Fast food that's not so ethically Yum-my?

Salt shakers
March 2005

Fast food that's not so ethically Yum-my?
How do you take on one of the world's largest food corporations in a fight for better conditions for one of the nation's most forgotten workforces? Well, if you're the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), you do it one fast-food chain at a time.

The CIW has for years targetted a boycott at Taco Bell, just one of the five multinational fast-food chains owned by Yum! Brands, the corporate parent to Taco Bell and other international fast-food giants, KFC, Long John Silvers, A&W, and Pizza Hut. Boycott organizers hope that if they can foce Taco Bell to protect tomato pickers' rights by insisting on better work conditions and payment for farmworkers in agreements with their subcontractors and suppliers, the industry as a whole will have to follow suit.

The campaign against Taco Bell and Yum! Brands calls for the "end of sweatshops in the fields" and the "Taco Bell Truth Tour" reaches a crescendo on March 12 when thousands of farmworkers, students, and advocates are expected to converge on Yum's Louisville, Kentucky corporate headquaters. Hundreds of farmwokers have been barnstorming by bus from Florida to Louisville, and actor Martin Sheen has agreed to speak at the demonstration.

According to the coalition, workers who gather tomatoes for Yum's suppliers earn just 40 to 45 cents a bushel, a wage that has stagnated for 25 years, while enduring brutal living and working conditions during harvest seasons. The CIW charges that farmworkers are frequently exposed to dangerous pesticides, physically mistreated—sometimes sexually assaulted—and forced to wait hours without pay for work to begin.

Farmworkers have historically had a hard time in the United States and the Immokalee workers are no exception. According to the coaltion, these Florida farmworkers, like others around the nation, are not offered health insurance, sick leave, or vacation, and they're denied by law the right to form a union.

The CIW says Immolakee's mainly Hispanic and Spanish-speaking field force is ripe for exploitation by some unscrupulous growers who deliver their harvests to Yum! Brands.The CIW can even cite instances when some workers have even been held against their will, essentially as slaves, until extravagant payments are made to cover their living expenses.

According to CIW organizers, it's been hard going trying to negotiate directly with growers. That's part of the reason they decided to pressure fast food giant Yum! to pay more attention to how their supplies are sourced.

Yum! Brands, Inc. is the world’s largest restaurant company with more than 33,000 restaurants in over 100 countries and territories and more than 840,000 employees worldwide. The company is the midst of a $800 million dollar stock buyback plan, and last year posted more than $2 billion gross profit on revenue of $9 billion.

(Editor's note: SOTE has been trying to get a response from Yum and Taco Bell to these charges. We'll post their comments as soon as we get them.

But at it annual shareholders' meeting on May 20, 2004, Yum! Brands Chairman and CEO, David C. Novak, responding to a question from CIW leader Lucas Benitez, said, "If the CIW ended its boycott, the company is prepared to support an industry-wide solution, such as a penny a pound surcharge applied to all purchasers of Florida tomatoes, not just Taco Bell." Under this proposal, Taco Bell would be willing to be the first company to sign up for the surcharge, if it was applied universally to all purchasers. “We think that’s only fair, since everyone who buys Florida tomatoes should be part of the solution and Taco Bell shouldn’t be put in a competitive disadvantage."

Additionally, Novak indicated the company "would be willing to help the CIW lobby for changes to the Florida labor laws and help seek ways to improve the working conditions on the farms." He told Benitez and other CIW leaders attending the shareholder meeting that “first, you must stop using Taco Bell as a stalking horse in your labor dispute with the farmers, and you must end your boycott. If you do that, we pledge to give you our help."

"We alone simply don’t have the clout they think we do with tomato growers in Florida because we buy such an insignificant amount of the total Florida tomato crop. If the industry were to work together, we believe the CIW would more likely obtain its goals," said Jonathan Blum, a Yum! Brands senior vice president. "While we are willing to assist the CIW, we are first calling on them to end their boycott against Taco Bell so we can establish a working partnership and involve the whole industry to work together to effect the changes they seek on the Florida tomato farms.")

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