Fast-food giant Burger King announced this week that it fired two employees who posted libelous comments to public Web sites about the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), an organization pressing the company to pay a penny more per pound for tomatoes to boost pay for farmworkers. The company also told the News-Press of Fort Myers, Fla. that it has stopped using an investigative firm to spy on farmworker advocates.

The company would not identify the fired employees. But earlier this year, the News-Press reported that Steven Grover -- Burger King's vice president of food safety, quality assurance and regulatory compliance -- used his daughter's online alias to make false and derogatory comments about CIW. Last month, the paper also revealed that Cara Schaffer, the owner of the investigative firm Diplomatic Tactical Services, infiltrated the Student/Farmworker Alliance, a CIW ally.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who held hearings last month on exploitive working conditions for tomato pickers, slammed Burger King's behavior and called for further investigation, according to the paper:

"I'm delighted that the corporation has fired those people involved in those despicable actions, but we should make sure that we find out how high up the corporate ladder this scheme went."

Labels: bernie sanders, burger king, coalition of immokalee workers, farmworkers, Florida, Student/Farmworker Alliance

As Fair Food activists gather today in Miami to deliver the first 75,000 signatures on a petition urging Burger King to eliminate slavery and human rights abuses from Florida's tomato fields, new information has come to light about who was behind online postings attacking the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, an advocacy group that has been pressuring the company to take action. Turns out Burger King Vice President Stephen Grover posted the remarks using his daughter's online identity, the Fort Myers News-Press reports:

...[O]ften during the past year, when articles or videos about the coalition were posted on YouTube and various Internet news sites, someone using the online names activist2008 or surfxaholic36 would attach comments coalition member Greg Asbed has called "libelous."

This one, from surfxaholic36, is representative: "The CIW is an attack organization lining the leaders pockets ... They make up issues and collect money from dupes that believe their story. To (sic) bad the people protesting don't have a clue regarding the facts. A bunch of fools!"

Although Shannon Grover also uses the name surfxaholic36 -- mostly on social networking sites -- she said the anti-coalition posts are her father's alone.

"I don't really know much about the coalition and Burger King stuff," she said, reached by phone at the family's Miramar home Friday. "That was my dad. My dad used to go online with that name and write about them."

Asked if she'd ever written about the coalition online, she was adamant: "No, that was my Dad. That was him."

The petition campaign was launched following the December 2007 discovery of a slavery operation in which farm bosses in Immokalee are accused of locking tomato pickers inside trucks and beating those who tried to escape. The case represents the seventh slavery prosecution in Florida agriculture in the past decade. A Senate hearing held earlier this month focused on the inhumane conditions.

The petition calls on Burger King to follow the lead of Yum Brands and McDonald's by signing an agreement with CIW to improve wages for tomato pickers, adopt a zero-tolerance policy for slavery and monitor conditions for farmworkers. The company is currently working with the Florida tomato growers' lobby to fight the advocates.

Labels: coalition of immokalee workers, Fair Food, farmworkers, Florida, slavery

Si, Se Puede" may be becoming an over-used Presidential campaign slogan, but the message of "Yes, We Can" still has meaning for members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in Florida.

This week, the group launched a national campaign to get Burger King to boost wages and use their economic clout to ensure better treatment of farmworkers:

They've been asking for years but haven't gotten what they want.

So the Coalition of Immokalee Workers is bringing out its big guns: a high-profile, multi-faceted national campaign and the threat of a boycott designed to persuade Burger King to pay a penny more a pound for tomatoes and "eliminate slavery and human rights abuses from Florida's fields."

This week, coalition members are fanning out across the country to gather support for the effort, which is tied to the 200th anniversary of the U.S. ban on the importation of slaves.

The Coalition has a strong track record: using similar tactics, they pressured Yum! Brands -- owners of Taco Bell -- to make similar concessions in 2005. McDonald's followed in 2007.

Burger King's reluctance to join has brought Congressional scrutiny: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is promising hearings before the Senate labor commiteee.

For more on the Coalition and the Burger King campaign, visit here.

Labels: bernie sanders, burger king, coalition of immokalee workers, farmworkers