Subway Vows to Pay More for Tomatoes

Activists managed to persuade Subway to join fast food giants McDonald's, Burger King and Taco Bell in paying an extra cent for each tomato they buy, in order to give workers attending to the fields day and night a fair wage. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, which was behind this success, represents the interests of over 4,000 farmers and constantly seeks to improve their quality of life.
 

The main problem with getting the money to the workers is the fact that the growers do not agree with this idea and say that they will not hand the extra earnings down to the plain farmer. They argue that it would be illegal for them to accept the extra cents, because the price was imposed by a third party, and not by an agreement between them and the restaurant chains. Naturally, these are all just excuses, because, at the end of the day, the money ends up in the workers' pockets, and not in those of the growers.
 

"The minute the money is in the pickers hands that’s when it’s a good day. If it’s truly all about the workers, then we have to be vigilant and be sure everybody signs agreements like these and everybody agrees to the same standards," argues Subway’s Independent Purchasing Cooperative president and chief executive, Jan Risi.
 

"We’re hopeful that the growers will stop resisting this change and help us to get the money to the workers, rather than setting up barriers. With every new company that signs on, it provides a lot of incentive for a forward-thinking grower to be willing to pass on the penny per pound," adds Julia Perkins, who is a spokeswoman for the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.
 

"I just wish someone would be a little creative and find a way to get the money to the workers. We would like to see the worker paid, but we can’t do it," argues the vice-president of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, who goes on to say that the association he represents has no possible way of handing the money down to the workers.