Is There Something Rotten About Your Tomatoes?
One of the most amazing privileges modern American life grants us is access to fresh fruits and vegetables year-round. One of the most appalling scandals is how we get them. Chances are you’ve grabbed a quick bite at a fast-food joint that at some point has gotten its tomatoes from the tomato-growing region around Immokalee, Florida. Immokalee is a small agricultural town that is unknown to most people outside the state, but the courage of a group of remarkable people is giving the Immokalee name increased recognition in the national news media: the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). The CIW is a grassroots community organization representing the poor, young, immigrant tomato-pickers who are threatened, physically abused, and treated as slave labor with disturbing frequency. They are also paid roughly $50 per day—on a good day, mind you—to perform the demanding labor that harvesting the tomatoes demands while enduring the Florida sun for long hours each day.
The most recent press centers on the CIW’s continuing struggle with a very intimidating opponent: Burger King Corporation. Workers represented by the CIW supply tomatoes to Burger King through the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange (FTGE), a network of farm owners who employ the tomato pickers. Together the FTGE produces about 90% of Florida’s tomatoes. When trying to negotiate wage raises through their employers at FTGE failed, the CIW began putting pressure on the multinational corporations who purchase Florida tomatoes. Unprecedented agreements have already been reached with McDonald’s and Yum Brands (the owners of Taco Bell), who now support the CIW’s demands to raise the pickers’ wages by $.01 for each pound harvested. Burger King, however, has allied itself with the FTGE and obstinately refused to support the penny-per-pound measure.
So, on November 30th the CIW, together with several student- and church-based groups, staged a nine-mile march ending at Burger King’s corporate headquarters in Miami to protest their implicit support of worker abuse. Since then numerous local newspapers, The New York Times, The Independent from the United Kingdom, and even Glamour magazine have put their, er, two cents in on behalf of the CIW.
From the outset, however, this ragtag group’s plight has had the support of faith communities of all kinds, and specifically our Catholic Church. The 2007 Labor Day address from Bishop DiMarzio of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops specifically cites the recent successes and continued struggle of the CIW as a “sign of hope for our Church”. These humble workers from a small town remind us of the power of people fueled by faith working together; they also remind us that in our modern economy we must take in active role in learning about the products we buy and how they affect others—the cause of justice belongs to all of us! Learn more about the CIW here.
Catholic Connections
“Yet the workers' rights cannot be doomed to be the mere result of economic systems aimed at maximum profits. The thing that must shape the whole economy is respect for the workers' rights…”
Pope John Paul II, Laborem Exercens
Reflection Questions
What are ways you can stand up for workers’ rights, even in Chicago?
Join us in our Forum to discuss these questions!
