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A division of the world’s second-largest restaurant company has challenged others in the fast food sector to follow its lead after directly intervening in its supply chain to almost double the wages of some agricultural workers.
Taco Bell, a fast food chain belonging to the huge US-based Yum! Brands corporation, will pay one cent more per pound for all tomatoes it buys from Florida growers, but insists the entire amount goes to the tomato picker – otherwise the growers will lose their contracts. As pickers at present receive about 1.3 cents per pound, the raise represents an increase of 75 per cent.
However, Emil Brolick, Taco Bell’s president, said that while his company’s action would make a difference to farmworkers, companies throughout the sector needed to follow suit to achieve significant change. Although the company bought 10 million pounds (4,536,000 kg) of Florida tomatoes last year, that represented less than one per cent of the state’s tomato production. ‘Any solution must be industry-wide, as our company simply does not have the clout alone to solve the issues,’ he said. ‘We hope others in the restaurant industry and supermarket retail trade will follow.’
Taco Bell’s decision to intervene on wage levels follows a three-year boycott campaign by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a labour organization in Florida, where the company sources most of its tomatoes. The company had long argued that it could not control farmworkers’ pay because it does not own tomato farms, but has now taken a more proactive stance.
In return the CIW has ended its boycott and praised the agreement for ‘setting a new standard of social responsibility for the fast food industry’.
Taco Bell says it will buy only from Florida growers who agree to ‘pass through’ the extra money and who document and monitor this by providing complete monthly records to the CIW.
Yum! Brands, which has more outlets than McDonald’s through its ownership of KFC, Long John Silver’s and Pizza Hut, has revised its supplier code of conduct to say it will work with the CIW to investigate complaints about conditions or wages ‘with no undue delay’.
In a rare example of a US company actually campaigning for tighter regulation, it will also now lobby politicians at state level to seek laws ‘that better protect all Florida tomato farmworkers’ in order to level the playing field.
CIW spokesperson Lucas Benitez said that although a cent per pound sounds a small amount it represents a ‘meaningful increase’ that will make ‘an immediate material change in the lives of workers’.
CIW is now asking consumers to write to McDonald’s, Subway and Burger King to demand that they follow Taco Bell’s lead.
‘The real significance of this agreement lies in the promise it holds for much greater change in the future,’ said Benitez.
Taco Bell has 6500 restaurants in the US and 280 elsewhere in the world. In 2003 it generated total sales of $5.4billion (£2.9bn).
Taco Bell, a fast food chain belonging to the huge US-based Yum! Brands corporation, will pay one cent more per pound for all tomatoes it buys from Florida growers, but insists the entire amount goes to the tomato picker – otherwise the growers will lose their contracts. As pickers at present receive about 1.3 cents per pound, the raise represents an increase of 75 per cent.
However, Emil Brolick, Taco Bell’s president, said that while his company’s action would make a difference to farmworkers, companies throughout the sector needed to follow suit to achieve significant change. Although the company bought 10 million pounds (4,536,000 kg) of Florida tomatoes last year, that represented less than one per cent of the state’s tomato production. ‘Any solution must be industry-wide, as our company simply does not have the clout alone to solve the issues,’ he said. ‘We hope others in the restaurant industry and supermarket retail trade will follow.’
Taco Bell’s decision to intervene on wage levels follows a three-year boycott campaign by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a labour organization in Florida, where the company sources most of its tomatoes. The company had long argued that it could not control farmworkers’ pay because it does not own tomato farms, but has now taken a more proactive stance.
In return the CIW has ended its boycott and praised the agreement for ‘setting a new standard of social responsibility for the fast food industry’.
Taco Bell says it will buy only from Florida growers who agree to ‘pass through’ the extra money and who document and monitor this by providing complete monthly records to the CIW.
Yum! Brands, which has more outlets than McDonald’s through its ownership of KFC, Long John Silver’s and Pizza Hut, has revised its supplier code of conduct to say it will work with the CIW to investigate complaints about conditions or wages ‘with no undue delay’.
In a rare example of a US company actually campaigning for tighter regulation, it will also now lobby politicians at state level to seek laws ‘that better protect all Florida tomato farmworkers’ in order to level the playing field.
CIW spokesperson Lucas Benitez said that although a cent per pound sounds a small amount it represents a ‘meaningful increase’ that will make ‘an immediate material change in the lives of workers’.
CIW is now asking consumers to write to McDonald’s, Subway and Burger King to demand that they follow Taco Bell’s lead.
‘The real significance of this agreement lies in the promise it holds for much greater change in the future,’ said Benitez.
Taco Bell has 6500 restaurants in the US and 280 elsewhere in the world. In 2003 it generated total sales of $5.4billion (£2.9bn).
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