The Boycott Taco Bell? story (linked on the home page) has been around for a while; it's been nearly two years since I ate anything at a Taco Bell, not that I have a lot of other vegetarian food choices around here (other than the buffet at the local Sirloin Stockade, but I swear that God hasn't invented a vegetable those people couldn't boil the very life out of).

This week, we hear from the Presbyterian News Service that not only is the boycott still in place, it's active. Tomato pickers joined PC(USA) members and volunteers in an eight-mile march to the headquarters of Yum! Brands, parent company of Taco Bell. It just so happens that the PC(USA) and Yum! are both based in Louisville, KY.

Tomato pickers earn $0.40 to $0.45 for each 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they pick, "a rate that hasn't changed appreciably in more than 20 years." In 2002, the average retail cost of tomatoes was $1.32 per pound. Workers must pick one hundred and twenty buckets per day just to earn $50.

The workers are asking Taco Bell to pressure Six L Packing Company to pay $0.01 more per pound of tomatoes, and to pass that directly to the pickers. That would raise the price per bucket to $0.72, and the daily wage to about $90 for the same back-breaking work. Six L refuses to raise the rate because it says Taco Bell won't pay the cost; Taco Bell says the working conditions at Six L are not its responsibility.

They now take the march to Irvine, CA, where Taco Bell itself is headquartered. In the meantime, try other non-Yum! brands.