wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Decrying 'sweatshops in the fields'

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Note #7521 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Decrying 'sweatshops in the fields'
02458
November 15, 2002

Decrying 'sweatshops in the fields'

PC(USA) support of Taco Bell boycott has made a difference

by Jerry L. Van Marter

IMMOKALEE, FL - The workers who pick tomatoes for Six L's Packing Company
near here have been as invisible as the fields in which they work. 

Six miles from the nearest store and telephone, these migrant workers -
mostly Mexicans, Guatemalans and Haitians - live in simple, company-owned
compounds and toil away for below-poverty level wages that haven't changed in
20 years. They have no benefits, no collective-bargaining rights, and
virtually no legal protections.

Now, however, they have hope.

Last summer, when the commissioners to the General Assembly voted to have the
Presbyterian Church (USA) join a growing consumer boycott against Taco Bell,
the main buyer of Six L's tomatoes, workers sensed a change.

In the small but bustling office of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW),
Lucas Benitez met recently with a delegation of PC(USA) leaders headed by the
Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, the denomination's stated clerk. 

"For years Taco Bell ignored us," he said, "but they responded immediately to
you after you joined our boycott. That shows they're feeling the pressure."

CIW was founded in 1993 by southwest-Florida tomato pickers to work for
improvements in wages and working conditions. It isn't a union - farmworkers
are exempt from U.S. labor laws, which means they're not entitled to overtime
pay, health insurance, sick leave, holidays, vacation, pension benefits or
the right to organize and join unions. The growers have all the power.

Six L's pays a picker 40 cents for picking 32 pound of tomatoes. At that
rate, which hasn't changed since 1980, a worker has to pick two tons to make
$50.

To keep pace with inflation since 1980, the piece rate would have to have
risen to 73 cents per 32-pound bucket, according to the Consumer Price Index.
The federal government says the median income of Immokalee workers is about
$7,500 a year.

"On a good day, with good weather and loaded plants, you can make the minimum
wage," said Max Perez, whose family has worked the tomato fields for three
generations. "But there's no real standard. The piece rate is supposed to
correspond to minimum wage, but our wages have regressed 50 percent in the
last 20 years."

CIW claims that, if Taco Bell would pay Six L's one penny more per pound, and
Six L's passed that penny on to the workers, the piece rate would go up to 75
cents per bucket.

Taco Bell says it's not a party to the dispute and by company policy doesn't
get involved in labor issues with its contractors. Company officials say the
disagreement is between Six L's and the tomato pickers.

Perez disagrees.

"Taco Bell makes these growers' business," he said. "Taco Bell has the power
to make growers sit down with us, and with that power comes the
responsibility to make things right for the workers."

Perez noted that Taco Bell interceded with its meat suppliers when People for
the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) threatened to organize a consumer
action if they didn't treat livestock more humanely. "It seems to us," he
said, "that Taco Bell cares more about its animals than about its workers."

Six L's officials say the company operates on very small margins, and raising
the pickers' wages would put them at a competitive disadvantage. However, the
other three large tomato growers in the area have raised their rates - one to
50 cents, the others to 45 cents - still well below poverty-level wages, but
higher than Six L's.

CIW launched its consumer boycott of Taco Bell in April 2001 when its other
tactics - including a hunger strike and a 230-mile march from nearby Fort
Myers to Orlando (and the headquarters of Florida's fruit and vegetable
growers' association) - proved ineffective. The United Church of Christ
endorsed the boycott that summer; the PC(USA) did the same last June. A
number of other organizations also have joined. Former president Jimmy Carter
has tried to set up talks between workers and growers.

CIW is using the boycott to address a host of social and economic problems.
"There used to be families here, but no more," Perez told the Presbyterian
News Service. "No one can afford to live here with their families, so the men
are here, and their families are back in Mexico or Guatemala."

Indeed, when CIW holds its weekly workers' meetings on Wednesday evenings,
the 100 or so people who crowd into its offices are almost entirely young
men, with a handful of women and children. "We provide a home for many of
these men, because otherwise they don't have one," Benitez said.

Nearby, in a makeshift trailer camp, 12 men were crammed into a small mobile
home, for which each pays $40 a week, living like sardines in a tin. "Life is
getting harder and harder," Perez sighed.

One problem has been solved - violence against workers in the fields. When
one worker was badly beaten a few years ago - for wanting to stop for a drink
of water, according to Perez - CIW organized a protest march to the field
boss's home. More than 500 workers showed up. There hasn't been a beating
since. "We have enough power now that they don't want trouble," said
Francesca Cortez.

CIW has been instrumental in fighting slavery in the fields. Its "End Slavery
Now" project has contributed to five successful prosecutions of field bosses
who had held workers in debt bondage - usually for transportation to the
fields.

CIW leaders aren't expecting a quick victory. 
"We can't hurt Taco Bell very much financially - they're a $5 billion a year
operation," Perez said. "But sooner or later, like Nike (which has cleaned up
much of its Asian sweatshop-labor practices under the glare of the public
spotlight), people will automatically associate Taco Bell with 'sweatshops in
the field.'"

In time, Benitez said, "Taco Bell will realize that we're not just stupid
workers making unreasonable demands, but that we can work together for
something that's good for them and good for us."

For more information about the CIW, visit its Web site: www.ciw-online.org.
For information about the boycott, visit the PC(USA) site:
www.pcusa.org/boycott. 

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