THE REAL RIGHTS TOUR

March 26 - April 4, 2006

Coalition of Immokalee Workers and Allies Gear Up for McDonald's Truth Tour 2006

Major Rally April 1st, Chicago, IL

WHERE: From Immokalee to Chicago (home of McDonald’s) and points in
between, including Louisville, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Ann
Arbor, Madison, South Bend, and more!

WHO: You – and farmworkers from Immokalee. If you’d like to join us in
Chicago or you live along the route, contact us to see how you can
participate, at workers@ciw-online.org

CIW members organizing for the "Real Rights Tour" at a recent remote
broadcast of the CIW's low-power radio station "Radio Conciencia" in
Immokalee.

WHAT: Farmworkers from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and their
allies will travel by caravan from Immokalee, FL, home of one of the
largest farmworker communities in the country, to Chicago, IL, home of the
world’s largest restaurant chain, McDonald’s.

On April 1st – the fifth anniversary of the launch of the successful Taco
Bell Boycott – the caravan will be joined by supporters from throughout
the region for a major rally in Chicago, where they will call on the
fast-food giant McDonald’s to work with the CIW and help establish real
labor rights for the workers who pick tomatoes for McDonald’s suppliers.Specifically, workers and their allies will be calling for:

* The right to a fair wage, after more than 25 years of sub-poverty wages
and stagnant piece rates;

* The right for farmworkers to participate in the decisions that affect
their lives, after decades of sweatshop conditions and humiliating labor
relations;

* The right to a real code of conduct based on modern labor standards,
after
McDonald’s and its suppliers unilaterally imposed a hollow code of conduct
comprised of minimal labor standards and suspect monitoring

The Taco Bell boycott victory on March 8th, 2005, established important
new precedents for corporate social responsibility in the fast-food
industry. But since that time, McDonald’s has taken a path that threatens
to undercut the wage gains won by farmworkers in the Taco Bell Boycott and
to push workers back away from the table where decisions are made that
affect their lives.

McDonald’s clearly knows how to do better. The fast-food giant recently
announced an agreement to purchase only fair-trade coffee for over 650 of
its restaurants, paying a reasonable premium over market price so that the
workers who pick their coffee can receive a fair wage and enjoy humane
labor conditions.

Yet McDonald’s refuses to pay even a penny more per pound for its
tomatoes so that Florida farmworkers can earn a better wage. Likewise,
McDonald’s requires its toy suppliers in China to respect internationally
recognized labor rights, including the right to overtime pay and the
right to organize, but refuses to require its tomato suppliers in Florida
to respect those same fundamental rights.

In the face of McDonald’s steadfast refusal to treat farmworkers with
respect, demand truly humane labor standards of its suppliers, and pay a
fairer price for tomatoes in order to address farmworker poverty – poverty
which has helped pad McDonald’s profits for more than 50 years – the CIW
is traveling to McDonald’s backyard with a clear message: Nothing less
than real rights will do!

BACKGROUND: After a four-year national boycott of the fast-food chain
Taco Bell, the CIW and Yum Brands forged an agreement that established
several critical precedents for corporate supply chain accountability in
the food industry. As a result of that agreement, Taco Bell is now
directly contributing to an increase in tomato pickers’ wages, an increase
that would nearly double farmworkers’ wages were it to be extended across
the tomato industry. The Taco Bell agreement established the first code
of conduct for Florida agricultural suppliers that guarantees a meaningful
role for farmworkers in the protection of their own rights. The agreement
also set new rules for supply chain transparency, allowing workers to
track Taco Bell’s tomato purchases and so ensure true accountability.

During the boycott, a broad range of student, religious, labor and
community organizations joined with the CIW in a growing alliance for “not
just fast, but fair food.” With these allies by its side, the CIW has
called on McDonald’s to follow Taco Bell’s lead in recognizing its
responsibility for labor abuses in its supply chain and taking meaningful
steps to address those abuses.

Farmworkers continue to be some of the most exploited and impoverished
workers in the US. Florida’s tomato pickers earn 40-50 cents for each
32lb bucket of tomatoes they pick. At that rate – a rate that has
remained virtually unchanged since 1978 – workers have to pick more than
two tons of tomatoes just to earn minimum wage. They receive no overtime
pay and no benefits, and have no right to organize in order to improve
these conditions.

As a major buyer of Florida’s tomatoes, McDonald’s benefits from
farmworker exploitation in the form of cheap produce, and actually
contributes to that exploitation by leveraging its enormous purchasing
power to demand the lowest possible price for the tomatoes it buys. In
agriculture, this translates directly into a downward pressure on wages
and working conditions for farmworkers.

McDonald’s purchasing power also provides the fast-food giant with the
opportunity to play a meaningful role in correcting this human rights
crisis. However, rather than follow Yum Brands’ lead and work with the
CIW and its suppliers in a genuine partnership for social responsibility,
McDonald’s has taken a path calculated both to undercut the wage gains won
by farmworkers in the Taco Bell Boycott and push workers back away from
the table at which decisions are made that affect their lives.

In the face of mounting concern over human rights abuses in its supply
chain, McDonald’s chose to work exclusively with the leading lobbying
group for Florida growers, the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, to
develop a minimal set of supplier guidelines dubbed “Socially Accountable
Farm Employers,” or SAFE. Designed more to address McDonald’s perceived
public relations crisis than the real human rights crisis in the fields,
SAFE totally sidesteps calls to improve farmworker wages and to respect
farmworkers’ fundamental labor rights.

McDonald’s clearly knows how to do better. The fast-food giant recently
announced an agreement to purchase only fair-trade coffee for over 650 of
its restaurants, paying a reasonable premium over market price so that the
workers who pick their coffee can receive a fair wage and enjoy humane
labor conditions.
Yet McDonald’s refuses to pay even a penny more per pound for its
tomatoes so
that Florida farmworkers can earn a better wage. Likewise, McDonald’s
requires its toy suppliers in China to respect internationally recognized
labor rights, including the right to overtime pay and the right to
organize, but refuses to require its tomato suppliers in Florida to
respect those same fundamental rights.

The “Real Rights Tour,” the fifth such tour since the CIW’s Fair Food
Campaign began in 2001, will counter McDonald’s public relations campaign
with a truth campaign. Successful corporations must respond to the demands
of consumers. Whether gains for farmworkers are advanced or turned back
lies in our hands. So join the CIW in speaking truth to McDonald's power
and achieving real rights for Florida farmworkers.

***

Support the movement for farmworker justice and fair food:

www.ciw-online.org

www.sfalliance.org

***

www.leftturn.org

Notes from the Global Intifada

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"sólo te recuerdo que, según nosotros, la mirada alcanza más lejos cuando su
base se asienta abajo y a la izquierda"

-marcos, feb 2005