The Florida Tomato Growers Exchange has announced the implementation of a new social responsibility program that includes supplying tomatoes under a program of supplemental wages for workers and a code of conduct to guide employment practices. Exchange members are offering the program to their customers.
Last fall, the exchange rescinded its policy prohibiting member growers from participating in wage-supplementation programs or providing payroll or personnel data to third parties for the purpose of wage supplementation. Several quick-service chains such as Burger King, McDonald's, Subway and Taco Bell, had previously signed agreements with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a grass-roots organization that represents many of the tomato pickers in Florida, to offer a penny-per-pound wage increase to workers. Those wage increases had gone into escrow because the exchange cooperative had blocked the increase.
The Florida Tomato Growers Exchange said in a statement that the elimination of its policy prohibiting members from participating in wage-supplementation programs, along with customer negotiations, paved the way for the social responsibility program. The escrow account funds will now be able to be passed on to the tomato pickers.
The program is open to all retail and food-service customers of participating exchange growers, who represent about 75 percent of all fresh-market tomatoes grown in Florida. The participating growers agree to pass through to their employees funds earmarked by their customers as supplemental wages. The program also includes a new grower code of conduct designed to dovetail with their customer's own social responsibility programs.
The Miami Herald reports that the coaltion sees the move as a step forward but is concerned the plan did not include worker input. And it might not be so easy for QSRs to sign on to the growers' new plan.
From the story:
But attorneys for the tomato pickers' coalition said companies that had already signed agreements with the workers' group might face problems joining the new plan. The previous agreements included oversight by the coalition, and the new growers' plan does not.
