wfn.org | [UCC NEWS] Taco Bell boycott comes to victorious end!

[guessb@ucc.org]

United Church of Christ
United Church News
The Rev. J. Bennett Guess, news director
216-736-2177
<guessb@ucc.org>
<http:www.ucc.org>

For immediate release
March 8, 2005

UCC-supported Taco Bell boycott ends victoriously

A four-year consumer boycott of Taco Bell restaurants ended today (March 8)
with an announcement that the restaurant's parent company, Yum Brands,
based in Louisville, Ky., would take significant steps to improve income
and working conditions for those who pick tomatoes used by the fast food
giant.

The Florida-based Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) ? the farm worker
organization that mounted and organized the successful boycott ? announced
the victorious conclusion at a 3 p.m. (ET) press conference.

According to CIW, Taco Bell has agreed to a "groundbreaking agreement"
in
which the company will pay "the penny-per-pound surcharge demanded by
workers and will work with CIW to raise farm labor standards in the supply
chain and across the industry as a whole."

Edith Rasell, the UCC's minister for labor relations and community economic
development, hailed the news as "an important victory after a long,
four-year struggle."

"We can be proud that the UCC was the first national denomination to
endorse the boycott, and that many UCC congregations all over the country
worked and prayed in support of this struggle for justice," Rasell said.

In July 2001, just three months after the boycott's launch, the UCC's
General Synod, meeting in Kansas City, Mo., became the first denominational
body to endorse the farm workers' campaign against Taco Bell. In subsequent
years, the UCC was joined by several religious groups including the
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ),
the United Methodist Church and the National Council of Churches.

"We can also learn some important lessons," Rasell said, noting that, in
addition to Taco Bell, Yum Brands also owns Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza
Hut, A&W and Long John Silvers. "It is a multi-billion dollar,
multinational firm. It is the largest fast-good company in the world."

"The vision of farm workers confronting Yum is a bit like David confronting
Goliath," she said. "But the success of this struggle illustrates that
when
committed, faithful people come together to work for justice, even in the
face of powerful opposition, there may be nothing we cannot achieve. Our
God of justice is a powerful God. Another world is possible."

The boycott was launched in April 2001, Rasell said, because Florida's
tomato pickers are paid just one-third of what they received 25 years ago
and "face harsh conditions and indignities in the fields."

However, in a statement from CIW, the farm worker organization now referred
to Taco Bell as setting "a new standard of social responsibility for the
fast-food industry."

Emil Brolick, Taco Bell president, said, "We recognize that Florida tomato
workers do not enjoy the same rights and conditions as employees in other
industries, and there is a need for reform."

"With this agreement, we will be the first in our industry to directly
help
improve farmworkers' wages," Brolick said. "And we pledge to make this
commitment real by buying only from Florida growers who pass this
penny-per-pound payment entirely on to the farmworkers, and by working
jointly with the CIW and our suppliers to monitor the
pass-through for compliance."

The Taco Bell celebration comes only six months after another successful,
hard-fought victory for farm workers.

In September 2004, a five-year boycott of the Mt. Olive Pickle Company
in
North Carolina, initiated by the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC),
ended successfully with the signing of a union contract. The signing of
that agreement took place at Community UCC in Raleigh, N.C., in recognition
of the UCC's longstanding support of justice for farm workers.

Learn more at <ciw-online.org>.