The People, United
May 22nd, 2005 at 8:32 pm by Susie
Four years to get $100,ooo? Taco Bell spends that on one ad run. They should be ashamed:
The celebration marked a hard-fought, unlikely victory by the workers, a coalition of mostly Guatemalan and Mexican tomato pickers, over one of the nation’s fast-food giants, Taco Bell.They led a four-year boycott against the chain until it agreed in March to pay a penny more per pound for Florida tomatoes and to adopt a code of conduct that would allow Taco Bell to sever ties to suppliers who commit abuses against farmworkers.
With that triumph, the farmworkers group is turning to a larger target: the rest of the fast-food industry. The coalition has sent letters to executives at McDonald’s, Subway and Burger King asking them to follow Taco Bell’s lead.
“When we started this, it was like man going to the moon - nobody thought it was possible,” said Lucas Benitez, a leader of the coalition. “With the help of people around the country, we have built a way to go to the moon. Now we must continue moving forward.”
Taco Bell, a subsidiary of Yum Brands, based in Louisville, Ky., estimates it will pay the Florida tomato growers an extra $100,000 a year, a cost that company officials said would not be passed on to customers.
I remember the grape boycott that many shoppers supported in order to promote Caesar Chavez’s farmworkers’ union. I think we need to put pressure on some companies about their ethical practices. With the use of e-mail and the internet, boycotts and letter writing would be easier to promote.