13 buckets. In 2004, pickers in
Immokalee, Florida, the fastest tomato
pickers had to fill between 100-150 buck-
ets in order to earn just $40-$60 a day,
while slower pickers earn about $28 a day
by filling 70-80 buckets a day. Working
seven days a week, for 10-12 hours a day,
these workers earn just $7500 during
harvest season.
One Florida farm worker organiza-
tion, the Coalition of Immokalee
Workers (CIW), has had some success
bringing the public’s attention once again
to the treatment of Florida farm workers,
much as the United Farm Workers did a
generation ago in the fields of California.
In the spring of 2005, following a 4-year
national boycott campaign, Taco Bell and
the CIW came to an agreement by which
Taco Bell would pay its tomato pickers an
additional one cent per pound picked—
nearly doubling their pay at the time. At
the time that the agreement was signed,
Yum! Brands also announced an historic
initiative to address the ever-deepening
poverty and decades of degradation faced
by farmworkers in Florida. At that time,
Taco Bell called on its fast-food industry
counterparts to join in paying fair wages
and better conditions the workers who
pick their tomatoes.
In April, 2007 McDonald’s came to a
similar agreement with the CIW, but
went even further than Taco Bell.
McDonald’s also signed on to work with
the CIW to develop an industry-wide
mechanism for monitoring labor condi-
tions in the fields and investigating work-
ers’ complaints of abuse. After the
CIW-McDonald’s accord was announced,
Taco Bell’s parent company, Yum! Brands,
agreed that all of its other restaurant
chains — A&W, KFC, Long John Silver’s,
and Pizza Hut — would also adhere to the
higher standards. As of early 2008, CIW
was focusing much of its efforts on
Burger King, the largest fast food chain in
the nation still refusing to follows the lead
of McDonald’s, and the Yum! Brands
chains.HISPANIC AMERICA TODAY 219A migrant laborer in the tomato fields outside Immokalee, Florida (Photo by Scott Robertson)