Exactly how much would it cost BK if there was a one day boycott nationwide? Or, maybe two days, or a week. It probably wouldn't take too long for them to change their minds and cooperate. What would it take for everyone to give up BK for a few days? It might even be healthy...

Take the socks off of your hands and put them back on your smelly feet Grover.

During the past couple of decades Union busting scum have tried every dirty trick to vilify the unions. The republicans and many democrats are willing to look the other way and support those scum while their coffers are lined with big business money.

The above article is just another example of how far some employers will go to bring down the unions.

This story epitomizes my reasons for being a lefty. Greedy, filthy rich corporate bloodsuckers denying people doing backbreaking labor for poverty wages a $20 a week raise.
Home of the Brave, Land of the Free...indeed.

BTW - I stopped eating at fast food restaurants 20 years ago, for a lot of reasons. But that's a whole 'nother story.

You see a lot of this. This is just one that got exposed. Read your favorite CD trolls, and then wonder what their day job really is.

Its an old tactic really. Both the fascists and the communists used it back in the 20's and 30's. Of course, in the pre-internet days they actually had to send people into the opposition's meeting places to divert and disrupt their meetings. With the modern internets, they can do it online with anonymous posts full of lies and distortions, and others designed to divert the discussion away from key points.

The key point is this. They don't want us to communicate. They don't want us to come together. They don't want us to organize. So, do all three, and ignore the trolls that try anything to keep it from happening.

How is it that people who are that stupid as to actually think their on-line posts wouldn't eventually be connected back to them, and that people who actually think that using the tactics that this "businessman" used to respond to worker activism are appropriate, rise to the level of being a CEO of a major corporation?!

I guess it's the same stupid system that allows a guy that voters would like to have a beer with get elected to the U.S. presidency, over other guys who might actually be able to find a way out of our domestic and international problems by investing in our future rather than by giving huge tax breaks to the super-rich, lying about the reasons for sending our troops off to invade a country and then lying about having lied about it, and sitting by while the war profiteering industry raids the U.S. treasury and charges on the U.S. federal credit card to an extent that won't be paid off for decades.

Have it your way - unless you're a tomato picker.

ewwwww!

As slimy, ridiculous, and predictable as when Jim Mackey (Whole Foods Mkt) used a pseudonym to trash his competitor so WFM could buy them up.

I guess this is the sort of thing one does if one wants to make the big bux$, but as for me and my family, we'll worship the Lord.

Peach McD in Durham NC

Down with Burger King Imperialism!! Free the Burger King serfs!!

The king on the commericals creeps me out almost as much as Steven Grover. Of course, historically, lots of Kings hid behind their children

annabelle,

Right on target! Boycotts are sucessful as are work stoppages.
The Taco Bell campaign for the tomato harvesters took some time but possibly because it wasn't publisized as much. TB eventually paid the increase. Start the Burger King boycott now and pass the word around.

Edward1793, Great post! And you are correct!

Samson: Divide and conquer.

LindaS, Also a good post. Simple does as simple says, or something like that.

Thanks, Amy Bennett Williams!

Peachmcd,

Good for you! When I found out about Jim Mackey, about 5 or 6 years ago, I quit shopping at Whole Foods and purchase my items at an independent health food store farther away.

Looks like BK is servin' up some SPAM!

I have stopped eating at "fast food" establishments for mostly health reasons. Again, nothing new here. Greedy corporate interests transfer their money lust onto the workers and those who would stand up for them. Just like the insurance companies are blaming the sick for health costs. I agree with them, if no one were sick, health costs would be VERY low indeed and we would have NO need for insurance companies.

As I have stated in previous posts, the key to beating capitalists is to withdraw from their game. I have been in contact with members of my city council to help get more community garden plots, get food stamps accepted at our local famer's market, and educate people how to grow their own food and prepare for times of no water, electricity, etc.

