"Exploitation King" Day of Action

From our friends at the Student Farmworker Alliance:

Today, March 31, 2008, members of the Student/Farmworker Alliance from New York City to the Rio Grande Valley are hitting the streets to take action in the Campaign for Fair Food. Today marks a national SFA Day of Action in collaboration with the SLWoA and Farmworker Awareness Week.

SFA'istas are holding events and tabling to gather signatures for the CIW's National Petition Campaign; holding local Burger King protests; and participating in activities to honor the legacy and life of Cesar Chavez.

In New York, an early-morning picket will greet Goldman Sachs employees as they arrive to work, calling attention to the role of the private equity giant -- part owner of Burger King and with 2 of its representatives on BK's Board of Directors -- in perpetuating farmworker poverty. In Lafayette, Colorado, SFA and CIW members will be marching with elementary school students to remember Cesar Chavez and continue the fight that he dedicated his life to.

SFA members around the country are working hard and creatively on the CIW's National Petition Drive as part of the Day/Week of Action. The petition calls on Burger King and other food industry leaders to work with the CIW to improve wages and working conditions in the fields and to take steps to finally put an end to modern-day slavery. The petition also promises that those who sign are prepared to boycott Burger King should that become necessary. You can sign the petition today by clicking here, and visit this link to find out how to bring it to your community and gather more signatures, which will be collected by the CIW and delivered to BK headquarters in Miami on April 28th.

Now more than ever, the petition drive and action by student and youth allies of the CIW are critical. BK has teamed with a conservative tomato growers' lobbying group and is aggressively attacking the precedents set by the Taco Bell and McDonald's agreements.

Burger King, it seems, is banking its "bad boy" brand image at least partially in its callous snubbing of the CIW. But you can't base your brand on playing with people's lives, and young people aren't as easy to manipulate and distract as BK may think.

The more resistance BK puts up, and the more it tries to reverse the gains made by the CIW and its youth and student allies, the harder it's gonna fall. We know that Burger King will be brought to the table to negotiate and reach an agreement with the CIW. It's only a matter of time.

Just one month has passed since a federal indictment was handed down for the 7th case of modern-day slavery in the fields over the past decade. And still, Burger King refuses to take responsibility for the degradation and sweatshop conditions endemic to the industry that supplies its tomatoes.

It is time to say enough. Standing together as workers and consumers, with the national petition drive as our tool, we can make the latest slavery case the last.

Stay tuned to this blog and http://sfalliance.org in the days and weeks ahead as we keep you updated on the SLWoA (student labor week of action) and the fast-moving Burger King campaign.