wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Yum! hears from Taco Bell protesters

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Note #7688 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Yum! hears from Taco Bell protesters
03242
May 16, 2003

Yum! hears from Taco Bell protesters

Tomato pickers picket HQ of fast-food giant's parent company

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE - About 50 farm workers and supporters, including a number of
Presbyterians, staged a protest on May 15 at the headquarters of the parent
company of fast-foot giant Taco Bell.
	
Carrying signs and banners and chanting "Boycott Taco Bell," members of the
Florida-based Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) demanded higher wages and
improved working conditions in the fields where tomatoes for the
Mexican-style restaurant chain are picked.
	
The peaceful group gathered in a parking lot, then embarked on a half-mile
march to the stately white headquarters building of Louisville-based Yum!
Brands Inc., where they were joined by sympathetic Presbyterians, including
members of the national staff of the Presbyterian Church (USA), students,
union members, farmers and other Christians.
	
Last year's General Assembly of the PC(USA) endorsed a national boycott of
Taco Bell and called for a good-faith dialogue between its tomato supplier
and representatives of the coalition. 
	
"This issue is solvable," said the Rev. Noelle Damico, a United Church of
Christ minister who is the national boycott coordinator for the PC(USA).
"What we hope (is) that Yum! Brands and Taco Bell will sit at a table with
willing growers and with the workers, and will work out a three-way solution
that is beneficial to all parties that ensures workers' rights and
well-being."
	
The demonstrators chanted and waved signs with such messages as "Justice for
Tomato Pickers", "Yum! is Dumb" and "Taco Bell Exploits Farm Workers." Some
motorists passing the scene honked their car horns in support.
	
Some protesters came dressed for the occasion: One was dressed as a chicken,
one as a pig and one as a cow. Organizers said the outfits symbolized Yum!'s
"double standard" of requiring meat suppliers to treat animals humanely while
refusing to ask their tomato suppliers to treat workers fairly.
	
Others wore anti-Taco Bell buttons bearing a picture of a small dog used in
advertisements for Taco Bell's chalupas with a line drawn through it.
	
The farm workers' group is pressuring Taco Bell to do what the coalition has
failed to do - persuade Florida growers to pay pickers more for the buckets
of tomatos they pick. They now earn 40 to 45 cents per 32-pound bucket, a
rate that hasn't changed appreciably in more than 20 years.
	
Meanwhile, the average retail price of tomatoes has risen from 67 cents per
pound in 1980 to $1.32 in 2002, according to U.S. government figures.
	
The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, the PC(USA) stated clerk, addressed the crowd,
calling the boycott of Taco Bell the "morally right thing to do," and
asserting that "the abuse of farm workers in this country" is one of the
"small atrocities of our time."
	
"Our hope and dream in all of this is that companies like Taco Bell will move
from being part of the problem to being part of the answer," Kirkpatrick
said, "that they will join with us in an effort to pay decent wages to farm
workers, to recognize their rights to human dignity and ... build an economy
and society that provides justice to farm workers and well-being to
companies."
	
Last March, Kirkpatrick was among a number of religious leaders who called
for an end to the workers' hunger strike outside Taco Bell headquarters in
Irvine, CA, after 10 days and urged the company to meet with the workers.
	
The low wages are devastating to the tomato pickers and their families,
according to  Edbin Lopez, a CIW member who is married, has two children and
helps support his family with money he sends home to Guatemala.
	
"When you first come to the United States you have a different idea," Lopez
said, noting that a worker must pick two tons of tomatoes to earn $50.
"You're thinking, 'I'm in the United States, I should be able to make some
good money.' It's very sad then to realize that ... we're exploited in this
way. We can't support our families the way we want to."
	
The peaceful gathering coincided with the annual meeting of Yum! Brand
shareholders, who were addressed by three coalition farm workers inside as
protesters outside called for improved working conditions and higher pay.
	
But the meeting was not beneficial, according to one of the farm workers who
was present.
	
"It didn't go as we had hoped ... because of the attitude that they took with
us," said Francisca Cortez, a 20-year-old CIW member. "Even though there was
some discussion, we didn't think we were going to get anything, because of
the lack of respect. Not the words, but the attitudes showed that we weren't
going to get very far."
	
PC(USA) officials had met with Yum! representatives on the previous day, to
no avail. Damico said no further talks are scheduled.
	
 "We welcomed, and continue to welcome, opportunities for dialogue with the
company," she said, "and our position remains the same."
	
Yum! representatives did not return a telephone call seeking comment.
	
However, a spokeswoman for Taco Bell, which operates 6,500 restaurants
nationwide, said in February that it shouldn't be part of the dispute.	 

"We do believe the coalition's efforts are misdirected at our company,"
Laurie Gannon said then.
	Pete Cashel, a Presbyterian small farmer from Harrodsburg, KY, showed
up to support the tomato pickers.
	
"We're showing our support because their plight is reflective of what's
happening with small farms in Kentucky and all over the country," he said.
"Giant corporations are putting small farmers out of business."
	
The demonstrators later held a boycott rally outside a Taco Bell restaurant
in downtown Louisville. After about an hour, they had lunch at nearby Central
Presbyterian Church. 
	
Members of another Louisville church, Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church,
greeted workers with a hot breakfast and a warm place to sleep on their early
morning arrival.
	
More information about the boycott is available at the Web sites of the
workers' coalition, the PC(USA), the United Church of Christ, and the
National Farm Worker Ministry.

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