Discussions, extensions and delays will have hung the fate of
UCLA’s Taco Bell in the balance for nearly a year when the
fast food giant’s future is revisited again today.
The Associated Students of UCLA’s board of directors will
convene for a special meeting this afternoon to discuss the fate of
the campus’s Taco Bell, moving the issue up from the
board’s regular meeting on Oct. 29. The meeting was called by
the board’s executive committee.
Dave Lowenstein, an administrative representative on the board,
said they decided to discuss the issue now because the
eatery’s contract ends too close to the next board
meeting.
“The meeting was called in order to allow enough time for
management to respond to the board’s decision on this issue
since (Taco Bell’s) contract expires on Oct. 31,”
Lowenstein said.
Taco Bell found itself facing removal last November after
student activists raised concerns over allegations of labor abuses
within the company’s tomato suppliers.
Representatives of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a
worker’s rights group representing tomato pickers in Florida,
urged ASUCLA to remove Taco Bell until the abuses are corrected.
ASUCLA’s Services Committee echoed the call for removal.
But in its December meeting, the board voted to extend the
eatery’s contract and ordered Taco Bell to prepare a report
on working conditions for the tomato suppliers.
Board members then voted against another Services Committee
recommendation to end the contract in May, even after Taco Bell
failed to submit the requested report. That decision extended the
current contract to Oct. 31.
Today’s meeting now comes in the wake of the third call
from the Services Committee last Friday to end Taco Bell’s
presence on campus.
Thursday afternoon, members of the Social Justice Alliance tried
to raise awareness by attracting students with free food.
The group gave out free tacos ““ bought from an off-campus
restaurant ““ to students who carried buckets filled with red
water balloons about 50 feet to simulate the conditions of workers
carrying buckets of tomatoes.
Michael Garner, third-year political science student and member
of the alliance, said the group was trying to make people aware of
the meeting tomorrow and to encourage students to come to the
meeting in support of removing Taco Bell.
Brigitte Gynther, a Student Farmworker Alliance member, said the
demonstration focuses students on the core of the issue in the
debate over Taco Bell: the treatment of the workers.
Board members were sent an e-mail Tuesday afternoon notifying
them of the special meeting. Lowenstein said he believed there
would be enough board members present to have a meeting, despite
the short notice.
The board’s bylaws state there must be six voting members
present at the meeting, including three students and one
non-student.
Taco Bell spokeswoman Laurie Schalow could not be reached for
comment near the end of business hours Thursday.