Farmworkers spurn Taco Bell offer

Yum! proposal is quickly dismissed as a “hollow gesture”

by Evan Silverstein

       The Louisville-based company offered to support an industry-wide surcharge on Florida tomatoes if other buyers would go along, but farmworkers must first call off the boycott, which the Presbyterian Church (USA) has endorsed.

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers wants Yum! Brands to pressure Florida growers to give tomato harvesters a raise of one cent per pound.
Photos by Evan Silverstein

       The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a group that represents the farmworkers, quickly rejected the offer, which it called a “hollow gesture” and “just a public-relations ploy.”

       “We can’t call off the boycott based on promises,” said Lucas Benitez, a CIW organizer.

       The farmworkers, from Immokalee, FL, are demanding higher wages and better working conditions in the fields of the growers that supply tomatoes to Yum! Brands, the parent company of the Mexican-style fast-food chain.

       Yum! said it also would lobby Florida’s legislature to change state laws that govern wages and working conditions in the tomato fields.

       Yum! Chairman and CEO David Novak said the surcharge under discussion would amount to a penny a pound.

       The Yum! agreement to help the farmworkers win better wages and working conditions would not be legally binding, CIW representatives said, and would amount to nothing more than a promise.

       The farmworkers vowed to continue the boycott.

        Novak made the offer during the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting here on May 20.

       “If the CIW (Coalition of Immokalee Workers) ends its boycott, the company is prepared to support an industry-wide solution, such as a penny-a-pound surcharge — applied to all purchasers of Florida tomatoes, not just Taco Bell,” he said in a prepared statement.

       Novak said Taco Bell would be willing to be the first company to agree to the surcharge, but would pay it only if it applied to all purchasers.

       “We think it’s only fair, since everyone who buys Florida tomatoes should be part of the solution and Taco Bell shouldn’t be put in a competitive disadvantage,” he said.

       The farmworkers, who receive no overtime, health benefits or sick leave, must pick two tons of tomatoes to earn $50. The U.S. Department of Labor has said that their “piece rate” of 40 to 45 cents per 32-pound bucket has not changed appreciably for more than 25 years. 

       A shareholders’ resolution introduced during the meeting would have required the company to report comprehensively on labor conditions throughout its supply chain. Its main sponsor was the Center for Reflection, Education and Action (CREA); supporters included Trillium Asset Management and other institutional shareholders.

       Boycott supporters say Yum! is an important client of Florida growers and is in a position to dictate prices and labor practices. They want Yum! to develop and monitor a code of conduct for growers and packers.

       Jonathan Blum, a Yum! vice president, said the farmworkers are mistaken about the company’s role in the market.

       “We alone simply don’t have the clout they think we do with tomato growers in Florida,” he said, “because we buy such an insignificant amount of the total Florida tomato crop.”

       Farmworkers had hoped progress was being made toward a solution after recent meetings, convened by the PC(USA), between CIW representatives and high-ranking officials of Yum!, which also owns Long John Silvers, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut and A&W Root Beer restaurants.  

       “They're missing the opportunity to be pioneers by using their standing as a giant fast-food chain to improve conditions for the workers,” said Benitez, who addressed the shareholders through an interpreter.

    While the shareholders were meeting in Yum! headquarters, about 100 demonstrators rallied outside, calling for better pay and working conditions for the farmworkers. (See related story, Protesters rally at Yum! headquarters.)

    The PC(USA)’s 214th General Assembly in 2002 voted to support the boycott, and urged Taco Bell to engage in good-faith dialogue with its tomato supplier and representatives of the workers’ coalition.

    The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, the PC(USA)’s stated clerk, said the Yum! proposal is “clearly not enough,” because it does nothing to ensure an increase in the farmworkers’ “unjust and inadequate wages.”

    “The Presbyterian Church (USA) urges Yum! Brands to take concrete steps ... to bring real change to the way Yum! does business, and to the egregious conditions under which farmworkers continue to labor,” Kirkpatrick said in a prepared statement. 

    She said CIW representatives and Yum! officials have met several times since April. She said the PC(USA)’s intention was to involve the parties in “mutually exploring a way forward.”  

    “What Yum! has done is violated the confidentiality of those talks,” she said. “That constitutes bad faith on their part, and the church is deeply disappointed. ...

    “By this action they have squandered a golden opportunity to move forward toward a mutual and concrete solution,” she said. “What the company has attempted to do is to use those talks for their own advantage.”

     She said the boycott will continue until Yum! works with the coalition to eliminate exploitation in its supply chain.

     "It is my sincere hope that sooner rather than later Yum! Brands will return to the table with the seriousness and respect that these conversations merit," Damico said.

     The shareholder resolution calling on Yum! to report on labor conditions throughout its supply chain is still pending. At last report, Damico said, it had garnered about 30 percent of shareholder votes. The number won’t be final until Yum! files the results with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

    A similar resolution got 43 percent support last year.

   For information about the boycott, visit the Web sites of the  workers’ coalition and the NCC and the boycott page of the PC(USA) site.