Taco Bell deal will cost company $100,000 per year


What the fuck? Taco Bell only has to fork over only 100 grand more per year?!!! That's so unfair. And it's only benefiting 1,000 workers? C'mon this is not justice. This is a farce. Yes, it's a great victory for this organization but only a small wave in the ocean. I am so happy for them as a long time supporter but I'm also angry that this corporation doesn't feel the need to give more than this after all the profits the make. We never needed corporate accountability more than now. The age of the robber barons has never ceased in my opinion. Still, I'm very excited to attend the celebration rally whenever it's held. Yeah!

The Daily Texan - University
Issue: 3/10/05

Taco Bell deal will cost company $100,000 per year
By Jeff squire


Taco Bell's agreement with Florida tomato pickers to pay more for its tomatoes will cost the company an additional $100,000 a year.

Taco Bell made more than $1 million in sales in 2003, and its parent company, Yum! Brands Inc., earned more than $1 trillion. Profits for the companies have only increased since the workers began a three-year boycott of the company, and the decision has nothing to do with money, according to Taco Bell spokeswoman Laurie Schalow.

The company declared sympathy for the tomato pickers from the beginning, Schalow said, and only waited until now to make a deal because it finally secured assurances from its suppliers, who employ the pickers, to pass the additional money directly to the roughly 1,000 workers.

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, who led the boycott, asked for a penny more per pound of tomatoes. The workers currently earn approximately 1.25 cents per pound for a mean income of $7,500 a year, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The figure had not changed since 1978, and it constitutes a decrease of 65 percent in 27 years when adjusted for inflation. The current poverty threshold for a one-person household in Florida is $9,570.

Taco Bell recently secured an agreement with several of its tomato suppliers to pass the penny raise to pickers, and the company said it will monitor those suppliers to ensure this arrangement. The raise will nearly double current wages, according to CIW, bringing them almost to the poverty level.

The company's first attempt to appease the pickers came last year when it issued a $110,000 check to CIW. The company wanted the money, equal to the amount of a 1-cent per pound yearly increase, dispersed among the workers, but CIW refused.

"It wasn't systemic change. That's what we wanted," said Julia Perkins, CIW spokeswoman.

Now, with the support of the CIW, the company will give roughly that amount every year and has pledged to encourage similar efforts within the industry. Until Tuesday, the company maintained throughout the boycott that any solution must be industry-wide and resisted unilaterally raising rates in the Florida market, where it buys less than 1 percent of tomato crops.

"One thousand dollars just isn't going to help a lot of people," said Schalow, which is why the company wants other industry leaders to follow suit.

CIW leader Lucas Benitez called the company's change of heart a "new standard of social responsibility for the fast-food industry." Organizers of the nation-wide boycott attribute the company's reversal to rising social pressure, advanced in large part by students.

At the University, efforts to expel Taco Bell from the Texas Union failed, though the organization spearheading the move on campus, the Student Labor Action Project, continued efforts to boycott the restaurant.

The boycott really had no financial effect in Austin, said Don Barton, vice president of Austaco, which runs some 70 Taco Bells in Central Texas, including the one in the Union. He said he just didn't believe it was large enough to have an impact, though he said his company will be glad to pay its part of the agreement, which amounts to roughly $1,000 a year.