Protests unfairly single out Taco Bell in tomato boycott

By JENNIFER PALMBERG

You’re probably thinking, “Protest Taco Bell? Why would people do such a thing?” It’s hard to believe but there are actually people out there who protest Taco Bell annually. Notre Dame just kicked Taco Bell off of their campus. All those delicious tacos, hearty burritos, gooey Mexican pizzas, and spicy border bowls are hardly anything to protest about, are they?

Taco Bell’s supplier, Six L’s, Packing, Co., Inc. pays their farm-workers 40 cents for every 32-pound bucket they pick. That is the same rate pickers were paid in 1978 according to the Grassroots Mobilizing Department of the U.S. Anti-Sweatshop Movement. Taco Bell is part of the Yum Brands restaurant company, the largest in the world in terms of units. Yum is parent company to Pizza Hut, KFC, Long John Silver’s, A&W Restaurants and Taco Bell. Taco Bell being one of Six L’s’ major tomato purchasers.

Since August 2001, over 100 Immokalee farm workers and their supporters have traveled from Immokalee, Florida, to major cities in the South and Midwest, including Fresno, to protest against the low wages pickers are paid for the tomatoes Taco Bell uses. This protest gained full speed in March 2002 and has been held annually in March ever since. I’m sure we can all agree that those are horrible wages. No one would want to work for that.

In addition to the low wages, workers aren’t given sick leave, overtime, holidays or pension. Which leads us to the question of the year: “Why would anyone work for that company?” Why are these workers even protesting Taco Bell? Wouldn’t it make a lot more sense to just picket outside of the Six L’s company — to protest against the people who pay so unfairly, not the company that needs produce to stay in business? Taco Bell is innocent in all this. It just wants some tomatoes to put in its burritos.

Can you really blame Taco Bell restaurants?

And why isn’t anyone blaming the workers? There are other things to pick in Florida; try oranges. Work for a different produce company. Better yet, get out of the whole manual labor gig once-and-for-all and get a job that will give you what you’re looking for. Get a job at Taco Bell! Then you can be on the opposite side of the ordeal.

If the farm workers would just quit and get jobs elsewhere there wouldn’t be a Six L’s company, which would mean no need to protest annually and waste our time and theirs.

This whole mess has nothing to do with Taco Bell. It’s about an unjust produce supplying company and it’s workers who are protesting against the wrong people. Leave Taco Bell out of this.