AP Hispanic Affairs Writer

MIAMI - A farmworkers advocacy group and Burger King Corp. have agreed on a deal to help boost wages and improve conditions for Florida tomato pickers, both sides said Friday.

The plan ends a bitter dispute between the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Miami-based fast-food giant. They planned to announce further details at a news conference in Washington.

Burger King agreed to pay 1.5 cents more per pound of tomatoes it buys from Florida growers, with the understanding that a penny of that will be passed to workers. The rest will go to growers to help cover additional payroll taxes and administrative costs they might incur, to encourage their participation.

Burger King CEO John Chidsey apologized for negative comments the company may have made in the past about the coalition, adding the group has been at the forefront of improving farmworker lives.

"We are pleased to now be working together with the CIW to further the common goal of improving Florida tomato farmworkers' wages, working conditions and lives," he said in a statement. "Today we turn a new page in our relationship and begin a new chapter of real progress for Florida farmworkers."

The farmworkers, likely through the coalition, would be allowed to help monitor conditions in the fields. The increase roughly doubles the earnings of the workers while they are picking tomatoes, the coalition said.

"The events of the past months have been trying. But we are prepared to move forward, together now with Burger King, toward a future of full respect for the human rights of workers in the Florida tomato fields," said coalition co-founder Lucas Benitez.

The agreement follows a congressional hearing in April led by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who called for an investigation into farmworker conditions in Florida.

For months, Burger King insisted that farmworkers earn an average of $12.56 an hour. The Immokalee coalition has long said workers earn much less. To earn that much, workers would have to fill and empty a 32-pound bucket of tomatoes, each worth about 45 cents, about every two minutes every day, the coalition said.

Burger King now tops the coalition's agreements with McDonald's Corp. and Taco Bell owner Yum Brands Inc., which have already agreed to pay a penny more per pound of Florida tomatoes, so long as growers pass the extra money on to workers. Those agreements also call on the companies to work with the coalition to establish a code of conduct for their suppliers.

Since last fall, those deals have existed on paper only after the industry group representing Florida tomato growers refused to allow its members to participate. But the coalition expressed hope that the growers would reconsider after Burger King's change of heart.

Telephone and e-mail messages left Thursday and Friday morning for the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange were not immediately returned.

Sanders and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill, congratulated Burger King and the farmworkers group.

"I call on other purchasers of the region's tomatoes and the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange to join Burger King and do the right thing for these workers," Durbin said in a statement.

The company and the coalition plan to work together to develop an industrywide vendor code of conduct and increase worker wages.

The agreement comes a week after the company owned by Burger King Holdings Inc. fired two executives, following the disclosure that a vice president secretly posted blogs slamming the coalition. The company also announced it severed ties with a private investigation firm whose president allegedly posed as a student activist to infiltrate the group and its supporters.

The company fired Vice President Stephen Grover, accused of sending the e-mails, and spokesman Keva Silversmith but declined to comment on the specific reasons.

Earlier this month, The Associated Press confirmed an e-mail it received in January from an individual purporting to support the coalition appeared to be sent from the Burger King server. It matched the same password-protected e-mail account used to send an unrelated message to a student group supporting the coalition.

The individual refused to identify himself further to the AP or the student group.