Kim Moody, US Labor in Trouble and Transition: The Failure of Reform from Above, The Promise of Revival from Below

Kim Moody, US Labor in Trouble and Transition: The Failure of Reform from Above, the Promise of Revival from Below (London: Verso 2007) IN MARCH 2005, hundreds of tomato pickers in Immokalee, Florida won their four-year campaign to secure a penny more per pound of tomatoes picked for Taco Bell. The raise, which doubled the labourers' wages, was attained after a campaign that included nation-wide informational tours by the workers and their representatives, a month-long hunger strike, three general sympathy strikes, a public relations campaign targeting Taco Bell and its giant parent company Yum! Brands, and most importantly, a national boycott against Taco Bell itself. Like the United Farm Workers' boycotts of the 1960s this struggle involved massive outpourings of community support from church, student, and social justice groups. By March 2005 the farm labourers had gained all their demands from Taco Bell; later they brought both McDonald's and Burger King to heel with similar tactics.