I received this email today and never saw it posted on IMC and felt it should be.
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Taco Bell agreed to meet all our demands and then some.

We'll be sending out more information soon, but for now check out
this great report (below) from the Washington Post announcing the
agreement reached between the CIW and Yum Brands.

And still plan to come to Louisville on March 12 to help us celebrate
this victory and to keep building for a better future. Thanks so much
for your steadfast support in this phase of the struggle for fair
food. Another world IS possible!

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers
www.ciw-online.org

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"Accord With Tomato Pickers Ends Boycott Of Taco Bell"

By Evelyn Nieves
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 9, 2005; Page A06

A group of tomato pickers from Florida announced an end to a boycott
of Taco Bell yesterday after the fast-food chain and its parent
company agreed to meet demands to improve wages and working conditions
for the farmworkers.

In what both sides called an unprecedented agreement, the fast-food
company said it will increase the amount it pays for tomatoes by a
penny per pound, with the increase to go directly to workers' wages.
Taco Bell said it will help the farmworkers' efforts to improve
working and living conditions.

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, an advocacy group made up largely
of indigent immigrants who work tomato fields in southwest Florida,
and representatives of Taco Bell and its corporate parent, Yum Brands
Inc., announced the agreement at a news conference at Yum headquarters
in Louisville. The farmworkers had traveled there for a protest on
Saturday.

Although they praised the outcome, both sides stressed that the
fast-food industry as a whole needs to do more.

"Now we must convince other companies that they have the power to
change the way they do business and the way workers are treated," said
Lucas Benitez, a founding member of the workers coalition.

Jonathan Blum, senior vice president of Yum -- the world's largest
fast-food corporation -- said that laws need to be changed to protect
workers and that the industry needs to hold growers accountable. He
added that the company had included language in its supplier code of
conduct to ensure that indentured servitude by suppliers is prohibited
-- referring to several cases in recent years in which the Coalition
of Immokalee Workers helped federal authorities prosecute farm bosses
for holding workers as slaves.

The coalition had called a boycott of Taco Bell, which buys its fresh
tomatoes from Immokalee growers, after the company refused to
negotiate unless everyone else in the industry did as well; Yum argued
that Taco Bell's share of the total amount of tomatoes bought is small.

The coalition, meanwhile, argued that Yum, which includes KFC, A&W,
Long John Silver's and Pizza Hut as well as Taco Bell, helped keep the
workers in poverty by pressuring suppliers to provide a volume
discount. Farmworkers today usually earn 40 cents for each 32-pound
bucket of tomatoes they pick, the same rate as 30 years ago, and have
to pick 2 tons of tomatoes to earn about $50.

The Taco Bell boycott had picked up considerable support in the last
two years, especially among students and church leaders. Students at
21 colleges had removed or blocked the restaurant chain from their
campuses, and "Boot the Bell" campaigns were active in at least 300
colleges and universities, and in more than 50 high schools. Religious
organizations actively supporting the boycott included the National
Council of Churches, representing 50 million Christians. Former
president Jimmy Carter, among the workers' most prominent supporters,
helped negotiate the resolution reached through his center.

About 80 Immokalee farmworkers had traveled by bus to Louisville for
what they called their Taco Bell Truth Tour, stopping at 15 cities en
route to bolster support for the boycott. The rally on Saturday,
featuring celebrities such as Martin Sheen and Kerry Kennedy, a
daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy, will go on, coalition members
said, as a celebration of the agreement.