The next time Burger King VP Stephen Grover goes online to spread FUD about labor advocates, he should probably leave his daughter out of it. For one thing, she’s a horrible accomplice and will spill her guts to the first reporter who calls. For another thing, this forthrightness clearly makes her too ethical to smear a group that’s trying to bring pay for tomato pickers up to living wage levels.
Here’s the quick back story: tomato pickers in the U.S. are paid ridiculously low wages and treated badly, and some people are talking to fast food companies about increasing their pay by a penny per pound in order to help solve the problem. There was an agreement on the penny pay increase—McDonald’s and Taco Bell were okay with it—but that fell through after Burger King joined up with some Florida tomato growers to claim that the low-wage claims were false and the workers were treated just fine.
It’s gotten so bad that earlier this month, farm workers and their advocates testified before the Senate that claims of $12.50/hour wages were false, and that the industry has a history of worker abuse:
“It may not sound like much, but for the tomato pickers, it means the difference between poverty and decent wages,” Kennedy said. He invoked Edward R. Murrow’s landmark 1960 documentary “Harvest of Shame,” which detailed the grim plight of migrant workers in Immokalee and elsewhere.
“Too little has changed over the years,” he said. The fact that there’s a need for hearings today shows “how far we have to go to provide genuine fairness and justice for this vulnerable workforce,” he said.
“Do the math with me,” Durbin said in his opening statement. Workers would have to fill and empty a 32-pound bucket of tomatoes, each worth some 45 cents, about every two minutes all day long to earn the $12.50, he said.
“Is that possible?” he asked. “I don’t think it is.”
Sanders also decried conditions in Immokalee, pointing out that when he visited in January, a 17-count indictment was handed down for enslavement of tomato workers.
“In America, in the year 2008, it is not acceptable that workers producing the food we eat should live in these conditions,” he said.
Workers face seven-day work weeks, physical and psychological abuse, and debt bondage to their employers, said Lucas Benitez, co-founder of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.
To give Burger King an edge in the discussions, Stephen Grover took it upon himself to spread disinformation to the media, going so far as to hide behind his daughter’s email address. Classy work there, Grover. Where do you think you work, Whole Foods?
At one point, Burger King Vice President Stephen Grover told reporters he was concerned the coalition was pocketing the extra money. After several independent groups that verified the agreements dismissed the allegations, Burger King officials stopped repeating them.
But the allegations were repeated on blog posts, according to a story published Monday in The News-Press in Fort Myers. The paper traced those posts to the online user name of Grover’s daughter. The girl, who is in middle school, later confirmed to the paper her father had used her online screen name.
In a post still available Monday on YouTube, an individual with the girl’s screen name wrote: “The CIW is an attack organization lining the leaders pockets by attacking restaurant companies. They make up issues and collect money from dupes that believe their story….”
Messages left for Grover at work and at home by The Associated Press on Monday were not immediately returned.
Our favorite part of this is how Grover’s wife acts so offended that her daughter has been dragged into the story. Look to your husband, Susan! Don’t blame the press because the girl’s father decided to use her as a human shield!
His wife, Susan Grover, confirmed the screen name was their daughter’s but said she didn’t know if her husband had used it. She accused the News-Press reporter of not identifying herself as a journalist to their daughter.
Reporter Amy Bennett Williams said she did identify herself and told the girl she was taking notes. She also said she left all of her contact information, which the girl’s mother later used to call and complain.
In contrast to Susan Grover’s complaint, we’d like to give a shout out to the reporter, Amy Bennett Williams, who has been following the larger story since the beginning. She’s the main reason any of this has reached the general public in the first place.
“Farm worker advocates to present Burger King with petitions” [Fort Myers News-Press]
“D.C. takes up tomato pickers’ plight” [Fort Myers News-Press]
RELATED
“The Harvest of Shame” — report from U.S. senator Bernie Sanders [OpEdNews.com]
(Photo: Getty)
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@Frank Grimes: Maybe the BK exec is busy creating more sock puppets?
