The Associated Students of UCLA’s board of directors voted
Friday afternoon to end Taco Bell’s contract on campus,
resolving once and for all a debate over the eatery’s place
at UCLA that spanned nearly a year.
The board voted five in favor and one opposed with two
abstentions to not renew the fast-food restaurant’s contract
when it expires Oct. 31. The board was originally scheduled to vote
on the eatery’s removal at an Oct. 29 meeting but opted to
convene earlier as the decision would have come too close to the
date of Taco Bell’s contract expiration.
After a hushed silence during the vote, 25 students who attended
the meeting to encourage Taco Bell’s removal exploded with
applause upon witnessing the result.
“About damn time,” said Emmanuel Martinez, an
undergraduate representative on the board and chair of the ASUCLA
services committee, which brought the non-renewal proposal to the
board.
The vote came after a year of controversy over allegations that
Taco Bell’s tomato suppliers were committing labor abuses
against tomato pickers in the Immokalee region of Florida.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers, which represents the
pickers, urged UCLA to remove Taco Bell from campus until the labor
violations were addressed.
The board had voted against recommendations from the services
committee to remove the restaurant twice before, but on Friday
agreed with the committee’s third such suggestion and ended
Taco Bell’s 12-year tenure at UCLA.
In a statement released shortly after the decision, Taco Bell
Spokeswoman Laurie Schalow said the fast- food company has
“made real attempts to resolve this matter” but said
the company has been “targeted for something that we, alone,
cannot control.”
“Taco Bell has proudly served the UCLA community for over
10 years, and we will miss our many loyal customers on campus. It
is disappointing and unfair that the Coalition of Immokalee Workers
has pressured UCLA students into making this decision and forced
them to be involved,” the statement read.
UCLA students at the meeting were visibly overjoyed that the
matter had finally been resolved.
“I’m ecstatic,” said Christina Kaoh, a member
of the Student Worker Front, as she clutched postcards from 400
UCLA students supporting Taco Bell’s removal.
“I don’t even have words right now.”
Bob Williams, interim executive director of ASUCLA, said Taco
Bell’s last day of business will be next Friday, at which
point the association will move an ASUCLA-run sandwich restaurant
into that location, hopefully by the following Monday.
ASUCLA also plans to eventually open a taco restaurant with
similar pricing to Taco Bell in the Cooperage, Williams said.
The vast majority of the discussion among board members at the
meeting centered on the financial implications of removing Taco
Bell.
Williams estimated that the association would lose 200 customers
who were loyal to the Taco Bell brand as a result of its closure,
and that combined with opening the new sandwich and taco
restaurants would cost the association $85,000 in profit this
fiscal year.
Other board members said they could deal with the fiscal issues;
it is the social issue of the worker’s rights that is
important.
Read the Daily Bruin on Monday for extended coverage of the
decision to remove Taco Bell.