NCC asks churches to study Taco Bell situation
3/10/2003 News media contact: Linda Bloom · (646) 369-3759 · New York By Sarah Vilankulu* NEW
YORK (UMNS) - As the Christian season of Lenten prayer and fasting
begins, the National Council of Churches is requesting special prayers
for farm workers "who have been made poor and vulnerable by fast-food
and agricultural industries."
The council also asks churches to
study farm worker issues, especially by focusing on the current struggle
for just wages and working conditions of Florida farm workers who pick
tomatoes that go into Taco Bell products.
At issue is the fact
that farm workers are earning sub-poverty wages for picking tomatoes
that are used in Taco Bell products. According to the Department of
Labor, their wages (ranging from 40 to 50 cents per 32-pound bucket)
have not changed in 20 years.
The Lenten call grew out of the
council's support for some 50 Florida farm workers and scores of their
supporters who conducted a hunger strike Feb. 24-March 5 outside Taco
Bell headquarters in Irvine, Calif. The workers' aim was to pressure the
company to enter into negotiations with them and with the Florida
growers who supply Taco Bell with tomatoes.
The farm workers
belong to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in southwest Florida, which
two years ago mounted a nationwide boycott of Taco Bell restaurants and
products. The 50 workers traveled three days by bus to Irvine, where
they fasted outdoors, often in inclement weather. In the second week of
the fast, conditions had clearly taken a toll on participants.
In
response to pleas from religious leaders worried about the fasters'
health, the workers ended their fast in its 10th day with a 10 a.m. Ash
Wednesday service at the hunger strike site. During the service, the
workers broke bread with religious leaders.
The previous day, top
NCC officials wrote to the workers, alarmed that one had already been
hospitalized and others were on the brink of collapse. "With
appreciation for your sacrifice, we now request that you allow the
church to take on your concerns in our Lenten journey," the council's
letter said. "We ask you to break your fast, even as we begin ours."
Signing
the letter were Elenie Huszagh, NCC president; Christian Methodist
Episcopal Bishop Thomas Hoyt, NCC president-elect; and the Rev. Robert
Edgar, the agency's chief executive and a United Methodist pastor.
The
workers received similar letters from the national headquarters of the
Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Church of Christ and the National
Farm Ministry, and from Roman Catholic Cardinal Roger Mahony, archbishop
of Los Angeles.
Both the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the
United Church of Christ, which already have endorsed the Taco Bell
boycott, are NCC members. They have been instrumental in bringing the
issue before the council's 36 Protestant and Orthodox member
denominations and communions.
On Feb. 25, the Council's
executive board, meeting in New York, adopted a resolution expressing
solidarity with the coalition fasters and calling on Taco Bell "to enter
into serious dialogue with the CIW."
Because agricultural
workers are explicitly excluded from the National Labor Relations Act,
the growers that employ the workers are under no legal obligation to
dialogue with them. Therefore, the workers are seeking to establish
"supply chain responsibility" by pressuring Taco Bell, a major purchaser
of southwest Florida tomatoes, to ensure that its suppliers deal fairly
with workers. The NCC said the company has not responded to requests
for a meeting.
In addition to the resolution, the NCC Executive
Board has initiated its own study of conditions leading to the boycott
and has called on member communions to do the same. This study process
will prepare the board for discussion at its October meeting on whether
to propose that the NCC's General Assembly endorse the boycott. The
General Assembly, the NCC's highest policymaking body, is to meet Nov.
10-13 in Jackson, Miss.
For more information on issues behind the
Taco Bell boycott, visit the Web sites of the Coalition of Immokalee
Workers (www.ciw-online.org), the Presbyterian Church (USA)
(www.pcusa.org/boycott), the United Church of Christ (www.ucc.org) and
the National Farm Worker Ministry (www.nfwm.org).
# # #
*Vilankulu works in the NCC communications department.
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