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PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Date: Wednesday, March 28, 2001
re: Farmworkers, students launch national Taco Bell boycott
contacts: Lucas Benitez, Romeo Ramirez, Coalition of Immokalee
Workers (941) 657-8311, mobile (941) 821-5481; Brian Payne, Student/Farmworker
Alliance (941) 867-9127
FARMWORKERS AND STUDENT ALLIES TO ANNOUNCE NATIONAL
BOYCOTT OF TACO BELL, CALL FOR END TO "SWEATSHOPS IN THE FIELDS"
Following five weeks of informational protests
at university towns across Florida, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers
and student allies will formally announce the national Taco Bell
boycott at Orlando rally in front of Taco Bell restaurant
Immokalee, FL -- On the heels of spirited protests in Gainesville,
Bradenton, St. Petersburg, Tallahassee, and Miami, farmworkers from
the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) will be joined by student,
religious, labor, and community supporters in Orlando this Sunday
for the formal launching of the national Taco Bell boycott.
Farmworkers from Immokalee, the heart of Florida's $600 million
tomato industry, will gather with supporters for a protest outside
of the Taco Bell restaurant located at 4225 East Colonial Drive
starting at 2:00 pm on Sunday, April 1. Like those around the state
before it, the Orlando protest promises to be a colorful assembly
of people, art, puppets, pinatas, tomato costumes, and music. The
formal announcement of the boycott will be made at 3:00 pm at a
rally following the protest.
"Taco Bell is a multinational corporation with $5.2 billion
in annual sales, and is part of Tricon, the world's largest restaurant
system with $22 billion in annual receipts," said Lucas Benitez
of the CIW. "To a significant extent, Taco Bell's tremendous
global revenues are based on cheap ingredients for the food they
sell, including cheap tomatoes picked by farmworkers in Florida
paid sub-poverty wages. [According to the latest U.S. Department
of Labor report to Congress, farmworkers earn a median annual income
of $7,500, with no benefits and no legal right to earn overtime
or collectively bargain with their employers.] Well, we as farmworkers
are tired of subsidizing Taco Bell's profits with our poverty.
We are calling for this boycott today as a first step toward winning
back what is rightfully ours -- a fair wage and respect for the
hard and dangerous work we do."
"When students and labor rights activists first brought widespread
public attention to the inhumane working conditions and slave wages
in the factories that make sneakers for Nike, Nike denied any responsibility
for those conditions, just as Taco Bell has done to this point in
response to our protests" continued Benitez. "But today,
Nike has had to move off of that position, bending to the pressure
of its own consumers to improve wages and working conditions in
those 'independent' factories. Nike's ability to dictate those changes
lies in its buying power as a major, if not principal, client of
those overseas factories. Taco Bell has that same kind of power
in the foodservice industry today, and we believe that Taco Bell,
like Nike, will ultimately understand the importance of listening
to the voice of its own consumers."
"When you look at the difference in power between us as farmworkers
and Taco Bell as a billion dollar corporation, you may think we
are crazy for taking them on," said Romeo Ramirez, also of
the Coalition. "They have all the wealth and political power,
and we have only one weapon. But that weapon -- the truth --
is the most powerful thing on earth," continued Ramirez, "so
we are certain that we will prevail."
"As Taco Bell's target market," added Brian Payne of
the Student/Farmworker Alliance, "students are in a unique
position to dedicate our resources and creativity towards helping
Taco Bell realize the importance of the farmworkers' role in its
success and, therefore, the company's responsibility for improving
the wages and working conditions of our state's tomato pickers.
Thousands of students from across the state are prepared to stand
in solidarity with farmworkers in their struggle for dialogue and
a living wage."
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