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Cheap Tomatoes, Hard Times
by Fr. John S. Rausch
2005
When the tomato pickers from Immokalee, Florida began a bus tour to publicize their boycott of Taco Bell restaurants, they first got a blessing at nearby Our Lady of Guadeloupe Church. They then rode two hours north for encouraging words from Bishop John Nevins of the Diocese of Venice. Seemingly, these prayers plus their three-year boycott supported by national labor and religious groups convinced Yum! Brands, the parent company of Taco Bell, to meet the demands of the workers and pay an additional penny per pound for picking tomatoes. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) quickly congratulated Taco Bell for doing the right thing and ended the boycott.
Tomato pickers rise before dawn to board buses for the fields. There they labor, many days in blistering heat, to fill 32-lb baskets with large green tomatoes that bring them the same piece rate (40 to 50 cents per basket) as 25 years ago. Minimum wage laws do not apply to agricultural workers. They get no overtime pay and they have no right to organize a union. In addition, reports of abuse in the work camps range from housing 12 workers per dilapidated trailer, to overcharging them for rent and groceries, to modern day slavery.
A full day’s pay depends on the vagaries of the weather. Most tomato pickers live in poverty, earning less than $8,000 a year. To make $50, workers spend 10 to 12 hours filling 125 baskets, the equivalent of picking two tons of tomatoes for their daily wage. The additional penny per pound boasts wages slightly above $7.50 per hour.
The Taco Bell boycott began in 2001 as a way to force a fast-food company to address the human rights abuses in the fields. Yum! Brands owns Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC, Long John Silver’s and A & W Restaurants. The pooled buying power of the five brands exerts a significant force on tomato growers for the lowest possible price. Since the grower has little control over his external costs of production (tractors, seeds, chemicals), labor remains the most vulnerable input in the supply chain.
At first Taco Bell with 6,500 outlets and gross sales of $5.4 billion in 2003 protested that the tomato pickers were employed by the grower, not the restaurant chain. It argued it could not change the plight of tomato workers. To some, subcontracting services relieves corporations of responsibility for labor abuses by their contractors. But, the fact that corporations exert so much pressure for volume discount prices, this structure perpetuates workers’ powerlessness and poverty. Taco Bell employs supply chain inspectors to check safety and quality standards of the tomatoes, but not labor conditions of the workers.
The Taco Bell boycott obviously got traction from student and religious groups. The "Boot the Bell" campaign blocked or forced Taco Bell from 21 college campuses. Several Protestant and Catholic groups issued statements of support.
In the end Taco Bell became the first in the fast-food industry to help improve farm workers’ wages by agreeing to pay a penny per pound "pass-through" directly to the tomato workers. It also pledged cooperation with CIW to improve working conditions in the tomato fields.
The Taco Bell boycott reminds believers of their moral and economic power. No longer can believers live simply as self-interested consumers trolling the mall for the cheapest prices. Gospel justice demands a solidarity with workers to create a marketplace where all can live with dignity. Despite the need for still greater reforms, believers can take a moment to rejoice with the Immokalee workers and ring the bell for Taco Bell.
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