wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Taco Bell 'Truth Tour' to demand 'fair food'

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

Note #8655 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05105
February 18, 2005

Taco Bell 'Truth Tour' to demand 'fair food'

People of faith asked to fast, pray for a just resolution to the Taco Bell
Boycott 

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE - Presbyterians and other people of faith are expected to turn out
strong next month when a group of Florida farmworkers and their supporters
bring their struggle for higher wages and better working conditions to Yum!
Brands, Inc., the Louisville-based parent company of Taco Bell.

	The protesters, including about 100 tomato-pickers, are planning a
peaceful daylong rally March 12 outside Yum's corporate headquarters. The
demonstration is to feature human rights speakers, religious leaders,
musicians and actor-activist Martin Sheen.

	Religious leaders, including the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), are
asking members to fast each Friday during Lent and to pray for the
farmworkers, for Yum! Brands, and for a just resolution to the Taco Bell
Boycott.

	The "Rally for Fair Food and Justice" will mark the culmination of
the 2005 "Taco Bell Truth Tour," Feb. 28-March 14.

	"We are trying to bring the truth out about the conditions that
farmworkers face today in the United States," said Julia Perkins, a CIW
staffer who is helping plan the truth tour.

	The 15-day, 17-city tour, the fourth of its kind, is aimed at raising
awareness of the egregious conditions in the Florida fields where tomatoes
are picked for Yum! Brands and its subsidiary Taco Bell, the Mexican-style
fast-food giant. In addition to Taco Bell, Yum! Brands owns KFC, Long John
Silver, A&W restaurants and Pizza Hut, making it the largest fast-food
company in the world.

	The truth tour is being sponsored by the Coalition of Immokalee
Workers (CIW), a Florida-based group of farmworkers who pick tomatoes for
Yum! Brands' suppliers .

	Farmworkers are among the lowest paid and most exploited laborers in
the United States, according to the Department of Labor. The median annual
salary of a farmworker is $7,500, far below the poverty line. Most of these
farmworkers are small family farmers from Haiti, Guatemala and Mexico. 

	  "We want to let people see what's behind the big fast-food chains
of Yum! Brands and Taco Bell," Perkins said. "And highlight what it is that
they can do to work with us, not against us. To really work in conjunction
with the workers to provide a healthier, more sustainable and human
rights-based business."

	The CIW launched a national consumer boycott of Taco Bell in April
2001, demanding the restaurant chain and parent Yum! Brands, Inc. work with
its tomato suppliers to improve wages and working conditions.

	The coalition, which has exposed, investigated and assisted in the
federal prosecution of six slavery rings in Florida, also wants Yum! Brands
to enhance its code of conduct to include core labor rights and independent
monitoring of its suppliers. 

	The 214th General Assembly of the PC(USA) in 2002 endorsed the
boycott and called for good-faith dialogue between Taco Bell's tomato
suppliers and representatives of the workers' coalition.

	  "We pray that both Yum! Brands and the Coalition of Immokalee
Workers would find new energy to renew serious talks and work together for
the just world God intends," said the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk
of the General Assembly of the PC(USA), recently when joining other religious
leaders in calling for prayer and fasting.

	The farmworkers will be flanked at each stop, according to
organizers, by a growing number of supporters that include church members,
student activists, farmers, labor groups and community leaders.

	Other religious bodies joining the PC(USA) in endorsing the boycott:
The United Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ, the Unitarian
Universalist Service Committee, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ),
the American Friends Service Committee, the Alliance of Baptists, Pax Christi
U.S.A., and the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.

	The boycott has also been endorsed by Bishop John J. Nevins of the
Diocese of Venice in Florida, the National Farm Worker Ministry, and the
Episcopal Migrant Ministry. Various agricultural missions as well as regional
and local bodies have also endorsed the boycott.

