Labor group protests outside Chipotle’s headquarters
Associated Press
Originally published 05:19 p.m., April 2, 2008
Updated 05:19 p.m., April 2, 2008
A Florida-based farm worker’s group protested outside Chipotle’s Denver headquarters today, accusing the fast-food chain of buying tomatoes from growers who pay substandard wages to workers.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers said they want Chipotle to pay a penny more per pound for tomatoes bought from Florida. But Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. spokesman Chris Arnold said the company stopped buying Florida tomatoes two years ago, after a similar protest against McDonald’s, then its largest investor.
The group of about 75 people marched to the Chipotle’s headquarters in downtown Denver holding signs with an aluminum-shaped burrito that has become emblematic of the company’s product.
Some of the signs read, “Rice, Beans, and Serving of Exploitation.”
Once at the headquarters, the group delivered about a thousand postcards signed by people opposed to the alleged practices.
Aside from McDonald’s and Chipotle, the group has launched similar campaigns against Taco Bell’s parent company, Yum! Brands Inc. The group said they have reached agreements with McDonald’s and Yum! Brands to increase the wages and working conditions of Florida farm workers.
“Chipotle needs to take concrete steps to make sure that the
farmworkers who are picking their tomatoes are treated fairly,” said Marc Rodriguez, an organizer with the Student Farmworker Alliance, another Florida group which participated in the protest. The groups said tomato farmers are also being forced to work long hours with no overtime pay, and aren’t allowed to unionize.
Arnold, the Chipotle spokesman, said the protesters were painting the restaurant “with a very traditional fast-food brush.” He said Chipotle spends more money on its food than any other restaurant in the country “because we buy premium ingredients from very reputable sources.”
He said the company stopped buying Florida tomatoes because they had heard about the treatment of farmworkers from the protests at McDonald’s.
“We have been reviewing practices from the growers that we have worked with in the past in Florida and are looking to see if the things that this group is talking about was (happening) in our system,” Arnold said.
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April 9, 2008
11:49 a.m.
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activist2008 writes:
The CIW is a self-serving attack group and has no real members or workers supporting it. See their IRS filing form 990’s that lists the huge amount of money they collect and no dues paying members! (http://dynamodata.fdncenter.org/990s/... )
The CIW creates conflict through lies and misinformation on the internet to reap millions in cash from duped supporters. Chipotle does not hire tomato pickers! Might just protest yourself for buying tomatoes in the supermarket like Chipotle does. The world is never a simple as the CIW lies would have you believe. The CIW has been protested YUM and McDonald’s for 6 years and the workers in Immokalee will never see a penny of the money the CIW says it has collected. Looks like the CIW is the greatest exploiter of the workers and protesters for their organizational gain!
April 13, 2008
2:47 p.m.
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robSFA writes:
The comments of "activist2008" are false and libelous. They are lies which Burger King, another target of the CIW's camapaign for fair food, is spreading in order to try to justify its reprehensible behavior and refusal to improve conditions for farmworkers. "activist2008" is someone who works at Burger King's corporate headquarters and no doubt knows that the statements she or he is making are completely false and baseless.
See the Ft. Myers News-Press artcile "Tomato pickers feeling spied on" for details: http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.d...
To clear up this lies, the CIW receives its funding mostly from foundations. No, it does not ask its extremely-poor members to pay dues from their own pockets. Farmworkers started the organizations and continue to run it. It has thousands of members and even more supporters. If you go to their office on any Wednesday evening when they have membership meetings, you'll see their tiny office overflowing with dedicated farmworkers who are fighting to improve their lives.
After years of protest, CIW reached agreements with first Yum! Brands (parent-company of Taco Bell and others) and then McDonald's in which the companies agreed to directly contribute to an increase in wages for the workers who pick the tomatoes that these companies buy. For two years, Yum was directly paying this money to the workers. The CIW never collected (or said it collected or wanted to collect) any portion of the money. McDonald's was set to start paying additional wages to farmworkers in the fall of 2007, however the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange (in cahoots with Burger King) threatened any tomato grower who particates in the agreements with Yum or McDonald's with a $100,000 fine, effectively preventing the wage increases from being implemented. Now Yum and McDonald's are placing the extra money they would be paying to farmworkers in an escrow account until the time comes when it can be distributed to the workers.
The idea that the CIW is "reaping millions" is not supported in any way even by tax documents that "activist2008" tells us to look at. What they do show is that the CIW has a relatively small bugdet considering how much they do and accomplish every year: helping investigate and prosecute modern-day slavery rings, challenging unscrupulous bosses who steal wages, running a community co-op and community radio station, educating the community about their rights, planning large-scale protests, educating the world about the plight of farmworkers, developing powerful community leaders, acheiving precedent-setting agreements to improve farmworkers' wages and working conditions that have the potential of transforming for the better the agricultural and fast-food industries, and the list goes on. No wonder Burger King feels it's necessary to bad-mouth them.
April 13, 2008
7:16 p.m.
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activist2008 writes:
When the CIW gets caught in a lie the lies much deeper! What a paranoid rant, the topic is Chipotle and the CIW attacks against them. If the workers are getting paid don't go on a paranoid rant, prove it! Oh I suppose changing the subject and going on a rant is the CIW’s response to serious questions regarding the money they collect.
April 14, 2008
2:49 a.m.
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soothsayer writes:
Attention S G (aka Activist 2008):
Have you received your termination papers yet, or do you truly think John Chidsey will risk his neck for you?
You got yourself into all this, and have let down so many. What an embarrassment. I advise that you come clean and salvage what tiny degree of dignity you may have left. Can you believe this is your new legacy -- how utterly disappointing and sad. If you hadn't so shamefully resisted the opportunity to help rid Florida of slavery & sweatshops I'd probably feel bad for you and your family, but now I only feel bad for your family.
What a legacy... What an embarrassment.
April 14, 2008
4:54 p.m.
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activist2008 writes:
Sorry "soothsayer" I feel sorry for you, I strongly suggest you get back on your medication as soon as possible! The paranoid little tale you and your CIW friends are telling will do nothing to help the workers in Immokalee. I guess that was my point the CIW does just attack!