Coalition of Immokalee Workers Plans Hunger Strike

"We'd rather go hungry than eat sweatshop tacos!"

That is the cry that will go up outside Taco Bell headquarters in Irvine, CA, on February 24, 2003, as farmworkers from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the CIW’s student, religious, and labor allies begin their historic hunger strike. The action -- a hunger strike outside one of the world’s largest fast-food corporations -- is a powerful contradiction that will dramatically highlight the injustice of fast-food profits derived, in significant part, from farmworker poverty. The strike comes after a year of silence from Taco Bell executives.

[Last year’s historic cross-country tour brought unprecedented national pressure on Taco Bell, as 70 workers and 30 students led a caravan of protests from Atlanta to LA, on their way to a march of nearly 2,000 angry consumers on Taco Bell headquarters in Irvine. The tour led to the first-ever talks between farmworkers and fast-food executives, but not to the concrete changes in wages and working conditions that the Coalition of Immokalee Workers is demanding of Taco Bell.]

While the hunger strikers stand vigil at Taco Bell headquarters, a caravan of workers and allies will head south from Sacramento, California, stopping at college campuses and communities along the way and spreading word of the hunger strike through teach-ins and protests at local Taco Bell restaurants. And throughout the week, solidarity fasts and protests will take place in communities throughout the country.

The caravan will reach Irvine on Friday, February 28th, joining forces with the hunger strikers and with thousands of fair-food activists from California and across the country for a national day of convergence at Taco Bell headquarters - a huge day of protest and music that will rock Taco Bell.

That’s where YOU come in. Your participation in this year's action is CRUCIAL. Here’s what you can do:

• Send representatives from your school, church, community organization or union to fast in solidarity with Immokalee tomato pickers for the week beginning Feb. 24, 2003
• Mobilize your community to join the Friday, Feb. 28, 2003 national convergence outside of the Taco Bell headquarters
• Organize solidarity fasts, protests, and rallies in your local communities the week of Feb. 24th

Please e-mail workers@ciw-online.org or call 239-657-8311 as soon as possible to let the workers know how you will participate in this year's action!

Learn more about the hunger strike at the CIW webpage (opens new window).