Farmworkers visit Regis in support of Chipotle boycott
Elle Thomas, Opinion Editor
On Monday, September 18, a representative from the Coalition of Immokalee Farmworkers (CIW) spoke at a brown bag lunch in West Hall. The lunch discussion was organized by University Ministry, Service Learning, and the Peace & Justice Student-Professional Club. Gerado, a farmworker since the age of 12, related some of his experiences picking tomatoes and fighting for a livable wage to eleven Regis students, staff, and faculty, and then explained why CIW is leading a boycott of Chipotle, the fast-food burrito chain headquartered in Denver.
CIW is an organization of farmworkers €" virtually all of whom are Mexican immigrants €" who work on vegetable and fruit farms in the southwestern Florida town, Immokalee. These are not family-run farms; they are massive corporate operations that provide thousands of pounds of produce to middle-men suppliers like Yum Foods, which in turn sell that produce to a number of fast food restaurants, including McDonalds, Taco Bell, and Chipotle.
Gerado explained that farmworkers are paid between 40 and 45 cents for each 42 pound bucket of tomatoes they pick. At this wage, each worker must pick about two tons of tomatoes per day to earn $50. These wages have remained stagnant, meaning the wages have not increased at the same rate as the cost of living, for the past 25 years. This in turn, leaves the workers so poor that often 8 to 12 men share a single trailer, just so that they have a little money to save at the end of the month. Gerado explained that the dilapidated trailers in which they must live often cost $1600 €" $1800 per month, which figures out to a square-footage cost equal to renting an apartment on the island of Manhattan.
Gerado (through his translator Marc Rodriques of the Student Farmworker Alliance) explained that the workers' wages are so low because the middle-men suppliers like Yum Foods refuse to pay more, since their clients (like Chipotle) refuse to pay more for the produce they buy. After many failed attempts to change the hearts and minds of the middle men, CIW decided to put pressure on the fast food giants to get them to pay fair prices for their food. Several years ago, CIW led a successful boycott of Taco Bell, resulting in the chain agreeing to pay one penny more per pound of tomatoes. For a billion dollar company, a penny a pound was virtually nothing, but it made a significant difference in the lives of the workers. Now the Coalition for Immokalee Workers is putting the pressure on Chipotle.
The burrito company (which was founded in Denver and is partially owned by McDonalds) heavily advertises the fact that the beef they purchase is of good quality and that the cattle they use is treated well. Chipotle promotes itself as a progressive company that serves "Food with Integrity." However, even though the company has a policy of ethics regarding the treatment of the farm animals that wind up in its food, it does not have a similar policy about the labor practices that bring those fresh ingredients to their stores. The CIW boycott is asking Chipotle to correct this oversight by enacting a policy mandating three things: that the workers who harvest their produce have a voice in their work conditions; that a code of conduct is enacted, guaranteeing universal human rights standards in the fields where the produce is harvested; and that the company will agree to pay a fair price for tomatoes, with an understanding that that those fair prices will translate into fair wages. The CIW boycott of Chipotle is not meant to punish a fast food giant, but simply to get the company to be fair. Gerado said that he and the other farmworkers "put food on everyone's [else's] table and we can't put food on our own."
Gerado and other representatives of the Coalition for Immokalee Workers, the Student Farmworker Alliance and the Family Farm Defenders spent a full week in Denver, talking with both student and local groups, asking for their support in boycotting Chipotle until the company agreed to treat the workers who pick their tomatoes as fairly and humanely as they have vowed to treat their cows.
The CIW Chipotle Boycott
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers demand that:
- Chipotle will pay a fair price for tomatoes
- Chipotle will enact a code of conduct for farm labor
- Chipotle will require that the farmworkers have a say in their work conditions
How you can support the boycott:
- do not purchase Chipotle products during the boycott
- call, write, or email Chipotle stating that you are boycotting their products until they enact the CIW demands
- visit www.ciw-online.org to learn more about farmworker issues