I take the lowest cost, local approach to these issues thusly depriving the monied elite their greatest prize. Control over my life through the manufactured need to consume. It doesn't take much effort just a bit of forethought in running your life. Stop letting your TV do it for you. After beating my TV addiction, I have discovered just how BORING TV really is. Try it sometime. Unplug your TV for a month, you will never look at it the same way again.

The government DOES NOT have your best interests in mind. Survive as a nation by survivng as a community. In solidarity.....

This episode is pathetic on several counts, with the most obvious being is how lame Grover is for using his daughter's online id so he can post obfuscation. Doesn't Grover know how to open a free e-mail account and use that to post?! Of is he one of these old fogies who think that answering e-mail themselves is beneath their station and have their secretaries do it (I had one of those Luddites in my former work life)? It is also a bad move PR wise due to the aforementioned lameness.

This article reminded me of a group, who would pretend to be a consulting firm, and present ideas to CEO's of Big companies..

The one particular stunt i recall was that they "presented" the heads of Mc D (hambergers), evidence that a lot of nutrition was still left in the , ah lets call it poop, that their customers left behind in the washrooms...

the idea they were selling to the big shots was that they had a method of cheaply "processing" that waste, and recycling it back into a "burgerlike" substance that could be "recycled 8-10 times with the "new" technology.. they also said N Americans would not like this idea, but over in Asia and other countries they wouldn't have to know the source...

Needless to say the "idea" was roundly applauded, and many of these Big Shots thought it was a grand idea...

They sure were red faced when it was all revealed as a fraud and a prank, and started to backtrack, stating they new it was a joke and were just playing along...

Look at the videos , if they are still online somewhere, they ( the duped) sure looked serious about implementing this idea to me...

Just goes to show how greedy these bastardos are and to what lengths they will go for "almighty dollar"

jim
canada
jim_murray@jdz.ca

Given how many Bushbucks it takes to fill your car or shopping cart I would think that any business would be delighted to pay only an extra penny-a-pound for tomatos during a global famine. Remember when LBJ debased all our silver coins to hide the cost of Vietnam? Now we are down to debasing even our pennies which cost us two Centabushs to mint. BK might find a farmer in China or India to grow and pick tomatos at their price but consider how the red ripeness will fade, like the blush of youth, on the long slow carbon spewing journey to their 'fast' food restaurants. To whom will BK sell their old tomatos? Poor pickers?

Greed is a sickness.

I can think of one more good reason to avoid Burger King (I don't go any of them myself). A friend of mine worked in a packing house shipping department. Everything is coded and all of the codes mean different things. The USDA grades meat with Prime being the top grade, then Choice, and Select. There are other grades you don't see in the supermarket like "Canner" which you might see used in canned stew. None of the major chains except Wendy's (Select, 100% fresh, lean ground beef) uses Select or above beef. McDonalds uses 100% lean ground beef. Burger King uses "head trimmings" which is exactly what it sounds like.

Boycott for a few days? I've refused to buy products from some companies for over 20 years -- never again! Once a company has demonstrated such a disregard for people and ethics why would I trust the products they sell to be safe or pure, or that they would not support anti-human policies in other areas? Would a company like this toss a batch of ingredients if it was contaminated, toxic, or spoiled? How could I even enjoy a Burger King product while wondering how much suffering to people was caused in making it, and just what was in it? I'd rather eat at the local Greasy Spoon.

Greed yeah, but I'm sure ideology also. He's probably just another rightwing piece of shit, doing for the cause. Probably listens to Limpdick every day, to supplant his view of the world. I quit going to BK years ago, and all other fast food outlets since. You don't have to have a boycott, just quit using them. Don't ever go back.

Go to the BK website, at the bottom of the page click "investor relations" follow the links and leave a message! Thanks

Good idea Sparkplug!

Samson April 28th, 2008 1:01 pm

"You see a lot of this. This is just one that got exposed. Read your favorite CD trolls, and then wonder what their day job really is."

Agreed, Samson - we've seen quite a bit of this crap here on CD as well. Best thing is to call them on it and then ignore them.

