ewalker@MiamiHerald.com

Subway became the latest fast-food chain to agree to a deal designed to pay migrant workers at least another penny per pound for all Florida tomatoes they pick.

At the Miami offices of Subway's Independent Purchasing Cooperative, the company signed a deal with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers similar to those the group has reached with Taco Bell, McDonald's and Burger King.

The agreement with the farmworker activist group scuttled protests planned for Tuesday in Miami and a march to Subway's corporate headquarters to take place later in the week in Connecticut.

Subway's agreement could yield as much money as all the other deals combined. That's because Subway is the largest user of tomatoes and has 24,000 stores in the United States. Burger King's agreement is expected to yield about $250,000 for workers, numbers relatively comparable to the Taco Bell and McDonald's agreement.

But the Subway deal -- like the others -- still lacks a key provision of how to get this money to the workers.

The Florida Tomato Growers Exchange has refused since last year to allow any of its members to participate in the agreements. Two growers originally participated in the Taco Bell deal for two years, but the McDonald's and Burger King deals have never been implemented. That leaves the money from the fast-food chains piling up in bank escrow accounts waiting for disbursement to workers.

''We're hopeful that the growers will stop resisting this change and help us to get the money to the workers, rather than setting up barriers,'' said Julia Perkins, a coalition spokeswoman. ``With every new company that signs on, it provides a lot of incentive for a forward-thinking grower to be willing to pass on the penny per pound.''

Like Burger King, Subway agreed to pay an additional 1.5 cents per pound in order to cover any administrative costs and ensure that at least a penny ends up being put aside for workers. Subway's deal also allows for a monitoring system to ensure the money is passed on to workers.

''The minute the money is in the pickers hands that's when it's a good day,'' said Jan Risi, president and chief executive of Subway's Independent Purchasing Cooperative. ``If it's truly all about the workers, then we have to be vigilant and be sure everybody signs agreements like these and everybody agrees to the same standards.''

But the growers still argue they can't participate because of legal issues with a third party dictating the terms of its workers employment.

Reggie Brown, executive vice president of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, said Tuesday that his group's position hasn't changed. They still believe it's up to the CIW and the companies involved to design a system for implementing these agreements and not rely on the growers.

Brown suggests someone should set up a storefront office in Immokalee where workers could come in with their paychecks from the growers showing the amount of units picked at a particular farm for a set time period. Based on that information, he says it would be easy to calculate how much cash the worker was entitled to from the penny per pound agreements.

''I just wish someone would be a little creative and find a way to get the money to the workers,'' Brown said. ``We would like to see the worker paid, but we can't do it.''

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