Tomato pickers on Taco Bell boycott
Memphis, Tenn.-Workers and supporters of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers
wound up a national tour at a meeting here. The workers, from Mexico,
Central America, Haiti and the U.S., pick tomatoes in the fields of
southwest Florida.
Francisca-We're not paid for the hours we wait for the tomato plants to dry
and to find work. They don't start paying us until we fill a bucket with 32
to 35 pounds of tomatoes. We're paid 40 to 45 cents per bucket. If it's a
good day and it's not raining, I work all day and make maybe $45 or $50 for
picking two tons of tomatoes.
Once you get home, you have to get in line to get into the shower because
we live in a trailer with 10 people. We live in these bad conditions
because of unfair wages. We're focusing our struggle on Taco Bell because
we know they can afford to pay one penny more per pound for the tomatoes we
pick, to be passed on to the pickers. That would almost double what we
earn. We haven't had a raise in 20 years.
Lucas-You may work 100 hours one week and 10 the next. We know from our
lives as well as from a Department of Labor study that the average income
of a farmworker is $7,500 to $8,000 a year. Farmworkers aren't included in
the law that permits workers to organize and we don't get paid overtime.
For years we focused direct actions on the growers we work for. We haven't
been able to create enough pressure to force them to sit at the table for
dialogue. So we followed the tomatoes. Taco Bell buys 16 million pounds of
tomatoes a year.
First we politely sent a letter to Taco Bell in January 2000. We waited for
a whole year and didn't get an answer. In January 2001 we sent a second
letter. They didn't answer that either. So in April we announced the
official national boycott of Taco Bell because Taco Bell also has
sweatshops-sweatshops in the fields, right here in this country.
Max-When I was in ninth grade, I quit school to pick tomatoes. I'm with the
Coalition of Immokalee Workers because I'm tired of being a slave to
corporations. I'm tired of corporations telling me what to eat and wear and
how to run my life. For me this isn't only about stopping sweatshop
conditions. It's also about letting corporations know that they aren't
going to run our lives anymore.
Marco-We are abused in the fields by the growers. You can't even go to the
bathroom because you need to go and pick more tomatoes. We are people who
have two or three kids and can't make it on the wages we get. That's our
cause. We don't pay attention to race, social class, where you are from,
what you have. What we care about is that right now we have to raise our
fists and fight for justice. We've traveled all over this country. Tomorrow
we'll be on the road, but one day we'll come back here, not with 10 but 100
workers.
Lucas-What you're consuming from Taco Bell isn't a red, juicy tomato. It's
exploitation, sweat, tears, the lives of thousands of workers who produce
tomatoes. We can all work together for the same cause. Together we can win
the No-Bell prize.
Contact the Coalition of Immokalee Workers at www.ciw-online.org or CIW,
P.O. Box 603, Immokalee, FL 34143.
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