'Historic agreement'

'Historic agreement':

A letter to the editor of the Courier-Journal

"Your March 9 coverage of the historic agreement between Yum Brands/Taco Bell and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) was thorough, but emphasis is needed on the 'teeth' of this agreement.

The key significance of this agreement is that the farm workers, through the CIW, have won the status of monitor and enforcer of labor standards for any tomato grower that sells to Taco Bell. All of Taco Bell's 10 million to 11 million pounds of tomato purchases in Florida are now transparent for the coalition. The books are open, the growers identified. CIW and Yum have become the enforcers. That is the stunning, beating heart of this groundbreaking agreement.

And since any grower who supplies Taco Bell also supplies others in the restaurant and grocery industry, the impact on labor relations is likely to be generalized to all tomato-harvesting activities of those growers.

Meanwhile, Yum pledged to work with CIW to persuade the other big growers to pass through the penny-per-pound income increase to farm workers and to enforce a strict labor code that explicitly prohibits 'involuntary servitude' or modern-day slavery, a condition that has afflicted thousands of farm workers in recent years.

Unlike fast-food tomatoes harvested green and gassed to ripen, this agreement is as sweet and homegrown as a vine-ripened tomato.

STEPHEN BARTLETT

Louisville 40206

Thank you, Stephen. Thank you, Yum. Thank you, CIW!