@modenastradale: Like, laws are for losers! Did they not brainwash you into believing theoretical models based on ideal situations always govern people’s rational actions? Clearly, you went to some hippie liberal arts college for eCo[mmu]n[ist]omics.
On a serious note: thank you.
@Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler: Ha. Thanks for the laugh. I’m always having these little squabbles with a certain friend who, as a matter of core personal philosophy, does seem to believe that theoretical models based on ideal situations always govern people’s rational actions.
She has said things like, “Obviously she didn’t negotiate a better rate on her credit card becuase the marginal utility of a lower rate was insufficient to cover her marginal disutility of negotiating with the bank.” And I’m scratching my head, thinking “She’s 75 years old. Perhaps she didn’t know you could do that.”
Why should someone get paid $12.50/hour to do something so menial as picking tomatoes. They should get paid not a penny over minimum wage. If they get $12.50 then everyone will want to pick tomatoes and skilled labor for important jobs will shrivel up.
Don’t talk smack about farmworkers with your mouth full.
@sp00nix: It is tuesday. Pay up!
@Gorky: Which “important jobs” are you talking about? Telemarketing? Assaulting innocent passers-by with perfume at Macy’s? Debt collection? Astroturfing?
I’d sure hate to see those important fields dry up, just so that the people who break their backs under the sun to provide our organic artichokes could earn a living wage…
@LucasAnderson: Each tomato sells for approximatly .45 cents. They are not getting paid .45 cents for each tomato they pick. If that was the case, you could pick 100 tomatoes an hour, and make about 93K a year. I’d quit my job if I could make that much money for picking a mere 800 tomatoes a day.
Co@LucasAnderson: My apologies for misreading your message. .45 cents a bucket it is.
Duh on me.
For any of you nut fudge “free market” advocates out there that think that this is a fair wage- Fuck You.
This is the a symptom of why politics in America is turning left.Business and its leaders and practices (mandatory arbitration,ignoring wage laws etc..)are driving independent voters to put the screws to Wall Street’s raping of the middle and lower classes. I say high fucking time.
Big businesses (like BK )have had it good in this country and their greed and venality means that they are about to get a generation long trip to the woodshed from big brother.If either of the Democratic candidates for president wins in November,they will have a like minded congress to bring these companies to heel. And the Republican is no fan of Wall Street. Good.I’ve had just about enough of capitalism for these folks and bailouts for big business fuck ups.
Goodbye Burger King. Fuck you and your shitty burgers.
@modenastradale: A degree in economics is wey sexy.
@Snarkysnake: It’s not about BK being cheap, or “Wall Street” being evil. It’s about YOU being cheap. Stop demanding low prices, America! Add $5.00 to every item at every restaurant, grocer and retail store (incl. Wal-Mart) so it can be Certified Natural Fair-Trade Organic Free-Range Fair-Wage Non-Illegal Produced Made In America goods?
America outsourced those ideals long ago, and the last few hypocrites died the minute the recession hit.
@Git Em SteveDave: DDT isn’t safe for humans. It’s been associated with some cancers and chronic neurological problems.
Haha, what a douchebag.
First the exec is trying to weisal out of paying a decent wage.That 12.50 an hour is a potential wage if I understand correctly-per pd per bucket etc.Reguardless of ‘skill’ level you still should have to pay a decent wage for WORKING-I don’t care how someone classifies or what status someone gives a JOB.Physical effort should compensated for-it’s WORK,it may not be brain surgery but it’s WORK.And it’s work that leads to feeding people:I’d say that’s pretty important.
Then daddy doesn’t even have the guts or initative to get his own email account.I mean you can even get an anonymous email account if you want and look hard enough-oh forgot that might be skilled labor:something he’s not suited for.That’s why he’s been compensated by such wonderful publicity.DUMB FRAK
@u1itn0w2day: I apologize if I read your comment wrong, but are you seriously saying that $12.50/hour is a decent wage for someone who picks tomatoes for a living?
