Taco Bell Boycott Ends

[LowerCaseRepublican]

http://www.umc.org/interior.asp?ptid=2&mid=6920

 

Taco Bell has agreed to work with the Immokalee Workers in Florida to improve wages, working conditions, etc.

 

My friend Dann was able to go to Immokalee and see this with his own eyes. The stories he shared with me made me sick. He shared with me stories and photos of the delapidated trailers these workers were forced to live in for shelter (a very very liberal interpretation of four walls and a roof) and their rent was a vast majority of their salary. Also, farmworkers who pick for Florida growers who sell tomatoes to Taco Bell earn between 40-50 cents for every 32-lb bucket of tomatoes they pick. For example, the Immokalee-based "Six L's Packing Co., Inc.," one of the nation's largest tomato producers and a contractor to Taco Bell (according to the industry journal "The Packer"), still pays 40 cents per bucket. That is the same piece rate paid since 1978.

 

At that rate, workers must pick and haul 2 TONS of tomatoes to make $50 in a day. [According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the median annual income of farmworkers today is $7,500.] Workers are denied the right to organize and the right to overtime pay for overtime work. They receive no health insurance, no sick leave, no paid holidays, no vacation, and no pension.

 

But Taco Bell is really beginning to step to the plate to try to alleviate some of these problems. Since they have a policy already that says they won't get meat from places that mistreat animals, its nice to see them add humans onto the list. They're refusing to do business with farmers that don't make the appropriate changes (and I have a feeling that Taco Bell's $$$ will make them change the things for the betterment of the workers)

[mreye]

Since they have a policy already that says they won't get meat from places that mistreat animals,

That's meat?

[TheBigHurt35]

Workers are denied the right to organize and the right to overtime pay for overtime work. They receive no health insurance, no sick leave, no paid holidays, no vacation, and no pension.

 

Would that be because they're illegal aliens and they shouldn't even be in the U.S. in the first place? :rolly

 

That said, I agree that the exploitation of these people is disgusting. What's even more disturbing is that this type of "employment" is better than what's available in their nation of origin.

[AngelasDaddy0427]

I never knew their was a boycott...

[Rex Kickass]

Would that be because they're illegal aliens and they shouldn't even be in the U.S. in the first place? :rolly

 

That said, I agree that the exploitation of these people is disgusting.  What's even more disturbing is that this type of "employment" is better than what's available in their nation of origin.

 

If you really agree, why the swipe at the people that are busting their ass for literally a dollar an hour? Seriously, you're blaming illegal aliens for their own exploitation by American companies.

 

That's rich.

[DonkeyKongerko]

I never knew their was a boycott...

 

It wasn't a very big boycott. I think some people kept going but asked for "no tomatoes".

[Rex Kickass]

My colon has been boycotting Taco Bell for years.

[LowerCaseRepublican]

Would that be because they're illegal aliens and they shouldn't even be in the U.S. in the first place? :rolly

 

That said, I agree that the exploitation of these people is disgusting.  What's even more disturbing is that this type of "employment" is better than what's available in their nation of origin.

 

I defer to the Maddox page regarding illegal immigrants because its my position -- http://maddox.xmission.com/c.cgi?u=walmart

[Texsox]

Cesar Chavez is one of the greatest men to walk this or any planet. Not much education, never owned a house or made more than $4,000 in one year, but sweated blood to found the United Farm Workers. A great America hero.

 

My town is filled with hundreds, no thousands, of citizens whose families started as migrant farmworkers and more than likely were here illegally. Most farm picking jobs are seasonal. How many people want to constantly move from town to town, staying a month or two, then moving on? When the window of opportunity for picking these crops are here, the farmers need lots and lots of workers. It's a hard life, back breaking, and the workers are treated like crap, even by the best of employers.

 

Crime? With the exception of being here illegally, this group is the last among us to commit crimes. They don't want to be deported and lose what will amount to their annual income. Report a crime? No way. So they fall prey to farmers that don't make that last payroll. Paying $$$ for shelter that isn't fit for livestock.

 

I know I couldn't hack the migrant workers life for a day, and they know they are doomed to a lifetime.

 

Some of the most amazing people I have met in my life were illegals at one time in their lives. They have raised their kids with a work ethic second to none. I will gladly move over and give them a seat at the bounty that is America's harvest.

[TheBigHurt35]

Some of the most amazing people I have met in my life were illegals at one time in their lives. They have raised their kids with a work ethic second to none. I will gladly move over and give them a seat at the bounty that is America's harvest.

 

Well, I certainly have sympathy for them. But that doesn't excuse the fact that they're here illegally and that their employers are breaking the law as well. I'd love to see a system where migrant workers are given visas, but my guess is that won't happen any time soon.

[EvilMonkey]

Well, I certainly have sympathy for them.  But that doesn't excuse the fact that they're here illegally and that their employers are breaking the law as well. 

While that is truly the point, no amout of explaining will get that thru the heads of the resident liberals here. It doesn't matter what kind of person they are, or how hard they work or how amazing they are, THEY ARE HERE ILLEGALLY.

[LowerCaseRepublican]

While that is truly the point, no amout of explaining will get that thru the heads of the resident liberals here.  It doesn't matter what kind of person they are, or how hard they work or how amazing they are, THEY ARE HERE ILLEGALLY.

 

And if there was no incentive for corporations to pay them less than the average American worker, do you really think that companies would go out of their way to hire them -- and as the labor laws stand in the US, illegals are covered too if they are being f***ed over in the work force. "It's obvious that if you force companies like Wal-Mart or Taco Bell to pay illegal immigrants the same wage as Americans, then they have no incentive to hire them over citizens."

[Rex Kickass]

While that is truly the point, no amout of explaining will get that thru the heads of the resident liberals here.  It doesn't matter what kind of person they are, or how hard they work or how amazing they are, THEY ARE HERE ILLEGALLY.

 

If they're here illegally, deport em. But the people who exploit migrant workers (many of whom are here legally by the way) oughta be kept in the same conditions they place their workers.

[Texsox]

While that is truly the point, no amout of explaining will get that thru the heads of the resident liberals here.  It doesn't matter what kind of person they are, or how hard they work or how amazing they are, THEY ARE HERE ILLEGALLY.

 

 

Bush supporters have pointed out that $2 gas crushed the Bush recovery, imagine what a 15-20% spike in food prices would do. People can cut back on driving, not on eating.

 

Yes they are because we do not want to pay $5.00 for a tomato. Americans will not pick crops for 8 hours a day for $5.15 or even more per hour. Then move to the next town. Take 40 hours a week at $6 per hour. How are you going to live, on the road, for $200 a week? How many hours are you willing to spend in the fields? These jobs are the absolute lowest jobs anywhere. They take almost zero skills, no decision making beyond, this is a tomato, I have to pick it. Eliminate the Mexican farm worker, and you will have to pay $10 or more per hour to get our food picked.

 

We need some guest worker program so we can face the reality that

A. The American workers and economy has moved beyond these jobs.

B. There are millions of people on this continent that are happy to work.

 

Alternate scenario:

 

Growing food is too expensive in the US, so we import more and more of our foods from South America and other spots around the globe. Think being dependent on foreign oil sucks? How about being dependent for our food?