National Farm Worker Ministry
MCDONALD’S STATEMENT
December ’05
The National Farm Worker Ministry urges McDonald’s
to seize the opportunity presented to them by the Coalition
of Immokalee Worker to improve the lives of farm workers,
their company and the agribusiness industry. McDonald’s
should work with the Coalition to establish and ensure
fair wages and safe working conditions for the farm
workers who pick tomatoes for McDonald’s products.
National Farm Worker Ministry includes national denominations,
religious organizations, local congregations and thousands
of individuals nationwide who yearn for justice for
the workers who pick the food we eat. In over 80 years
of ministry with farm workers, we have witnessed first
hand, the suffering and abuse experienced by farm workers
in Florida and across the country, including low wages
and underpayment of wages, forced labor, lack of health
care, exposure to dangerous pesticides, overcrowded
and unsanitary housing conditions, sexual harassment,
lack of drinking water or toilets at work sites, and
heat related deaths. Farm workers face harassment and
firing if they complain about such abuses.
Farm workers are still excluded from many of the laws
and regulations protecting other workers and there is
minimal enforcement of those that are in place. Labor
agreements, in which the workers have a protected role
in ensuring enforcement of negotiated wages and working
conditions, are the surest way to achieve some measure
of fairness for all in the agricultural industry. History
has proven that growers and workers both benefit from
such agreements.
McDonald’s Code of Conduct states that they will
only do business with those suppliers who act according
to their corporate principles, which include that all
workers be treated with dignity and respect, that all
workers be compensated fairly, and that all work environments
be clean, safe and sanitary.
If McDonald’s is honest about its insistence that
suppliers adhere to these principles, it should not
rely on a system such as SAFE whose founders include
growers who have been violating these principles for
years. Rather it should look for new models that include
a substantive role for those who are most affected -
the farm workers. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers
has established such a model with Taco Bell. McDonald’s
may be a global leader in the food industry; but this
time, they should follow Taco Bell’s lead.
END