UM-backed boycott against Taco Bell ends

United Methodist News Service
A United Methodist-backed consumer boycott against Taco Bell has ended.
The Florida-based Coalition of Immokalee Workers announced March 8 that it is canceling the boycott. That action comes after Taco Bell agreed to work with the organization to address working conditions and the wages of farm workers in the Florida tomato industry.
The United Methodist Church officially joined the boycott last spring by a vote of the 2004 General Conference, the denomination’s top legislative body. Delegates also had approved a worker-related boycott of Mount Olive Pickle Co., which ended with an agreement last September.
“I look forward to having a bean and cheese burrito and am very glad Taco Bell has cooperated with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to address fundamental rights and working conditions for the tomato pickers in Immokalee, Florida,” said Jim Winkler, chief executive of the General Board of Church and Society.
“I believe this shows very clearly what an enormous impact The United Methodist Church, the third largest denomination in the country, can have when we put our full weight behind struggles for justice and peace.”
Other religious groups that had endorsed the boycott included the National Council of Churches, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the United Church of Christ and the American Friends Service Committee.
The boycott’s success “helps to address those skeptics who think economic boycotts aren’t effective,” said John Hill, a Church and Society executive.
The Rev. Robert Edgar, a United Methodist pastor and chief executive of the National Council of Churches, said he was excited about achieving “two victories in one year on migrant labor issues” through agreements with Taco Bell and Mount Olive Pickle.
“It’s really very pleasing to see the church and people who are struggling collaborate together, much like they did back in the civil rights movement,” he said. “They can make a difference.”
Such work for economic justice must continue, Edgar said. He noted the U.S. Senate’s recent vote against an increase in the minimum wage.
“People living on minimum wage are showing up at soup kitchens and homeless shelters because they can’t make it any more,” Edgar said.
Edgar, who himself had made several attempts to speak directly to Taco Bell’s chief executive officer about the boycott, said that “here is a company that did the right thing.”
In a joint news release with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Taco Bell President Emil Brolick said the company recognized “that Florida tomato workers do not enjoy the same rights and conditions as employees in other industries and there is need for reform.”
Any solution must be industry-wide, he said, but Taco Bell will play a leadership role to be part of the solution.
The coalition said the agreement with Taco Bell “sets a new standard of social responsibility for the fast-food industry.”
The boycott originated in 2001 because the coalition and others believed that Taco Bell was not addressing issues of alleged worker exploitation by its tomato suppliers. The average wage of 40 cents per 32-pound bucket has not changed in more than 20 years, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Taco Bell recently secured an agreement with several of its tomato growers to “pass through” the equivalent of 1-cent per pound directly to workers in an effort to improve wages.
Brolick said the company would work only with growers who comply with that procedure.