Decrying ‘Sweatshops in the Fields'

PC(USA) Support of Taco Bell Boycott Has Made a Difference

November 15, 2002
by Jerry L. Van Marter

IMMOKALEE, Fla. – The workers who pick tomatoes for Six L's Packing Company near here have been as invisible as the fields in which they work.

Six miles from the nearest store and telephone, these migrant workers – mostly Mexicans, Guatemalans and Haitians – live in simple, company-owned compounds and toil away for below-poverty level wages that haven't changed in 20 years. They have no benefits, no collective-bargaining rights, and virtually no legal protections.

Now, however, they have hope.

Last summer, when the commissioners to the General Assembly voted to have the Presbyterian Church (USA) join a growing consumer boycott against Taco Bell, the main buyer of Six L's tomatoes, workers sensed a change.

In the small but bustling office of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), Lucas Benitez met recently with a delegation of PC(USA) leaders headed by the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, the denomination's stated clerk.

"For years Taco Bell ignored us," he said, "but they responded immediately to you after you joined our boycott. That shows they're feeling the pressure."

CIW was founded in 1993 by southwest-Florida tomato pickers to work for improvements in wages and working conditions. It isn't a union – farmworkers are exempt from U.S. labor laws, which means they're not entitled to overtime pay, health insurance, sick leave, holidays, vacation, pension benefits or the right to organize and join unions. The growers have all the power.

Six L's pays a picker 40 cents for picking 32 pound of tomatoes. At that rate, which hasn't changed since 1980, a worker has to pick two tons to make $50.

To keep pace with inflation since 1980, the piece rate would have to have risen to 73 cents per 32-pound bucket, according to the Consumer Price Index. The federal government says the median income of Immokalee workers is about $7,500 a year.

"On a good day, with good weather and loaded plants, you can make the minimum wage," said Max Perez, whose family has worked the tomato fields for three generations. "But there's no real standard. The piece rate is supposed to correspond to minimum wage, but our wages have regressed 50 percent in the last 20 years."

CIW claims that, if Taco Bell would pay Six L's one penny more per pound, and Six L's passed that penny on to the workers, the piece rate would go up to 75 cents per bucket.

Taco Bell says it's not a party to the dispute and by company policy doesn't get involved in labor issues with its contractors. Company officials say the disagreement is between Six L's and the tomato pickers.

Perez disagrees.

"Taco Bell makes these growers' business," he said. "Taco Bell has the power to make growers sit down with us, and with that power comes the responsibility to make things right for the workers."

Perez noted that Taco Bell interceded with its meat suppliers when People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) threatened to organize a consumer action if they didn't treat livestock more humanely. "It seems to us," he said, "that Taco Bell cares more about its animals than about its workers."

Six L's officials say the company operates on very small margins, and raising the pickers' wages would put them at a competitive disadvantage. However, the other three large tomato growers in the area have raised their rates – one to 50 cents, the others to 45 cents – still well below poverty-level wages, but higher than Six L's.

CIW launched its consumer boycott of Taco Bell in April 2001 when its other tactics – including a hunger strike and a 230-mile march from nearby Fort Myers to Orlando (and the headquarters of Florida's fruit and vegetable growers' association) – proved ineffective. The United Church of Christ endorsed the boycott that summer; the PC(USA) did the same last June. A number of other organizations also have joined. Former president Jimmy Carter has tried to set up talks between workers and growers.

CIW is using the boycott to address a host of social and economic problems. "There used to be families here, but no more," Perez told the Presbyterian News Service. "No one can afford to live here with their families, so the men are here, and their families are back in Mexico or Guatemala."

Indeed, when CIW holds its weekly workers' meetings on Wednesday evenings, the 100 or so people who crowd into its offices are almost entirely young men, with a handful of women and children. "We provide a home for many of these men, because otherwise they don't have one," Benitez said.

Nearby, in a makeshift trailer camp, 12 men were crammed into a small mobile home, for which each pays $40 a week, living like sardines in a tin. "Life is getting harder and harder," Perez sighed.

One problem has been solved – violence against workers in the fields. When one worker was badly beaten a few years ago – for wanting to stop for a drink of water, according to Perez – CIW organized a protest march to the field boss's home. More than 500 workers showed up. There hasn't been a beating since. "We have enough power now that they don't want trouble," said Francesca Cortez.

CIW has been instrumental in fighting slavery in the fields. Its "End Slavery Now" project has contributed to five successful prosecutions of field bosses who had held workers in debt bondage – usually for transportation to the fields.

CIW leaders aren't expecting a quick victory. "We can't hurt Taco Bell very much financially – they're a $5 billion a year operation," Perez said. "But sooner or later, like Nike (which has cleaned up much of its Asian sweatshop-labor practices under the glare of the public spotlight), people will automatically associate Taco Bell with ‘sweatshops in the field.'"

In time, Benitez said, "Taco Bell will realize that we're not just stupid workers making unreasonable demands, but that we can work together for something that's good for them and good for us."

PCUSA News Service