[Peace-discuss] Florida tomato pickers kick double butt

[Jenifer Cartwright]

Yes, we both recognise the two definitions to the word which allows corps to be UNprincipled on principle, i e:
   
  Principle: a rule or standard especially of good behavior; "a man of principle"; "he will not violate his principles" 
   
  Principle: A fundamental law or rule as a guide to action; a rule of conduct; a fundamental motive or reason for action, especially one consciously recognized and followed.
   
  Further discussion of the semantics of the issue is against MY principles!
   --Jenifer 
  
"John W." <jbw292002 at gmail.com> wrote:
  
  On Sun, Jun 1, 2008 at 10:35 AM, Jenifer Cartwright <jencart13 at yahoo.com> wrote:

    Ricky,
  Didn't realize this was going to the whole list, sorry. News to me about machines picking tomatoes for sauce, ketchup, etc... Also specifics re how many lbs (tons) of tomatoes the extremely hard-working workers actually pick... But nothing new about anti-union mentality and behavior of companies, corporations, and school systems (which I have lifetime personal knowledge concerning). That's why I said, it was the "uh, principle" of the thing (meaning that companies, corporations, school boards are UNprincipled).
   --Jenifer
  
And Ricky is asserting that the companies/corporations DO have principles, which is why they fought the wage increase to the tomato pickers even though it amounted to a relatively minuscule amount of money.  Their principle is to keep the workers weak and subjugated in the interests of greater profits to be reaped by capital (i.e., management and stockholders).

John


 
    
    Ricky Baldwin <baldwinricky at yahoo.com> wrote:

    They DO work their butts off - that's really been part of the message,
folks! Each tomato picker has to pick about 2-1/2 TONS of tomatoes BY
HAND each day to make the poverty line ...

But this campaign isn't just about these particular workers, of course.
And 30k bucks isn't the reason BK fought it so hard - any more than
the $150,000 is the reason Taco Bell fought so hard, etc - it's the
PRINCIPLE. Yes, the principle. We cynics on the left sometimes forget
that they matter at all in the nasty dog-eat-dog world of capitalism. 
We forget, that is, that principles matter to capitalists. They don't
often show it, you might say. But in fact, thi kind of thing is
EXACTLY where they show that it principles DO matter to them. How many
union campaigns face bosses willing to spend twice or ten times as much
money fighting against the union than they would have spent just
agreeing to all the union's demands? Almost every one I've ever seen.

And, just because you asked, Jenifer, tomatoes for tomato sauce and
such aren't generally picked by hand in Florida, as the slicing
tomatoes are. They usually come from California (for the time being)
and machines pick them (not requiring the human touch, as they'll only
get squashed up anyway).

Thanks for your interest!
Ricky

  
   
      --- "John W." wrote:

> On Sun, May 25, 2008 at 10:38 AM, Jenifer Cartwrigh wrote:
> 
> How many tomatoes does BK actually use? It's not like they're making pizza
> > sauce or chili, right? Does CU even have any BKs these days, even one?? So
> > fewer places overall. Yeah, 35 workers could do it. (It was probably the,
> > uh, principle of the thing.)
> > --Jenifer
> 
> Well, they put a tomato slice on every Whopper, and probably on most of
> their other burgers. And they sell literally millions of Whoppers.  Those
> 35 workers must really be working their butts off.




       
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