Protest Update

Update on Burger King Labor Rights Violations Case

June 8, 2005
Today people in North America and Honduras are coming together in prayer to prayer for the Honduran poor whose labor rights were violated by Honduran Burger King Franchise owner, INTUR. Our hope is that, through prayer and action, the labor rights of the poor in Honduras will be recognized and the law condemning labor rights violations will be applied.

The boycott on all Burger King products will continue until this case gets resolved in favor of the workers.

April 21, 2005
16 groups in all different cities across North America protested this past Saturday (April 16) in support of labor rights for Honduran workers. The press showed up at four of the protests to cover the story. Here are exerts from what some of the protest leaders shared about their experience:

"The location was full when we arrived and was nearly empty within 30 minutes. Only about 25% of those who were going to enter actually entered after we talked with them. We handed out several hundred fliers. We probably turned away about 50 people….We met a man there who had a very sad story. He eats there every day because he was shot there and instead of taking him to the hospital or getting him medical assistance, Burger King offered him free BK for the rest of his life.” -Russ Jacobs, New York, NY

“The manager then turned on the lawn sprinklers which forced us to move around a bit- quite creative, I thought.... I could not help but compare our safe little protest with the fire hoses and police dogs that met civil rights activists in years gone by. Humbling impetus for reflection and prayer.” -Clint Harris, Grand Rapids, MI.

“We stood on either side of the road, each with a sign (one had the BK logo with the bun sandwiching the words, KING INJUSTICE... and the other one said HAVE IT THE FAIR WAY... and both had smaller print using the slogans you suggested….I was able to talk with the reporter for quite a while about injustice, college students being activists, why faith motivates christians to do stuff like this, american indifference about the world at large and other good stuff.”
-Leah Cornell, Princton University

“Seven of us gathered in front of a downtown Burger King for from noon til 1pm. We had lots of great signs: "Greasy labour practices", "The King turfs his serfs", a lovely whopper with Honduran workers being smushed inside, etc….We had a TV crew and a newspaper crew (writer and photographer) which is great coverage for a Saturday. We handed out flyers and got 50 signatures on petitions.”
–Jennifer Degroot, Winnipeg, Manitoba

“A photogragher from the GR Press (we suppose) came and took some pictures. A while after that the district manager came out, and Jotham explained all about what we were doing (I don't really know what went on in their conversation). He seemed to understand quite well what we were doing and called corporate HQ to explain the protests and tell Julio Ramirez to call him back.”
–Zak Baker, Grand Rapids, MI.

“We had a nice turnout for the protest in Denver. There were 6 adults and 2 children…..Had lots of horn blowing support and several folks on their way out of the BK drive asked for information.”
-Jan Hommes, Denver, CO.

“The manager refused to call corporate, but did let us know that we should leave or she would call the cops. We told her that she could go ahead and call. The cops came about 45 minutes later - not one, but TWO squad cars. I felt very honored. We had a pleasant conversation after they called in our DL #'s. They confirmed that we were fine as long as we stayed on the sidewalk and didn't interrupt traffic flow.”
–Julie Hunifeld, Chicago, IL.

Online & Newspaper Media Mentions:

Grand Rapids (Mich.) Press

Daily Princetonian (Princeton University)

Winnipeg (Manitoba) Sun

i-newswire.com (1)

i-newswire.com (2)

April 7, 2005
On April 16, 2005 over 15 groups of labor rights advocates in Canada, the U.S, and Honduras will join together as a unified front to demand Burger King Corporate and Honduran Franchisee to make right their wrongful treatment of workers.

We are confident that the case will be won in favor of the employees because of all the evidence we have obtained showing INTUR (owners of all Burger Kings, Church's Chickens, Little Caesar's, Baskin Robbins, Dunkin' Donuts, and Popeyes in Honduras) in violation of Honduran labor rights laws. What we don't know is when the case will be resolved because of all the loop holes that exist in the Honduran judicial system.

These protests have helped to publicize the case and gain support on behalf of the workers in order that the legal case may move forward. The 27 families who have been affected by this labor rights violation, all live in poverty and are in desperate need of the severance pay that by law they should have been given over a year ago. By going public with this case we hope to set a precedent for labor rights violation cases in the future, showing that companies will be held accountable for whatever size of injustice committed against the poor.

To read about some of the protests go to:
- http://clubs.calvin.edu/chimes/
- http://horizon.westmont.edu/news/news01.shtml
- http://www.thebreeze.org/archives/3.21.05/front/front2.shtml
- http://www.mediamouse.org/news/local_protest_at_burger_king_for.php

To join our email protest campaign to support Honduran workers go to: www.ajshonduras.org/protest.htm

If you are interested in organizing or participating in a protest, email melanie@ajshonduras.org.

March 3, 2005
Over the past few months AJS has been working hard to organize protests in front of Burger King Restaurants across the United States in support of the 27 Honduran workers who were fired unjustly and were denied money they had rightfully earned.

So far over 15 groups have protested from Los Angeles, California to New York City, collecting signatures and passing out information about the case. There have also been around 10 groups that have worked to collect signatures in their local communities, churches, etc. The goal of the protests is to get Burger King Corporate to put pressure on their franchisee in Honduras to resolve this case as they should have done before, in favor of the employees.

We will keep you posted on how this case progresses.....