In a dramatic turn of events, the Associated Students of
UCLA’s board of directors voted Friday to keep Taco Bell on
campus, ending months of speculation about the eatery’s
future at UCLA.
The decision stood in contrast to a month of talks within ASUCLA
that seemed to favor terminating Taco Bell’s relationship
with the university.
On May 14, four days after the restaurant broke an agreement
with ASUCLA, the association’s Services Committee voted to
end Taco Bell’s contract when it expires at the end of
June.
This action left the board of directors as the sole
decision-making body regarding Taco Bell’s tenure on
campus.
The fast-food giant’s fate was nearly sealed.
But instead of passing a resolution to end Taco Bell’s
contract, the board drafted and passed a new resolution that allows
the restaurant to remain on campus but precludes it from entering
into a long-term contract with the university.
The board passed the resolution 9-0, with undergraduate
representative Yousef Tajsar abstaining.
Whether the new contract will be month-to-month or longer will
have to be discussed with Taco Bell, said Bob Williams, interim
executive director of ASUCLA.
The board also said it would negotiate so that it would be able
to terminate the new contract if Taco Bell did not make progress on
the issue that sparked the debate ““ allegations of low wages,
poor working conditions and overtime without pay for tomato pickers
in Florida.
Friday’s decision represented a very different sentiment
than ASUCLA had expressed when dealing with the issue in the past
month.
Taco Bell had failed to submit a report on working conditions
for its tomato suppliers by the May 10 deadline, breaking an
agreement made with the association six months ago.
The company had asked for an extension on the report about two
weeks before it was due, but the board denied the request.
The Services Committee then drafted and forwarded the resolution
which would have removed Taco Bell after this school year.
In past meetings, many board members had expressed negative
sentiment toward the restaurant.
“There are a wide variety of things that could have been
done between last December and this May. It appears nothing has
been done,” said administrative representative Dave
Lowenstein at a Services Committee meeting on May 14.
An announcement Thursday at the annual shareholder’s
meeting for Yum! Brands ““ Taco Bell’s parent company
““ apparently changed board members’ minds.
CEO of Yum! Brands, Inc., David Novak announced the company was
willing to pursue an “industry-wide solution,” such as
a one-cent surcharge for purchasers on every pound of tomatoes.
Novak also said the Coalition of Immokalee Workers ““ the
workers’ rights group advocating on the of the tomato
pickers’ behalf ““ must end their boycott of the
restaurant before Yum! takes any action.
“First … you must end your boycott. If you do that, we
pledge to give you our help,” Novak told Lucas Benitez,
leader of the workers’ rights group, at the
shareholders’ meeting.
The coalition was not convinced.
“As it stands right now, your offer is little more than
empty promises with no real commitment to change,” said a
statement on the group’s Web site. “When you’re
ready to talk about real change for real people, we are ready,
too.”
ASUCLA’s board praised Yum!’s idea to include the
rest of the industry in its efforts, but said the worker’s
rights group should not end its boycott immediately.
Dria Fearn, chairwoman of the Services Committee, said ASUCLA
has more influence over Taco Bell’s actions if they keep them
on campus, and that the board’s resolution “gives (Taco
Bell) another carrot” to improve conditions and comply with
the original agreement with UCLA.
“That’s really the end goal ““ to make sure
those workers get what they deserve,” Fearn said.
Undergraduate representative Emmanuel MartÃnez said he was
dissatisfied with Yum!’s proposal, adding that it did not
address other issues facing the workers.
“A cent more is great, but if you’re being kidnapped
from your home country,” there are bigger problems, he said,
referring to allegations of human trafficking occurring in
Florida.
About a dozen students from the Social Justice Alliance and the
Student Worker Front attended the meeting. Their faces dropped upon
witnessing the vote.
“Every day that this process takes longer, the workers are
continuing to suffer,” SJA President Sarah Church said at the
meeting. “We’re disappointed because we have no faith
in Taco Bell’s commitment to workers’
rights.”