Student Labor Week of Action Spotlights Tomato Workers’ Struggle for Fair Wage

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/03/26/student-labor-week-of-action-spotlights-tomato-workers-struggle-for-fair-wage/

by James Parks, Mar 26, 2008

Progressive students have been deeply involved in issues of worker justice on campuses and in their communities. So much so, that those involved are forgoing spring break on the beach so they can take action in support of low-wage workers’ struggle for fair wages and freedom to form unions.



The ninth annual week of action, sponsored by the Student Labor Action Project (SLAP) and co-sponsored by the AFL-CIO and several unions, takes place March 28–April 4 between the anniversaries of César Chávez’s birth and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Many student events will support the struggle of tomato workers, members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), who are reaching out to 1 million people to sign a petition demanding that Burger King and food industry leaders improve wages for workers who pick tomatoes and help eliminate slave labor-like conditions and human rights abuses from Florida’s fields.

At Emory University in Atlanta, students will hear from CIW members and deliver a petition to the manager of the Burger King on campus.

Last April, the CIW won a groundbreaking agreement with McDonald’s, the world’s largest restaurant chain. The fast-food giant agreed to pay a penny more per pound to workers harvesting tomatoes, which means the workers get 72 cents to 77 cents for every 32-pound container of tomatoes they pick, up from 40 cents to 45 cents.

But Burger King, the world’s second-largest hamburger chain, has rejected working with the CIW to improve farm workers’ wages and conditions. The Emory students plan to deliver a petition to the manager of the campus Burger King.

FULL story at link.