ROBERT F. KENNEDY MEMORIAL CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS RESPONSE TO YUM BRANDS OFFER

“After three years of a consumer boycott led by the , Taco Bell and its parent company, Yum Brands, have acknowledged that farmworkers are a critical component of their operations and that the abominable wages and working conditions farmworkers now face can and must change. Yum has accepted in principle that it needs to set standards for its suppliers.  But the company’s recent offer is not a concrete one.  It does not assure those who pick tomatoes for Yum’s suppliers any increase whatsoever in the current unjust and inadequate wages they receive. 
 
Yum must show how it plans to implement, independently monitor, and report compliance to higher labor standards.  Results in the form of ending support to unjust labor practices – not promises – will be the benchmark of real progress.  Corporate giants in the apparel industry, such as Nike and Gap, Inc., have accepted responsibility for working conditions and wages throughout their supply chains.  The fast food industry must now follow suit, as consumers realize that sweatshops exist in fields as well as factories.
 
The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights urges Yum Brands to take concrete steps now in cooperation with the to bring real change to the way Yum does business and to materially ameliorate the egregious conditions under which farmworkers continue to labor.”