Demanding change, and getting it

Four years ago, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a group representing the 1,000 or so workers who pick much of the nation's tomatoes in a small town 120 miles north of Miami, marched to a Taco Bell restaurant in Orlando to demand a living wage and humane treatment. They wanted the fast food chain, a major buyer of fresh-picked tomatoes, to force their suppliers to improve conditions for the pickers who harvested their product. They called for a boycott of Taco Bell until concessions occurred.

Recently, the coalition celebrated a milestone agreement signed earlier this year by Taco Bell parent Yum Brands (owner of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, Long John Silvers and A&W) to contribute $100,000 directly toward the wages of the mostly Guatemalan and Mexican pickers. Yum Brands also approved a code of conduct that would drop any supplier who uses forced labor or commits other abuses of workers as identified by the coalition.

Significant as it is, the coalition's victory won't be complete until other fast food giants that use fresh, hand picked tomatoes - the coalition has targeted McDonald's, Burger King and Subway so far - offer similar pay increases for pickers and conduct standards for their suppliers.

For decades, the fruit and vegetable pickers who work Florida fields from October to May have labored with no right to unionize, no overtime, no health insurance and a lack of other safeguards other workers enjoy. Whether poor citizens or undocumented illegal immigrants, they faced the danger of forced labor at slave wages (or no wages), exorbitant charges for transportation to the fields, high-cost group housing and pay that amounted to $7,500 or $8,000 annually. Despite a history of organization and protest that reached back to 1977, workers could not force a meeting with growers - even after the boycott was first announced in 2001.

But the coalition would not be denied. Celebrities such as actor Edward James Olmos lent their names to the cause. An alliance of church groups that included the United Church of Christ (1.4-million members), the Presbyterian Church (3.5-million) and the National Council of Churches made "Boycott the Bell" a part of their mission. College students across the nation also pitched in.

"The growers, to be fair, they're feeling squeezed too . . . from the demands for low-cost tomatoes by buyers," said coalition spokesman Steve Lize. "At the end of the day, it is the fast food companies who are the buyers, who can demand change from suppliers."

A few cents added to the price of each hamburger is a small price to pay for humane treatment and fair wages for those who help bring fresh produce to our collective table.

[Last modified June 6, 2005, 10:11:12]