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PRESS RELEASE
Date: March 3, 2003
Re: Farmworkers hunger strike outside Taco Bell’s world headquarters, Irvine, CA
Contact: Coalition of Immokalee Workers, (239) 821-5481; (323) 387-0344, (239) 839-3970;
(239) 503-0133, 239-634-4229; website: www.ciw-online.org
HUNGER STRIKERS ASK:
"Can Taco Bell guarantee its customers that the tomatoes in its
chalupas were not picked by forced labor?"
IRVINE, CA -- Following the discovery and federal prosecution of six cases of modern-day slavery
in the past five years in South Florida agriculture -- three involving tomato pickers -- the hunger
strikers outside of Taco Bell headquarters are asking: "What mechanisms does Taco Bell have in
place to guarantee to its customers that the tomatoes in their chalupas were not picked by
workers in modern-day slavery conditions."
[BACKGROUND: Farmworkers outside of Taco Bell headquarters -- encamped 24 hours a day on
Von Karman in Irvine -- have entered the second week of their hunger strike. The workers
(members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a Florida-based workers’ rights
organization) are calling on Taco Bell to take responsibility for the sweatshop conditions in Florida’s
fields where the fast-food giant buys its tomatoes. They have been joined by students, religious
leaders, and small farmers who have come from across the country in solidarity with the fasting
farmworkers, in one of the largest hunger strikes in US history.]
In an April, 1999, story in the "Naples (FL) Daily News," entitled, "Alleged Collier slavery ring
not the first," the issue of multiple slavery operations in Southwest Florida agriculture was the
subject:
"’We weren’t allowed to leave, and we were afraid they would kill us if we tried to escape,’ said
Guzman [a victim of forced labor in an earlier case], who had been recruited in Immokalee..., ‘I
couldn’t believe it when I saw this morning that it’s happened here again.’ Federal agents
arrested three Immokalee labor bosses Wednesday on charges of enslaving 28 Mexican nationals,
among them seven teen-agers... (who) allegedly were sold into slavery at $5,000 a piece, to work
in agricultural fields in Lee and Collier counties."
The workers in the 1999 case picked tomatoes for Manley Farms, where Ronnie Rose, the farm
manager, commented in the same article, "We have no knowledge of any slavery or anything of this
nature. It’s hard to believe. I’m shocked. I’m stunned, and if any part of it is true, I’m sad." The
crewleaders involved ultimately pled guilty to several charges, including conspiracy to hold workers in
peonage (holding workers against their will in involuntary servitude in order to collect a debt) and
unsafe labor practices.
Lucas Benitez of the CIW wrote in the CIW’s latest letter to Taco Bell CEO Emil Brolick, "[The]
fast-food giants cannot possibly guarantee their customers that the tomatoes and other produce in their
products are free of forced labor, or that basic human rights are respected everywhere along their
supply chain. To claim otherwise would be a transparent fraud, when the industry’s own suppliers
claim ignorance of slavery -- slavery confirmed in US federal court -- right under their noses. If
Manley Farms (or others) are to be believed when they claim no knowledge of slavery in its
fields, then it is simply impossible that any buyer, or potential buyer, further along the
distribution chain could ethically claim that its products were not picked by slave labor."
As the Naples Daily News wrote, "arrests and allegations of forced labor in Immokalee fields are
hardly uncommon" ("Four men charged with running slavery ring in Immokalee," 4/29/99). And
while such cases clearly represent an extreme form of labor exploitation in Florida’s tomato fields,
sweatshop-like conditions -- sub-poverty wages, no right to organize, no right to overtime pay, no
health insurance, pension, holiday leave, sick leave, or vacation -- are the everyday reality for the
farmworkers who pick a significant percentage of tomatoes that go into Taco Bell’s products.
The CIW’s letter to Taco Bell continued, "From sweatshops to slavery, the conditions in Florida’s
tomato fields have been a scandal since the epochal Edward R. Murrow documentary "The Harvest of
Shame." Yet the US foodservice industry that relies on Florida for its fruit and vegetable supplies has
done nothing to improve labor conditions along its supply chain, not even so much as issue a statement
of concern for the workers at the foundation of the industry. # end #
PRESS RELEASE
Date: February 27, 2003
Re: Day 4-5 of farmworkers hunger strike outside Taco Bell world headquarters
(17901 Von Karman Ave.), Irvine, CA
Contact: Coalition of Immokalee Workers, (239) 821-5481; (323) 387-0344,
(239) 839-3970; (239) 503-0133, 239-634-4229; website: www.ciw-online.org
UPCOMING EVENTS AT FARMWORKER HUNGER STRIKE AT TACO BELL HQ
Massive rally February 28 to support Hunger-strikers w/ Eric Schlosser, author of
“Fast Food Nation,” CA Senator Joe Dunn, the band Slowrider, and others
IRVINE, CA-- Late tonight, over 70 SEIU janitors from the corporate park
surrounding Taco Bell HQ will join in solidarity with the hunger striking farmworkers.
The janitors will join farmworkers at Taco Bell headquarters at 10:00 pm on their
break for a spirited rally.
On Friday, February 28th, day five of the fast, farmworker hunger strikers will join
thousands of supporters--including artists, authors, organized labor, elected
representatives--at Taco Bell headquarters in a solidarity rally supporting the
Taco Bell boycott. Participants include Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation,
Anuradha Mittal of Food First, musicians Slowrider and Los Jornaleros del Norte,
and CA State Senator Joe Dunn. Organizations participating include UFW, UFCW,
SEIU, the Community-Farm Alliance of family farmers, and many more. Actor
Edward James Olmos plans to attend. Students from over 200 schools across
the US are also travelling to participate in the rally.
