Student/Farmworker Alliance (SFA) is a national network of students and youth organizing with farmworkers to eliminate sweatshop conditions and modern-day slavery in the fields. We work in alliance with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a membership-led organization of mostly Latino, Haitian, and Mayan Indian low-wage workers based in Southwest Florida. Together we won the four-year Taco Bell Boycott in 2005 and McDonald's campaign in 2007. SFA is a founding member of the Alliance for Fair Food.
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Students, consumers growing increasingly impatient with BK's dirty tricks as scandals mount Update: May 7, 2008:
Hot on the heels of continuing revelations about Burger King VP Steve Grover's smear campaign against the CIW and its allies, a must-read New York Times op/ed by author Eric Schlosser today makes clear what we've suspected all along: that Burger King was behind Diplomatic Tactical Services' efforts to spy on the SFA. But it doesn't stop there.
The scandal has now reached new levels with the news that none other than Burger King CEO John Chidsey knew about the company's use of Diplomatic Tactical Services, whose owner Cara Schaffer recently attempted to infiltrate SFA by posing as a student, despite being denied a private investigator's license by the state of Florida. Here are some highlights from the explosive op/ed:
What does this all mean? You can read the CIW's analysis of where the campaign -- and the investigation into Burger King's recent behavior -- should go from here. What's clear is that Burger King must change course and must be held accountable for its two-pronged attack on the CIW and its allies through an online smear campaign and the attempt to spy on SFA, both tactics having now been linked to the highest levels of leadership at the corporation. And while Burger King may claim that it was justified in hiring an unlicensed private security agent -- a move which may in itself have been illegal -- to "protect its employees and assets," its concern about such harm stemming from the actions of SFA is totally baseless. Furthermore, given recent revelations, it's clear whose behavior needs to be put under scrutiny. SFA is a nonviolent group that has used tactics such as peaceful protest and hunger strikes to educate our peers and persuade the two largest fast-food corporations in the world to sit down and negotiate agreements with farmworkers to improve wages and working conditions in these company's tomato supply chains. Given our history, the fact that Burger King would hire an outfit such as DTS to spy on us is as unjustifiable as it is unacceptable. And given BK's attempts to publicly discredit the CIW, it's not too much of a stretch to assume that "safety" was not their only motivation to spy on us. The incident wreaks of desperation, with BK turning over every possible stone, hoping (but failing) to find another justification to continue its current course.
Burger King says it's conducting an internal investigation into this mounting scandal. But just as we've learned that you can't trust the "fox to guard the henhouse," Burger King must be subjected to an independent investigation if we're really to get to the bottom of this sorry sequence of events. What's clear today is that it's time for Burger King to cooperate with such an investigation, and, more importantly, for it to stop wasting precious time and resources in underhanded and morally reprehensible tactics that already have done irreparable harm to the company and instead come to an agreement with the CIW. From our humble beginning 8 years ago as a small group of Florida students called to action by the inspiring human rights work of the CIW -- including its 230-mile march across the state -- SFA has held itself to the high standard of accountability and responsibility necessary for our work in partnership with one of the poorest and most vulnerable communities in the US. The only thing we've done to Burger King is try to educate the company that the carefully-managed brand image it spends billions on can't hold up against the reality of farmworker exploitation and unethical behavior that lays behind the company's soaring profits. Fortunately, as of late, Burger King's own behavior has made this task all the more easy for us. 85,000 signatures delivered to BK headquarters as high-level executive revealed behind smear campaign!
