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Two weeks, now, have
passed since consumers across the country began calling
on McDonald’s to work with the CIW to address
sub-poverty wages and sweatshop conditions in its tomato
supply chain. What have we learned in the course of
the past two weeks?
The following is a short list of some of the facts that
have emerged since the CIW’s call went out Thanksgiving
week:
* McDonald’s is refusing to work
with the CIW to address sub-poverty wages and substandard
working conditions in Florida’s tomato fields;
* Instead, McDonald’s has announced
its intention to purchase tomatoes only from growers
certified by the newly formed, grower-dominated, farm
labor accountability initiative called “SAFE”;
* “SAFE” (Socially Accountable Farm Employers)
is described as an independent initiative of the Florida
agricultural industry, one coincidentally formed at
exactly the same time McDonald’s came under
fire for labor conditions in its Florida tomato supply
chain;
* “SAFE” is the newest client of CBR Public
Relations, a public relations firm that specializes
in “activist response management,” according
to its website, www.cbrpr.com;
* CBR Public Relations lists McDonald’s as one
of its star clients;
* “SAFE” counts only two public participants
at this point, the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association
(FFVA) and the Redlands Christian Migrant Association
(RCMA);
* The FFVA is Florida’s largest and most influential
agricultural employers’ lobby with a staunchly
anti-labor record in Tallahassee;
* The RCMA is an excellent child care agency and is
the FFVA’s favorite charity, receiving large
annual donations from the agricultural lobby and having
the FFVA’s vice president serve as the President
of the RCMA Board of Directors for many years;
* The Executive Director of the RCMA told the press
that “as far as she knows, no farmworkers were
involved in the writing,” of the SAFE code of
conduct.
Before we look more closely at these new
facts, a brief recap of the events of the past two weeks
is in order.
As the CIW’s call went out Thanksgiving week,
the press picked up the story and asked McDonald’s
representatives how the company planned to respond.
McDonald’s answered by announcing that it would
partner with the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association,
the state’s leading agribusiness lobby, through
a brand new initiative called “SAFE,” to
help raise labor standards in Florida’s tomato
fields.
Sounded reasonable enough… right? Though McDonald’s
declined the CIW’s invitation to follow Taco Bell’s
lead and expand the gains established in the ground-breaking
Yum Brands agreement, the company would still be taking
action to address labor abuses in its tomato supply
chain.
But upon closer inspection, the hamburger giant’s
decision to be the first major buyer to partner with
“SAFE” started to seem a little murky.
Instead of working with the CIW -- the farmworker organization,
whose members are actually affected by the abuses McDonald’s
sought to address, with a proven model through the Yum
Brands agreement already benefiting workers –
McDonald’s was choosing to work with an unproven,
unknown, employer-led initiative that had been public
for less than a month. Indeed, the only information
available on SAFE was through a splashy new website,
www.safeagemployer.org,
which directs visitors to a public relations firm, CBR
Public Relations, when you click on “CONTACT
SAFE”.
According to the Council of Public Relations Firms,
CBR specializes in “media relations and crisis
management.” What does “crisis management”
have to do with socially accountable labor practices?
Suddenly, “SAFE” started to look like it
had more to do with public relations than labor relations.
This new information begged the question: Was McDonald’s
being straight with its customers when it says that
it is dedicated to the highest standards of social accountability
in the purchasing of its tomatoes?
Well, it’s only been two weeks, but we’ve
learned a lot. We have our opinion, but as a consumer,
ultimately, you have to make the call.
And to help you make that call, here below is a little
more information on the major players that have suddenly
populated this increasingly crowded stage:
We have learned that CBR is a firm that “specializes
in media relations and crisis management” (click
here for link).
 Or,
in CBR’s own words, “activist response management”
(http://www.cbrpr.com/web/retail.shtml).
And according to their site, CBR has quite a bit of
experience in this highly specialized field, boasting,
“In our 16+ years in this industry, there’s
not a lot we’ve missed. We’ve successfully
handled: Buckshot in beef steaks, beachside gas spills,
needles in apples, assaults in malls…” (http://www.cbrpr.com/web/retail.shtml).
You name the crisis, CBR has helped their clients
manage the media firestorm that ensues.
And who is listed as one of CBR’s star clients?
Why, McDonald’s, interestingly enough. In fact,
McDonald’s awarded CBR its coveted “National
Best Bets Award” in 2001 for excellence in public
relations (http://www.cbrpr.com/web/nsyncbestbets.shtml).
A quick look at the FFVA’s
2004 Annual Report (http://www.ffva.com)
provides valuable insight into this important institution’s
role in Florida agriculture, the state’s second
largest industry after tourism.
The FFVA is a membership organization of Florida fruit
and vegetable growers that provides services crucial
to its members’ economic well-being. First among
those services is “Communication and Government
Relations” – also known as media relations
and lobbying. 
Lobbying, of course, means working to limit government
regulation of the industry. Paul Orsenigo, a member
grower quoted in the 2004 report, states, “It
seems we spend more time watching over our operations
and complying with regulations than we do actually growing
crops. It’s the nature of what we do now with
all the government regulations.”
The FFVA also attends to its members’ labor needs,
again with a focus on lobbying, “helping growers
meet labor needs while keeping costs down.” As
Everett Lukonen, another member grower quoted in the
report confirms, “Florida agriculture has got
to manage labor costs if it’s going to compete.”
So, first and foremost, the FFVA is the lobbying arm
of the state’s agricultural industry, its mission
to limit government regulation and keep labor costs
down. And by all indications, the FFVA does its job
very well.
