Updates from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers on Taco Bell boycott

http://www.campaignforlaborrights.org/alerts/2004/may12-bell.htm
Posted May 12, 2004
[Information in this alert comes from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.]
Learn more about the Taco Bell Boycott

1) Protest at Yum Brands Headquarters!

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) announces that the annual protest at Yum Brands headquarters in Louisville, KY, is on, and the Coalition is asking for help to hold the world's largest restaurant company accountable for the sub-poverty wages and sweatshop conditions under which its tomatoes are grown and picked.

Yum Brands is Taco Bell's parent company, along with Pizza Hut, KFC, Long John Silvers, and A&W Restaurants. Yum's five national brands make it the largest restaurant company in the world... yes, larger than McDonalds! As such, it has tremendous power and responsibility to help clean up labor abuses in its supply chain, but to date Yum has refused to take meaningful steps to improve labor standards for the thousands of farmworkers who toil in sweatshop conditions to pick the tomatoes that go into Taco Bell's products.

That's why members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and their allies will be traveling this coming May 20th to Louisville, KY for the annual shareholders meeting at Yum Brands' headquarters. They will be protesting outside and making their voices heard inside, where, CIW reports, last year a whopping 43% of Yum's shareholders voted in favor of a resolution in support of the CIW boycott of Taco Bell.

So check your calendars, fill your tanks, and plan to join the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in Louisville for the action on May 20th. For more information on times and locations for the upcoming action in Louisville, email workers [at] ciw-online.org . CIW will be posting the information on its website soon, at http://www.ciw-online.org .

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2) UCLA Preparing to "Boot the Bell!"

"Taco Bell failed to submit a report on tomato pickers' working conditions by Monday, breaking an agreement made with the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) nearly six months ago and threatening the popular eatery's future on campus."

So begins an article in today's (6/11/04) "Daily Bruin," UCLA's daily campus newspaper. It continues, "The Associated Students of UCLA -- which manages Taco Bell and other on-campus restaurants -- told the fast food giant to investigate complaints of unfair labor practices originating from employees of the restaurant's tomato suppliers."

UCLA students have worked for several years to hold Taco Bell to the very stringent standards set by the university's Code of Conduct for its vendors. Thanks to their tireless efforts, it seems that UCLA is preparing to "Boot the Bell," joining now 20 campuses across the country that have taken a stand for not just fast, but FAIR, food!

You can find the article in the Daily Bruin online at:

http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/articles.asp?id=28927