| WAGE INCREASE:
Taco Bell’s increase of one penny
more per pound means workers earn roughly
75 cents/bucket when picking tomatoes for
Taco Bell, up from the going rate of 40-45
cents.
At the current 40-45 cent rate for a 32-lb
bucket of tomatoes, workers earn between
1.25 and 1.4 cents per pound. The additional
1-cent therefore nearly doubles the percentage
of the final retail price going to the workers
who pick the produce.
According to US Department of Labor farmworkers
earn between $7,500 - $10,000 annually. If
instituted across the industry, therefore,
the penny per pound increase would put, roughly,
an additional $6,000-$7,000 into workers’ pockets
per year.
While this would indeed be a significant
raise for the country’s worst-paid
workers, it is useful to bear in mind that,
given farmworkers’ current income levels,
this raise would only bring workers up to
poverty level. |
WAGE INCREASE:
None.
McDonald’s has said that SAFE standards
require their suppliers to guarantee that
workers picking by the piece will receive
at least minimum wage. McDonald’s says
this requirement will result in a wage increase.
There are two problems with this position:
- It is not an increase, unless it is
McDonald’s
position that its suppliers have, until
now, been stealing their workers’ wages.
The minimum wage guarantee has been the
law for decades.
- Taco Bell suppliers are also required
to comply with the law, including the minimum
wage guarantee. But Taco Bell is also paying
the additional penny per pound, resulting
in an absolute increase above the common
minimum wage standard.
Recognizing the limitations of SAFE, McDonald’s
subsequently announced that it will require
its suppliers to pay into Social Security,
Workers Compensation, and Medicaid and that
some suppliers may provide low-cost housing
and transportation. This is nothing more
than a package of basic employment benefits
already required by law and practices already
common in the tomato industry. The additional
standards will not result in any significant
change, as the majority of large growers
already meet these “new” requirements.
In practice, this simply means that McDonald’s
will only buy from large growers, which McDonald’s
already does. |
WORKER PARTICIPATION:
Taco Bell’s “Supplemental Policy
Statement for Florida Tomato Growers” authorizes
farmworkers, through the CIW, to participate
fully in enforcing the Taco Bell code of
conduct.
The Supplemental Policy Statement was drafted
in negotiations with workers through the
CIW.
Workers, through the Coalition of Immokalee
Workers, are partners in the new code and
continue to work with Yum Brands representatives
in the ongoing definition of enforcement
protocols. |
WORKER PARTICIPATION:
None.
Barbara Mainster, the Executive Director
of the Redlands Christian Migrant Association
and an original member of the SAFE board
of directors, told the press that she “had
no idea who all was included,” in drafting
the code of conduct, but stated that “my
guess is that agricultural entities were
involved.”
Ms. Mainster told a Tampa radio interviewer
that, as far as she knows, “no farmworkers
were involved in writing the code.”
As is the case with McDonald’s non-wage
supplier requirements, the SAFE code of conduct
is an extension of the assumption that growers
know best what is good for “their” pickers.
In the case of the supplier requirements,
workers are told that labor camp housing
is better than a wage increase that would
allow workers to rent their own housing;
in the case of the SAFE code, workers are
not consulted in drafting the code and must
rely on the good will of the growers to police
themselves. |
TRANSPARENCY:
100% transparency for Taco Bell tomato purchases
in Florida.
The agreement commits Taco Bell to buy only
from Florida growers who agree to the penny/lb
pass-through and to document and monitor
the pass-through, providing the CIW with
complete weekly reports of Taco Bell’s
Florida tomato purchases.
This transparency lends significant credibility
to Taco Bell’s code of conduct and
facilitates enforcement, as it is immediately
possible to determine if Taco Bell is purchasing
from suppliers where labor rights violations
are determined to be occurring. |
TRANSPARENCY:
None.
McDonald’s does not make its supplier
information known – the identity of
suppliers nor quantities purchased – to
the public nor to the CIW. |
