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Tomatoes, But Hold The Wages

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By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ, The Associated Press

Published: November 24, 2007

IMMOKALEE - Landmark deals to boost wages for Florida tomato pickers are in danger of collapsing under pressure from Burger King and a growers group, the latter threatening $100,000 fines against any members who participate.

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers fought for years to persuade fast-food giants McDonald's Corp. and Taco Bell owner Yum Brands Inc. to pay a penny more per pound of Florida tomatoes - with their suppliers passing the money on to farmworkers. The agreements were mostly symbolic, affecting only a tiny fraction of Florida tomato pickers, but they paved the way for raising wages and strengthening farmworker rights across the industry.

So the coalition next set its sights on Burger King, but the Miami-based company has joined the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange in opposing such a deal.

The growers exchange maintains the agreements may violate antitrust laws, though it has declined to offer specifics. It threatened members that accept the deal with $100,000 fines, three sources close to the exchange told The Associated Press.

What the growers say carries weight. Florida supplies 80 percent of the nation's domestic fresh tomatoes between Thanksgiving and February.

Exchange spokesman Reggie Brown refused to discuss the fines but called the coalition agreements "un-American" because they allow a third party to set wages. He said the industry instead will continue to develop its own programs to monitor worker treatment and food safety.

Several antitrust experts say the association may be the one violating antitrust laws by banning its members' participation.

"This exchange is limiting one way in which these growers can compete for the business of these major fast-food contracts," said Stephen Ross, a Pennsylvania State University law professor. "The only antitrust violation I see is the growers' response."

For the backbreaking labor of picking tomatoes, Florida workers earn about 45 cents per 32-pound bucket. That can mean upward of $11 an hour for those who hustle to fill more than 200 buckets a day. Work isn't guaranteed, however, and tomato pickers get neither health insurance nor overtime. Most fieldworkers are immigrants, many of them here illegally.

If the McDonald's and Yum Brands deals are adopted industrywide, worker wages essentially would double. Yum Brands says it's still committed to the coalition, yet after two successful seasons, its suppliers opted out this year. Oak Brook, Ill.-based McDonald's has yet to find any supplier who will participate but will continue to buy Florida tomatoes either way.

Undeterred, the Immokalee coalition is still targeting Burger King, organizing a 9-mile march Nov. 30 from downtown Miami to the company's headquarters, with workers, students and community groups from across the country.

"It's more important now than ever," said Lucas Benitez, the coalition's co-founder, as he recently chatted up tomato pickers, their clothes and hands stained a brownish green from dirt and pesticides. "There's no one company that buys the majority of tomatoes that we can just pressure to change this industry. With each agreement, we are building a house brick by brick."

Although wages have been stagnant for decades, so has the price of tomatoes. Tomato growers are facing tough times with competition from Mexico, stricter food and safety regulations and concerns about immigration raids. At least two growers aren't planting this year and a third says this is his last.

Tomato production may be down, but restaurant and grocery chains have to buy fresh tomatoes from the state in winter, the coalition says.

Under the Yum Brands agreement, the Louisville, Ky.-based company split the bonus among all of its suppliers' field hands. An independent accountant cut the checks, and the growers passed them out. The deal also allowed the coalition to investigate complaints about labor violations, yet it hasn't filed any since it signed the agreement in 2004.

Burger King Vice President Steve Grover says the deal sounds fishy, despite two years of negotiations with the coalition and offers from Yum Brands to go over details. Company officials have repeatedly insinuated the coalition is taking the extra money, even after Yum Brands and The Carter Center, an Atlanta human rights group that helped facilitate the deal, dismissed the allegations.

Meanwhile, the growers and Burger King recently teamed up to offer media tours of tomato fields to counter the coalition's allegations of below poverty-level wages and abuses of some workers.

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