Workers Call For Wendy's Boycott After Loud Protests

(RTTNews) - Hundreds of protesters, mainly farm workers, gathered at Palm Beach Island in Florida on Saturday to demand that consumers boycott fast food chain Wendy's Co. (WEN), until it joins the Fair Food Program and also pays an extra penny per pound fee for tomatoes harvested to supplement wages of farm workers.

Protestors from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a Florida-based farm workers coalition, marched to Palm Beach and demonstrated near the vacation home of Wendy's Board Chairman Nelson Peltz.

The coalition wrapped up a 10-day series of demonstrations to boycott Wendy's. The ten-day Workers' Voice Tour started with the declaration of a national Wendy's Boycott in New York City and continued with a massive march through Wendy's hometown of Columbus, Ohio.

The coalition has demanded that the Dublin, Ohio-based quick service restaurant company join the Fair Food Program or FFP, which addresses farm labor abuses. They have accused Wendy's of profiting from farm worker poverty and of shifting the company's purchases of tomatoes from Florida to Mexico.

Fast-food companies that have joined the FFP include McDonald's, Taco Bell, Burger King and Subway. These participating companies pay the extra penny per pound to their tomato growers to supplement wages of farm workers in Florida and six other states.

However, Wendy's has not joined the FFP and has said that the farm workers are not its employees.