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Monterey, Calif. — And now a word of good news
from the world of fast food.
Last month, the Coalition of Immokalee
Workers, a group that represents farm workers in southern
Florida, announced that it was ending a four-year boycott
of Taco Bell. The most remarkable thing about the announcement
was the reason behind it: Taco Bell had acceded to all
of the coalition's demands. At a time of declining union
membership, failed organizing drives and public apathy
about poverty, a group of immigrant tomato pickers had
persuaded an enormous fast food company - Yum Brands,
which in addition to Taco Bell owns KFC, Pizza Hut,
A&W All American Food Restaurants and Long John
Silver's - to increase the wages of migrant workers
and impose a tough code of conduct on Florida tomato
suppliers. "Human rights are universal," said
Jonathan Blum, a senior vice president of Yum, adding
that under Taco Bell's new labor rules "indentured
servitude by suppliers is strictly forbidden."
The need for a corporate edict against
slavery in the United States reveals just how bad things
have become for farm workers. But it also suggests that
the fast food companies now sitting atop America's food
system can prevent the sort of abuses that state and
federal officials seem unwilling to address.
Migrant farm workers have long been the
nation's poorest group of workers. Although wages and
working conditions greatly improved during the 1970's,
thanks to the efforts of Cesar Chavez and the United
Farm Workers, the rise of illegal immigration and anti-union
sentiment later eroded those gains. In California, where
more than half of America's fruits and vegetables are
grown (and mainly picked by hand), the hourly wages
of some farm workers adjusted for inflation have fallen
by more than 50 percent since 1980.
Today the majority of America's farm workers
are illegal immigrants. They often live in run-down
trailers, sheds, garages and motels, where a dozen or
so may share a room. Their status as black market labor
makes them fearful of being deported, wary of union
organizers and vulnerable to exploitation. The typical
migrant farm worker is a young Mexican male who earns
less than $8,000 a year.
The working conditions in the fields
of Florida are especially bad. According to a recent
study by the Urban Institute, perhaps 80 percent of
the migrants in Florida are illegal immigrants. They
are usually employed by labor contractors, who charge
them for food, housing, transportation - and, on occasion,
smuggling fees. These charges are often deducted from
workers' paychecks, trapping migrants in debt. Since
1996, six cases of involuntary servitude have resulted
in convictions in Florida; many others have probably
gone undetected. In one of these cases, hundreds of
farm workers were held captive by labor contractors
based in La Belle and Immokalee, Fla., forced to work
without pay and warned that their tongues would be cut
off if they tried to escape. The Florida legislature
has done little to help migrants. Agriculture is the
state's second-largest industry, after tourism, and
many legislators have close ties with leading growers.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers is
one of the few organizations willing to fight for migrant
workers in Florida. Founded in 1996 and based in the
town of Immokalee, amid lush tomato fields and citrus
groves, the group helped the United States Justice Department
gain convictions in five of the six slavery cases. During
the late 1990's members of the coalition learned that
Taco Bell was a major purchaser of tomatoes grown in
Immokalee, where the wages of migrants (adjusted for
inflation) had fallen by as much as 60 percent during
the previous two decades. The coalition asked the fast
food chain to pressure its Florida suppliers, seeking
a wage increase and guarantees that human rights would
be respected. When Taco Bell failed to respond, the
coalition started a nationwide boycott in April 2001,
focusing its efforts at high schools and college campuses.
"Boot the Bell!" was the rallying cry, as
students tried to close Taco Bells and block the opening
of new ones.
At first Taco Bell tried to ignore the
protests and to deny responsibility for the behavior
of its suppliers. "We don't believe it's our place
to get involved in another company's labor dispute,"
Jonathan Blum, the Yum Brands executive, said in an
interview with The New Yorker. Asked about the possible
link between slavery in Florida and Taco Bell's food,
Mr. Blum replied, "It's heinous, but I don't think
it has anything to do with us." The company's attitude
gradually changed as the boycott gained support not
only from students, but also from the United Methodist
Church, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the National
Council of Churches, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial
Center for Human Rights and former President Jimmy Carter,
among others. (Disclosure: I supported the boycott,
too, and spoke out on behalf of the coalition.)
With coalition members conducting hunger
strikes and staging demonstrations in front of Taco
Bell headquarters in Irvine, Calif., it seemed increasingly
unwise for the nation's leading purveyor of Mexican
food to be publicly linked with the exploitation of
poor Mexicans. And the coalition's wage demand was by
no means outrageous. It was asking for a pay raise of
one penny for every pound of tomatoes picked - the first
major wage increase in Immokalee since the late 1970's.
As part of the agreement with the Coalition
of Immokalee Workers last month, Taco Bell vowed to
help "improve working and pay conditions for farm
workers in the Florida tomato fields." It promised
to give the penny per pound increase to its Florida
suppliers, so that migrant wages could be raised by
that amount. It invited the coalition to monitor the
new labor policies. And it said it would reward those
suppliers that treat farm workers well. The penny-per-pound
supplement will nearly double the wages of migrants
picking tomatoes for Taco Bell. And though there is
some debate about the final cost to Yum Brands, the
figure will most likely be a few hundred thousand dollars
a year - not a huge sum for a fast food company with
annual sales of about $9 billion worldwide.
Over the past few years the fast food
industry has introduced healthier foods in response
to consumer demands. It has adopted tough animal welfare
policies in the wake of criticism from animal rights
activists. The Taco Bell agreement demonstrates, for
the first time, an industry commitment to farm workers'
rights in the United States. Only a small number of
tomato pickers will enjoy a wage increase as a result
of the Taco Bell deal, but it's a step on the right
path.
And what's the next step? Although farmers
are often demonized in reports about migrant labor,
it's important to point out that they are under tremendous
pressure from the leading fast food chains to reduce
costs. Food-service companies now purchase the majority
of fresh produce in the United States - and farmers
often believe that cutting wages is necessary to cut
prices for their largest customers. Meaningful change,
therefore, will have to come from the top.
McDonald's seems an obvious target for
the next boycott. It is one of the nation's leading
purchasers of lettuce, tomatoes, apples and pickled
cucumbers. It is far and away the industry giant. The
failure of government to protect the weakest and most
impoverished workers in the United States has left the
job to corporations and consumers. Taco Bell deserves
credit for acknowledging its responsibility on this
issue. Now McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's and Yum's
other brands need to do the same.
END
Eric Schlosser is the author of "Fast
Food Nation" and "Reefer Madness."
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