Chipotle’s Under Fire For Refusing To Sign Tomato Pickers Agreement

Fast food chain Chipotle is being accused by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) in southern Florida of not doing enough to ensure fair pay and safe conditions for the workers who pick its tomatoes because they wouldn’t sign an agreement CIW brokered to earn pickers a long overdue 64% pay increase. (From a wage that had been the same for the last 40 years.)

But Chipotle says they didn’t sign because a) the tomato growers they use are not guilty of treating pickers like slaves (Something several south Florida growers have been convicted of in court since the late 1990’s.) and b) The Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, which counts most Florida tomato growers as members, kept about $1.5 million in payments for farmworkers in an escrow account, forbidding growers from paying workers the extra money.

Now, East Coast Growers and Packers, which used to be part of The Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, but has since dropped out, brokered its own deal privately with Chipotle for them to pay the fee increase for the pickers. CIW remains skeptical because they don’t have the details of that agreement, hence the graffitied sign you see before you. We have no idea who to believe.

Image [Buzzfeed]
Tomato Workers Score Huge Victory [AFL-CIO]
Chipotle’s ‘Integrity’ slogan draws heat [Fresno Bee]