Palm Beach Post
Friday, March 22, 2002
By Dan Moffett, Palm Beach Post Columnist
Can a group of Immokalee farm workers persuade executives of the world’s largest restaurant corporation to think of a small increase in production cost as a major marketing investment?
That is the unanswered question after a 17-day cross-country bus caravan from the fields of Florida to a Marriott in Irvine, Calif., and the headquarters of Tricon Global Restaurants. In a hotel meeting room, people who pick tomatoes for a living sat across the table from corporate vice presidents. They discussed the difference one penny could make.
About 65 members of the and student activists made the trip to protest the low wages paid tomato pickers. Tricon owns 7,000 Taco Bell restaurants — besides Pizza Hut and KFC — and buys huge quantities of Florida tomatoes from growers such as Six L Packing Co. Inc.
The workers earn 40 cents for every 32-pound bucket of tomatoes and average about $7,500 a year. They want Taco Bell to agree voluntarily to pay the growers one cent more per pound and let the increase pass on to the pickers. Restaurant customers wouldn’t even notice. Yet that penny would be enough to give farm workers a living wage and substantially improve their conditions.
The idea has been around for two years and has gained momentum in recent months. Student groups have taken up the cause on campuses. Boycotts and protests have targeted Taco Bell restaurants in a couple of dozen states.
Organizers called this month’s caravan to California the “Taco Bell Truth Tour” and attracted the same kind of collegians who assailed the tobacco industry and clothing sweatshops. Student activism was instrumental in forcing Nike to improve its overseas contractors’ working conditions, and that same force is aiding the field workers.
Internet e-mail connections generated large local crowds of protesters as the pickers’ buses rolled into Taco Bell parking lots in Louisville, Atlanta, Chicago, Madison, Wis., Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Flagstaff, Ariz., Albuquerque and Memphis. All those cities now have heard of Immokalee, an isolated farm town in the northeast corner of Collier County.
“We work in sweatshop conditions in the fields,” says Lucas Benitez, an organizer who has picked Florida tomatoes for 10 years. “We ask that Taco Bell not just sell fast food but also fair food. One penny a pound could do that.”
When Mr. Benitez got off the bus at Tricon’s headquarters, about 1,100 demonstrators were with him. More than 100 police officers and company security guards circled the 12-story headquarters.
The youthful makeup of the crowd was sobering for the company’s marketing department. Taco Bell relies on heavy sales to the 18-to-24-year-old demographic group. If enough of these young consumers turn into boycotters, an unhappy tale will be told on the bottom line.
Both sides agree that the 90-minute meeting at the Marriott was cordial enough. Jonathan Blum, a senior vice president with Taco Bell, told reporters that he agreed to meet with the workers as a “common courtesy.” A spokeswoman said that while the executives listened, Tricon is staying with the position it has held for months: The dispute is between farm workers and growers and is none of the restaurant company’s business.
Yet passing the buck instead of the penny leaves Taco Bell in a predicament as the boycotters’ volume rises. At some point, a light could go on and someone at Tricon might see an opportunity.
A couple of years ago, the company spent millions on a popular advertising campaign featuring a talking Chihuahua. Today, the ideal spokesman for the company is none other than Lucas Benitez.
What if he and his fellow farm workers became Taco Bell supporters instead of critics? What if they encouraged people, students in particular, to patronize the restaurants? What if they publicly endorsed Taco Bell for setting a standard of fairness for workers and taking a courageous step toward ending decades of abuse in the fields?
Consumers reward companies for doing the right thing. They seek out dolphin-safe tuna, detergent in recycled boxes and sneakers that aren’t glued by children.
Mr. Benitez has offered Taco Bell a unique opportunity. The company should hire him.
END