Taco Bell Boycott is won by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers

[Guest guest]

Everyone! The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, just as they were out on

their Taco Bell Truth Tour, got the news that they won the Boycott.

Thank you for not eating at Taco Bell for all these years... Si se puede!

Here is what the http://www.ciw-online.org website says, by Lucas Benitez.

March 8, 2005

Comments by Coalition of Immokalee Workers Co-Director Lucas Benitez at

Press Conference, Announcing Settlement of the CIW’s Taco Bell Boycott

Thank you, . My name is Lucas Benitez, and I am a Co-Director of

the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. I’d like to begin by thanking

everyone for coming, and to thank Blum and everyone else here

at Yum and Taco Bell whose hard work has helped make today possible.

Today, we have some good news to share: Today, Taco Bell has agreed to

work with us to address the wages and working conditions of farmworkers

in the Florida tomato industry. And so, today, we are ending our boycott

of Taco Bell.

And today’s message is simple: Taco Bell and the CIW -- one a fast-food

giant and the other a farmworker organization -- are indeed part of the

same industry. The food industry in this country is rooted in

communities like mine, Immokalee, where every season thousands of

farmworkers arrive to pick the tomatoes that end up, just a few days

later, on tables across the country. Many of those tables are found in

Taco Bell restaurants, from Florida to California. It is that

connection, from the field to the table, that makes us members of the

same industry, and it is that connection that is, finally, recognized in

this agreement today.

Not much more can be said about the conditions in Florida’s tomato

fields that hasn’t been said already. Wages are extremely low, working

conditions can be brutal -- Florida’s fields have seen some of the most

shameful extremes of exploitation that this country has known, both

decades ago and still today. My community is one of the poorest

communities in the country, and our sacrifices have helped make

Florida’s tomatoes some of the least expensive, highest quality tomatoes

on the market today.

But with this agreement, we are laying the groundwork for real change,

both in the concrete conditions of farmworkers’ everyday lives and in

the market itself, where this agreement is establishing important new

standards of social responsibility. With the penny more per pound, Taco

Bell has recognized that it can – and should – help improve the wages of

the men and women who pick their tomatoes. And with the strict new

additions to its Code of Conduct, Yum and Taco Bell are making the

working conditions in the fields where we labor their business.

But the real significance of this agreement lies in the promise it holds

for much greater change in the future. As himself has so

eloquently put it, human rights are universal, and if we as farmworkers

are to one day indeed enjoy equal rights, the same rights all other

workers in this country are guaranteed, this agreement must only be a

beginning. To make those rights truly universal, other leaders of the

fast-food industry and the supermarket industry must join us on this

path toward social responsibility. With a broad coalition of industry

leaders committed to these principles, we can finally dream of a day

when Florida’s farmworkers will enjoy the kind of wages and working

conditions we deserve. And when that day comes, the restaurants and

markets of this country will truly be able to stand behind their food,

from the fields to America’s tables.

So, today, we call on those food industry leaders to rise to this

challenge and to follow Taco Bell’s leadership. And today we call on our

supporters across the country to end their boycott of Taco Bell.

PS: for Tampa Bay and Gainesville Folks

I think it would be great to have a victory celebration here locally for

them on their return, if you are interested in doing so, maybe we can

organize something via email. Way to go CIW!