The Nation: Want Some Basic Human Dignity with that Burrito?

[marmar]

Chipotle Hypocrisy
posted by Peter Rothberg on 07/29/2008 @ 12:48pm




In recent years, Taco Bell and Burger King have foolishly resisted efforts by activists to marginally raise the piece rate they pay tomato pickers only to eventually buckle under the pressure of well-deserved bad press. Chipotle Mexican Grill seems to have learned nothing from their lessons.

Although Chipotle, the expanding Colorado-based restaurant chain formerly owned by McDonald's, touts its fair treatment of animals and its locally-sourced organic avocados, its colorful, interactive website neglects any mention of the fair treatment of farm workers. While CEO Steve Ells boasts about his "Food With Integrity" brand, he has ignored countless letters and petitions from all over the country, asking for an extra penny per pound for his tomato pickers.

Migrant pickers typically work ten to twelve hour days, earning a piece-rate of about forty-five cents for each thirty-two pound bucket of tomatoes. Work is never guaranteed, there is no health care, and no overtime pay. The average annual income for a farm worker is $10,000.

Or take this snapshot of the average workday of a Florida tomato picker (with credit to the fine blog, The Pump Handle):

*4:30am: Wake-up. Prepare lunch in your trailer.
*5:00am: Walk to the parking lot or pick-up site to begin looking for work.
*6:30am: With luck, a contractor will choose you to work for him for the day. The job may be 10 to 100 miles away.
*7:30am: Arrive at the fields and begin weeding or waiting while the dew evaporates from the tomatoes. You are usually not paid for this time.
*9:00am: Begin picking tomatoes--filling buckets, hoisting them on your shoulder, running them 100 feet or more to the truck and throwing the bucket up into the truck. Work fast because you must pick 2 TONS of tomatoes in order to earn $50 today.
*Noon: Eat lunch as fast as you can, often with your hands soaked in pesticides. Return to work under the smoldering Florida sun.
*5:00pm: (sometimes later, depending on the season): Board bus to return to Immokalee. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/actnow/340332

[fasttense]

1. Sometimes I think corporations treat workers like shit

simply because they like to.

Really, the little bit of money they save by fighting over the measly few cents increase is wasted on the bad publicity they are getting. In the end the worker will get a measly raise and Chipotle will have pissed off ten of thousands. They gota like kicking around their employees or they wouldn't do it.

[readmoreoften]

2. I can't believe this Immokalee shit is still going on.

Are they still keeping them in barbed wire camps, forcing them to smoke crack, killing them if they try to "escape" and charging them $1200 a month rent for delapidated single-wide trailers with no air conditioning?

Now, who says we only outsource our slavery anymore?