WHEREAS, On April 1st, 2001, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), Florida called for a nation-wide boycott of Taco Bell, following more than a year of denied requests for dialogue with Taco Bell to discuss means to improve the working conditions and pay-rates of the workers who provide Taco Bell with tomatoes; and

WHEREAS, farm workers who pick tomatoes as “employees” of a contractor for Taco Bell are paid 40 cents for every 32-pound bucket they pick, which is the same “piece rate”, paid in 1978; and

WHEREAS, Taco Bell uses this traditional method of contracted out labor as a means of refusing to bargain with the farm workers who provide their produce; and

WHEREAS, Florida, as most states in the US, has no laws protecting farm workers’ rights to organize; and

WHEREAS, on a national level farm workers’ real wages have decreased 5% over the last decade; and

WHEREAS, there are no employees of Taco Bell in the San Francisco Bay Area with a Union contract; and

WHEREAS, the CIW has planned a national tour publicizing the boycott of Taco Bell beginning in Tampa, Florida on September 13th, ending with a mass-protest at the National Headquarter of Taco Bell in Irvine, California on September 23rd-24th;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the San Francisco Labor Council (SFLC) endorses the nationwide boycott of Taco Bell called for by the CIW, and urges all of its affiliated unions and members to refrain from patronizing Taco Bell Restaurants in observance of this boycott;

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the SFLC urges all of its affiliated unions and members to join in the planning of and participate in the protest against Taco Bell in San Francisco on September 21st and endorses the protests at the Taco Bell headquarters in Irvine, California, on September 23rd-24th.