[USFT] Press Release: United Students for Fair Trade Celebrates

[Erick Veliz]

For Immediate Release                                                  Contact: Erick Veliz

March 8, 2005                                                              (571) 247-7247

 

United Students for Fair Trade Celebrates

 End of the Taco Bell Boycott

National student organization commends Coalition of Immokalee Workers and Taco Bell for reaching precedent-setting agreement.

 

March 8, 2005 -- United Students for Fair Trade (USFT) joined the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) in declaring an end to the boycott on Taco Bell today as news of an agreement between the CIW and Taco Bell were announced.

 

After nearly four years of organizing the boycott, the CIW announced that Taco Bell agreed to force its suppliers to pay a penny-per-pound surcharge on Florida tomatoes. Taco Bell owner Yum! Brands Inc. also pledged to work with the CIW to improve basic conditions and wages in the state's tomato industry. 

 

Following the endorsement of the boycott in January, USFT committed to support the CIW by organizing solidarity events and mobilizing USFT affiliates to the Louisville rally scheduled for CIW’s annual Truth Tour. 

 

During USFT’s international convergence, USFT’s Domestic Fair Trade Program hosted workshops on Fair Trade in the US and the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, a labor group based in North Carolina. Erick Veliz, coordinator of the Domestic Fair Trade Program, also presented a Q&A session on the CIW and the Taco Bell boycott. USFT also gathered support for the CIW during its ‘Day of Action’ postcard-writing campaign.

 

“This groundbreaking decision is the product of the devotion and dedication of the CIW and the thousands of activists nationwide working to create fair and equitable alternatives for tomato pickers,” Veliz commented. 

 

“However, this is just the beginning,” Veliz continued. “Although the CIW set the foundation for justice and fairness in our fields, it is now up to us to continue to build the fair trade movement in the US.” 

 

USFT affiliates nationwide are planning solidarity events around the CIW’s Truth Tour rally in Louisville on March 12. Affiliates are being asked to organize celebration events in lieu of boycott activities against Taco Bell. 

 

“We can now go to other leaders in the produce-picking industry and other industries where there is a violation of fair trade principles and ask them: If Taco Bell can, why can’t you?” Veliz said.

 

On March 11th, Veliz will co-facilitate a workshop on fair trade with the CIW at the Our World, Our Rights conference in Louisville, Kentucky. On March 12, fair trade activists will join the CIW in celebration of the agreement at the headquarters of the Presbyterian Church, a key supporter of the CIW. For more information, visit http://www.ciw-online.org/news.html.

 

A longtime supporter of the boycott, Veliz envisioned USFT’s Domestic Fair Trade Program after serving as a legislative intern for the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights (CHR). At the CHR, Veliz worked with CIW leader Lucas Benitez to promote corporate responsibility initiatives in the U.S. Congress. 

 

United Students for Fair Trade is a network of student organizations working toward economic justice through the promotion of Fair Trade products, principles, and policies. 

 

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