What is the issue here? This goes on everyday in every business in america.
Lots of people are having to become contractors. That means they work and pay all of their taxes.
I cannot wait until this trickels up.

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers should stop enabling the capitalists and start achieving land, water and food security for the Immokalee.

I love the Whopper but I will not patronize Burger King any more, not at the expense of my fellow americans. No more BK for me until BK reaches a fair and equitable agreement with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers AND Stephen Grover gets his just reward.

Do they make that Dog-Food to Your Order?

Could all forward thinkers request Many Extra Tomatoes Until BK Caved?

Is Suggesting That A Terrorist Act?

I suggest Cheney live on BK for a while. Hee Hee. Until He Caves. Double Hee Hee.

mikepeters April 28th, 2008 9:45 pm

"I suggest Cheney live on BK for a while. Hee Hee. Until He Caves."

Send him a high-powered magnet to stop his pace-maker; that will do the trick to the Dick!

One good thing about being gluten intolerant. I haven't been at any of these places in three years.

" annabelle April 28th, 2008 11:55 am

Exactly how much would it cost BK if there was a one day boycott nationwide? Or, ...."

Wish I could help out with that, but I don't eat at such places anyway; haven't done so except a few times over the past twenty or more years. Coffee? Okay, when traveling and needing a little picker-upper. Otoh, when traveling considerable distances, then I can stop and eat at such places; but I otherwise do not. So I can't help with the boycott.

-----------------------

From what I vaguely recall, McD accepted, over the past few years or so, for the tomato pickers to get an increase, and I appreciated that in worker solidarity; they deserved better and got what they requested or demanded. Or maybe it was Taco Bell; if not both.

These workers make $50 a day, and surely need to work full days for this, if anything like when I worked as a farmhand anyway; when I worked minimally 40 hours a week, and many of those weeks being 60 and more hours, at $1.50 an hour less than min. wage during a couple of seasons in the early 1980s (am now 51) and there was a near-total drought in or for jobs during summer seasons around here. That did not provide livable income, but was better than nothing at all at the time, and I've always loved the outdoors, so I grabbed the job. Poverty wage it was alright, but better than nothing at all.

Another summer, during my college and university years, I took a job in Toronto, but given the high cost of rent there, the $9 an hour didn't work out to be really any better than the above farm job, which was local to where I live.

$50 a day definitely is poverty wage in most the USA, if not all of it, and in much or most of Canada. And $20 more a day is still poverty income, but a little better.

These workers are as far from being greedy as we can get! They demand what they [minimally] deseve.

Damn country or world needs to get with becoming [civilised]!

-------------------------

" Edward1793 April 28th, 2008 12:39 pm

During the past couple of decades Union busting scum have tried every dirty trick to vilify the unions. ..."

Good and important point! I've never sought to be a unionised worker, for I like [independence], but the latter can also mean serious poverty; and some unions are very good in ethical terms. The idea of having a union and being a member of one is fine; it's just that corrupt leaders need to be weeded OUT. Don't trash the system, only repair what's wrong with it; always. Well, unless the whole system really should be trashed; but that's definitely not the case with the concept of unions, worker protection and defence.

I don't know the cost of food in the USA, after having left in 1999, instead of being totally homeless, carless, etc.; at least coming here provided shelter. But $280 a month, so $70 a day for a five-day week of work, would just meet my need for food, given I don't eat junk, but organic as much as I can; based on principle, environmentally and otherwise speaking (social, economic, ... issues). I'm totally against toxically poisoning our environment.

Well, let's say that's the cost for a month's worth of food for one person in the USA and these tomato pickers get their called-for and due increase in compensation for their work. What's left of the rest of the month's income, as opposed to the cost(s) of living? NOTHING remains; and they may still not have quite enough, given the cost(s) of living.

These workers have been fighting for well over a decade to get reasonable compensation, but whitie Amerancies can't stand it when the price of a postage stamp is being raise 1 or 2 cents; because elitist, self-righteous, pig, ... whitie Americanies are a GREED sub-species, like totally uncivilised.

