wfn.org | Happening Right Now (Noon-5 W Coast - March 5 TACO BELL HDQRTRS

["Carol Fouke" <cfouke@ncccusa.org>]

REMINDER - NOON to 5 P.M. WEST COAST TIME TODAY - FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 2004
WHERE: OUTSIDE TACO BELL HEADQUARTERS IN IRVINE, CALIF. 
MASSIVE RALLY/MUSICAL EVENT IN SUPPORT OF COALITION OF IMMOKALEE FARMWORKERS'
NATIONAL 2004 TACO BELL TRUTH TOUR: ASKING TACO BELL TO ENSURE THAT ITS
SUPPLIERS DON'T MISTREAT THEIR WORKERS
WHO: All-star line-up includes singer Lila Downs, Tom Morello (Rage Against
the Machine/Audioslave) and Boots Riley (the Coup) performing; author Eric
Schlosser, church leader Bishop Zavala, Anuradha Mittal of Food First, CIW
RFK Human Rights Award Laureates.  Some 2,000 participants expected to rally.
HIGHLY COLORFUL: See www.ciw-online.org for what to expect!
CONTACT: NOELLE DAMICO, a Presbyterian Church (USA) minister and activist
who's right in the middle of the rally and waiting for your call:
631-371-9877.  Also available: Lucas Benitez, Coalition of Immokalee Workers,
239-503-0133

BACKGROUND:
The nationally recognized movement "for FAIR food that respects human rights,
not fast-food that exploits human beings" took to the road on February 25th.
More than 100 farmworkers from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), the
Florida-based farmworker organization spearheading the national Taco Bell
boycott, set off on the 2004 Taco Bell Truth Tour, taking the truth about the
exploitation behind Taco Bell's products to consumers from Kentucky to
California. 

[The CIW's campaign has been featured in the New Yorker, the National
Geographic, and PBS; three CIW members received this year's prestigious
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award for their work combatting slavery and
sweatshop conditions in US tomato fields and fruit groves; the boycott has
been endorsed by the National Council of Churches, the LA County Federation
of Labor, the National Family Farm Coalition, and United Students Against
Sweatshops.]

The Tour's highlight is a 3-day, 44-mile march from historic East LA to Taco
Bell's corporate headquarters in Irvine, CA, beginning on March 2nd and
culminating today (March 5) with a major, five-hour rally. 

Conditions in East Coast tomato fields run the gamut from sweatshops to
slavery. In the past five years, US Justice Department officials have
criminally prosecuted five multi-state farm slavery rings involving over
1,000 workers. The CIW assisted the DOJ in the investigation and prosecution
of four of the five recent cases. 

"We have investigated cases where people have been pistol-whipped, held at
gunpoint, beaten, and told they would have their tongues cut out if they
talked to the authorities," says Lucas Benitez of the CIW, and 2003 RFK Human
Rights Award Laureate. "Of course, that's the extreme of exploitation in the
fields, but sweatshop conditions -- sub-poverty wages, no right to organize,
no right to overtime pay, no health insurance, no benefits at all -- are our
everyday reality." 

Brian Payne of the Student/Farmworker Alliance adds, "Taco Bell has a policy
that it will not buy food from suppliers that mistreat animals. All we are
asking is that they have the same policy for humans. As an example, many
workers today still earn 40 cents per bucket of tomatoes picked -- the same
piece rate paid a quarter-century ago. The market power of YUM, in contrast,
has grown exponentially in that time, and that power to demand low prices for
tomatoes is an important reason why the piece rate has remained stagnant for
so long. Just as they can use their buying power to demand low prices, they
can turn it around and demand humane working conditions, too." 

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