May 25, 2006

As McDonald's shareholders gather for the company's annual meeting today, farmworkers from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and members of the Alliance for Fair Food (AFF) are calling on the company to commence immediate and serious dialogue with the CIW to address exploitative wages and human rights concerns in McDonald's tomato supply chain.

Farmworkers picking for McDonald's suppliers earn 40-45 cents for every 32 pound bucket of tomatoes they harvest, a wage that has remained stagnant for more than 25 years. In partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI, the CIW has successfully prosecuted five cases of slavery in the agricultural fields and freed more than one thousand slaves. More cases are under investigation.

"Consumers of conscience care that the food we purchase at McDonald's be produced fairly and insist that the farmworkers harvesting the tomatoes be partners with the company in advancing their own human rights," said the Rev. Noelle Damico, Associate for Fair Food with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) a founding member of the Alliance for Fair Food. The Board of Pensions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Presbyterian Foundation are institutional shareholders in McDonald's Corporation. "Exercising such moral responsibility is also sound business practice," Damico added, "increasing consumer and shareholder confidence in the provenance of McDonald's products and the integrity of the company." To wit, Yum! Brands' stock soared following the company's March 2005 decision to work with the CIW which ended a four year boycott of its subsidiary Taco Bell.

In April, McDonald's released a study, "Economic Impact: Tomatoes in Florida, Part I," authored by the Center for Reflection, Education, and Action, in an attempt to deflect criticism of their current practices. The study has been denounced by labor experts and thirty social scientists who concur with Dr. Bruce Nissen, Director of the Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy at Florida International University, that the study is "so riddled with errors both large and small that it cannot be accepted as factually accurate on virtually any measure."

"It's beyond time for McDonald's to stop treating a human rights crisis as a public relations campaign. This attitude not only perpetuates the exploitation of the farmworkers but threatens to discredit McDonald's own reputation in the area of social responsibility," said Todd Howland, Director of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights. "We expect the company to sit down and craft a meaningful solution with the farmworkers who are uniquely positioned to create a strong and enforceable code of conduct to protect their human rights."

The Alliance for Fair Food is a broad network of human rights, religious, student and labor leaders and institutions that work in partnership with the CIW to promote principles and practices of socially responsible purchasing in the corporate food industry that advance the human rights of farmworkers. AFF endorsers include Amnesty International USA, the AFL-CIO, "Fast Food Nation" author Eric Schlosser, the Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., Julian Bond, Board Chairman of the NAACP, and United Students Against Sweatshops.

Alliance for Fair Food