Petition for Fair Food and Human Rights

Among my most memorable encounters on a recent visit to Peace River Presbytery was a frank conversation with the presbytery’s key leaders in farmworker outreach ministries, especially those efforts based in Immokalee, Florida. A number of congregations and agencies in the area relate to Florida’s farmworkers and its new immigrant populations in a variety of mission and outreach activities.

The persons seated around the table – and the groups they represented – all had ongoing partnerships and many points of connection with the work of the General Assembly Council.  They included Graham Hart, general presbyter of Peace River, Dave Moore, director of the Beth-El Farmworker Ministry in Wimauma, which offers a ministry to farmworkers there as well as at Immokalee, where pastor Miguel Estrada has provided worship, Bible study and a host of outreach services through its Misión Peniel since April 2007.  Miguel, who was also present, is a Presbyterian pastor and a native of Guatemala City. Others whom Graham Hart had assembled for our visit were members of the Vanderbilt Presbyterian Church, including Tom Harp, whose congregation has been a stalwart supporter of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers; Ed Grey, organizing pastor of the New Life Presbyterian Church (NCD), which is involved in Misión Peniel; Jim Berger, another interested NCD pastor; Steve Smith, presbytery council chairperson; Jim Kirk of IHOPE, Immokalee Disaster Assistance, which is related to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance; and Silva Franco, pastor of the Portuguese Brazilian Presbyterian Fellowship of Naples and Southwest Florida.  Silva, a native Brazilian, is reaching many new immigrants through her exciting ministry.

Immokalee has been much in the news through the years and also very recently, as members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) – a community-based worker organization headquartered there – have become leaders in the fight to end slave labor, human trafficking, and exploitation in agricultural fields across the United States. 

Last month, I joined my colleague, Cliff Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the General Assembly, in taking a bold step toward addressing egregious injustices toward farmworkers in our nation by signing the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ (CIW) Petition to End Modern-Day Slavery and Sweatshops in the Fields.

The CIW’s current petition calls on Burger King and other food corporations to immediately work with the CIW to increase farmworkers’ wages and establish an enforceable human-rights based code of conduct.  Signatories of the petition pledge that “they are prepared to cease patronizing Burger King now” if the company continues to refuse to do these things.

Since Cliff and I signed the petition, our signatures have been joined by those of Rev. Dr. Tom Taylor, Rev. Dr. Arlene Gordon (executive presbyter of Tropical Florida Presbytery, where Burger King is headquartered), Rev. Greg Bentley (President of the National Black Presbyterian Caucus), Rev. Alfredo Miranda (President of the Presbyterian Hispanic/Latino Caucus), and former PC(USA) General Assembly Moderators Rick Ufford-Chase and Rev. Susan Andrews.

A number of networks and advocacy groups across the PC(USA) are encouraging Presbyterians to sign this important petition as a way of signaling to Burger King and other retail food corporations, the church's serious commitment to advancing farmworkers' human rights, particularly on this, the 200th anniversary of the US ban on the importation of slaves.

To learn more about the PC(USA) Campaign for Fair Food and the Burger King Campaign – as well as to read Cliff’s public statement and an article by the Presbyterian News Service – see www.pcusa.org/fairfood. 

To view the CIW's Petition (which can be signed online) as well as the background on why it is important to take action, visit http://ciw-online.org/2008_Petitions/index.html  Those who act before April 25 will have their signatures on the petition when it is presented to Burger King at their headquarters in Miami, Florida, by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, representatives from the PC(USA), and other friends of the CIW.

The current CIW efforts are similar in nature to their previous, successful campaigns that targeted Taco Bell, and its parent company, Yum Brands, and McDonald’s and which were supported by the General Assembly. In an historic agreement made by the CIW and Yum Brands on March 8, 2005, which was emulated by McDonald’s, these two fast-food giants agreed to all of the farmworkers’ demands, especially to paying farmworkers a penny a pound more for tomatoes harvested. The PC(USA) had been at the heart of this struggle for fair food and human rights from the very beginning.  Not only did the CIW’s agreements with Yum Brands and McDonald’s result in the near doubling of workers’ wages, it laid the cornerstone for socially responsible purchasing in the fast food industry.  Presbyterians’ prayers and involvement are needed now to ensure that progress continues to be made.

