Contact: Amanda Shanor, RFK Center for Human Rights,
203-247-2195, Shanor@rfkmemorial.org or Todd Howland,
RFK, 202-463-7575 x 236
Louisville, KY—Today the Coalition of Immokalee
Workers (CIW) will announce with Yum Brands that
it has reached an agreement that ends the CIW’s
nearly four-year-long boycott of the restaurant
giant and Yum Brands subsidiary, Taco Bell. This
agreement—reached because of consumer demand—is
a groundbreaking first step toward establishing
socially responsible purchasing practices within
the fast-food industry, while realizing concrete
gains for the tomato pickers whose labor supplies
Taco Bell’s nationwide franchises.
In 2003, three members of the CIW became the first
U.S.-based human rights defenders to be awarded
the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award. Since
that time the RFK Memorial Center for Human Rights
has supported the CIW’s innovative work to
achieve equal rights for farmworkers and the end
of slavery in U.S. fields.
The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human
Rights commends all parties for their efforts that
led to this landmark event and applaud Taco Bell
and Yum Brands for their leadership within the fast-food
industry.
Founder and board member of the RFK Memorial,
Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) stated, "Years
ago, Robert Kennedy stood with Cesar Chavez and
the farmworkers of California in their epic battle
for fundamental human rights. He would have been
proud to stand with the Immokalee Workers today
in their ongoing battle for fair pay and fair working
conditions in the tomato fields."
Todd Howland, Director of the RFK Center for Human
Rights concurs: “Taco Bell has shown that
companies can and should reach for a standard higher
than their bottom line—that major corporations
can be part of the solution to human right abuses
instead of merely profiting off of the poverty of
others. It's now time for other fast-food industry
leaders to follow suit to ensure that those who
pick our food are treated with dignity.”
Founder and board member of the RFK Memorial, Mrs.
Robert F. Kennedy continued: “It's great to
see the tomato pickers get a long- deserved boost
now that Taco Bell has taken the lead in fast-food
corporate responsibility.”
“This is a great victory,” said Congressman
Lewis (D-GA) and RFK Memorial board member, “for
the champions of social justice and equality in
America and around the world. The courageous men
and women of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers
prove that standing strong in the struggle can remove
the greatest obstacles, even the resistance of a
goliath in corporate industry. This victory once
again confirms that the methods of nonviolence can
win deep and lasting change in the most powerful
institutions of the world, in American government
and in corporate conglomerates. I applaud all the
Coalition workers who struggled and suffered for
years to win greater equality for American workers.”
#END#
