[Imc-africa] Tell Burger King to Stop Slavery in Florida's Fields!

Fri Apr 25 14:09:28 PDT 2008

Dear Friend -- Hannah Sassaman here.  Please help with this important fight
for workers' rights in some of our most productive farm fields in the United
States. I'm sending a one-time email to folks I've corresponded in the past
-- don't worry about any more spam from me!  I'm an ally to the Coalition of
Immokalee Workers <http://www.ciw-online.org> -- a union of farmworkers
fighting for fair rights in the fields of Florida and everywhere.  And my
colleague Desi put together a special
petition<http://www.petitiononline.com/1penny/petition.html>from my
community, Philadelphia, that she's taking to Florida this weekend
as the coalition prepares to demand fair wages for workers from a huge
purchaser of their tomatoes -- Burger King!  Read below, excuse duplicate
copies, and please take action now to force Burger King to pay *one penny
more per pound of tomatoes that America's farmworkers pick* -- sign this
petition <http://www.petitiononline.com/1penny/petition.html> now --
http://www.petitiononline.com/1penny/petition.html !  And forward this
message widely.  Love -- Hannah Sassaman

Dear Friend,

Right now, farm bosses in Florida are on trial for chaining tomato pickers
inside trucks at night and beating them for trying to escape
(1<http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2008/January/08_crt_034.html>).
In our supermarkets and restaurants, we as consumers bought the tomatoes
picked by those men, and by over 1,000 workers involved in six other federal
slavery cases in the past ten years out of Florida. Burger King, a large
purchaser of Florida tomatoes, has tried to whitewash conditions in the
fields and deny that slavery is a problem. *Can you sign a petition today
<http://www.petitiononline.com/1penny/petition.html>to force Burger King to
help end slavery, and pay a living wage in America's fields?  *
http://www.petitiononline.com/1penny/petition.html*
*

Following a recent visit to Immokalee, Florida, Senator Bernie Sanders told
Nation editor Katrina Vanden Heuvel that the farmworkers he saw there "are
more ruthlessly exploited and treated with more contempt than any group of
workers I've ever seen and I suspect exist in the U.S."
(2<http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?pid=277332>)
The tomato pickers who supply our supermarkets and restaurants work long
hours with no right to overtime pay, and often live a dozen men or more to a
rat-infested trailer
(3<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/24/us/24tomato.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=us&adxnnlx=1198515955-b1azQbGU0aGlIvrfVbdwTw>).
They do backbreaking work, paid 45 cents for every 32-lb bucket they
pick (4<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/29/opinion/29schlosser.html?_r=1&oref=slogin>),
a rate that hasn't changed significantly in 30 years.

But that's not all. Florida, which provides America with 80% of our winter
tomatoes (5<http://sarasota.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/a_whopper_of_a_fight/Content?oid=157818>),
has earned the title of "ground zero for modern-day slavery," in the words
of one federal prosecutor, thanks to a steady drumbeat of forced labor
prosecutions out of the state's fields. Yet despite this brutal reality,
tomatoes picked in these conditions continue to make their way onto our
hamburgers and grocery shelves, no questions asked.

*Tell Burger King to end
sweatshops<http://www.petitiononline.com/1penny/petition.html>,
or lose the business of millions of Americans!  *
http://www.petitiononline.com/1penny/petition.html*
*

My friends at the *Coalition of Immokalee
Workers*<http://www.ciw-online.org>are asking Burger King to pay one
penny more per pound of tomatoes that
these workers pick and to support an industry-wide code of conduct on
farmworker labor. This pay raise and a new set of basic standards will bring
them out of poverty, and toward the dignity we all deserve. But Burger King
is refusing to help. They say that "the proposed penny-per-pound increase...
won't produce change"(6<http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080305/NEWS01/803050407/1075>),
even though companies like McDonald's and Taco Bell have already nearly
doubled the wages for thousands of farmworkers, under pressure from people
like you. Estimates show that paying a penny more per pound would only cost
Burger King $250,000 a year
(7<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/29/opinion/29schlosser.html?_r=1&oref=slogin>)
– mere pennies to this multi-billion dollar a year giant.

Signing the petition <http://www.petitiononline.com/1penny/petition.html> is
just the first step. Thousands of churchgoers, students, and national
organizations plan to join the Coalition on *April 28th, *to present the
petition to Burger King in person, at their headquarters in Miami, Florida.
And, as we turn up the volume, our legislators are listening -- *already,
Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) have threatened to
review government contracts with tomato providers, *while the* *Senate
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has held a major hearing on
conditions in the fields (8 <http://ciw-online.org/Senate_hearing.html>).

*The pressure is mounting. If we can sign this
petition<http://www.petitiononline.com/1penny/petition.html>and spread
the word by April 28th, we'll show Burger King and other
companies that we won't tolerate fast-food profits from farmworker poverty
any longer! *

Much love and respect,

Hannah Sassaman

Background Sources:

   1.

   "Release: Immokalee, Florida Family Charged with Forcing Immigrants
   Into Farm Labor," United States Department of Justice, *
   http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2008/January/08_crt_034.html*

"How about a side order of human rights," *Miami Herald*, Dec. 16, 2007,*
http://www.ciw-online.org/Fred_Grimm_Side_Order_Rigts.html*

   1.

   "Slavery in the Union," The Nation, Jan. 29, 2008,
   http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?pid=277332
   2.

   "Tomato Pickers' Wages Fight Faces Obstacles," *New York Times* -- *
   http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/24/us/24tomato.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=us&adxnnlx=1198515955-b1azQbGU0aGlIvrfVbdwTw
   *
   3.

   "Penny Foolish", *New York Times*, November 29th, 2007, *
   http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/29/opinion/29schlosser.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
   *
   4.

   *"A Whopper of a Fight," Creative Loafing*,
   http://sarasota.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/a_whopper_of_a_fight/Content?oid=157818
   5.

   "Immokalee Workers Raise Stakes," *Times-Press,* March 4th, 2008 *
   http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080305/NEWS01/803050407/1075
   *
   6.

   "Penny Foolish", *New York Times*, November 29th, 2007, *
   http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/29/opinion/29schlosser.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
   *
   7.

   "Congress members back call to raise tomato pickers' pay", Palm Beach
   Post, March 16th, 2008
   http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/shared/news/FARM_WORKERS14_PBP.html

          Details on the April 15th hearing:
http://ciw-online.org/Senate_hearing.html
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