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Coalition of Immokalee Workers Solidarity at the University of Florida

More and more every day, the tomatoes produced in Immokalee go to supply major, multi-national corporations. Long gone are the days when small, family farmers supplied area stores and chains with locally-grown tomatoes in season. Today, huge corporate growers with multi-state operations sell tomatoes year round to even bigger corporate buyers, including fast food mega-chains like Taco Bell and Burger King. Those fast food giants receive cheap, high-quality US tomatoes, thanks to the sacrifices of thousands of hard-working Florida farmworkers who pick tomatoes at a piece rate that has remained virtually unchanged for over two decades.

Taco Bell is a major buyer of Florida tomatoes, but has refused to take any responsibility for these sweatshop conditions in the fields where their tomatoes are picked. Colleges and universities all around the country are working to Boot the Bell from their campus in order to urge Taco Bell to take responsibility for the workers that supply their products!

Up to now, more than 14 schools have agreed to Boot the Bell from their campus in a show of solidarity with farmworkers in Immokalee, Florida!

On Tuesday July 8, the University of Florida Student Government voted on a resolution in support of the Taco Bell boycott. This resolution is the latest step in the efforts of the UF chapter of the Student / Farmworker Alliance to Boot the Bell from their campus. CLR provided crucial help in persuading the Student Government to confront the reality of exploitation in Florida’s farming industry by asking our supporters to contact the Student Government representatives in support of the resolution.

How important is this resolution? Important enough for Taco Bell to send a representative to the school twice in the past three weeks in an attempt to discredit the testimony that farmworkers from Immokalee will be presenting tomorrow night. This is the first time in the two years of the boycott that Taco Bell has felt pressured enough to resort to this kind of desperate ploy.

Unfortunately, the resolution did not pass, but the lively debate definitely brought the issue on the campus to an entirely new level. Details can be found at www.ciw-online.org