[USFT] Reuters Story on end of boycott

[Erick Veliz]

Tomato Worker Boycott Ends After Taco Bell Deal
Tue Mar 8, 2005 04:41 PM ET 

By Michael Peltier 
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Reuters) - Florida farm workers ended a three-year boycott of fast food chain Taco Bell on Tuesday after the company agreed to force its suppliers to pay a penny-per-pound surcharge on Florida tomatoes. 
Taco Bell owner Yum! Brands Inc. said it had also agreed to work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a South Florida-based workers rights organization, to improve basic conditions and wages in the state's tomato industry. 
Coalition representatives hailed the company's decision as a significant step in their quest to improve the lives of thousands of farm workers, many of whom earn less than $7,500 a year. 
"This is an important victory for farm workers, one that establishes a new standard of social responsibility for the fast-food industry ...," said Lucas Benitez, a leader of the coalition, which has led a campaign of hunger strikes and nationwide protests against Taco Bell. 
Meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, company officials pledged to help farm worker advocates gain similar concessions from others in the fast food industry. 
"With this agreement, we will be the first in our industry to directly help improve farm workers' wages," Taco Bell President Emil Brolick said in a statement. 
"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 farm workers." 
Based in Irvine, California, Taco Bell operates more than 6,500 restaurants in the United States. Taco Bell purchased 10 million pounds of Florida grown tomatoes, just under 1 percent of the state crop, last year. 
The company had long argued it had no way to influence what its suppliers paid their workers. 
The agreement came three years after farm worker advocates first called for a national boycott. 
Around 21 U.S. universities ended franchise agreements with the company as part of the "Boot the Bell" campaign. 
Coalition leaders on Tuesday called on supporters, including the National Council of Churches and various human rights groups, to also end their boycotts. 
"I am pleased Taco Bell has taken a leadership role to help reform working conditions for Florida farm workers and has committed to use its power to effect positive human rights change," said former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, whose Carter Center foundation helped broker the agreement. 
"I now call on others in the industry to follow Taco Bell's lead."



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Erick Veliz 
Southeast Regional Coordinator 
United Students for Fair Trade 
(571) 247-7247
 
www.usft.org

		
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