May 16, 2003
by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE - About 50 farm workers and supporters, including a number of Presbyterians, staged a protest on May 15 at the headquarters of the parent company of fast-foot giant Taco Bell.

Carrying signs and banners and chanting "Boycott Taco Bell," members of the Florida-based Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) demanded higher wages and improved working conditions in the fields where tomatoes for the Mexican-style restaurant chain are picked.

The peaceful group gathered in a parking lot, then embarked on a half-mile march to the stately white headquarters building of Louisville-based Yum! Brands Inc., where they were joined by sympathetic Presbyterians, including members of the national staff of the Presbyterian Church (USA), students, union members, farmers and other Christians.

Last year's General Assembly of the PC(USA) endorsed a national boycott of Taco Bell and called for a good-faith dialogue between its tomato supplier and representatives of the coalition.

"This issue is solvable," said the Rev. Noelle Damico, a United Church of Christ minister who is the national boycott coordinator for the PC(USA). "What we hope (is) that Yum! Brands and Taco Bell will sit at a table with willing growers and with the workers, and will work out a three-way solution that is beneficial to all parties that ensures workers' rights and well-being."

The demonstrators chanted and waved signs with such messages as "Justice for Tomato Pickers," "Yum! is Dumb" and "Taco Bell Exploits Farm Workers." Some motorists passing the scene honked their car horns in support.

Some protesters came dressed for the occasion: One was dressed as a chicken, one as a pig and one as a cow. Organizers said the outfits symbolized Yum!'s "double standard" of requiring meat suppliers to treat animals humanely while refusing to ask their tomato suppliers to treat workers fairly.

Others wore anti-Taco Bell buttons bearing a picture of a small dog used in advertisements for Taco Bell's chalupas with a line drawn through it.

The farm workers' group is pressuring Taco Bell to do what the coalition has failed to do - persuade Florida growers to pay pickers more for the buckets of tomatos they pick. They now earn 40 to 45 cents per 32-pound bucket, a rate that hasn't changed appreciably in more than 20 years.

Meanwhile, the average retail price of tomatoes has risen from 67 cents per pound in 1980 to $1.32 in 2002, according to U.S. government figures.

The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, the PC(USA) stated clerk, addressed the crowd, calling the boycott of Taco Bell the "morally right thing to do," and asserting that "the abuse of farm workers in this country" is one of the "small atrocities of our time."

"Our hope and dream in all of this is that companies like Taco Bell will move from being part of the problem to being part of the answer," Kirkpatrick said, "that they will join with us in an effort to pay decent wages to farm workers, to recognize their rights to human dignity and ... build an economy and society that provides justice to farm workers and well-being to companies."

Last March, Kirkpatrick was among a number of religious leaders who called for an end to the workers' hunger strike outside Taco Bell headquarters in Irvine, CA, after 10 days and urged the company to meet with the workers.

The low wages are devastating to the tomato pickers and their families, according to Edbin Lopez, a CIW member who is married, has two children and helps support his family with money he sends home to Guatemala.

"When you first come to the United States you have a different idea," Lopez said, noting that a worker must pick two tons of tomatoes to earn $50. "You're thinking, 'I'm in the United States, I should be able to make some good money.' It's very sad then to realize that ... we're exploited in this way. We can't support our families the way we want to."

The peaceful gathering coincided with the annual meeting of Yum! Brand shareholders, who were addressed by three coalition farm workers inside as protesters outside called for improved working conditions and higher pay.

But the meeting was not beneficial, according to one of the farm workers who was present.

"It didn't go as we had hoped ... because of the attitude that they took with us," said Francisca Cortez, a 20-year-old CIW member. "Even though there was some discussion, we didn't think we were going to get anything, because of the lack of respect. Not the words, but the attitudes showed that we weren't going to get very far."

PC(USA) officials had met with Yum! representatives on the previous day, to no avail. Damico said no further talks are scheduled.

"We welcomed, and continue to welcome, opportunities for dialogue with the company," she said, "and our position remains the same."

Yum! representatives did not return a telephone call seeking comment.

However, a spokeswoman for Taco Bell, which operates 6,500 restaurants nationwide, said in February that it shouldn't be part of the dispute.

"We do believe the coalition's efforts are misdirected at our company," Laurie Gannon said then. Pete Cashel, a Presbyterian small farmer from Harrodsburg, KY, showed up to support the tomato pickers.

"We're showing our support because their plight is reflective of what's happening with small farms in Kentucky and all over the country," he said. "Giant corporations are putting small farmers out of business."

The demonstrators later held a boycott rally outside a Taco Bell restaurant in downtown Louisville. After about an hour, they had lunch at nearby Central Presbyterian Church.

Members of another Louisville church, Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church, greeted workers with a hot breakfast and a warm place to sleep on their early morning arrival.

More information about the boycott is available at the Web sites of the workers' coalition, the PC(USA), the United Church of Christ, and the National Farm Worker Ministry.

PCUSA New Service