Why Taco Bell?

First, Taco Bell directly profits from farmworkers’ sub-poverty wages and substandard working conditions — including sub-poverty annual wages, no right to overtime, no right to organize, a per bucket piece rate that hasn't changed significantly since 1978, no sick leave, no health insurance, and no benefits whatsoever. Taco Bell pays artificially low prices for the tomatoes Immokalee farmworkers pick, and the extreme exploitation of farm labor in the production chain keeps these prices low. Second, Taco Bell and its parent company Yum! Brands actually have a hand in keeping those prices so low and therefore bear a significant degree of responsibility for the inhumane working conditions of the men and women who pick their tomatoes. Yum is the world’s largest restaurant company – larger than McDonald’s – and is made up of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC, Long John Silvers, and A&W Restaurants. Through the unparalleled impact of the Unified Foodservice Purchasing Co-op (UFPC), the corporation ...  more