Primitive living peoples are MORE civilised! They make our societies appear to be the damn sick, cognizant-less systems that we have!

Obviously, unions are needed. The field workers do not have the time to do the work they need to do in order to earn enough income to survive and, in addition, see to all of the work that a union does. They need this teamwork; it's just a question of unions being ethical towards the workers and otherwise reasonable, after which it should be smooth enough sailing. Teamwork is good when the parties involved don't abuse each other!

Magog, Quebec, provided a good example over the past few years. It was a (U.S.-based) C.S. Brooks textile manufacturer (sheets, pillow envelopes, whatever they're called, ...) that said that the workers, most of whom don't have more than a high school education, but who (some of whom) are dedicated workers; well, who needed to accept a decrease of 50 cents an hour. They were earning around $15 or so an hour, and the 50 cents is pre-tax, ... income, NOT NET, to boot.

Many, but not quite a majority, accepted, realising that they'd still have adequate income to live; but a tiny (very tiny, or else bare) majority said 'No!', and caused the factory to be shut down, putting [every] worker out of income; and unemployment insurance benefits are only for ... short-lived, after which ... welfare.

Lovely, not, is that sort of pig headedness! 50 cents an hour less for these workers wouldn't have hurt them at all; particularly not when that's 50 cents out of pre-taxed, ... income and taxation is high ... enough in this province. They really would not have noticed a net difference; it'd have been unworthy of mention.

The union was sane and on the side with the workers willing to accept the decrease, but the majority overruled the rights and dignity of the large minority; it was well over 40% of the workers who accepted the decrease. The pig-headed others refused to respect their peers and their union, and I listened to the words of the union leader there, so I know enough about the details in order to know he and the willing workers were right. Oh, well, all lost their incomes; totally.

Democracy can't function that way. A majority should never be permitted to override the rights of a minority when the latter are right! What should have happened is that the union and the willing workers would've won, and the others would've been cut. After all, they refused, while the others didn't, so let the former suffer, but not the latter unjustly.

Former Canadian PM Jean Chretien provided this above understanding of [true] democracy, that while it's based on majority rule, this must not be allowed to be unjust.

I've never sought to be a union member, but certainly respect ethical union leaders. When a union is corrupt, it's not the system that's wrong; it only needs to be repaired.

Iow, I'm all for the union idea; just that they need to be ethical, which is something we all [need] to be. Being ethical is not a luxury, but a necessity; the unethical brats are the ones who unjustly live in luxurious splendor and who corrupt democracy more than anyone else does.

We need a consensus of good will, to be ethical, else forget democracy; it'll never or rarely work.

I don't think we'll ever achieve that, but the Immakolee workers need their just compensation; and if they get it, given the cost(s) of living in the USA, then they're still going to be [poverty] workers. They'll be better off than they are now, but still having poverty compensation.

Who cannot raise the price of a burger 1 or 2 or even 5 cents?! Consumers won't notice the difference; they wouldn't notice if it was a 10-cent increase!! They may bitch like they nonsensically did in the 1990s when the govt wanted to raise the price of a damn postage stamp a mere 2 cents, but that's nonsense to be treated for what it is; [insane].

GREED WILL KILL USA; and in self-inflicted terms it is! The greed has already made much destruction of potentials for achieving a just society, so instead of inflicting more destructiveness and death, it'd be a wise elite to decide that enough is enough and the tides need to be turned around, before it's truly too late.

GREED [IS] CANCEROUS PARASITE!

I hope my above post was not too long-winded.

I hadn't previously read the article and it's very good.

Stephen Grover and Cara Schaffer should be seeing time behind cold-steel bars. What they're doing [is] violent; not in appearance, but slavery's not less than violent to even try to impose. Free non-violent "offenders" from prison and then throw these corporate elites in there. It'll give them a little time to re-think about how to live in [society]; and if they refuse to be corrigible, then leave them behind the cold-steel bars.

