Ending the three-year boycott over the low wages of tomato pickers, Taco Bell agreed to assist the indigent immigrant workers of the Florida tomato fields in getting better wages and working conditions. Neither Taco Bell nor its parent company, Yum! Brands, employs the workers, but the Mexican franchise company entered into an unprecedented agreement with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to pay a penny more per pound of tomatoes with the increase to go directly to the workers. The Coalition has urged boycotts of Taco Bell because it claimed that Yum pressured tomato growers to give volume discounts that resulted in severe depression of the farmworkers' salaries. According to this article in the Washington Post, before the accord was reached, a farmworker earned 40 cents for each 32-pound bucket of tomatoes. Under this wage calculation, a worker would need to pick 2 tons of tomatoes to earn $50. The agreement between Yum! and the coalition gives the workers hope that other companies will follow suit.
Posted by franchiselawblog at March 9, 2005 04:11 PM