The Orrington Avenue Burger King sees its fair share of interesting nights. But Thursday evening was even more unusual than most, with about a dozen protesters marching outside the fast-food joint, five counter-protesters eating dinner inside and police officers monitoring the situation from the street.
“Whopper, soda and some fries. BK’s gotta stop the lies,” chanted the assembled protesters, holding signs reading “Down With The King” and “Don’t Let Greedy Corporations Have it Their Way.”
The protest was organized by Northwestern’s Students for Economic Justice as part of the national Student Farmer Alliance’s “Kingdoom Days of Action,” a week of protests taking place at Burger Kings nationwide from last Saturday to this Sunday. The protests are intended to help the Coalition for Immokalee Workers – a Florida-based group that advocates for worker’s rights – raise public awareness of alleged low pay and bad working conditions at farms that supply Burger King with tomatoes. The coalition previously has struck deals with McDonald’s Corp. and Yum! Foods, which operates Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC, to increase tomato farmers’ wages.
But Burger King has not agreed to the coalition’s demands because the group has not disclosed the details of its agreements with the other two brands, Miami Burger King spokesman Keva Silversmith said. The workers group denies this claim.
Students for Economic Justice member and protest organizer Alexandra Carlson explained why the Evanston Burger King was chosen as a protest site.
“The point of this protest is to be visible,” said the Weinberg and Music senior. “Our Burger King is one of the highest grossing in the nation.”
The protesters began assembling at 5 p.m. at The Rock. The group mostly consisted of students involved in the economic justice group or those with prior protest experience, such as Medill sophomore Tara Garcia Mathewson, who has been involved with the group for a year and previously worked with workers’ rights groups in New York.
Mathewson said the evening’s strategy was awareness, not confrontation.
“The idea is not to target Burger King employees but to pressure them to pressure their bosses,” Mathewson said. “We want to get them informed on who they’re working for and people in Evanston informed on who they’re buying from.”
The protesters marched from The Arch to Burger King about 5:30 p.m., holding signs and chanting. Signs in Spanish alluded to the mostly Hispanic farmers who pick the tomatoes. Others signs, such as one that read “One Penny More,” referred to the coalition’s demand for wages to increase one cent for every pound of tomatoes picked. When the protesters reached Burger King, they marched in front of the store for 20 minutes. Two Evanston police officers were present and said they were there for the protesters’ safety.
After marching, about half of the group members delivered a letter summarizing their concerns to the manager on duty. The protesters exchanged words with a group of five students sitting at a table, who called themselves “Students for a Free Market Economy.” The protesters left the restaurant, after one said no meaningful dialogue was possible.
One of the students at the table, Nic Holthaus – with the group’s name taped to his chest – said the protesters’ arguments were simplistic and politically motivated.
“We’re here to show that there are two sides to every issue,” the McCormick junior said. “To artificially fix wages, that in itself is a socialist belief. Even the group’s name itself, ‘Economic Justice,’ what does that really mean? Nothing’s more just than survival of the fittest.”
Another protest organized by the Student Farmer Alliance is scheduled for Sunday at a Burger King in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. The national group also plans to protest at Burger King’s Miami headquarters Nov. 30.
Carlson said this latest protest spoke to the natural idealism of college students.
“As students we have a responsibility to hold these large corporations responsible,” she said.
Reach Michael Gsovski at [email protected].
