Fast Food

Watch the video from CNN.

BURGER KING CORP. AND COALITION OF IMMOKALEE WORKERS TO WORK TOGETHER

WASHINGTON – May 23, 2008 - The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and Burger King Corp. (NYSE:BKC) today announced plans to work together to improve wages and working conditions for the farmworkers who harvest tomatoes for the BURGER KING® system in Florida.

BKC has agreed to pay an additional net penny per pound for Florida tomatoes to increase wages for the Florida farm workers who harvest tomatoes. To encourage grower participation in this increased wage program, BKC will also fund incremental payroll taxes and administrative costs incurred by the growers as a result of their farmworkers' increased wages, or a total of 1.5 cents per pound of tomatoes.

UPDATE (05/13/2008): Burger King exec. is ousted over anti-worker Internet smear campaign. (Associated Press) The question remains whether Burger King CEO John Chidsey ordered the operation.

Writing in the New York Times, Eric Schlosser decries corporate spying against advocates for social change including Burger's King spying operation against the Student/Farmworker Alliance. Schlosser calls for a congressional investigation of the increasing use of spying programs by multinational corporations. (New York Times)

Many people are unaware just how dangerous retail work is; it's a topic the the industry doesn't like to talk about. Let's take a look at the Wendy's fast food hamburger chain over the last week or so.

Fire rescue worker Raphael "Ray" Vazquez was slain in a shooting on Monday at a Wendy's hamburger restaurant in Florida. Four other customers were injured by the gunfire. The employees at the store miraculously escaped physical injury though psychological trauma is likely.

The day before, two Wendy's employees in Illinois were robbed at gunpoint and forced into a freezer by two masked men.

The day after the shooting spree in Florida, a drive-through employee at a California Wendy's was confronted by a robber with a gun.

Last week, a worker at a Wendy's in Oregon was beaten by an armed robber.

351 retail workers in the United States suffered fatal injuries on the job in 2006, the last year for which government data was available. As a point of reference, 190 workers died in the mining industry in 2006, the year of the tragedy at the Sago Mine.

138 of the deaths in retail were due to homicide.

The real risk of violence on the job for retail workers is yet another reason why their economic and social contributions deserve respect.

How to help the family of Wendy's shooting victim Ray Vazquez:

P.B.C. Firefighters Benevolent Fund

Care of Vazquez Family

Union Office

2328 S. Congress Ave.

Suite 2C

Palm Springs, FL 33406

A former employee of a McDonald's in Albany, N.Y., filed a lawsuit Tuesday, alleging the restaurant discriminated against her and violated provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Encouraging opposition to the seemingly unlimited expansion of the fast food chains has emerged in L.A.

Diet-conscious Los Angeles eyes moratorium on fast-food outlets

Chalk up a (temporary) victory at the expense of public health for the New York Restaurant Association.