The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and its allies are gearing up for the McDonald's Truth Tour 2006, which will be from March 26th to April 4th. They will caravan from Immokalee, Florida to Chicago, which is the home of 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 the area for a rally in Chicago, where they will call on the fast-food giant to work with the CIW and help establish real labor rights for the workers who pick tomatoes for McDonald’s suppliers. The workers and their allies will be calling for fair wages, the right for farmworkers to participate in decisions that affect their lives, and the right to a code of conduct based on modern labor standards. Since the CIW's Taco Bell boycott victory last year. 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.

The fast-food company recently announced an agreement to purchase 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.

Farmworkers are 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. Read more

Student Farmworker Alliance Coalition of Immokalee Workers