the more things change...

November 21, 2007 - For those of you who haven't heard, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers was recently bestowed with the 2007 Anti-Slavery Award by London-based Anti-Slavery International (the world's oldest human rights organization). As we were reading the latest update from the CIW from London, we couldn't shake the feeling that this one guy looked familiar...

...focus on the guy in the middle. That would be the King of England, being satirized in this abolitionist cartoon for the unwillingness of certain sectors of society to adhere to the then-boycott of sugar produced by slave labor. This boycott united former slaves and consumers in a movement to end the transatlantic slave trade. (Sound familiar?)

Take a closer look...

...remind you of anyone?

Why, it's none other than Burger King vice president Steve Grover. The resemblance is uncanny, and we don't just mean physically.

Fun and games aside, though, this little comparison brings home a more serious point. As the royal family sat around their table and chowed down on crumpets full of slave-produced sugar, so too does this VP of the "King" of the fast food empire thumb his nose at farmworkers, teaming with the backward Florida tomato industry to skirt responsibility for the daily grinding poverty and human rights abuses endured by farmworkers in his tomato supply chain.

The ASI award is yet another (timely) reminder of the deplorable state of affairs in Florida agriculture today, and that Burger King, Subway, and other major purchasers of Florida tomatoes must use their influence -- as Yum brands and McDonald's have -- to contribute toward fair wages and working conditions for farmworkers. If at all possible, get yourself and your people to Miami on November 30 as we storm the King´s castle -- Burger King´s corporate headquarters -- to demand an immediate end to medieval labor relations.