For Immediate Release:
Saturday, March 12, 2005 9:00 AM EST

Contact:
Student/Farmworker Alliance (www.sfalliance.org)
Sean Sellers, Immokalee, FL, 239-821-5481
Angelo Moreno, Mt. Pleasant, MI, 989-621-6958

Taco Bell concedes to boycott pressure, commits to end sweatshop conditions in the fields of Florida

Student/Farmworker Alliance calls victory the first step in transforming the fast-food industry

Louisville, KY—Thousands of students from across the nation are arriving in the hometown of fast-food multinational Yum! Brands [NYSE: YUM] to celebrate the groundbreaking victory of Florida’s Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and this week’s concession by Taco Bell. Wednesday’s historic announcement of Yum!’s agreement to work with the CIW to ensure that its tomato supply chain is free of sweatshop conditions and modern-day slavery is a triumph that the Student Farmworker Alliance (SFA) is ringing in with a victory rally on Saturday March 12. Since 2001, SFA students and allies have mobilized on 300 college campuses and 50 high schools around the country. This weekend’s national convergence is truly a historic celebration, and a moment to build the platforms of the movement that will soon transform the fast-food industry.

“We were part of winning one of the largest victories against corporate greed and exploitation that our generation has ever seen—the end of the Taco Bell Boycott and justice for the farmworkers of Immokalee—and we are just getting started,” said Melody Gonzalez (22), a student from Notre Dame who has worked to “Boot the Bell” off that campus. “I watched my father struggle to make ends meet as a farmworker in Oregon. I know the exploitation of this industry first hand. We are working to make sure that families like mine and those in Immokalee will live with dignity and justice for generations to come.”

Members of the SFA are arriving by plane, bus, and caravan from campuses across the nation, and joining in the festivities to celebrate their victory. In only three years, students at 22 universities and high schools cut contracts or prevented their campuses from signing contracts with Taco Bell, including UCLA, University of Chicago, University of Notre Dame and University of Memphis. Boycott activities included demonstrations, severed contracts, civil disobedience, and a “rolling hunger strike” of hundreds of students at six universities. These young activists say that their campaign for justice is just getting underway.

“The fast food industry needs to take this agreement with Yum/Taco Bell and the CIW as an example. Other corporations will have to ‘meet it or beat it’ with a commitment to practices that respect the dignity and humanity of all people in their supply chains,” said Jordan Buckley (23), an organizer with SFA. “Students and youth are this industry’s target market, but by putting a target on Taco Bell—we showed that if fast food companies don’t come to the table to talk about changing their unfair practices, we'll bring them to their knees.”

“The youth and student movement played a critical role in holding the largest fast food conglomerate in the world accountable for the exploitative labor practices in its supply chain, said Brie Phillips (21). “Youth, as the target market of fast food corporations, have tremendous power to demand that the products they consume are not the fruits of exploitative labor. This generation is speaking out against sweatshops in agriculture, organizing for justice in the fields, and making change.”

The Student Farmworker Alliance (SFA), is a decentralized network of students and youth organizing to end sweatshop conditions and modern-day slavery in the fields, and organized to “Boot the Bell” off dozens of campuses around the country since 2001.

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