Chain’s contract may not endure
By Anna Andreyeva
Oct. 7, 2004 9:00 p.m.
The Associated Students of UCLA Services Committee will meet
today to decide on a recommendation to its board of directors
regarding Taco Bell’s presence on UCLA’s campus.
The committee’s resolution will then be passed on to the
board of directors, who will have the final say on Taco
Bell’s possible contract at the board’s meeting on Oct.
29.
Taco Bell came under fire several years ago for purchasing
tomatoes used in their products from Florida companies allegedly
violating human rights.
A campaign to boycott Taco Bell was initiated by the Coalition
of Immokalee Workers, a community-based worker organization
representing the interests of agricultural workers in Florida. The
coalition called for living wages for their workers and corrections
of the alleged human rights violations.
ASUCLA recently rekindled the issue at its board meeting in
September when Taco Bell presented its correspondence with the
coalition regarding the allegations, said Emmanuel Martinez,
chairman of the Services Committee. Final questions were answered
by Jonathan Blum, senior vice president of public affairs at YUM!
Brands, Taco Bell’s parent company.
“The Services Committee wants to go back to these records
and make their recommendation based on that,” said Bob
Williams, interim director of ASUCLA, referring to the information
received at the September meeting.
The workers’ coalition campaign first came to UCLA last
year amid ongoing concerns about the food chain’s business
practices.
In December 2003, ASUCLA passed a resolution requesting an
investigation and a report from Taco Bell on the allegations made
against it. Taco Bell failed to submit the report.
Then in May, the Services Committee made a recommendation to the
ASUCLA board of directors to terminate the contract with the food
chain at the end of the school year.
But an announcement made by YUM! Brands seemed to have
influenced the final decision of the board. In response to the
demands of the coalition, David Novak, CEO of YUM! Brands, pledged
support for an industry-wide solution to the situation.
ASUCLA then passed a resolution which allowed Taco Bell to stay
on campus, but prevented the university from entering into
long-term contracts with the restaurant.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers has also been active at other
college campuses around the country. The most recent success of the
campaign was the decision made by University of Notre Dame not to
renew a sponsorship agreement its athletic department had with Taco
Bell.
But no one is quite sure what the Services Committee will
decide.
“It is really up in the air,” Martinez said.
“It is not an issue of who is right or wrong, it is an issue
of who we believe.”
Student activists involved in the campaign also expressed
concern.
“I certainly have hopes, but I do not know what to
expect,” said Nathan Lam, a member of the Social Justice
Alliance, a UCLA group which organized fasts and protests against
Taco Bell. “At this point, it is in the hands of the Services
Committee to decide.”
