[Peace-discuss] Florida tomato pickers kick double butt

[John W.]

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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