La
Raza takes stance against Taco Bell
By Daniel Frias
On-line Forty-Niner
Thousands
of farm workers in Florida are working under
the hot sun picking tomatoes in the fields
for as little as $10 a day.
One of these farm workers, who calls himself
Romero, was one of the guest speakers at
the Boycott Taco Bell teach-in put on by
La Raza Student Association at Cal State
Long Beach Tuesday night.
“We want to voice the concerns of the community,”
said Jorge Reyes, Chicano and Latino Studies
major and president of La Raza Student Association.
“We felt it was a worthy cause.”
Romero was there to speak about the exploitation
these farm workers face everyday. Brian
Payne, a member of the Student Farmworker
Alliance, was the other guest speaker talking
about the boycott and translating for Romero
who only speaks Spanish.
Romero, who came from Guatemala has been
working in the fields in Florida since his
arrival, six years ago. He is part of the
Coalition of Immakolee Workers, a farmworker
organization based in Immokalee, Fla. The
coalition was created by the workers several
years ago in response to the ill treatment
they were receiving from the growers.
“Nobody represented us,” Romero said. “Before
nobody helped us. We were beaten and forced
to work and nobody knew about it. So we
started to organize and to confront the
problems and the exploitation we face. Now
we’re making people aware and they’re helping
us.”
One of the organizations that are helping
them is the Student Farmworker Alliance.
Payne said the organization started in Florida
in 2000 with a handful of students. Currently
they are working in solidarity with the
farmworkers through the “Boot the Bell”
campaign which is aimed at taking Taco Bell
off university campuses nationwide.
According to Payne there are 40 schools
all across the country currently organizing
to take Taco Bell off their campus. So far
three universities have been successful
in getting Taco Bell out of their school.
Lori Ganon, a spokeswoman for Taco Bell
Corporation in Irvine, said that Taco Bell’s
position is not to get involved in other
companies disputes.
“It’s a dispute between Six L’s and their
workers,” Ganon said. “We do not have a
say in it. It’s up to Six L’s and their
employees.”
Aside from telling the over 50 students
at the teach-in about the injustices these
workers face, they showed a 20-minute video
to show how they work and live. The farm
workers have to wake up at 4:30 a.m. and
head out the door to look for work at 5:30
a.m. They are not guaranteed steady work
and have to go out and look for it. At the
end of the day they picked 28 buckets of
tomatoes and received only $10 for their
labor.
“Were not poor. We’re screwed,” said one
worker in the video.
The farm workers work are employed by Six
L’s Packing Company, one of the nation’s
largest tomato producers and a contractor
for Taco Bell, according to the Coalition
of Immakolee Workers.
However Ganon said Taco Bell does not have
a contract with Six L’s Packing Company.
They have a purchasing company who buys
tomatoes on the open market and that company
buys from many different companies including
Six L’s, said Ganon.
The workers who work for Six L’s do not
have the right to organize and do not receive
health insurance, overtime pay, sick days,
paid vacation or pension. These farm workers
also live in shacks and in crowded trailers.
They have to cram 12 workers in one trailer
because that is the only way they can afford
pay the $1,200 rent.
“We have to live there,” Romero said. “We
only make $20 or $30 day. The pay is not
enough. We have no choice.”
The Coalition of Immakolee Workers has gone
on several general strikes including a 230-mile
march across Florida to raise awareness
and demand better working and living conditions.
The orginization declared a national boycott
on Taco Bell in April 2001 to get them to
take some responsibility for the working
conditions of the farm workers. Taco Bell
made $ 5.2 billion in profit last year and
only needs to pay one penny more per pound
of tomato it buys from Six L’s in order
to double the picking piece rate paid to
farmworkers.
The orginization is having a hunger strike
in front of the Taco Bell headquarters in
Irvine, starting Feb. 24th in an effort
to get Taco Bell to listen to the farmworkers
plight and do something about it.
Romero said the goal of the Coalition of
Immakolee Workers is to get Taco Bell to
take some responsibility for the working
conditions of the workers, and to get them
to use their influence to bring growers
and workers together in a dialogue in order
to come to an agreement and create a code
of conduct that will establish more moderate
working conditions for the tomato workers
of Immokolee.
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