IMMOKALEE Fla. McDonald’s Corp. and Taco Bell Corp. will abide by agreements to pay an extra penny per pound for Florida tomatoes, a supplement intended to benefit farm workers, despite indications that some growers would not observe the pacts, according to a farmhands’ support group.
On Monday, the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange announced that its members would not participate in the deals because the so-called penny-per-pound deals violated antitrust, labor and racketeering laws. It declared the agreements “moot.”
The supplemental payment is seen by proponents as a means for improving the wages and living conditions of pickers and other employees of the state’s tomato farms. The deals with McDonald’s and Taco Bell parent Yum! Brands Inc. were negotiated by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a support group based here for farm workers in the surrounding tomato-growing region. The state produces about 90 percent of the nation’s fresh winter tomatoes.
The coalition said the agreements would remain in place as the restaurant companies negotiate separately to determine what growers will supply them. It was not clear how many of Florida’s tomato producers belong to the Growers Exchange.
Burger King Corp. has rejected the farm worker coalition’s demands that it enter into a similar agreement. The coalition said it plans to march on the chain’s Miami headquarters at the end of November to press again for acceptance of the penny-per-pound supplement.
The Growers Exchange said it would develop and implement “more impactful, comprehensive” ways of improving the lives of farm workers and their families. Citing payroll records, it asserted that tomato picker averaged $12.46 in hourly wages last winter, and harvested tomatoes for an average of 25 to 30 hours per week.
