wfn.org | NCC asks churches to study Taco Bell situation

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

March 10, 2003	 News media contact: Linda Bloom7(212)870-38037New York
10-21-71B{128}

By Sarah Vilankulu*

NEW YORK (UMNS) - As the Christian season of Lenten prayer and fasting
begins, the National Council of Churches is requesting special prayers for
farm workers "who have been made poor and vulnerable by fast-food and
agricultural industries." 

The council also asks churches to study farm worker issues, especially by
focusing on the current struggle for just wages and working conditions of
Florida farm workers who pick tomatoes that go into Taco Bell products. 

At issue is the fact that farm workers are earning sub-poverty wages for
picking tomatoes that are used in Taco Bell products. According to the
Department of Labor, their wages (ranging from 40 to 50 cents per 32-pound
bucket) have not changed in 20 years. 

The Lenten call grew out of the council's support for some 50 Florida farm
workers and scores of their supporters who conducted a hunger strike Feb.
24-March 5 outside Taco Bell headquarters in Irvine, Calif. The workers' aim
was to pressure the company to enter into negotiations with them and with the
Florida growers who supply Taco Bell with tomatoes.  

The farm workers belong to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in southwest
Florida, which two years ago mounted a nationwide boycott of Taco Bell
restaurants and products. The 50 workers traveled three days by bus to
Irvine, where they fasted outdoors, often in inclement weather. In the second
week of the fast, conditions had clearly taken a toll on participants. 

In response to pleas from religious leaders worried about the fasters'
health, the workers ended their fast in its 10th day with a 10 a.m. Ash
Wednesday service at the hunger strike site. During the service, the workers
broke bread with religious leaders.

The previous day, top NCC officials wrote to the workers, alarmed that one
had already been hospitalized and others were on the brink of collapse. "With
appreciation for your sacrifice, we now request that you allow the church to
take on your concerns in our Lenten journey," the council's letter said. "We
ask you to break your fast, even as we begin ours." 

Signing the letter were Elenie Huszagh, NCC president; Christian Methodist
Episcopal Bishop Thomas Hoyt, NCC president-elect; and the Rev. Robert Edgar,
the agency's chief executive and a United Methodist pastor. 

The workers received similar letters from the national headquarters of the
Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Church of Christ and the National Farm
Ministry, and from Roman Catholic Cardinal Roger Mahony, archbishop of Los
Angeles.

Both the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the United Church of Christ, which
already have endorsed the Taco Bell boycott, are NCC members. They have been
instrumental in bringing the issue before the council's 36 Protestant and
Orthodox member denominations and communions.  

On Feb. 25, the Council's executive board, meeting in New York, adopted a
resolution expressing solidarity with the coalition fasters and calling on
Taco Bell "to enter into serious dialogue with the CIW." 

Because agricultural workers are explicitly excluded from the National Labor
Relations Act, the growers that employ the workers are under no legal
obligation to dialogue with them. Therefore, the workers are seeking to
establish "supply chain responsibility" by pressuring Taco Bell, a major
purchaser of southwest Florida tomatoes, to ensure that its suppliers deal
fairly with workers. The NCC said the company has not responded to requests
for a meeting.

In addition to the resolution, the NCC Executive Board has initiated its own
study of conditions leading to the boycott and has called on member
communions to do the same. This study process will prepare the board for
discussion at its October meeting on whether to propose that the NCC's
General Assembly endorse the boycott. The General Assembly, the NCC's highest
policymaking body, is to meet Nov. 10-13 in Jackson, Miss.

For more information on issues behind the Taco Bell boycott, visit the Web
sites of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (www.ciw-online.org), the
Presbyterian Church (USA) (www.pcusa.org/boycott), the United Church of
Christ (www.ucc.org) and the National Farm Worker Ministry (www.nfwm.org). 

# # #

*Vilankulu works in the NCC communications department.

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United Methodist News Service
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