Modern-day slavery.
That’s how Melody Gonzales, a representative of the Student/Farmworker Alliance and Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), described the working conditions for the Immokalee tomato pickers. These farm workers in Florida, who pick for both grocers and the fast-food industry, struggle with wages that keep them in poverty, difficult working conditions and a lack of labor rights.
However, the workers are making a stand against the industries that profit from their labor. In 2003, CIW launched a boycott of Taco Bell that ended successfully in 2005. They have now turned their attention towards McDonald’s, with a rally in Chicago on April 13 and 14. Northwestern’s Students for Economic Justice (SEJ) are planning a trip to the rally and invited Gonzales to lecture at Swift Hall Monday night.
The rally marks the official beginning of a boycott against McDonald’s following months of attempts to make the fast-food giant improve workers’ conditions. CIW is seeking a pay increase of one penny per pound of tomatoes, a stricter code of conduct on employers and a voice in meetings regarding the tomato farming.
This movement follows the organization’s successful boycott of Taco Bell that resulted in the penny-per-pound pay increase and further improvements in labor rights. Gonzales said CIW targeted McDonald’s next because they set the standard for fast food.
“The industry does what McDonald’s does,” she said.
McCormick senior and SEJ member Kyle Schafer said he thought the rally would be successful.
“There are challenges, but this really brings it home and puts pressure on McDonald’s as a brand,” he said.
Students at the meeting were given the opportunity to try to carry a bucket filled with 30 pounds of rice, about the same weight of the tomato buckets the Immokalee workers carry all day. The workers are paid by the bucket, amounting to $7,000 to $10,000 per year.
It was the involvement of student organizations that helped make the Taco Bell boycott successful. Three hundred schools joined the fight, establishing “Boot the Bell” campaigns and sending student groups to participate in the rallies. The fast-food industry targets teenagers, which makes their involvement in the rallies crippling.
“As young people, you’re McDonald’s target audience, their sweet spot,” Gonzales said. “This is a way of making their sweet spot a sore spot and telling them that we don’t stand for the exploitation of workers.”
The rally will begin April 13 at McDonald’s national headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill., and will continue the next day with a Carnaval for Justice and Dignity at a McDonald’s in downtown Chicago. It will be CIW’s largest rally, with almost 1,000 people from as far away as California registered to attend, including 50 tomato pickers from Immokalee.
Gonzales said that the magnitude of the target demanded a large rally.
“McDonald’s is bigger [than Taco Bell], so it will take more pressure,” she said. “We’re hoping this will be bigger than anything CIW has ever done.”