Tom Tancredo insisted in last week's CNN YouTube debate that it's a myth that illegal aliens are doing the jobs that Americans don't want to do.
But how many Americans would be willing to work 10 to12 hours a day picking tomatoes, at a pay rate of 45 cents for each 32 pound bucket, with no overtime, no health insurance, no sick days, no holidays, no nuthin'?
It's a rotten way to make a living, and, thanks to Burger King, it's about to get even worse. Tomato pickers hadn't received a real wage increase for decades until 2005, when the Coalition of Immokalee Workers negotiated a penny-per-pound surcharge from some of the fast food chains-first, Taco Bell, followed by McDonald's.
A penny a pound may sound like chump change, but as Eric Schlosser noted in an op-ed last week in the New York Times, the migrant workers who harvest Florida's tomatoes pick an average of two tons of tomatoes daily. That's about 4,000 pounds, so that extra penny per pound can mean an extra $40 or so a day.
But Burger King has steadfastly refused to get with the penny program, and the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange calls the surcharge "pretty much near un-American." The Grower's Exchange, which represents 90% of Florida's tomato growers, is claiming that the surcharge "violates state and federal laws related to antitrust, labor and racketeering." They're threatening to slap a $100,000 fine on any grower who agrees to pay the surcharge.
Nevermind that other expenses routinely get added on to growers' costs, as John Bowe documented in his excellent expose Nobodies. When the cost of the widely used pesticide methyl bromide went up, Bowe notes, "The increase was accepted without a fuss as a simple cost of doing business, and farmers reacted by simply raising the price of their tomatoes a penny a pound."
No one accused the pesticide manufacturers of extortion, or racketeering, but Burger King spokesman Keva Silversmith has dismissed the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' penny-per-pound surcharge as "just another public relations gimmick that fails to address the real issues facing farm workers in Immokalee."
The protest was in marked contrast to the good pr Burger King's garnered lately for the progress it's made on behalf of chickens and hogs. Evidently, migrant workers rate a bit lower than fowl and swine on Burger King's food chain.
According to Eric Schlosser, "Burger King has suggested that if the poor farm workers of southern Florida need more money, they should apply for jobs at its restaurants."
And then the tomato growers could hire all those Americans who are, according to Tom Tancredo, just itching to pitch in and pick up the slack-and the tomatoes.
STATE BLOGS
