Farmworkers Win Raise from McDonald's

Florida farmworkers achieved a major victory Monday when McDonald’s agreed to pay a penny more per pound for tomatoes. The agreement not only effectively doubled farmworker pay but sent “a strong message to the rest of the restaurant and supermarket industry that it is now time to stand behind the food they sell from the field to the table” according to Lucas Benitez of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a worker organization that represents Florida farmworkers, who average less than $10,000 a year and have not had a raise in almost 30 years. The campaign for farmworker justice had national support and McDonald’s had been targeted locally on the issue as recently as March 31 when area students and labor activists staged a Fair Food March in NoVa (HIRING HALL 3/28/07: “DIRTY SECRETS” EXPOSED AT STARBUCKS, MCDONALD’S & HARRIS TEETER). For details of the agreement, visit the CIW website. October 2006 student action at DC McDonald’s, photo by Matthew Brokman