The Coalition of Immokalee Workers vs. Taco Bell

Among the worst paid workers in the U.S. are those who pick the fruits and vegetables used by many fast food restaurants. Sixty-one percent of farmworkers have incomes below the poverty line, with the median income of U.S. farm worker families for the past decade at less than $10,000 a year.

But the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), mostly Latino, Haitian and Mayan Indian immigrants working in the state of Florida, succeeded in pressuring the largest fast food company in the world to change its practices. The CIW began in 1993 when farmworkers started to talk about the need to improve their working conditions. After experiencing many hurdles, the CIW decided in 2001 to target the end purchasers of the tomatoes they harvest. They asked Taco Bell, which buys 10 million pounds of Florida tomatoes each year, for one penny more per pound of tomatoes to be paid to the growers, which would then allow the growers to increase the wages paid to workers. CIW called for a national boycott of Taco Bell until this demand was met. They also called for Yum! Brands group, Taco Bell's parent company, to "take responsibility for human rights abuses in the fields where its produce is grown and picked" and raise prices for fresh produce instead of holding prices down.

CIW turned to U.S. students and brought the "Boot the Bell" campaign to 300 college campuses and 50 high schools, which resulted in 22 high schools and colleges (such as UCLA, University of Chicago, Notre Dame and University of Memphis) cutting contracts and preventing new contracts with Taco Bell. In 2003, CIW organized a hunger strike outside Taco Bell headquarters in which 75 farmworkers and students fasted for 10 days -- one of the largest hunger strikes in U.S. labor history. From 2004 to 2005, CIW organized "Truth Tours" across the U.S. and worked with civic and religious groups to raise awareness about their issues. A group of religious leaders, representing many Christian denominations as well as the National Council of Churches and Pax Christi, called for nationwide action and put out a statement.

After all these efforts, thirty-nine percent of shareholders of Yum! Brands supported a resolution for sustainable wages for farmworkers who pick tomatoes for Taco Bell. In March 2005, Yum! Brands signed a historic agreement with CIW to improve working conditions and pay a penny more per pound of tomatoes, with Florida growers receiving an extra $100,000 per year, which they could then use to provide higher wages. The campaign thus achieved the first-ever direct action by a fast food industry leader to intentionally increase the wages of farmworkers and the first-ever enforceable Code of Conduct (a document containing binding principles that an entity must follow) for agricultural suppliers.

Source: "The Coalition of Immokalee Workers vs. Taco Bell," PBS's NOW, May 27, 2005, http://www.pbs.org/now/society/ciw.html