The second most-frequented restaurant on campus will be shown
the door this summer unless it meets conditions set forth by the
Associated Students of UCLA to ensure the company is adhering to
the university’s code of labor conduct.
The ASUCLA board of directors voted Friday to require Taco Bell
to contract and pay for a third party to review and report on
working conditions in the Immokalee region of Florida, a region
that provides many of the tomatoes used in Taco Bell
restaurants.
The board voted after hearing presentations on labor abuses
allegedly committed by growers against Immokalee workers who pick
tomatoes.
Immokalee workers are forced to work unpaid overtime hours and
receive no benefits, said Lucas Benitez, founder and co-director of
the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, at Friday’s board
meeting.
Taco Bell, which serves between 2,000 and 3,000 patrons per day,
will have until June 2004 to meet provisions voted on Friday,
including funding the independent report.
The third party conducting the investigation must be approved by
the CIW and the United Food Purchasing Co-op. A report must be
written by April 30 and sent to ASUCLA within 10 days.
In addition, the restaurant must work with the CIW and growers
to ensure it is adhering to the University of California’s
Code of Conduct ““ as well as Taco Bell’s own ““ in
regard to labor rights.
Taco Bell’s contract expires Dec. 30, but board members
voted Friday to renew the contract until the end of the school
year.
Bob Williams, director of ASUCLA food services and interim
executive director, said it would be best to renew Taco
Bell’s contract until summer for logistical reasons.
The Taco Bell restaurant on campus provides employment, Williams
said, and waiting for summer to decide if the restaurant should be
replaced will make for the easiest transition.
In addition, because of the restaurant’s popularity,
terminating its contract mid-year could result in a loss of $80,000
for ASUCLA, Williams said.
Immokalee workers have been paid the same wages since 1978 and
receive between 30 and 42 cents for every 32-pound bucket of
tomatoes they pick, Benitez said.
“ASUCLA has the opportunity to continue not supporting
sweatshops with this decision,” said Benitez through Brian
Payne, a member of the Student Worker Front who translated
Benitez’s presentation from Spanish.
But Laurie Schalow, director of public relations for Taco Bell,
said the company has not engaged in unfair labor practices and pays
about $40 for each bucket of tomatoes it buys.
“It is not our fault, but the growers’ fault, that
workers receive such low compensation,” she said.
Labor complaints are directed toward Sixcel, one of six growers
in the Immokalee region, she said.
Taco Bell only purchases tomatoes from Florida six months each
year and purchases them through a broker that does not always
purchase from Sixcel, she added.
“We don’t have a contract specifically with Sixcel
… so we cannot change anything,” she said.
Sixcel says it pays workers $9 an hour, a claim Benitez called
“ridiculous,” saying U.S. Department of Labor documents
dispute the $9-an- hour claim.
Neither Sixcel nor the CIW provided requested documentation to
prove or disprove the alleged abuses, Schalow said during the
meeting. The dispute is between growers and workers ““ not
between Taco Bell and workers, she said.
However, Sarah Church, a member of the Social Justice Alliance
at UCLA, said Taco Bell and its parent company, Yum! Brands Inc.,
is responsible for the actions of companies that provide its
products.
According to Yum! Brands’ Web site, the company monitors
its suppliers to ensure they use humane procedures in caring for
and handling animals supplied to Taco Bell.
The Web site states that Yum! Brands, “as a major
purchaser of food products, (has) the opportunity, and
responsibility, to influence the way animals supplied to us are
treated.”
Yum! Brands’ philosophy on keeping suppliers socially
responsible toward animals should be extended to include its labor
policies, Church said.