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January 2006
The Buddhist Peace Fellowship commends
the Coalition for Immokalee Workers (CIW) and YUM Brands/Taco
Bell on their breakthrough agreement in March of 2005.
This agreement addresses the dire conditions farm workers
endure. It offers real opportunity for changing the
dismal status quo in fields throughout the country.
We hope that McDonald’s follows in the footsteps
of Yum Brands/Taco Bell to correct decades of human
rights abuses and sub-poverty wages affecting farm workers
in Florida and throughout the United States.
Recently, McDonald’s Corporation announced that
they have aligned themselves with a new initiative,
the Socially Accountable Farm Employers (SAFE). The
SAFE program can in no way be construed as an efficient
and reliable program to address the unfair labor practices
and stagnant wages faced by farm workers. In fact, there
are currently only two entities involved in this initiative,
the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association,
a staunchly anti-worker group, and the Redlands Christian
Migrant Association (RCMA), a childcare agency that
receives funding from the growers association. By aligning
themselves with the SAFE program, McDonald’s is
choosing a partnership that excludes the very people
who are being abused by the system. In sidestepping
the CIW, McDonald’s is skirting the very issues
that need to be addressed. We sincerely hope McDonald’s
officials re-examine this position.
We are dismayed when we read about the unjust situation
farm workers face on a daily basis. We are certain that
any well-informed individual, including McDonald’s’
employees, corporate executives, and board members are
equally appalled by the extreme conditions farm workers
in their supply chain endure. McDonald’s and other
multi-national corporations demand the lowest possible
price for their high volume of tomatoes, which pressures
their suppliers to cut costs in order to boost profitability.
But these cost cutting measures inevitably impact those
at the very bottom of the corporate ladder. Unjust and
unsafe conditions that currently exist can be eliminated
if McDonald’s works with the CIW to ensure its
suppliers change course and treat farm workers with
the dignity everyone deserves. We ask that McDonald’s
join with the CIW to implement and extend the principles
of social responsibility established in the Yum Brands/CIW
agreement to ensure McDonald’s tomato suppliers
provide farm workers the ability to feed their own families
and to live with dignity and respect.
We urge McDonald’s to work together with the CIW
to follow the YUM Brands! Model, which is already providing
benefits to farm workers in Florida. McDonald’s
recent decision to offer Fair Trade coffee in 650 restaurants
makes it seem as if it wants to do the right thing with
regards to farm workers. But until McDonald’s
takes similar action in the tomato industry- including
paying an increased price for tomatoes so that tomato
pickers can earn an improved wage- it is unclear if
McDonald’s hopes to be on the forefront of a changing
relationship with farm workers or merely wants to burnish
its reputation as a socially responsible company.
The first two paragraphs of McDonald’s “Code
of Conduct for Supplier’s” reads (italics
are added):
"McDonald’s believes that
all employees deserve to be treated with dignity and
respect. In each and every aspect of the employment
relationship, employers need to act towards their
employees as they would themselves want to be treated.
The 100% satisfaction of our internal customers –
our employees – is essential to the 100% satisfaction
of our external customers…. As a result, McDonald’s
has established a well-respected record and reputation
for business honesty and integrity. These principles
apply globally, form the basis for McDonald’s
own ethical business practices, and are cornerstones
to McDonald’s success.
McDonald’s strongly believes that those suppliers
who are approved to do business with the McDonald’s
System should follow the same philosophy, and, in
the best interest of the System, McDonald’s
will refuse to approve or do business with those who
do not uphold, in action as well as words, the same
principles."
McDonald’s is not living up to
its promise to treat farm workers “as the employers
themselves want to be treated”. What employer
would choose to walk to a bus stop each morning before
sunrise (6 or 7 days a week) and wait to see if they
would be “chosen” to work that day? What
employer would work 14-hour days without overtime pay
or any additional benefits? What employer would choose
to fill 32 pound buckets of tomatoes to earn wages that
have remained stagnant for better than 25 years at 40-45
cents per bucket? What employer would pick, fill, and
haul 125 of these buckets, with little or no rest, in
order to earn $50.00 at the end of the day? What employer
would endure such intolerable conditions? We believe
it is safe to say not one employer, not one McDonald’s’
executive, not one McDonald’s’ board member
would subject themselves to these hardships. And neither
should tomato pickers be subjected to these conditions.
The Yum Brands agreement called for a penny a pound
increase in wages, which almost doubles the tomato bucket
piece rate farm workers receive, and it is a fair assumption
that McDonald’s could do even better than this.
The agreement also puts in place a mechanism for addressing
grievances. It is the first enforceable Code of Conduct
for agricultural suppliers in the fast-food industry
(and it includes the CIW, a worker-based organization,
as part of the investigative body for monitoring worker
complaints).
From a Buddhist perspective, we are not separate from
the suffering of another human being. This is very similar
to the truth expressed by Jesus: “Whatsoever you
do to the least of my brothers that you do unto me.”
This spiritual truth becomes clear in the example of
our relationship to the farm worker, for we eat the
very fruit of his or her suffering. The tomato we eat
is imbued with the sweat and tears of the laborer who
picks it from the vine. The source of our nutrition
comes at a price that few of us are willing to consider.
Once we become aware of the circumstances, we must act.
We call on McDonald’s to immediately work with
the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to address the sub-poverty
wages and working conditions of farm workers in its
tomato supply chain. If McDonald’s does this,
it will truly be regarded as a corporation that lives
up to its social responsibility and it will improve
the lives of the workers whose labor it depends upon.
Johnny Barber
Buddhist Peace Fellowship- Florida
Maia Duerr
Executive Director
Buddhist Peace Fellowship
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