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October
23, 2006
VOL.
44, NO. 18Oakland,
CA
Bishops ask
McDonald’s to seek better wages for
their tomato pickers
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The nation’s bishops have
asked the McDonald’s Corp., the world’s largest fast-food
restaurant chain, to work for better wages and working conditions for
the Florida workers who pick the tomatoes used at McDonald’s.
“McDonalds and other major food companies do not directly set farmworkers’
wages and working conditions,” said a letter from Bishop Nicholas
DiMarzio of Brooklyn, N.Y., to McDonald’s CEO James Skinner. “But
with your substantial purchasing power, you can insist that your produce
suppliers meet high ethical standards in how they treat their workers.”
“Farmworkers should participate in setting and monitoring those
standards, as workers know best the conditions to be remedied,”
added Bishop DiMarzio, chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Domestic
Policy.
He urged McDonald’s to work with the Florida agricultural industry
and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a Florida-based organization of
farmworkers focused on just wages and better labor conditions.
Coalition members took a nine-day tour that started in Florida and was
to end Oct. 23 in Oak Brook, Ill., headquarters of McDonald’s. The
tour, which was to include visits to McDonald’s restaurants and
picketing at the corporate headquarters, is part of the coalition’s
“Campaign for Fair Food” initiative.
“In the ‘Responsible Purchasing’ statement on its Web
site, McDonald’s states, ‘We know we can work with our suppliers
to help improve their practices and set an example for other companies,’”
Bishop DiMarzio noted in his letter to Skinner.
“I urge you to apply that standard to how your produce suppliers
treat farmworkers."
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers began meeting 13 years ago in a church
in the Diocese of Venice, Fla., and now has an estimated 2,500 farmworker
members.