In conjunction with the hunger strike, the Student-Farmworker Alliance has toured
14 California universities in four days, participating in rallies, protests, and
attending benefit concerts in the strikers’ honor. Schools included UCLA,
Cal-State LA, USC, and San Diego State. Responding to student pressure,
Cal State LA cancelled its contract with Taco Bell on campus, becoming the 15th
school to Boot the Bell. In addition, hundreds of solidarity protests are taking
place across the nation this week.
An AFSCME local endorsed the boycott, including employees of a unionized Taco
Bell. One of the employees will be speaking at the Feb. 28th rally.
The Executive Board of the National Council of Churches (NCC) -- representing
140,000 Protestant and Orthodox congregations which claim more than 50 million
parishioners -- has voted unanimously to support the workers’ fast. In a statement
released on Feb. 25th, the NCC Executive Board called on Taco Bell “to enter into
serious dialogue with the CIW.” Today (2/27), Taco Bell refused to meet with NCC
representatives who attempted to deliver a copy of the Council’s statement to Taco
Bell executives.
[BACKGROUND: Farmworkers outside of Taco Bell headquarters -- encamped 24
hours a day on Von Karman in Irvine -- have entered their fourth day of a hunger
strike. The workers (members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a
Florida-based workers’ rights organization) are calling on Taco Bell to take responsibility
for the sweatshop conditions in Florida’s fields where the fast-food giant buys its
tomatoes. They have been joined by students, religious leaders, and small
farmers who have come from across the country in solidarity with the fasting
farmworkers, in one of the largest hunger strikes in US history.]
## 30 ##
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PRESS RELEASE
Date: January 13, 2003
Re: Farmworkers hunger strike outside Taco Bell’s world headquarters, Irvine, CA
Contact: Coalition of Immokalee Workers, (239) 657-8311; (239) 657-1776;
(239) 821-5481; In California: Julia Perkins (323) 387-0344
Farmworkers, supporters tell Taco Bell:
“WE’D RATHER GO HUNGRY THAN EAT SWEATSHOP TACOS”
National action by Coalition of Immokalee Workers, allies to bring attention to Taco Bell's
ties to sweatshop conditions in Florida’s tomato fields; Eric Schlosser of “Fast-Food Nation,”
Tom Morello of Audioslave, and allies from across the nation to rally on February 28th with
the fasters outside Taco Bell headquarters
Immokalee, FL -- Beginning on February 24, farmworkers from the Coalition of Immokalee
Workers (CIW) and the CIW’s student, religious, and labor allies will begin an historic
hunger strike outside the global headquarters of Taco Bell, the fast-food giant. Immokalee
farmworkers harvest tomatoes that end up in Taco Bell’s tacos, chalupas, and gorditas.
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. On February 28th, artists, authors,
and community, family farmers, religious, and labor leaders will come together for a
massive rally outside Taco Bell’s headquarters in support of the fasters.
While the hunger strikers stand vigil at Taco Bell headquarters, a caravan of workers and
allies will head south from Sacramento, CA, stopping at college campuses and communities
along the way and spreading the 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 across the country.
The CIW, a Florida-based farmworker organization, called for a national boycott of Taco
Bell in April 2001, demanding that the corporation take responsiblity for the sweatshop-like
working conditions that prevail in its suppliers’ fields.
“The tomatoes Taco Bell buys for its tacos and chalupas are produced in what can only be
described as sweatshop conditions,” said Lucas Benitez of the CIW. “Twenty years of
picking at sub-poverty wages, no right to overtime pay, no right to organize without fear
of being fired, no health insurance, no sick leave, no paid holidays or paid vacation, and
no pension is a national disgrace.”
Last year’s “Taco Bell Truth 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 face-to-face talks between fast-food executives and the farmworkers who
harvest their produce, but not to the concrete changes in wages and working conditions that
the CIW is demanding of Taco Bell and, ultimately, of the fast-food industry as a whole.
The workers’ boycott has been endorsed by everyone from the Indigo Girls and Tom Morello,
guitarist for Audioslave, to Cardinal Roger Mahoney and Naomi Klein, author of “No Logo,” as
well as by millions of members of the national Presbyterian church (PCUSA) and the national
United Church of Christ, national unions (including the American Postal Workers Union and
the United Farm Workers), United Students Against Sweatshops, and responsible consumers
from Florida to California.
The student-based“Boot the Bell” campaign, spearheaded by the national Student/
Farmworker Alliance (SFA), has resulted in nearly a dozen “Taco Bell-free” campuses,
including the University of Chicago and the University of San Francisco. Taco Bell to this
point, however, has made no substantive efforts to clean up labor abuses in its supply chain.
Julia Perkins, of the SFA, stated,“We as students care about what we eat. And we’d rather go
hungry than eat sweatshop tacos, so we’ll be out in front of Taco Bell to tell them just that.”
*****
Wages and working conditions in Florida’s fields remain a national shame, fully 40 years
after the historic broadcast of Edward R. Murrow’s “Harvest of Shame” On the East Coast,
from Florida to New York, workers have picked tomatoes at a piece rate, 40-50 cents per
32-lb bucket, that has remained virtually unchanged since 1978. According to the US
Department of Labor, pickers earn an average of $7,500 a year, with no benefits, no overtime
pay for overtime work, no sick leave, no vacation pay, and no medical insurance, and have no
protections when they organize. Modern-day slavery in the form of debt bondage is not
uncommon in Florida’s fields, with the Coalition assisting the federal government in the
prosecution of five farmworker slavery operations in the past five years.
## end ##
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