Taco Bell Boycott Update!

Taco Bell Boycott Update!

News in this update comes from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the UCLA Daily Bruin and Campaign for Labor Rights.
Posted October 17, 2004

In this update:

UCLA confirms termination of Taco Bell
Controversy continues at Boise State University in Idaho
Oct. 12 Washington , DC , picket and march ties Taco Bell Boycott and opposition to DR-CAFTA

1. UCLA confirms termination of Taco Bell

According to the UCLA Daily Bruin of Monday, Oct. 11, "The Associated Students of UCLA Services Committee echoed the sentiment of a previous resolution during a meeting Friday in urging that the university's contract with Taco Bell should be terminated."

Representatives voted to recommend to the ASUCLA board of directors not to renew the contract with Taco Bell until accusations of labor violations against the food chain are resolved. The current contract ends Oct. 31.

The final decision on the contract now rests in the hands of the board of directors, which will meet on Oct. 29. In May, the board went against a similar resolution passed by the Services Committee by allowing Taco Bell to stay on campus on a probationary contract.

The issue of Taco Bell's presence on the UCLA campus first came up over a year ago and resulted in an ASUCLA resolution which asked Taco Bell to provide a report on labor abuse allegations presented against it by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, which represents tomato pickers in Florida . A campaign launched by the CIW called on Taco Bell to press its tomato suppliers to pay better wages and correct alleged human rights violations. It has been supported by organizations such as the Social Justice Alliance at UCLA and the UC Students Association.

[Go to the CIW website, www.ciw-online.org , to see the whole story, or click here: www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/articles.asp?id=30267 .]

Coming in the wake of the University of Notre Dame's decision in August to end the sponsorship agreement between its athletic department and Taco Bell, the UCLA committee's decision Friday is indeed a powerful message from yet another flagship school that students do care about human rights and the labor conditions behind the products they consume.

The UCLA Code of Conduct is a powerful document requiring of University licensees and contractors, among other things, that they pay a living wage, respect their workers' right to organize and bargain collectively, and guarantee that their workplaces are free of forced labor.

By comparing this document to the conditions in US fields where tomatoes are grown, UCLA students are drawing the link between the fight against overseas sweatshops and the fight for farmworker rights here in the US . Members of the Social Justice Alliance at UCLA and the UC Students Association, two of the many organizations that have been supporting the national boycott of Taco Bell on campus, should be proud of their unwavering commitment to the principles of social justice and their resolve in this difficult campaign.

2. Controversy continues at Boise State University in Idaho

In an article entitled, "For Whom the Taco Bell Tolls: The Controversy Continues," the Boise State University Arbiter reported on Oct. 7, "Student and faculty governance are questioning whether Boise State President Bob Kustra properly followed procedure when he sold the naming rights of the Pavilion (the school's main athletic arena) to Taco Bell."

The university's sale of rights resulted in the recent changing of the arena's name to "Taco Bell Pavilion". The article continued, "'To be in a sponsorship of this magnitude with a corporation that has an unco nsc ionable record in terms of wages and treatment of farm workers is a real slap in the face,' said McCarl, who has been involved with Idaho farm workers' rights advocates for years." Mr. McCarl is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at BSU.

In a second article -- "Chihuahua Named Co-Mascot," a satirical take on the arena's name change -- a student writer suggested that "a Chihuahua would be BSU's new co-mascot." The "faux news" article ended with this killer quote, "When asked if BSU had any intentions of paying the new mascot minimum wage, an anonymous source in the athletic department seemed skeptical. 'So long as he's illegal, we don't have to pay him squat.'"

Clearly, just in time for the upcoming Taco Bell Boycott Northwest Mini-Tour, which reaches Boise State University October 25-26, the debate on BSU campus over the re-naming of their arena is heating up.

Coincidentally, just days before the arrival of workers from Immokalee at BSU on the 25th, the Honorable Mary Robinson, former United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights and an ally of the Taco Bell boycott, who visited Immokalee in April, will also be speaking on the BSU campus.

Ms. Robinson's message during her visit to Immokalee was clear: "My message to Yum Brands is, you can't pass the buck. You are profiting by exploitation and you have the power to change what is happening in the fields. So, pay this penny a pound more for workers' rights, and assume your fair share of responsibility."

Sounds very much like the message Taco Bell and Yum are hearing on college campuses across the country today, from Notre Dame to UCLA. Now, Boise State University has joined the fray.

Click on the links below to see the complete articles from the BSU Arbiter

"For Whom the Taco Bell Tolls"

"Chihuahua Named Co-Mascot"

3. Washington , DC , picket and march ties Taco Bell Boycott and opposition to DR-CAFTA

Answering calls for hemispheric action on October 12, Day of Indigenous Resistance, in Washington , DC , a group of around 25 people picketed outside the offices of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) between 5 and 5:40pm . The group leafleted with information on CAFTA and encouraged people to call their congressional representative asking him or her to speak out against the trade agreement. They then marched to Taco Bell, to give support to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' Taco Bell Boycott, underlining the connection with Free Trade Agreements: the destruction of domestic agriculture, forced migration and displacement, leading to low wages and poor workers' rights in the U.S. fields. Campaign for Labor Rights , as part of the Stop CAFTA Coalition, and the Immokalee Workers' Coalition issued the call for this action which was endorsed by United Students against Sweatshops, Mobilization for Global Justice, the Mexico Solidarity Network, and the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights.