wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Farmworkers spurn Taco Bell offer

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

Note #8246 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

04247
May 24, 2004

Farmworkers spurn Taco Bell offer

Yum! proposal is quickly dismissed as a "hollow gesture"

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE - A group of Florida farmworkers rejected an offer last week from
Yum! Brands Inc. that the company hoped would settle a three-year-long
national boycott of its Taco Bell restaurants.

	The Louisville-based company offered to support an industry-wide
surcharge on Florida tomatoes if other buyers would go along, but farmworkers
must first call off the boycott, which the Presbyterian Church (USA) has
endorsed.

	The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a group that represents the
farmworkers, quickly rejected the offer, which it called a "hollow gesture"
and "just a public-relations ploy."

	"We can't call off the boycott based on promises," said Lucas
Benitez, a CIW organizer.

	The farmworkers, from Immokalee, FL, are demanding higher wages and
better working conditions in the fields of the growers that supply tomatoes
to Yum! Brands, the parent company of the Mexican-style fast-food chain.

	Yum! said it also would lobby Florida's legislature to change state
laws that govern wages and working conditions in the tomato fields.

	Yum! Chairman and CEO David Novak said the surcharge under discussion
would amount to a penny a pound.

	The Yum! agreement to help the farmworkers win better wages and
working conditions would not be legally binding, CIW representatives said,
and would amount to nothing more than a promise.

	The farmworkers vowed to continue the boycott.

	Novak made the offer during the company's annual shareholders'
meeting here on May 20.

	"If the CIW (Coalition of Immokalee Workers) ends 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," he said in a prepared statement.

	Novak said Taco Bell would be willing to be the first company to
agree to the surcharge, but would pay it only if it applied to all
purchasers.

	"We think it'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," he said.

	Benitez said the farmworkers want Yum! to take the lead in paying the
extra penny. The workers say a 1-cent increase, if passed along through its
tomato suppliers to the field workers, would double their pay.

	The farmworkers, who receive no overtime, health benefits or sick
leave, must pick two tons of tomatoes to earn $50. The U.S. Department of
Labor has said that their "piece rate" of 40 to 45 cents per 32-pound bucket
has not changed appreciably for more than 25 years.

	Yum! has 30,000 restaurants worldwide with annual sales of $5
billion.

	A shareholders' resolution introduced during the meeting would have
required the company to report comprehensively on labor conditions throughout
its supply chain. Its main sponsor was the Center for Reflection, Education
and Action (CREA); supporters included Trillium Asset Management and other
institutional shareholders.

	Boycott supporters say Yum! is an important client of Florida growers
and is in a position to dictate prices and labor practices. They want Yum! to
develop and monitor a code of conduct for growers and packers.

	Jonathan Blum, a Yum! vice president, said the farmworkers are
mistaken about the company's role in the market.

	"We alone simply don't have the clout they think we do with tomato
growers in Florida," he said, "because we buy such an insignificant amount of
the total Florida tomato crop."

	Farmworkers had hoped progress was being made toward a solution after
recent meetings, convened by the PC(USA), between CIW representatives and
high-ranking officials of Yum!, which also owns Long John Silvers, Kentucky
Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut and A&W Root Beer restaurants.

	"They're missing the opportunity to be pioneers by using their
standing as a giant fast-food chain to improve conditions for the workers,"
said Benitez, who addressed the shareholders through an interpreter.

While the shareholders were meeting in Yum! headquarters, about 100
demonstrators rallied outside, calling for better pay and working conditions
for the farmworkers.

The PC(USA)'s 214th General Assembly in 2002 voted to support the boycott,
and urged Taco Bell to engage in good-faith dialogue with its tomato supplier
and representatives of the workers' coalition.

The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, the PC(USA)'s stated clerk, said the Yum!
proposal is "clearly not enough," because it does nothing to ensure an
increase in the farmworkers' "unjust and inadequate wages."

"The Presbyterian Church (USA) urges Yum! Brands to take concrete steps ...
to bring real change to the way Yum! does business, and to the egregious
conditions under which farmworkers continue to labor," Kirkpatrick said in a
prepared statement.

The Rev. Noelle Damico, a United Church of Christ minister who is the boycott
coordinator for the PC(USA), said the company's disclosure of its proposal
compromised the supposedly "confidential" talks and makes the workers wonder
whether the company can be trusted.

She said CIW representatives and Yum! officials have met several times since
April. She said the PC(USA)'s intention was to involve the parties in
"mutually exploring a way forward."

"What Yum! has done is violated the confidentiality of those talks," she
said. "That constitutes bad faith on their part, and the church is deeply
disappointed. ...

"By this action they have squandered a golden opportunity to move forward
toward a mutual and concrete solution," she said. "What the company has
attempted to do is to use those talks for their own advantage."

She said the boycott will continue until Yum! Works with the coalition to
eliminate exploitation in its supply chain.

"It is my sincere hope that sooner rather than later Yum! Brands will return
to the table with the seriousness and respect that theses conversations
merit," Damico said.

     The shareholder resolution calling on Yum! to report on labor conditions
throughout its supply chain is still pending. At last report, Damico said, it
had garnered about 30 percent of shareholder votes. The number won't be final
until Yum! files the results with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A similar resolution got 43 percent support last year.

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

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