On Sept. 17, students on campus will have the unique opportunity to support migrant farmworkers in their struggle for justice. Madison is one of several stops on a cross-country campaign of Florida farmworkers and students called the Taco Bell Truth Tour.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers represents more than a thousand Mexican, Haitian and Guatemalan immigrants. It is touring college campuses nationwide to focus attention on their four-year struggle against the repressive tactics of the Florida tomato industry. The migrant farmworker's struggle has led to hunger strikes, a 200-mile-long march across Florida and now a nationwide tour exposing the sweatshop conditions of field labors.
Of all the possible occupations in America, being a farmworker is certainly one of the most brutal. Arriving at 5:30 a.m., farmworkers are bused to a field where they spend the entire day hunched over picking produce. Stifling heat and biting insects are a constant reality, and when the day is complete, they return to crumbling trailers usually shared with at least nine other people.
These hardships are endured for a poverty wage, about $7,000 per year, but a farmworker who needs to support his family has little choice. In addition, there is no job security because farmworkers are not protected by the same wage and labor laws that guarantee the right to collectively bargain or a minimum wage per hour, so the quickest and strongest workers are able to pick enough tomatoes while the old and disabled go hungry.
The migrant farmworkers who are coming to share their story in Madison work for Immokalee's Six-L's Packing Company, one of the nation's largest tomato producers. Six-L's nets an estimated $120 million in profit per year, while most farmworkers earn as little as 40 cents for every 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they pick.
Taco Bell is one of the Florida tomato industry's largest buyers. Yet, Taco Bell has shown no sympathy for the plight of the farmworkers. A national boycott has been launched in order to pressure Six-L's Packing Company into giving Florida farmworkers a one-cent raise per pound of tomatoes. A one-cent raise doesn't seem like much, but it would almost double each farmworker's annual salary. As a $5 billion per year industry, Taco Bell should clean up its act and support giving these farmworkers a wage increase.
The Coalition of Immokalee Farmworkers is applying public pressure so that Taco Bell will bring the tomato growers to the table. The Immokalee farmworkers want a dialogue with their employer, and they have taken to the streets to demand an end to exploitation.
These poverty stricken farmworkers face an uphill battle with Taco Bell. The coalition hopes to win the support of students nationwide.
'This is a sector of the population that has thought a lot about corporations and what constitutes responsible corporate behavior,' said Greg Asbed, a member of the coalition, in a recent Christian Science Monitor report. 'We're going to reach them through schools, universities, and the Internet. ... We're going to say: How do you feel about eating food picked by exploited farmworkers'?
Past farmworker boycott campaigns have been successful in forcing growers to respect workers' rights. During the 1960s, students on campuses across the nation supported the United Farm Workers grape boycott. Pressure from organized labor and student civil rights groups led to the recognition of the union by the growers, including allowing the union label to be placed on grape produce. Students once again have the opportunity to support a campaign by migrant farmworkers to win economic justice.
The Taco Bell Truth Tour is being sponsored on campus by student activist organizations in solidarity with the farmworkers. There will be a community rally with the Immokalee farmworkers on Library Mall Sep. 17 at 4:15 p.m.
