OK… A chicken suit and a poster talking about YUM! Brands… hmmm… trying to piece this together…

Let’s widen the picture a bit… seems there were a whole bunch of farm animals gathered at this action. But wait a minute, isn’t this a web site about farmworkers?

Well, let’s see what their sign says, maybe that will hold some clue:

“‘As a major purchaser of food products, we have the opportunity, and responsibility, to influence the way animals are treated,’ YUM! Brands Animal Welfare Program.”

Oh, now that makes sense. There was an article in the Louisville Courier-Journal the day before the YUM shareholders’ meeting that announced an agreement between PETA and KFC on new animal rights standards, saying, “People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said yesterday that it has wrung more concessions from KFC about the treatment of poultry…” Good job — holding the fast-food giants accountable for the conditions in their supply chains is no easy work!

But this wasn’t a PETA action, this was a CIW protest. Where are the farmworkers?

Oh, ok, here they are, and it seems like the farmworkers still have a few issues with YUM… Seems that YUM says one thing about farm animals and something else altogether about farmworkers. Throughout the boycott, YUM and Taco Bell have insisted that the campaign is “misdirected” at their company, and that it is not their responsibility to get involved in its suppliers’ operations. YUM just can’t seem to wrap its corporate mind around the concept of “responsibility” when it comes to human rights…

In fact, it is that hypocrisy that led workers to drive almost 24 hours straight from Immokalee to Louisville, to join with student, religious, and labor allies in a protest outside of YUM’s annual meeting, and to dress up as farm animals, to call attention to YUM’s double standard!

[And, for the record, despite winning some impressive concessions, PETA representatives were at the shareholders meeting as well, demanding still more humane treatment for animals in YUM’s supply chain, so that struggle is not yet over.]

So what were the conditions that had the workers feathers all ruffled? “Cases of modern day slavery,” “No overtime pay,” “Stagnant wages for 25 years,” “No sick leave,” “No right to organize.”

Well, when you put it that way… and you figure that all those conditions help growers keep their costs down and provide their corporate clients — like YUM’s brands — with artificially cheap produce… seems like the workers might just have a point.

A point they made outside of the shareholders’ meeting together with their four-legged friends…

… and together with more than 50 of their two-legged friends and allies…

… including Kentucky Jobs with Justice (with a fine t-shirt calling for an end to corporate greed),…

… some old friends from Louisville who made the trek to the shareholders’ meeting for the second year in a row (and brought their own flair to the animal rights/human rights theme!),…

… and a whole bunch of press, with local television, newspapers, AP wire service, and NPR covering the event, as well as a documentary producer from PBS who is putting together what should be a powerful special on modern-day slavery set to air in September (get your VCR’s ready…). Click on the links below for a sense of the coverage of the event:

Story in the Lexington Herald Leader
AP Story (from the Miami Herald)

Speaking of slavery, Antonio Martinez — a CIW member and farmworker who has experienced debt bondage first hand — spoke at the press conference about the role that the fast-food industry can and must take in eliminating conditions of servitude once and for all in Florida agriculture.

Stephen Bartlett, a small farmer and organizer for Agricultural Missions in Louisville, also spoke at the press conference, joining representatives of the Community Farm Alliance in denouncing the fast-food industry for demanding prices for produce so low that both farmworkers and family farmers cannot survive.

But standing tallest among all speakers (literally and figuratively) was Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A), whose church — 2.5 million members strong! — has vigorously endorsed the boycott. In his words, “This is one of the greatest moral atrocities of our time, and it is crucial for Christians to stand against it. We hope Taco Bell will join us in the cause of justice.”

We can’t thank Mr. Kirkpatrick and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) enough for their steadfast support in this campaign.

So the action at the YUM shareholders’ meeting was a great success, but not just for the determined protesters — animal and worker alike — outside the meeting, but for the CIW representatives who addressed the shareholders inside, and for the concerned shareholders who filed a resolution in favor of the boycott as well!

In an impressive showing, the resolution in support of the workers’ campaign garnered 39% of the shareholders’ votes (as of the latest counting, with some ballots still not in) — winning it an automatic place on next year’s ballot and letting YUM’s Board of Directors know that the real owners of Taco Bell and the rest of YUM’s brands think the idea of FAIR FOOD makes good business sense! Resolutions for social responsibility rarely get more than 2-3% of the vote, so the results in this case sent a truly powerful message to YUM’s Board of Directors.

The visit to Louisville left the boycott stronger than ever. In the words of Morpheus from The Matrix Reloaded, “It’s not a question of hope, it’s only a question of time.”

[The movie was disappointing, to say the least, but that line was good…]