Labor Updates (5/29/08)

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
Indian Ambassador Refuses to Visit with Hunger Strikers: Hunger strikers – too weak to make the trip to the Indian Embassy – were refused a visit by Indian Ambassador to the US, Ronen Sen, on Tuesday. Sen – who has met with workers in the past and promised his support (Indian Workers March on Embassy 3/28/08 UC) – stunned the strikers on Tuesday when he told them that he had not received their list of demands and he would not visit hunger strikers because he “couldn’t get involved with politics.” "Since when is showing sympathy for brutally exploited Indians in America called 'politics’”asked Sabulal Vijayan, an organizer with the Alliance of Guestworkers for Dignity. Indian workers have been pressuring Indian government officials to demand the US government allow the workers to stay in the US to participate in the human trafficking investigation against their employer, Signal International. Florida Farmworkers Topple the King: Farmworkers reached an agreement with fast food giant Burger King (BK) last Friday after a year-long struggle to improve wages and working conditions in the tomato fields of Florida. The agreement reached between BK and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers – which represents the farmworkers – provides workers with a penny more per pound for tomatoes picked, establishes “zero tolerance guidelines for certain unlawful activities that require immediate termination of any grower from the Burger King supply chain, and “provides for farm worker participation in the monitoring of growers’ compliance with the company’s vendor code of conduct,” reports Mike Hall on the AFL-CIO Now Weblog. Similar agreements have been reached with McDonald’s and Yum! Brands – which owns Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and other popular fast food chains. Click here to read Hall’s full report.