(NewsNation) — Fast food chain Taco John’s has been home to Taco Tuesday for 40 years, but now the company is abandoning its claim on the famous phrase in favor of supporting workers.
Since May, the chain has been involved in a legal battle with rival chain Taco Bell, who challenged the company’s registration of the saying, which it has had since 1989 in every state except New Jersey. Taco Bell enlisted the help of basketball star LeBron James, who previously tried to trademark Taco Tuesday himself.
“We’ve always prided ourselves on being the home of Taco Tuesday, but paying millions of dollars to lawyers to defend our mark just doesn’t feel like the right thing to do,” said Taco John’s CEO Jim Creel.
The company has pledged to donate $40,000 to Children of Restaurant Employees, an organization that provides financial support to food service workers facing a health crisis or disaster.
The amount works out to $100 per Taco John’s location. The company challenged Taco Bell to match the pledge, which would work out to about $720,000.
The company also challenged James to donate fees from his recent Taco Bell advertising campaign to the organization and invited other fast food chains and local taco shops to take part in solidarity.
The median salary for fast food workers is just shy of $28,000 per year as of 2022. In 2022, an individual would need to make roughly $52,000 to make a living wage, which is defined as the amount needed to cover basic expenses.