In his Viewpoint column “Demand change by closing Taco Bell” (Nov. 18), James Moon made an important point about the significance of students using their power to show opposition to unfair labor practices. This is certainly the motivation behind the Social Justice Alliance and Student-Worker Front campaign to remove Taco Bell from the UCLA campus.
However, Moon only scratches the surface of a very deep, complex conflict that has taken place on the tomato fields that may supply Taco Bell. While he correctly cites the low wages that workers receive, workers in some cases also experience conditions described by John Shattuck, CEO of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, as “modern-day slavery practices.”
It is because of the severity of these conditions that the student activist coalition has chosen Taco Bell and its suppliers as the target for the campaign. We would like to take this opportunity to clarify some of Moon’s points, and strengthen his message to show even more support for the Associated Students of UCLA’s termination of the Taco Bell contract.
Moon mentions the injustice in wages, and, indeed, it is drastic. In 2001, Taco Bell grossed over $5 billion, and its parent company, Yum! Brands, grossed over $22 billion. However, farm laborer wages are at the same rate that they were in 1978 – piece rates for each 32-pound bucket of tomatoes have stagnated between 40 and 50 cents. Despite these concerns, Yum! refuses to negotiate with the farmworkers who are being exploited.
Because Taco Bell does not release the names of all its suppliers, it is often impossible to attribute specific labor violations to the tomatoes Taco Bell buys. But many farmworkers in south Florida receive no benefits, are denied the right to organize, and in some cases have been living in camp conditions under constant, armed surveillance or held in sexual servitude and threatened with death if they try to escape. These conditions cannot be denied – they are documented by the U.S. Department of Justice. In three separate cases, the Justice Department has convicted defendants of crimes including “slavery and immigration violations” in connection with tomato fields in Immokalee, Fla. – the same region where Taco Bell is a major buyer of tomatoes.
In one documented case of human trafficking, Attorney General John Ashcroft – hardly a knee-jerk liberal – said of 19-year-old Maria Choz in a Jan. 24, 2002, press conference, “By night, Maria was forced into sexual servitude. By day, she was forced to labor with a tomato picking crew, giving her wages to Tecum (her kidnapper) at the end of her grueling shifts.”
He went on to say that “Maria’s story is not unique.”
This is only one story in countless cases of worker exploitation and wage disputes, including many accounts of poor labor practices from fields where Taco Bell may receive its tomatoes.
As one of the major buyers of the tomatoes produced in Immokalee by the Six L’s Packing Co., Taco Bell has a responsibility to protect human rights in its suppliers’ fields. To ensure the humane handling of animals, the company has implemented the Animal Welfare Program, which regulates the conditions under which its poultry is produced. Taco Bell has acknowledged that it has responsibility for the actions of its suppliers. Its Web site states that “as a major purchaser of food products, we have the opportunity, and responsibility, to influence the way animals are treated.” However, in response to the fair treatment of humans, Yum! spokespersons have denied responsibility and refused to address the issue of working conditions. Taco Bell cannot continue to promote animal welfare while turning a blind eye to human rights.
In response to this disregard for humanity, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers launched a nationwide boycott against Taco Bell in 2001. Since then, students across the nation have mobilized to boot the Bell from their campuses and end the representation of slavery. On our own campus, student activists from the Social Justice Alliance and the Student-Worker Front have been working with ASUCLA to push for the termination of the Taco Bell franchise contract. On Nov. 14, the Services Committee of the ASUCLA board voted to recommend that the board not renew the contract. With this action, the committee showed that working conditions in the tomato fields that supply Taco Bell will not be tolerated by franchises like ASUCLA that have a commitment to social justice.
The Services Committee decision shows the power of students to work through institutions like UCLA to combat exploitation. In the past, we have demanded justice for employees on campus through unionizing ASUCLA workers. Now, we can demand justice for workers in Florida by joining the boycott, as have consumers and students from across the country. When the full ASUCLA board meets Dec. 4, it is imperative that it take the recommendation of the committee and of the Undergraduate Students Association Council and agree not to renew Taco Bell's contract with UCLA.
Sarah Church is a fourth-year international development studies student and Christina Kaoh is a second-year molecular, cellular, and developmental biology student.