LABOR BRIEFS
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Immokalee farm workers demand
justice from Taco Bell

By Shawn Gaynor

Asheville, North Carolina, Feb. 25 (AGR)— In Irvine, California yesterday a group of farm laborers sat outside the world headquarters of fast food giant Taco Bell to begin a four-day hunger strike to demand a fair wage for the Taco Bell tomatoes they pick. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a farm labor organization of workers from Immokalee, Florida, hopes that by pressuring Taco Bell to set labor standards for the tomatoes they buy, Six L, a leading tomato producer, will be forced to pay farm laborers a higher wage.

Three-way contracts of this type are the focus of much farm labor organizing. The Mount Olive Pickle campaign and others have used this strategy to prevent growers from passing the blame to distributors for low wages in the fields.

Taco Bell is part of Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc., together with Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut. These three major chains control more than 30,000 restaurants around the globe, forming the "world’s largest restaurant system in terms of units," according to Tricon’s 1999 Annual Report. Also according to that same report, Tricon’s system-wide sales reached nearly $22 billion in 1999, with Taco Bell alone reporting over $5.2 billion in system wide sales that year. Tricon reported more than $1.2 billion in operating profit in 1999.

At the same time, according to the agricultural industry journal "The Packer," Taco Bell is a major client of the Immokalee-based Six L’s Packing Co., one of the biggest tomato producers in the United States. Indeed, fresh tomatoes are a featured component of many of Taco Bell’s best-selling products.

The tomato pickers hope to double the 1 cent per pound they are paid currently for their work, by convincing Taco Bell to pay a 1 cent per pound increase to the grower Six L’s with an agreement from the grower that they pass on the increase. Workers hope that a set of standards from such a large chain as Taco Bell would force others to adopt such standards, and thereby raise wages in the fields.

According to the US Department of Agriculture the real wages of farm workers in the US have declined by 5 percent over the past decade. In Six L’s tomato fields, workers have lost even more ground. When adjusted for inflation, farm laborers there have seen a 40 percent decrease in wages since 1980.

"From this basis we fight for, among other things: a fair wage for the work we do, more respect on the part of our bosses and the industries where we work, better and cheaper housing, stronger laws and stronger enforcement against those who would violate workers’ rights, the right to organize on our jobs without fear of retaliation, and an end to the abuse of undocumented workers," states the coalition.

On Friday, Feb. 28 caravans of farm laborers and their allies will arrive in Irvine to join the workers participating in the hunger strike in calling for a 1 cent per pound increase in wages. The group is calling for protests against Taco Bell nationally during the four-day hunger strike.

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