	The tour will kick off Feb. 28 with 100 farmworkers departing
Immokalee, FL, in two buses, each group traveling separate routes across the
South and Midwest, each stopping in different cities before meeting in
Louisville on March 6 for a "Week of Action."

	While en route to Louisville farmworkers will visit other cities,
including Atlanta, Memphis, Chicago, St. Louis and Indianapolis.

	Peaceful demonstrations are planned outside Taco Bell restaurants in
some of the cities, along with other programs aimed at raising awareness of
the horrendous working conditions in the fields of south Florida.

	In Louisville the farmworkers will sponsor educational events and
actions the week leading up to the rally outside Yum! headquarters.

	"We'll also be joining local communities of faith, including PC(USA)
churches, local student groups, other groups of workers and community
grassroots groups in the Louisville area all throughout the Week of Action,"
Perkins said. "So that the CIW workers can share struggles that they're
taking on in Florida and across the country, and also learn about local
struggles and what local people are doing and thinking about."

	Supporters are planning to maintain a round-the-clock presence
outside Yum!, though some will take part in a daylong "reverse reality" bus
tour through affluent Louisville neighborhoods to help farmworkers understand
the wealth gap in the United States.

	Perkins said Sheen, best known for his role as President Josiah
Bartlet on the NBC drama series "West Wing," will lead a short march to the
protest site outside Yum! headquarters.

Sheen is a Catholic and a longtime activist for human rights who has been
arrested numerous times for civil disobedience. 

	With revenues of more than $24 billion in 2003, the CIW says it
believes that Yum! Brands has the power to stop human rights abuses in the
fields where its produce is grown and picked.

In the past Taco Bell and Yum! Brands have said they don't have the ability
to change conditions in the fields of their suppliers. 

	But the farmworkers say the company "pools the buying power of its
five chain brands to demand the lowest possible prices from their suppliers,
exerting a powerful downward pressure on wages and working conditions in
their suppliers' operations." 

	Last year's truth tour and rally brought top executives at Yum! to
the table for talks convened by the PC(USA) at the Carter Center in Atlanta.

	"We are calling on Yum! Brands to become a leader in the fast-food
industry by cleaning up exploitation in their own supply chain now," says the
Rev. Noelle Damico, a United Church of Christ minister who is the national
boycott coordinator for the PC(USA). "Change is never easy, but it is
necessary and urgent.  Together Yum! Brands and the CIW can chart a socially
responsible and profitable way of providing food that is not only fast but
also respects human rights."

	For the past three years the farmworkers from Immokalee, FL, and
their allies have crossed the country, exposing the sweatshop-like conditions
behind the tomatoes in Taco Bell's products sold to communities from
Tallahassee to San Francisco. 

	Each year the CIW's truth tours have culminated in large actions -
including a 10-day hunger strike in 2003 and a 44-mile march in 2004 -
outside of Taco Bell global headquarters in Irvine, CA.  This year the focus
is on Yum Brands in Louisville.

	The 2004 Taco Bell Truth Tour included more than 150 farmworkers and
supporters marching eight miles through Louisville, from the PC(USA)'s
national offices to Yum! headquarters.

	Organizers say support for the boycott is expanding at a rapid pace
across the country, particularly on college campuses, where the
Student/Farmworker Alliance's "Boot the Bell" campaign has grown rapidly.

The 2005 Taco Bell Truth Tour itinerary:

* Feb 28:  Taco Bell Truth Tour leaves Immokalee, FL. Two buses of workers
will visit cities throughout the South and Midwest. 

* March 6-12:  Week of Action in Louisville, KY. Educational, worship, and
protest activities including a Global Justice conference. 

* March 12:  Peaceful mass rally at Yum! Brands, Inc. headquarters,
Louisville, KY. 

	For more information about the boycott and the 2005 Taco Bell Truth
Tour, visit the Web sites of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers or the
PC(USA). To view cities and dates scheduled for the tour:
www.pcusa.org/boycott/downloads/2005truthtour_itin.doc.

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