I surely won't complain.

"CEO Chidsey made $4.1 million last year, according to Forbes.com."

Okay, now here's a recipe for ya.

All together now, whenever meeting or crossing paths with any of these three above people in public (preferably), sing loud and clear, with some real [soul] (where's Jimmi Hendrix?):

*) Hey, pea-brain, yes, I'm addressing soul-less you ( :) a little while you're at it, if you feel like doing so; don't be shy);

*) I (or we, depending on whether you're with others forming a choir ensemble, or alone) read all about you in the news;

*) Drips like you are rich [pigs] (can add a little emphasis on or for 'pigs', if you fell like doing so);

*) You refuse a [1], let me repeat, a meager ONE [cent], aka [penny], a pound raise for poverty Immokalee workers; and

*) You know what that means of what I think of you, furthermore?

*) Take your head out of your rear end;

*) Because you're awfully intoxicated from breathing your internal gases; it's driven you into [madness]!

All together now, sing them these lyrics, or some sort of variation thereof. Don't be shy.

Just a suggestion. No, I'm not a song writer, just giving a little novice attempt.

Let the [soul] [rock]-and-[roll], let the (like Jim Hightower said) thunder roll, we want 'rolling thunder' in solidarity; until it shakes their souls, if they have any or one. If they don't, then we're in yet bigger trouble in terms of achieving Justice.

In public would be best, for fullest effect. We don't want to be cheap on effectivness, do we?!

Just do it such that you're not also arrested for sending or communicating this kind of justified, so legitimate, public message. If that's a risk, then use a less risky approach; I suppose. Each must choose for themselves, but we need to contribute somehow.

For crying out loud, these workers, and their union, were fighting back in the 1990s for a [tiny] (very tiny) increase in compensation; all these years for a question of [pennies], which consumers would NOT be able to notice at all!

There's GREED, and then there's worse degrees of it, and this case is one of nearly malediction. The Immokalee aren't cursed, but the people atrociously exploiting them [are]; sort of, figuratively speaking anyway.

1, ONE, UNO, UN, ... PENNY?! NO ONE of any sanity at all could refuse this demand or request! And only fools or idiots obey the insane; a habit that needs to be stopped in the USA (and its allied countries)! Well, besides the additionally and maliciously insane, anyway; else idiots, fools, which the insane also are, only also worse.

Who wants to be allied with criminally insane leaders?! No one I'm aware of knowing of; I hope.

Broadcast this news worldwide to ridicule the USA's ruling elites as they deserve to be.

Just another [suggestion], idea, thought, anyway.

I'm a dreamer and I sure hope dreams will be good after departing from this wretchedly greedy world.

My apologies, if you find that I "talk" too much. But such greedy people need to stop being permitted to [hijack] the country. NO one has any right to transgress the rights and legitimate liberties of others; only the illegitimate or wrong are to be stopped.

BK's not the sole corporation to be guilty, but the article's about BK, so I won't expand with respect to others. Besides, I've already said ... en masse as it is on this topic.

Stephen Grover's pusillanimous actions are a caricature of the Simpsons cartoon character Mr. Montgomery Burns; Cara Sheffer's is imitative of the cartoon character Natasha Nogoodnik from the old Rocky and Bullwinkle Show!

OK heres how it is; the burgerking execs you see now were hireed through networking. The guidance for choosing the type of people was lead by former northwest airline execs. what you ended up with is the worst type of trash imaginable. everywhere these bastards go you end up the problems are systemic FROM THE TOP DOWN and they blame the workers while they steal the company blind. That means ANY former northwest exec ANY where they go. Such as the nwa delta merger

CIW's campaign goals are modest and realistic, but they would mean a great deal to these underpaid migrant workers. Yum Brands and McDonalds accepted CIW's goals, and work hard now to popularize the CIW case. What the hell is wrong with Burger King? I boycott them completely, and I commend boycott to everyone. Support underpaid workers!