Don't Fall For Chipotle's Spin on Slavery

I wrote about Chipotle's refusal to meet with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and sign on to the organization's Campaign for Fair Food. The campaign fights farm worker exploitation, and several major fast food chains have already joined the Fair Food Fight. More than 100 Change.org members signed our petition asking Chipotle to sign on to CIW's Campaign for Fair Food, and many were confused by the response we received back from the Mexican restaurant. The response read in part:

"When Chipotle signed an agreement with East Coast Growers last year to improve wages and working conditions for farm workers who pick our tomatoes, it was an important step toward getting tomato growers to take action on this issue. Today, all of the tomatoes we use in our restaurants come from growers who have signed on with the CIW and its Campaign for Fair Food to ensure better wages and working conditions for farm workers."

This is the latest way in which Chipotle has justified refusing to sign a Fair Food agreement or even have a discussion with the CIW, the nation's most preeminent force battling agricultural slavery and exploitation in the United States. But the CIW immediately blasted these claims as mere spin when Chipotle first started spewing this rubbish. The CIW's Gerardo Reyes and Sean Sellars wrote for Grist and detailed why Chipotle's response just isn't good enough.

While it's heartening that Chipotle, after years of silence and stalling, has finally acknowledged that working conditions for farmers need to improve, the policies that the restaurant touts do not represent real change. There is absolutely no accountability or transparency in the company's plan. Chipotle currently decides for itself what standards growers need to meet and whether they are meeting them. No one is checking up on Chipotle — consumers just have to take the company's word for it. And as Reyes points out, farm workers still "have no role in Chipotle's plan."

Chipotle's claiming sole credit for the East Coast Growers' decision to improve working conditions and institute a penny-per-pound wage increase is particularly bile-inducing. Several parties were involved in the negotiations that led to that decision, but it's clear that Chipotle played a very, very small role. At the time of the East Coast Growers' decision, Chipotle had just 830 stores. Compare that with the 65,000 stores that were bound by agreements with the CIW, and we begin to see who really had the bargaining power. Chipotle is trying to take credit for the hard work of the CIW and its Campaign for Fair Food, the very campaign that the restaurant refuses to join. It's despicable, and I honestly expect better from a company that claims to have a high regard for integrity.

Many before have been fooled by Chipotle's spin on this issue, but now you know what's up. Sign our petition telling Chipotle to stop the games and the PR-speak and sign on to the CIW's Campaign for Fair Food.

Photo credit: Critical Moss via Flickr