Julia Gabriel:
"Como trabajadores y mujeres, tenemos que
luchar por nuestros derechos y contra la violencia tanto en la labor
como en la casa"
"As women and as workers, we have to fight for our rights and against
violence both in the fields and in our own homes"
You
and your friends -- your fellow students, neighbors, co-workers, or members
of your church -- are the very heart of this
campaign!
If you have
come to this site because you want to help make FAIR FOOD a reality, you
can use the tools below to bring the Taco Bell boycott to your community.
But, first...
Please consider donating to the CIW!We
need your support to keep the boycott, the anti-slavery campaign, and
everything else we do going strong!
Click on the Pay Pal link below to send a secure donation now!
Now, here are some great
tools for organizing at home:
E-mail
Petition send an email to Emil (Emil Brolick, TB's CEO)
Or, send an automated fax to Emil Brolick, Taco Bell CEO,
from this link
on the United Church of Christ web site - It's easy and a
great way to support the boycott without even getting up from your seat!
Thanks for joining us, and don't
forget to send us any news, photos, or media reports on actions in your
community -- we'll post them as soon as we can and your action can help
motivate thousands of visitors to the site across the country!
Coalition
of Immokalee Workers
WHO
WE ARE
1995 General Strike
Immokalee, Florida
The CIW is today spear-heading the Taco
Bell boycott. But before we launched the national boycott in April of
2001, we had been organizing locally for many years in an effort to
modernize labor relations in Florida's fields, improve wages and working
conditions for our members, and eliminate modern-day slavery.
To learn more about the history of the
Coalition, you can go to the CIW site
where you'll find all the non-Taco Bell info on the Coalition from 1995
to 2001, including past CIW campaigns, Press Archives, Photo Galleries,
and more!
1997 General Strike
Immokalee, Florida
Or, you can simply click on some of
the links here below to go directly to the pages from the CIW site that
interest you... just remember to hit the back button on your browser
to return to the boycott site!:
PRESS CONFERENCE IN IMMOKALEE - HUMAN RIGHTS
LEADERS JOIN BOYCOTT 3-15-04
The bucket pyramid made an appearance in Immokalee yesterday,
adorned this time with a number of new accessories, including
a shiny four-foot tall penny symbolizing the raise Immokalee
workers are demanding from Yum Brands and a banner that
spells out the equation of exploitation in Immokalee in
no uncertain terms: "2 Tons of Tomatoes = $50
Pay = Unfair Trade". The pyramid, banner,
and penny would serve as the backdrop for the rest of the
day's activities.
But before the press conference was to start, there was
time for participants to meet and discuss the issues of
the day. Here, Minor Sinclair of Oxfam shares notes with
the Honorable Mary Robinson, who is not only the former
UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, but also a former
President of Ireland.
As the press got into place, final touches were put on the
pyramid...
... then it was time for the press conference to begin.
Oxfam America President Raymond
C. Offenheiser kicked off the presentations by announcing
the release of Oxfam's study on the impact of corporate
concentration in the agrifood industry entitled, "Like
Machines in the Fields: Workers without Rights in American
Agriculture," stating, "It is unacceptable
that huge profits are being made off the back of the hardest
working and lowest paid workers in the world. It is unconscionable
for that to be happening right here in the United States."
He added, "We publicly call on the
CEO's, the boards of directors and the major investors in
these leading [food] companies to guarantee that their supply
chains adhere to the highest standards of respect and responsibility
for workers rights."
Francisca Cortez of the CIW followed, describing in compelling
detail the reality of life as a farmworker in Immokalee, and
concluding her remarks by identifying three of the fundamental
rights as defined by the United Nations Universal Declaration
of Human Rights (the little blue book that she is holding
at the podium) that are systematically violated in Florida's
fields -- the right to organize, the right to a decent wage,
and the right to work free of slavery.
Next was Bishop Thomas Hoyt, President of the National Council
of Churches. Bishop Hoyt was equally strong in his presentation,
declaring that the CIW's campaign is a "wake up call"
to all us -- to the agricultural industry, to the religious
community, to the media, and to consumers generally, saying,
"This is an historic moment – a sacred moment when
each and every one of us is called to decide: will we use
our power to put an end to exploitation or will we hide ourselves
among what Dr. King called the “fraternities of the
indifferent?”
Rev. Noelle Damico read excerpts of a statement from Clifton
Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.):
"We are particularly concerned with the role Yum! Brands
has played, or more accurately, has not played in this situation.
As a purchaser of tens of millions of pounds of tomatoes, Yum!
benefits by being able to purchase these tomatoes cheaply on
account of the poverty wages earned by farmworkers. As such,
we believe that Yum! Brands has a clear moral responsibility
to take leadership to assure just working conditions and compensation
for the very persons who provide the products which are at the
heart of its operation. Any corporation which benefits through
the exploitation of others is gravely implicated in such exploitation
and has a moral and ethical responsibility to end that exploitation.
Mr. Novak, as the CEO of the largest fast-food company in the
world, we need your leadership. We sincerely hope that by its
words and actions Yum Brands! will join with farmworkers and
its tomato suppliers to create just working and living conditions
that promote human well-being "
Lucas Benitez of the CIW followed Rev. Damico, drawing clear
and compelling connections between Immokalee's poverty and Taco
Bell's fast-food profits. "There is a very simple reason
that brings us all here today: Quite simply, we are all disgusted
that violations of human rights keep happening here, here in
the United States" he said. "Behind the shiny and
happy images of Taco Bell commercials on TV is the reality of
the farmworkers who contribute to the fast-food giant's businees
and wealth with their sweat and with their blood."
Finally, President Mary Robinson spoke. Quoted in the Palm Beach
Post, she said, "This is a real human rights issue -- a
fundamental human rights issue," said President Robinson.
"I'm very aware that there are many people working at Yum
who would be proud of their company."
But, she continued, they might do well to visit Immokalee, to
"go out at four in the morning at the start of a working
day" and see the horrendous conditions workers must suffer.
Then, she said, the company might reexamine its "purchasing
strategy" that relies on the cheapest of labor.
Yum has "great purchasing power and they use it to buy
the cheapest products, and the burden of that is falling on
the workers," she said.
Following her tour of Immokalee's
housing conditions, President Robinson told the press, "I
know the conditions the workers left; they came here hoping
for the American dream. They must be so disappointed, because
now they are so exploited. These workers are excluded from
core labor standards, and we saw people living in containers,
and mobile homes with six or seven men in one room. It was
stuffy on a warm day like today but I can't imagine what it
must be like in the heat of summer. It's important to recognize
the purchasing prices paid by YUM and Taco Bell have a direct
connection with the conditions the workers face. It would
be good for a senior representative of YUM to visit Immokalee
and see the situation on the ground here."
