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"US Yum! Brands shareholders take up farm workers' struggle for better wages" WASHINGTON (AFX-GEM) - Yum! Brands Inc. shareholders are asking the global fast-food conglomerate to report on labor practices up and down its supply chain, a move they say is designed to improve the wages of workers at a supplier of tomatoes to Yum's Taco Bell chain. Tomato pickers at the supplier--Immokalee, Florida-based Six L's Packing Co Inc--say their wages have remained at the 1979 level of 7,500 usd per year. After trying for years to gain raises and improvements in work conditions, the tomato pickers' Coalition of Immokalee Workers in April 2001 launched a nationwide boycott of Taco Bell, a major buyer of tomatoes from Six L's. Taco Bell officials have said the company, concerned about its reputation with consumers, had asked Six L's to settle with the 2,000-plus workers in early 2002 but was rebuffed. They declined to intervene further, saying they were not party to the dispute between Six L's and its employees. The largely immigrant workers have asked Taco Bell and other customers of Six L's to pay one cent more per pound of tomatoes and to insist that the money be used for pay raises, saying this would effectively double their wages. "Their situation is the primary concern motivating the sponsors," said Timothy Smith, director of socially responsive investing at Walden Asset Management and president of the Social Investment Forum trade association. Walden, a division of US Trust Co, is sponsoring the resolution with the United Church of Christ Pension Boards, family-run charity the Needmor Foundation, and the Center for Reflection, Education and Action, a faith-based advocacy group whose founder, Ruth Rosenbaum, developed the purchasing power index (PPI), an international measurement of the purchasing power of wages used by the UN. Trillium Asset Management, a Massachusetts-based socially responsible investment firm, is lead sponsor of the minority shareholders' motion. The resolution, submitted last November and to be voted on at Yum! Brands' annual meeting in May, calls on the Kentucky-based company to report to shareholders on labor conditions and other issues by October. "Footwear and apparel companies accept their responsibility for working conditions and wages throughout their supply chain. The food service industry must accept its responsibility for sustainability throughout its supply chain, including the agricultural workers who pick the many products that are part of the food sold," the resolution states. "Just as these workers, through their labor, contribute to the sustainability of the company, so must Yum! Brands accept its responsibility for the working conditions, wages and benefits of these workers," it adds. Trillium submitted a similar resolution for Yum's 2002 shareholders' meeting but withdrew it when company executives said they were looking into the issues. "They indicated they were interested in a substantive dialogue about he farm workers and the boycott and the wider question of supply-chain responsibility, but it just hasn't worked out," said Shelley Alpern, assistant vice president at Trillium. "We're just not convinced they're taking this seriously," she said, adding that the company has yet to respond to the resolution. As of Monday, officials at Yum!, Taco Bell Corp and Six L's had not responded to numerous requests for comment since Jan 8. _______________________________________________________ Copyright
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