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IMMOKALEE, Fla. -- A group of tomato pickers
from Florida announced an end to a boycott of Taco Bell
yesterday after the fast-food chain and its parent company
agreed to meet demands to improve wages and working
conditions for the farmworkers.
In what both sides called an unprecedented
agreement, the fast-food company said it will increase
the amount it pays for tomatoes by a penny per pound,
with the increase to go directly to workers' wages.
Taco Bell said it will help the farmworkers' efforts
to improve working and living conditions.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, an
advocacy group made up largely of indigent immigrants
who work tomato fields in southwest Florida, and representatives
of Taco Bell and its corporate parent, Yum Brands Inc.,
announced the agreement at a news conference at Yum
headquarters in Louisville. The farmworkers had traveled
there for a protest on Saturday.
Although they praised the outcome, both
sides stressed that the fast-food industry as a whole
needs to do more.
"Now we must convince other companies
that they have the power to change the way they do business
and the way workers are treated," said Lucas Benitez,
a founding member of the workers coalition.
Jonathan Blum, senior vice president of
Yum -- the world's largest fast-food corporation --
said that laws need to be changed to protect workers
and that the industry needs to hold growers accountable.
He added that the company had included language in its
supplier code of conduct to ensure that indentured servitude
by suppliers is prohibited -- referring to several cases
in recent years in which the Coalition of Immokalee
Workers helped federal authorities prosecute farm bosses
for holding workers as slaves.
The coalition had called a boycott of
Taco Bell, which buys its fresh tomatoes from Immokalee
growers, after the company refused to negotiate unless
everyone else in the industry did as well; Yum argued
that Taco Bell's share of the total amount of tomatoes
bought is small.
The coalition, meanwhile, argued that Yum, which includes
KFC, A&W, Long John Silver's and Pizza Hut as well
as Taco Bell, helped keep the workers in poverty by
pressuring suppliers to provide a volume discount. Farmworkers
today usually earn 40 cents for each 32-pound bucket
of tomatoes they pick, the same rate as 30 years ago,
and have to pick 2 tons of tomatoes to earn about $50.
The Taco Bell boycott had picked up considerable
support in the last two years, especially among students
and church leaders. Students at 21 colleges had removed
or blocked the restaurant chain from their campuses,
and "Boot the Bell" campaigns were active
in at least 300 colleges and universities, and in more
than 50 high schools. Religious organizations actively
supporting the boycott included the National Council
of Churches, representing 50 million Christians. Former
president Jimmy Carter, among the workers' most prominent
supporters, helped negotiate the resolution reached
through his center.
About 80 Immokalee farmworkers had traveled
by bus to Louisville for what they called their Taco
Bell Truth Tour, stopping at 15 cities en route to bolster
support for the boycott. The rally on Saturday, featuring
celebrities such as Martin Sheen and Kerry Kennedy,
a daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy, will go on,
coalition members said, as a celebration of the agreement.
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