DENVER Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. said Wednesday it has found a way around a roadblock to boosting the pay of Florida tomato pickers by striking a deal with a single grower.
The Denver-based operator of 886 fast-casual restaurants said East Coast Farms, a major Florida grower, has agreed to accept from Chipotle an additional penny a pound for tomatoes picked on behalf of the chain and make sure the extra money is paid directly to the appropriate pickers.
In recent years, Chipotle and other restaurant chains -- including Taco Bell, McDonald's, Burger King and Subway -- have been largely blocked in efforts to carry out similar agreements by a leading tomato growers' cooperative, according to Chipotle officials.
The Florida Tomato Growers Exchange reportedly has barred members from supplying restaurant companies or labor groups the payroll information needed to make sure the appropriate pickers are paid the penny-a-pound differential. The cooperative reportedly has said that employers may not legally share such records, but the end result has been that much, if not all, of the money pledged to pickers by restaurant companies has been placed in escrow accounts pending a resolution of the matter.
Florida Tomato Growers Exchange officials could not be reached by press time for comment.
In a written statement about its agreement with East Coast Farms, Chipotle said that "money earmarked for farm workers is accumulating in escrow accounts rather than reaching the farm workers for whom it is intended."
"By working directly with East Coast Farms, Chipotle will be able to pass the additional wages directly to the workers," the chain noted.
The penny-a-pound agreements between restaurant companies and tomato growers have been brokered by the nonprofit Coalition for Immokalee Workers, or CIW. The CIW made the first such deal with Taco Bell parent Yum! Brands Inc. in 2005 after organizing a four-year boycott of the Mexican fast-food chain.
Chipotle, which has a stated mission of serving "food with integrity," for some time has put aside in an escrow account a penny a pound for Florida tomatoes, chain representatives said.
But the CIW and some of its backers have been increasingly critical of Chipotle for not trying to find a way around obstacles to improve the life of tomato pickers. Such criticism has escalated in recent months, following an agreement forged in April between the CIW and contract feeder Bon Appetit Management Co., which has vowed to stop using tomatoes if growers do not pay and treat workers better.
Chipotle, in announcing its deal with East Coast Farms, said the move follows months of discussion with the CIW.
Perhaps reflecting tensions between the two parties created by the CIW's recent rebukes, comments from CIW officials were not included in Chipotle's statement about the East Coast Farms deal, and no official CIW statements were immediately forthcoming. The CIW did not return e-mailed requests for comment.
Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold suggested it was not easy "trying to find a grower, or growers, who would cooperate on a deal that would accomplish the same kinds of thing the CIW is working toward."
As for the CIW's apparent impatience about the speed with which Chipotle has acted, Arnold added: "This is an issue we have been looking at and working toward for a long time. Change does not come quickly in our food system, and we have been working to find a partnership like this [with East Coast Farms] for several months."
Chipotle officials said they were pleased with the East Coast Farms development. The chain, which by most measures has done well during the recession, has credited its success in part to product quality and its "food with integrity" pledge, which most often is associated with the chain's efforts to buy local produce and hormone-free meat from humanely raised animals.
"By working directly with East Coast Farms to improve wages and working conditions for workers who harvest tomatoes for Chipotle, we have taken another important step forward," said Steve Ells, Chipotle's founder, chairman and co-chief executive.
Recent barbs aimed at Chipotle by the CIW or its supporters have suggested that the chain had a greater affinity for farm animals than farm workers. Such a suggestion was included in a June 15 letter to Ells by CIW supporters, including "Fast Food Nation" author Eric Schlosser and the heads of numerous environmental and labor activist groups.
But such tactics should come as no surprise, as the CIW has for years used all manner of pressure to win concessions for field workers in its region. The Immokalee, Fla.-based group has used consumer boycotts, restaurant protests, and celebrity persuasion campaigns, including critical comments by former President Jimmy Carter, to convince major chains to use their buying power to improve job conditions and wages for farm workers.
Chipotle said Wednesday that its agreement with East Coast Farms resulted from an extensive review of growers to find one that was willing to improve the lot of field workers. For its part, the grower indicated that it would like to see the deal with Chipotle result in more business.
"With this framework in place, we hope to work with other companies that are looking to make similar improvements to wages and working conditions for Florida farm workers," Batiste Madonia, a sales manager for East Coast Farms, said in a written statement.
Under the agreement with East Coast Farms, field workers who pick tomatoes for Chipotle will see their pay go from 50 cents to 82 cents for each 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they pick. That translates to a 64-percent increase in their pay for Chipotle work.
Chipotle spokesman Arnold said that when all is said and done, his chain is "a relatively small buyer of Florida tomatoes, buying from Florida for only about 12 weeks during the winter." He said that given that relatively low volume, Chipotle anticipates being able to get all the Florida tomatoes it buys from East Coast Farms.
Arnold said Chipotle "plans to donate the money" it has amassed in an escrow account on behalf of tomato pickers.
"We have spoken with CIW about some thoughts as to ways those funds could be put to good use," he said, "but have not made any final decision" about their distribution.
Contact Alan J. Liddle at [email protected].