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San
Bernardino Sun 12/26/04
By Leigh Muzslay
Staff writer
SAN
BERNARDINO — Students
have taken a bite out of Taco Bell and not the kind the fast-food
giant wants.
Taco Bell will not return to Cal State San Bernardino when the student
union reopens next fall after students complained that Florida tomato
pickers are underpaid and mistreated.
It is the 21st college in the country to remove Taco Bell.
"We've won this battle, but they're still continuing the struggle
with the campaign against Taco Bell," Cal State San Bernardino
professor Marcia Marx said. "We're just hoping that in the long
term they have some success with getting their wages increased. That's
the most important."
Taco Bell has faced a national boycott for the past three years. The
protest, led by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Student Farmworker
Alliance, has spread across college campuses.
Protesters peg the fast-food company as a major buyer of Florida tomatoes
that could help improve the working conditions of tomato pickers.
Most pickers get no benefits, health insurance, sick leave, vacation
or pension. They are paid about 45 cents for every 32-pound bucket they
fill, which translates to about $55 for two tons of tomatoes.
About one-third of Cal State San Bernardino's students are Latino. Many
are first-generation Americans.
"I thought that many of them, coming from farm worker families
themselves, could definitely relate to (the struggles)," Marx
said.
The coalition visited Cal State San Bernardino about five times in the
past three years.
"Once you met them and talked to them and found out what was going
on, it was hard not to become involved," Marx said.
Students gathered 1,500 signatures in four days last spring and asked
student and faculty government committees to vote on the issue. Both
the students and a Taco Bell representative spoke to the Associate Students
Inc. board of directors.
In March, Associate Students and the student union board of directors
voted to recommend Cal State remove Taco Bell from campus.
Taco Bell closed when construction on the student union started this
year. But Marx and others didn't know the eatery wouldn't be invited
back until recently.
"I was kicking my heels," Marx said. "I'm sure our local
campaign had a huge impact on the decision."
Taco Bell officials call the protest misguided. They say the company
actually buys the smallest amount of Florida tomatoes of any national
fast-food company, about 10.9 million pounds a year. That's less than
1 percent of Florida's 1.5 billion-pound tomato crop.
Taco Bell sent the coalition a check for $110,000 this summer and offered
to help them lobby for changes to Florida labor laws, Taco Bell spokeswoman
Sally George said.
After discussing their willingness to work together this summer, Taco
Bell has been waiting for the coalition to come up with a proposal,
George said.
"I think it's important that people know we are talking to them
and it's going to take more than Taco Bell alone to solve this,"
George said.
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