Caroling for Farmworker Justice

The reason for the season was farmworker justice for students and labor activists who caroled outside a downtown DC Burger King Wednesday. The carolers - armed with a guitar, tambourine, and carols of justice set to the tune of famous Christmas songs - held the lunchtime event to draw attention to BK's exploitation of Florida farmworkers who pick tomatoes for the fast food giant. To the tune of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," carolers sang "Stand up and shout, I'm telling you why: Burger King exploits farmworkers!" as activists handed out fliers to the lunchtime crowd. After singing outside, the carolers entered the downtown BK and delivered a letter in solidarity with farmworkers to the manager and sang some more carols of justice. Farmworkers in Florida began a campaign against BK earlier this year after winning campaigns to improve working conditions and wages against McDonald's and Taco Bell. "But Burger King, whose headquarters are in Florida, has adamantly refused to pay the extra penny - and its refusal has encouraged tomato growers to cancel the deals already struck with Taco Bell and McDonald's," said Eric Schlosser - author of Fast Food Nation - in a recent New York Times Op-Ed. "The prominent role that Burger King has played in rescinding the pay raise offers a spectacle of yuletide greed worthy of Charles Dickens’” Scrooge. For more info on the farmworkers’ campaign for justice, click here. -Report/photo by Andy Richards