In major development, 'libelous' comments are directly connected to BK VP Steve Grover as farmworkers, allies deliver petition signatures May 1 , 2008 - Busted. The trail of insulting, libelous online comments aimed at the CIW and its allies has been directly connected to Burger King Vice President Steve Grover. On at least one occasion, Grover referred to farmworkers in Immokalee struggling to defend their human rights as "blood suckers" and "the lowest form(s) of life." The litany of posts by Grover -- hiding behind anonymous internet usernames (and even his own daughter's) and repeatedly referring to CIW allies as "dupes" and "fools."-- called into question the integrity of the CIW and the Yum Brands/ McDonald's agreements, even after Grover was told to stop spreading such lies. This latest in a series of revelations of dirty tricks by Burger King against the CIW and SFA has Fair Food activists wondering what concrete steps Burger King will take to show that, as the company claims, the words of one of their vice presidents do not reflect "official policy." In the words of CIW member Gerardo Reyes-Chavez,
Take a moment today to get caught up on all the latest, from the links below to the CIW site. From the ongoing national petition drive to the widening scandal at the highest levels of BK, to an exciting development in the Chipotle campaign, it's looking to be a hot summer for BK and the food industry as the CIW and its allies demand an end, once and for all, to sweatshops in the fields!
Petitions to be delivered April 28... "not just hamburgers being grilled at Burger King" April 24, 2008 - Just 4 days remain before the delivery of signatures from the CIW's National Petition Campaign at Burger King headquarters (Mon., 4/28 at 3:30pm, 5505 Blue Lagoon Dr., Miami). Now's your chance to sign and forward the e-petition if you haven't already! In light of its recently-revealed dirty tricks, Burger King is facing increased scrutiny. Asked recently about efforts to infiltrate SFA and libelous comments about the CIW that have been traced directly back to BK headquarters, a Burger King spokesperson "declined to comment." We all know what that means... Stay tuned, as this is surely not the last piece of news in this saga! Countless consumers across the US (and beyond) have signed the CIW's Petition, pledging to boycott Burger King in the near future should that become necessary. The pressure on BK will continue -- and more irreparable harm will be done to its brand -- if it continues down the same path. There's a way out for Burger King, a way for it to do the right thing. Burger King knows exactly what that is.
BK caught with hand in cookie jar; Florida petition tour launched!
April 15, 2008 - In what may be a turning point in the campaign for fair food (coming exactly one year after the McDonald's victory and launch of the Burger King campaign) it has been revealed that SFA has been the target of an espionage & infiltration attempt by Diplomatic Tactical Services, a "South Florida based security and investigative firm" specializing in "covert surveillance and undercover operations." These revelations come as a widespread bogus blogger operation traced directly to Burger King headquarters was also uncovered. The fake blogger spread libelous, anonymous attacks on the CIW across the internet, trashing the CIW's allies as "dupes." See the links below for coverage on this and other developing news from the campaign. Is the spy operation directly connected to Burger King, which has, in the words of the Ft. Myers News-Press, "sort of" denied responsibility? We leave that for you to decide -- at least for now. One thing is clear: such attempts at disruption and infiltration don't happen in a vacuum. They happen in response to well-organized campaigns. They happen when corporations like Burger King are called upon by the public to take real responsibility and when those corporations start to run out justifications to not do so. Meanwhile, the Florida Petition Tour has kicked off, and the national petition campaign to end sweatshops and modern-day slavery in the fields surges forward with a renewed sense of urgency. CIW and SFA members are rolling across Florida to bring the CIW's national petition to students and community members from Tampa to Tallahassee to Orlando. Click here for daily reports from the tour! Stay tuned to this site and that of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in the days ahead for all the latest developments in the fast-moving campaign for fair food. From attempts at infiltration to today's senate hearings on farmworker poverty, it's sure to be a jam-packed couple of weeks in the lead-up to the April 28 petition delivery action and procession at BK headquarters in Miami! Here's the news in a nutshell:
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PO Box 603, Immokalee, FL 34143 :: (239) 657-8311 :: organize (at) sfalliance.org
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Busted, part 2: Spy scandal linked to BK CEO!
But the scandal doesn't stop here, at least according to a 
Burger King's campaign of dirty tricks revealed as SFA, CIW take petition campaign across the sunshine state and CIW testifies in US Senate