Robert F.W. Whitlock/flickr

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), from Immokalee, Florida, is on a small "Chipocrasy" tour, on its way to the company's home base in Denver. The CIW's complaint is that workers are paid 40 or 50 cents per 32 lb. bucket of tomatoes, the same price paid in 1978.

Joining them yesterday to wave signs calling for fair wages were members from UT's Student Farmworker Alliance.

In an industry dominated by migrant workers, an estimated 80% of them illegal immigrants, the CIW calls for a penny-per-pound increase to be adopted by Chipotle. The treatment of these workers amounts to slave labor, the group says. Indeed, Florida growers have been convicted of slavery several times in the past decade.

The Colo-Mex outfit has a long-standing mission statement called "Food With Integrity." The protesters clearly spot a weak spot in Chipotle's belly and are attempting to take advantage of what it sees as hypocrisy.

The workers' group had lately achieved a measured success, after years of protests, when McDonald's and Yum! brands (Taco Bell, amongst others) agreed to increase, by a penny a pound, the amount it pays laborers for its tomatoes. And, indeed, a spokesperson for Chipotle says the company has raised its prices to match. However, the CIW claims the raise has not reached workers, namely because an organization called The Florida Tomato Growers Exchange has a $100,000 bounty on any grower that pays its workers that extra penny.

Despite these and other issues, some passers-by seemed, um, "unmoved" by the call for a boycott, notably biomedical engineering junior Rebecca Fingerhut, who told the Daily Texan "I never gave it thought before,” she said. “I don’t care about the workers. I’m going to eat here anyway.”

Check out KUT's coverage, and a good overview here.