Comments

[Christie Valentine]

Is it true that the Presbyterians once boycotted Taco Bell because they refused to concede to the Immokalee worker's demands? Is it possible to make such a statement with Burger King as well and call for a denomination-wide boycott?

[Linda Valentine]

The Rev. Noelle Damico, the PC(USA)'s associate for Fair Food Concerns, has replied to Christie Valentine's comment with the comprehensive response below:

Dear Christie:

Thanks for your comment. Yes, the 214th PC(USA)’s General Assembly voted in 2002 to support the national consumer boycott of Taco Bell that had been called by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). The boycott was an effective, peaceful means of expressing disapproval for the company’s policy and using our consumer power to indicate our desire that Taco Bell work with the CIW, and ended in March 2005 with a ground-breaking agreement between the company and the farmworkers.

It's important that the farmworkers themselves, not the church, decided at what point it was necessary to call for a boycott. The CIW called for the boycott in the spring of 2001. Then the Tampa Bay Presbytery, whose members had been working with the CIW for years, brought the farmworkers’ request to the GA. After prayer and study the General Assembly voted to support the boycott of Taco Bell.

At this point, the CIW has not yet called for a boycott and continues to encourage people to sign the CIW’s Petition to End Modern-Day Slavery and Sweatshops in the Fields so that Burger King knows that people of faith and consumers of conscience want them to work with the CIW now. Here’s the link to the Petition http://fairfoodnation.org/petition .

During the Taco Bell boycott Presbyterians were very active in letter-writing, peaceful, public demonstrations and in supporting the farmworkers' "truth tours" -- hosting farmworkers in their churches, providing food, sponsoring educational forums in their communities. The Office of the General Assembly was also instrumental in bringing executives from the company together with the farmworkers for talks. These talks led to an historic agreement between Taco Bell’s parent company, Yum! Brands, and the CIW in March of 2005. In April of 2007, on the eve of the CIW declaring a boycott of McDonald’s, McDonald’s also forged an agreement with the CIW.

Since 2005, the PC(USA) has joined the CIW and other faith, human-rights and student organizations in calling on Burger King to work with the CIW, just as McDonald’s and Yum! Brands (which owns Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC, Long John Silver’s and A&W Restaurants) have done. But Burger King has refused.

In the CIW’s ongoing Petition Campaign Against Modern-Day Slavery and Sweatshops in the Fields, over 85,000 have people indicated that they are “prepared to boycott Burger King now and other companies in the future” should they refuse to work with the CIW. Specifically signers of the petition joined the CIW in calling on Burger King and other food industry leaders to:

1. Pay a penny more per pound for tomatoes and ensure that the increase is passed on to tomato pickers in the form of increased wages; and
2. Work with the CIW to establish and enforce a human rights-based code of conduct, including zero tolerance for forced labor, to ensure fair and safe working conditions.

The key word in the pledge, however, is “prepared” – we await the farmworkers’ decision on whether and when a boycott is needed.

According to General Assembly policy, if the CIW were to call for a boycott of Burger King, then the matter could be brought to the General Assembly Council or the General Assembly itself for prayerful consideration. Here’s the relevant resolution which was passed by the 217th GA in 2006 http://pc-biz.org/IOBView.aspx?m=ro&id=1139 .

For the latest news, including press which has identified Vice President of Burger King Steve Grover as using his daughters email account to blog derogatory and false information about the CIW online and stories exposing that Burger King hired a private security firm to spy on Student/Farmworker Alliance, are available at www.pcusa.org/fairfood and www.ciw-online.org .

For a full chronology of the PC(USA)’s engagement with Burger King, a set of “frequently asked questions” and links to public statements and General Assembly policy, visit http://www.pcusa.org/fairfood/burger-king-campaign.htm .

It is the PC(USA)’s hope that Burger King will move swiftly to change course and work with the CIW. The women and men who harvest our food deserve nothing less.

Thank you for your interest and support!

Peace,
Noelle

The Rev. Noelle Damico
Campaign for Fair Food
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
noelle.damico@pcusa.org
www.pcusa.org/fairfood