Working closely with student activists across the country, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, an organization representing tomato pickers in Florida, has forced Taco Bell to agree to measures improving their treatment and pay.

Democracy Now reports that "Twenty-two colleges had successfully removed or blocked Taco Bell from operating on their campuses."

This report is from Indymedia:

On March 8, after nearly four years of struggle and amidst the momentum of the 2005 Taco Bell Truth Tour, farmworkers from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW scored a decisive victory in their national boycott of Taco Bell. Caving under the weight of an intense grassroots campaign, the fast-food giant has agreed to work with the Florida-based farmworker organization to improve the wages and working conditions of farmworkers in the Florida tomato industry by paying a penny-per-pound surcharge demanded by the workers. The farmworkers' sub-poverty wages have been stagnant and declining in real terms since 1978.

"This is an important victory for farmworkers, one that establishes a new standard of social responsibility for the fast-food industry and makes an immediate material change in the lives of workers. This sends a clear challenge to other industry leaders," said Lucas Benitez, a member of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. The CIW's precedent-setting victory is also an important step forward for student/youth, global justice, and poor peoples' movements throughout the U.S. who have worked in solidarity with the farmworkers, forcing the world's largest restaurant corporation (Yum! Brands, Taco Bell's parent company) to accept responsibility for conditions in its supply chain.