Here is a report from the Miami Herald regarding the protest against Burger King. The newspaper has a slideshow of pics. This is from the Herald's news account:
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers is holding the march to urge the fast food giant to require tomato farmers provide higher wages and better working conditions for the migrant workers who pick the tomatoes.
The goal is to get Burger King to follow the lead of Taco Bell and McDonald's, who have agreed to pay an additional penny per pound for their tomatoes. But Burger King and the tomato growers argue that those agreements violate federal anti-trust and labor laws.
''I think we're drawing a lot of looks from passersby,'' Julia Perkins, a spokeswoman for the coalition, said as the group headed past the AmericanAirlines Arena. ``We're just getting in the rhythm of things. There's a lot of great music and a lot of energy.''
The Presbyterian Church (USA) has been outspoken in its support of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers for several years. You can read more about this issue on the PCUSA website and from Witherspoon Society.This is an important issue. We are talking about slave conditions in our own nation. Here is a helpful FAQ to familiarize yourself with this issue.
Here is a bulletin insert that also explains the significance of today's march.
The IRD has a different view. Jim Berkeley doesn't seem to think worker justice has anything to do with "the gospel."
Always good to know who lines the IRD's pockets.
It's unfortunate that IRD doesn't see the opportunity to join in this.
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13Now listen, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." 14Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." 16As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. 17Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
Thanks Jim.
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