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SW: CIW campaign
==No raise for tomato pickers==
"[F]or the past two years, Burger King has stood firm and said no" to a demand from the [[Coalition of Immokalee Workers]] (CIW) that the company pay a penny more per pound for its tomatoes. "[T]hat would double [tomato pickers'] wages and cost BK $250,000 a year," reported [[NPR]]'s Marketplace in January 2008. <ref name="Mktp">Dan Grech, "[http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/01/16/a_cent_too_far_for_burger_king A cent too far for Burger King: Burger King's two-year battle with Florida tomato pickers over a penny-per-pound raise is coming to a head with the news that BK has begun planning to buy tomatoes elsewhere]," Marketplace, January 16, 2008.</ref>
"Just after Thanksgiving [2007], the Florida tomato pickers held a large rally outside Burger King headquarters in Miami. Now it's surfaced that three weeks later, BK sent a note to suppliers saying it may no longer buy tomatoes from southwestern Florida," reported Marketplace. <ref name="Mktp"/>
In March 2008, CIW announced plans to launch "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,'" reported the ''Ft. Myers News-Press''. <ref name="FtMyers">Amy Bennett Williams, "[http://www.ciw-online.org/news-press_on_petition.html Immokalee workers raise stakes; May boycott fast-food chain in try to raise tomato prices]" ''Ft. Myers News-Press'' (Florida), March 5, 2008.</ref>
CIW previously used similar grassroots pressure tactics to get [[Taco Bell]] / [[Yum! Brands]] to agree to the penny-a-pound increase in 2005, and [[McDonald's]] in 2007. Burger King's refusal to do the same has prompted "Senate labor committee member [[Bernie Sanders]], I-Vt., to call for Senate hearings on farm conditions, tentatively scheduled for next month [April 2008]." <ref name="FtMyers"/>
==Public relations and lobbying==
===Other personnel===
*[[Keva Silversmith]], director of external communications <ref>Amy Bennett Williams, name="[http://www.ciw-online.org/news-press_on_petition.html Immokalee workers raise stakes; May boycott fast-food chain in try to raise tomato prices]FtMyers" ''Ft. Myers News-Press'' (Florida), March 5, 2008.</ref>
==Contact details==
