The 214th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), my denomination, voted 297-176 on Friday to boycott Taco Bell restaurants nationwide. The move is in support of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. Immokalee is a town in Florida that's home to hundreds of vegetable pickers who work at wages that haven't increased in two decades. As the Orlando Weekly News put it:

According to the latest report by the U.S. Department of Labor to Congress, the production of fruits and vegetables has increased and global demand for American produce continues to grow, but agricultural worker earnings and working conditions are either stagnant or in decline. The median income for farmwork is between $2,500 and $5,000. In spite of these dismal numbers, numbers that have never been anything less than dismal, the American government still does not allow farmworkers to bargain collectively or earn overtime pay for overtime work. Employers are free to pay them less than a living wage and can import new migrant workers from impoverished countries when the supply runs low.

The majority of Immokalee growers, who hire the workers, ship their tomatoes to the Six L Packing Company. The growers say they can't pay more because Six L won't pay more (in fact, growers tried to cut pay in 1995 but street protests made them reverse course). Six L says it can't pay more because customers like Taco Bell won't pay more. Taco Bell says it's just a customer and doesn't set prices. But as an advocacy page says, "If Taco Bell were to voluntarily pay just 1 cent more per pound, and the growers would agree to pass that penny along to the picker, that one penny could almost double the picking piece rate overnight."

Since Taco Bell disavows all responsibility on the issue, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has been trying to get the company's attention, and the Presbyterian Church seems to be the largest body so far to cooperate. This won't be easy -- Taco Bell is the only fast-food restaurant in El Reno with vegetarian food beyond salads, and I eat there a few times a month (or, in crunch times, a few times a week). There's been no place else to go at 9:30 PM to get something hot but without meat, and if I go along with this boycott, there won't be any place at all.

I'll give it a try.