------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the March 20, 2003 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
HELL IN THE TOMATO FIELDS: FARM WORKERS CALL BOYCOTT OF TACO BELL By John Beacham Los Angeles The Coalition of Immokalee Workers arrived at the Taco Bell corporate headquarters in Irvine, Calif., on Feb. 24 with cries of "End sweatshops in the fields!" They are staging a hunger strike to protest the exploitation of immigrant farm workers in the tomato fields of southwest Florida. Braving cold and rain, 100 workers and students camped out and refused to eat until Taco Bell conducts negotiations with the CIW. The workers are demanding that Taco Bell act now to force its suppliers to pay their laborers a decent wage. Taco Bell is the largest buyer of tomatoes picked in the fields of Florida. It profits more than anyone from the deplorable working conditions and the inadequate compensation of the workers. The CIW has called for a boycott of Taco Bell until the farm workers' wages are raised a penny per pound of tomatoes. These workers, who put in a six-day week, can expect to earn at most $7,500 a year. (National Agricultural Workers Survey of 1998) They are paid less today, in real terms, than 20 years ago. Their working conditions under the local field bosses are often characterized by racism, harassment and even overt intimidation. They live in tiny apartments and trailers with up to a dozen others. Eviction is common. An injured worker is likely to have to struggle even harder to keep afloat. Slavery and the plantation are on the rise in the South again. The CIW has helped to bust up five slavery rings, some with as many as 700 workers enslaved, in the last six years. Most of the workers come to the United States from the poorer regions of the Western Hemisphere. Over a third of Immokalee workers come from Guatemala, where peasants were impoverished by over 30 years of U.S.-backed right-wing terrorism that took the lives of 200,000 people. Some 40 percent come from Mexico and the rest from places like Haiti, El Salvador and Honduras. The global economy and U.S. imperialism force these workers to come to the U.S. for work. When they get here they find they have few if any rights and must struggle mightily to get by. Yet they have found the will to rise up in solidarity to demand justice from a U.S. corporation that profits off their misery. The CIW broke its hunger strike on March 5, heeding the call of local clergy who were concerned about the health of some of the workers. During the entire period of the hunger strike, not one person from Taco Bell management spoke with them. But the general sentiment is that the struggle must and will continue. Find out more at www.ciw-online.org. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe wwnews- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
