wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Protesters rally at Yum! headquarters

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #8247 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

04248
May 24, 2004

Protesters rally at Yum! headquarters

Religious groups fast, pray in support of farmworkers

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE - About 100 farmworkers and supporters, including a number of
Presbyterians, staged a prayer vigil and daylong fast last week outside the
headquarters of the parent company of fast-foot giant Taco Bell.

	The gathering outside Yum! Brands Inc., was a peaceful demonstration
in support of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a group that
represents farmworkers who pick tomatoes that Taco Bell uses in its products.

	The workers, from Immokalee, FL, are demanding higher wages and
improved working conditions from growers who supply tomatoes to Yum! Brands.

	The CIW launched the boycott to pressure the Louisville-based company
to use its market leverage to force Florida growers to pay the workers one
cent more per pound for tomatoes.

	"We want to send a big, clear message to Taco Bell and Yum! Brands
that slavery is still alive in Florida," Lucas Benitez, a CIW leader, said
during the May 20 rally. "We want to remind them that this is not a problem
of public relations, this is a problem of human rights and human suffering.
We want them to take some action."

	The 214th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) endorsed
the national boycott of Taco Bell and called for good-faith dialogue between
its tomato supplier and representatives of the coalition.

	The Rev. Susan Andrews, moderator of the PC(USA)'s 215th General
Assembly, addressed the crowd outside the offices of Yum!, which also owns
Long John Silvers, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut and A&W Root Beer
restaurants.

	Andrews visited Immokalee last month, witnessing the intolerable
conditions the farmworkers live under and learning that slavery in the farm
fields of the United States is a major focus of federal law enforcement.

	"We met with a federal prosecutor who showed us pictures of a young
girl who had been a sex slave because of unconscionable men in this
industry," said Andrews, who at one point waved a sign that read, "Stop
Sweatshops in the Fields."

	 "We went and saw dilapidated trailers and run-down homes where
dozens of workers must live together because it's the only way they can pay
the exorbitant rent," Andrews said.

	The moderator said people of faith have a duty to help people who are
marginalized and exploited.

	"We did this (decided to support the boycott) not to make a political
statement but to make a witness to our faith," Andrews said. "Those of us who
follow Jesus Christ know that Jesus preached the good news to the poor to
proclaim liberty to the captives, to set free the oppressed. We believe
through the great work of the Taco Bell boycott, indeed we together across
religious lines and political lines are providing abundant life for all."

	The group included Presbyterians, PC(USA) national staff members,
other church leaders, students, union members, farmers and Christians from
around the nation.

	To the rhythm of Latin music and rock 'n' roll, they chanted "Boycott
Taco Bell," and waved signs with such messages as "No Sweat-Shop Tacos,"
"Taco Bell Exploits Farmworkers," and "No Slavery."

	Some motorists driving by honked their car horns in support as
farmworkers stacked tomato buckets against a fence.

	Many participants wore red armbands or bandannas to indicate that
they were fasting in support of the boycott. Others wore anti-Taco Bell
buttons bearing a picture of a dog used in Taco Bell commercials with a line
drawn through it. They vowed to stand firm with the workers.

	"I consider it as part of what I'm called to do," said Adan A.
Mairena, a native of Honduras who moved to the United States as a child with
his parents, both of whom are Presbyterian ministers.

	"I could have easily been the one in the fields," said Mairena, a
"resident in ministry" at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church near Philadelphia. "A
lot of these folks here are from Guatemala, Mexico and Central America."

	Mairena was making his way to the Presbytery of Santa Fe in New
Mexico, where he was to be ordained a few days later as a minister of Word
and Sacrament.

	"I'm looking at it like I'm coming into ministry and setting the tone
... I think God is telling me to set," Mairena said. "Being in the pulpit and
being with the people."

	Organizers said about 1,600 supporters around the globe were holding
similar fasting-and-prayer events in solidarity with the farmworkers.

	Messages of support from across the county and overseas were read
during the demonstration. Some were from as far away as Ramallah, Palestine,
and Chiapas, Mexico.

	Olgha Sierra Sandman, a vice president of the National Farm Worker
Ministry, which supports farmworker rights, said the interfaith organization
is committed to the Immokalee Workers' cause, no matter how long it takes.

	"Justice is a long road. ... Justice is not a sprint run," she said.
"It's a long-distance run. With that long-distance run we are willing to stay
with your coalition until you see Yum! Brands and Taco Bell respond to what
you are asking."

	The farmworkers' group is pressuring Taco Bell to do what the
coalition has been unable to do on its own - persuade Florida growers to pay
the 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.

	The farmworkers want Yum! to take the lead in paying the extra penny
a pound; they say a 1-cent increase in what Yum! pays, if passed along
through its suppliers to the workers, would double the workers' wages.

	With more than 33,000 restaurants worldwide, Yum! is the largest
fast-food conglomerate in the world.

	Coalition members said they don't feel alone in their fight against
the global giant because the boycott has become the focus of a growing
movement of church leaders, students and activists - after starting with just
eight farm workers.

	"At the beginning of our movement we asked for justice, and many
laughed," said Gerardo Reyes Chavez, a CIW member. "Now we know that when
we're demanding justice there are people in every corner of this country who
are joined with us. We know that we're on the right path, and we know that we
will arrive where we need to go."

	The peaceful gathering coincided with the scheduled annual meeting of
Yum! shareholders, during which several coalition members, including Benitez,
were allowed to speak. During that meeting, Benitez declined a Yum! offer
intended to end the three-year-old boycott.

	A proposed shareholder sustainability resolution, calling on Yum! to
report comprehensively on labor conditions throughout its supply chain,
appeared likely to fail. However, boycott supporters said enough "yes" votes
were obtained to bring the measure back next year.

	It was the third straight year the coalition demonstrated outside
Yum! headquarters during the shareholder meeting, according to the Rev.
Noelle Damico, a United Church of Christ minister who is the national boycott
coordinator for the PC(USA).

	She said people of faith are fasting and praying at Yum! headquarters
and on their own around the world to draw public attention to the "egregious
conditions of exploitation" in the agricultural fields of Florida.

	"We are calling upon the company to take supply chain responsibility
and move to work with the coalition in concrete ways to end this
exploitation," Damico said. "Any company that benefits by exploitation has a
moral and ethical responsibility to end that exploitation."

	Damico said the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, the PC(USA)'s stated clerk,
was unable to attend, but fasted in solidarity with the farmworkers and sent
a message of support.

	The Rev. Marian McClure, director of the PC(USA)'s Worldwide
Ministries Division, invited the protesters to remove their shoes, as God
told Moses to do in the desert.

	 "Jesus said, 'Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness,'" McClure said as she led the group in prayer. "Today, let us
hunger and thirst for righteousness and bring that as our offering to God in
prayer."

	The farmworkers departed for Immokalee in the evening after breaking
their fast with supporters at a local retreat center.

	The boycott has received increasing national attention and the
support of several mainline Christian denominations. Earlier this month, the
United Methodist Church became the largest denomination to have voted to
support the campaign.

	 "These numbers are getting big," said Virginia Nesmith, executive
director of the National Farm Worker Ministry and a member of the Justice and
Advocacy Commission of the National Council of Churches (NCC), which also has
voted to support the boycott. "They can't contain this group. It's growing
faster and bigger than they can imagine."

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

To subscribe or unsubscribe, please send an email to
pcusanews-subscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org or
pcusanews-unsubscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org

To contact the owner of the list, please send an email to
pcusanews-request@halak.pcusa.org