3/8: Taco Bell announced today that it will fund a penny per pound "pass-through" with its suppliers of Florida tomatoes, and will undertake joint efforts with the CIW on several fronts to improve working conditions in Florida's tomato fields. For its part, the CIW has agreed to end its three-year boycott of Taco Bell, saying that the agreement "sets a new standard of social responsibility for the fast-food industry." Read more

The 2005 Taco Bell Truth Tour kicked off from Immokalee, Florida on February 28 and headed two different directions en route to Louisville, Kentucky--home of Yum! Brands corporate headquarters. Yum! is the parent company to Taco Bell which is itself one of the most profitable fast food chains in the world. Tomato pickers in Florida, organizing for better working conditions and wages for over a decade, have called a boycott against Taco Bell. Most tomato pickers in Florida are migrant workers and are vulnerable to exploitation. Aside from fighting for an increase in wages which have stagnated for over 25 years, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers have helped to uncover multiple cases of modern day slavery.
The CIW has targeted Taco Bell because they "directly profit 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." The two legs of the 2005 Truth Tour are due to converge in Louisville March 6th culminating March 12th with a National Convergence for Farmworker Justice at Yum! Brands corporate headquarters. Stay tuned for daily updates:

Audio: Tour Departs from Immokalee (.mp3) | West leg hits Tallahassee (.mp3) | Cleveland IMC Radio Hour Interview with worker from Immokalee | CIW Teach-in Cleveland, OH | Connections b/w Civil Rights and Boycott
Video: Day One | Day Two | Day Three | Day Four & Five
Photos: Day One | Day Two | Day Three | Day Four | Day Five | Day Six
Stories: Taco Bell Truth Tour Rolls into Ohio [Cleveland IMC] | Farmworkers Stage Demonstration, Call for Boycott of Taco Bell [Tennessee IMC] | Boot the Bell [Houston IMC] | 2005 Taco Bell Truth Tour: First Stop Tallahassee [Tallahassee-Red Hills IMC] | Labor Solidarity: The Taco Bell Truth Tour Comes to Chicago [Chicago IMC] | Students Push to Boot Taco Bell from UT's Campus [ATX IMC]

Boycott Taco Bell song | Download film "Immokalee: From Slavery to Freedom" (.mov)
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Student/Farmworker Alliance | Coalition of Immokalee Workers
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