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!:
DAVID HORVATH, JOBS WITH JUSTICE, LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF THE LOUISVILLE COURIER-JOURNAL
May 16, 2003 To the Editor
David Goetz's story (May 16) on the protests at the Yum Stockholders meeting should have pleased Yum management.
Contrary to the headline of a Yum spokesman calling protesters "corporate terrorists" this is about groups who simply want Yum to change its policies and who are legally and nonviolently protesting them. Perhaps the reporter should have asked Yum how much of its stockholders money was spent on the chain link fence that surrounded their property, the security surveillance and the dozens of off-duty officers who were employed to protect delegates from 100 farm workers and their supporters dressed as farm animals and peacefully demanding that the corporation of "family restaurants" to show a conscience. The real story about the plight of farm workers in Florida can't be blithely written off by David Novak or Jonathan Blum saying they "won't buy vegetables from suppliers who violate state or federal labor laws" or that the farmworkers' conflict is between brokers and suppliers and not their problem. Blum and Novak should read John Bowe's article in the April 21 New Yorker, "Nobodies. Does Slavery Exist in America?" Bowe's answer is YES and you can find it among the farm workers who pick tomatoes for Taco Bell.
There have been 5 cases of modern day slavery prosecuted in federal court over the past five years in Florida fields that are well documented. YUM did not know about these cases, as they have no monitoring method that would warn them of slavery conditions before or after they have been discovered and prosecuted. And that is precisely why they have never answered the question "Can YUM guarantee to its customers that the tomatoes in their tacos were not picked by slave labor?"
As for the claim that "many" farmworkers earn $9/hour, Novak and Blum should know that due to the highly variable conditions in fieldwork an hourly wage for farmworkers is a meaningless number. Yum has been provided with US Department of Labor statistics that show that farmworkers average $7,500 per year, with no right to overtime, no right to organize, no sick leave, no health insurance, and no benefits whatsoever. They are also aware of a University of Florida Ag Extension Service study specifically on Immokalee farmworkers showing an even lower average annual wage (about $6,500). Do the math.
Dissenting spokespersons were cut off from discussions during the stockholders meeting and so their struggle continues and protests will continue on the street. For the farmworkers, this means aggressively pursuing the boycott of Taco Bell, the main buyer of tomatoes in the Immokalee area. Tell your neighborhood Taco Bell manager that you won't buy their chalupas until they pressure their suppliers to do the right thing.
The workers of Immokalee have to pick 3 tons of tomatoes just to make $50. All they want is another penny a pound. As Yum executives wash their hands like Pontius Pilate, the workers of Immokalee are being crucified on the cross of corporate profits.
