Shame on Wendy's for denying tomato pickers extra penny

This is my response to the March 14 Associated Press article on Page 7A ("Farmworkers protest by home of Wendy's billionaire chairman").

Mr. Nelson Peltz, chairman of Wendy's fast food chain, a billionaire himself, chose not to give a one cent per pound raise to the tomato harvesters for the fast food companies. McDonald's, Burger King, Subway and Taco Bell all chose to do so.

This is not a stand-up or sit-down job in an air-conditioned building, but a back-breaking job in Florida's hot sun.

This article states the laborers earn 50 cents for every 32-pound basket of picked tomatoes. At this rate, to earn $5, the cost of a value meal at Wendy's, the laborers would need to pick 10-32 pounds of tomatoes to earn the $5.

The one-cent per pound raise would give them and their families a step up from downright poverty. The raise would be no more than a glitch on a billionaire's spread sheet.

Shame on Mr. Nelson Peltz! He's no Dave Thomas, for sure.

Helen B. Shryock

Bradenton/Bloomington, Ind.

This story was originally published March 30, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Shame on Wendy's for denying tomato pickers extra penny ."