You forget that these people DO get paid. Who are you to decide what a ‘decent’ wage is to pay someone who picks tomatoes all day? Not every job should be worth the same amount. Unless of course you are the type of person who believes a brain surgeon should also be paid $12.50/hour. We call them ‘socialists’.
Those who think that tomato picking is an easy thing, those who say tomato pickers don’t deserve to get paid 12.50 an hour (which I do realize they aren’t making anyway that’s what BK thinks) – are seriously out of touch.
Hammering is easy, yet according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics construction workers are paid an average of $20.02 an hour. My ex was a caulker, and earned 40 an hour.
I’m pretty damn sure none of y’all would be willing to pick tomatoes for 12.50 an hour. If your gut reaction to that is that you don’t “have to” pick tomatoes because it’s not your job, then your not just out of touch, you’re a classist.
[www.bls.gov]
@LucasAnderson: but, you see, they ARE NOT making $12.50 an hour. It is more than likely impossible to pick enough tomatoes, over a 12 or 18 hour shift to do that. That’s the issue . . .
Let’s just totally miss the point and confuse the issue. Let’s now say that these newly wealthy tomato-pickers are making $35 dollars an hour. Sure, to do that they would have to pick 78 32-pound buckets of tomatoes EVERY hour.
wow. those lucky bastards.
Good lord, some of these comments make me mad.
@mmstk101: I never said they WERE making $12.50/hour. I was asking if he thought they deserved to make that amount? I don’t really care what is or isn’t possible here, the point is that it’s not exactly a job that requires an amazing amount of skill, talent or luck.
Those ‘lucky bastards’ choose to pick tomatoes for their job. What’s your idea of a fair wage for someone who picks a tomato and puts it in a bucket all day long?
Are you people f’in morons? They ARENT making 12$ an hour that’s a lie propagated by BK. Some of you need to go back to elementary school and work on reading comprehension.
@LucasAnderson:
I think anybody who’s willing to actually work for a living should be paid a living wage. $12.50 an hour may fall under that definition, depending on the cost of living in the area.
But let me ask you this, since you seem so gung-ho about making sure those ignorant tomato pickers are properly punished for their foolish life choices with a minimally comfortable existence: What’s your idea of a fair wage for the executives at the top?
A tomato picker who sweats in a field all day doing literally back-breaking labor – assuming they make the lavish $12.50 an hour Burger King claims they do – would make a whopping $26,000 a year for a 40-hour work week.
The CEO of Burger King, John Chidsey, a man who undoubtedly does exactly zero manual labor during his work day, a man whose “work” is likely filled with meetings and long, expensive business lunches, made $4.1 million last year. Does he “deserve” that? Are there not thousands of MBAs out there who could do his job?
Call me a socialist if you like. I’m enlightened enough to know it’s not really an insult. But is it possible that people like Chidsey – who toils on a comparatively low rung of the spiraling ladder of executive compensation – could survive on, oh I dunno, $2 million a year and share some of the wealth with the workers who, you know, create that wealth with their labor? $1 million a year? $500K a year? I mean, I don’t want to force poor Chidsey into poverty. Maybe $500K a year isn’t enough. After all, his Porsche isn’t going to wax itself.
Solution:
1) Send home the migrant workers/illegal aliens.
2) There are plenty of people who could do this job for minimum wage — many people on welfare. Let them pick tomatoes for 5.75 an hour. Better yet, let them still get welfare but have the farmers pay the government instead.
@AD8BC: “here are plenty of people who could do this job for minimum wage”
No there isn’t.
If they don’t like the pay they need to find another job. At least that’s something I would do. I am not familiar with living conditions etc so I can’t comment on that.
I used to eat at BK at least 4 times a week. Then they jacked up the prices AND reduced french fries portions. (Oh look it fits in a cup holder…) So I stopped eating there.