petition and to do so in creative ways! For example, the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, in Tropical FL Presbytery where Burger King is headquartered, plans to collect thousands of signatures on petitions designed as tomatoes, then assemble them into a plant that will be part of the procession to present the petitions to Burger King later in the Spring. Students and faculty at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary are gathering signatures at their upcoming alumni event and plan to hold a press conference and action highlighting the petition in light of the fact that Louisville was a stop on the US slave depot 200 years ago.

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