According to the Palm Beach Post -- in an article detailing
the death of a bill to protect pesticide workers due,
in part, to the FFVA’s opposition ("Reform
hits stony ground") -- the FFVA is the
state’s “largest pool of agricultural donors”
to the Florida legislature. The article goes on to say
that, when the FFVA “recently held its annual
convention at the Ritz-Carlton… the governor and
the chairs of the House and Senate agricultural committees
all made appearances.”
Not only does the FFVA’s financial clout convey
the growers’ lobby power, but the Florida legislature
is unusually stocked with natural allies of agriculture,
themselves no friends of government oversight of the
industry. According to the same Palm Beach Post report
("Farmers make up powerful committee"),
“Half the 14 members of the House Agriculture
Committee are farmers or have worked in agriculture.
Combined, they have raked in nearly $480,000 in campaign
contributions from agribusiness. The other seven members
-- who have no ties to agriculture -- have received
a cumulative $64,000.” Among those legislators
is Marty Bowen, R-Winter Haven, who, “a wealthy
citrus heiress who chairs the House Agricultural Committee,
is also a grower whose company has been accused of violating
farm-worker labor laws.”
Indeed, its seems that the FFVA’s message is heard
loud and clear in Florida’s state capital, Tallahassee.
That same 2003 Palm Beach Post story reported that in
her speech accepting the FFVA’s Lawmaker of the
Year Award, State Senator Nancy Argenziano, Republican
from Crystal River and Chair of the Senate Committee
on Agriculture, declared, “The essence of freedom
is the limitation of government.”
The FFVA is one partner -- the senior partner, by all
indications -- in the new farm labor accountability
project known as “SAFE”, a project with
the stated goal of raising the standards for how Florida
growers manage their labor, and of strictly enforcing
those new standards so that companies like McDonald’s
can rest assured that those new, higher standards are
being met.
The RCMA describes its mission as:
“1. Provide quality child care.
2. Provide children and their families with support
services.
3. Provide educational opportunities and improve the
health and general welfare of children and their families.
4. Involve parents in the educational process and
in public policy decisions affecting their children
and families.
5. Increase public awareness of the lifestyle of migrant
and seasonal farmworkers.
6. Provide opportunities and encourage the professional
development of staff hired from the farmworker and
other communities served.” (http://www.rcma.org)
However,
RCMA not only provides excellent childcare and survival
needs for hard-working farmworkers and their families,
RCMA also appears to be the FFVA's favorite charity.
According to a press release issued by the FFVA in 2003
following a charity benefit at the FFVA’s annual
convention: “A live auction and a silent auction
raised approximately $40,000 for the Redlands Christian
Migrant Association (RCMA) and a group of generous donors
who pledged $1,000 apiece raised an additional $31,000.
The total of $71,000 was matched by federal and state
funds at a rate of $16 to $1, bringing the total to
over $1 million…” (http://www.ffva.com/newsroom/nw71.htm)
The donation was greatly appreciated. "It's just
mind-boggling," said RCMA Executive Director Barbara
Mainster. "FFVA has always supported us, but now
we feel like they've adopted us!"
The FFVA makes large annual donations to the RCMA. And
for many years, the vice president and general manager
of the FFVA – George F. Sorn, 2002 inductee into
the Florida Agriculture Hall of Fame -- served as President
of the RCMA Board of Directors.
In an interview with Tampa radio station WMNF about
the code of conduct drafted by the newly-minted “SAFE”,
Barbara Mainster, Executive Director of the RCMA, said,
“as far as she knows, no farmworkers were involved
in writing the code.” (http://www.wmnf.org/programming/news.php?ReportId=2591)
So there
you have it. Being a consumer means making informed
choices. Sometimes that choice is between high quality
and low prices, and sometimes it’s between real
social responsibility and public relations charades
designed to give the appearance of respect for labor
while keeping workers harmlessly on the sidelines.
An article entitled “Flak Attack” from the
Center for Media and Democracy and their publication,
“PR Watch,” provides a useful perspective
for the events of the past two weeks (http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1999Q4/index.html):
“During the reign of Catherine
the Great in Russia, one of her closest advisors was
field marshall Grigori Potemkin, who used numerous
wiles to build her image. When she toured the countryside
with foreign dignitaries, he arranged to have fake
villages built in advance of her visits so as to create
an illusion of prosperity. Since that time, the term
"Potemkin village" has become a metaphor
for things that look elaborate and impressive but
in actual fact lack substance.”
The PR Watch piece concludes, “The
world does not need more facades. We need real progress,
and real activism in order to attain it.”
Which brings us to perhaps the single most important
lesson of the past two weeks. In the November press
release announcing the creation of SAFE, Lisa Lochridge
of CBR declared:
“Social responsibility
is not an option. Today’s consumers insist on
it.”
Ms. Lochridge’s words were to prove
prophetic – unintentionally prophetic, maybe,
but prophetic nonetheless. While her words were the
opening salvo in what now appears to be a well-orchestrated
public relations campaign to sell the grower-dominated
initiative to the public as a legitimate alternative
to working with the CIW for substantive change, the
past two weeks have made one thing crystal clear: the
public isn’t buying it.
Over the past two weeks, thousands upon thousands of
consumers have emailed, called, and written to McDonald’s
to insist that the hamburger giant take real measures
to clean up labor abuses in its supply chain. What’s
more, dozens of the key institutional allies so important
in the successful Taco Bell Boycott – from the
National Council of Churches to the United Students
Against Sweatshops and the Robert F. Kennedy Center
for Human Rights – have renewed their support
for the CIW’s campaign. Their support has helped
amplify our voice so that tens of millions of consumers
across the globe could hear the cry for economic justice
from Immokalee.
Despite all the public relations double talk, consumers
have told McDonald’s, loud and clear, that social
responsibility is in fact not an option –
it’s a necessity.
That is lesson Number One.
Thanks – Coalition of Immokalee Workers
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