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Lucas Benitez (left) of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers speaks at a meeting on Friday with Tac

The second most-frequented restaurant on campus will be shown the door this summer unless it meets conditions set forth by the Associated Students of UCLA to ensure the company is adhering to the university’s code of labor conduct.

The ASUCLA board of directors voted Friday to require Taco Bell to contract and pay for a third party to review and report on working conditions in the Immokalee region of Florida, a region that provides many of the tomatoes used in Taco Bell restaurants.

The board voted after hearing presentations on labor abuses allegedly committed by growers against Immokalee workers who pick tomatoes.

Immokalee workers are forced to work unpaid overtime hours and receive no benefits, said Lucas Benitez, founder and co-director of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, at Friday’s board meeting.

Taco Bell, which serves between 2,000 and 3,000 patrons per day, will have until June 2004 to meet provisions voted on Friday, including funding the independent report.

The third party conducting the investigation must be approved by the CIW and the United Food Purchasing Co-op. A report must be written by April 30 and sent to ASUCLA within 10 days.

In addition, the restaurant must work with the CIW and growers to ensure it is adhering to the University of California’s Code of Conduct – as well as Taco Bell’s own – in regard to labor rights.

Taco Bell’s contract expires Dec. 30, but board members voted Friday to renew the contract until the end of the school year.

Bob Williams, director of ASUCLA food services and interim executive director, said it would be best to renew Taco Bell’s contract until summer for logistical reasons.

The Taco Bell restaurant on campus provides employment, Williams said, and waiting for summer to decide if the restaurant should be replaced will make for the easiest transition.

In addition, because of the restaurant’s popularity, terminating its contract mid-year could result in a loss of $80,000 for ASUCLA, Williams said.

Immokalee workers have been paid the same wages since 1978 and receive between 30 and 42 cents for every 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they pick, Benitez said.

“ASUCLA has the opportunity to continue not supporting sweatshops with this decision,” said Benitez through Brian Payne, a member of the Student Worker Front who translated Benitez’s presentation from Spanish.

But Laurie Schalow, director of public relations for Taco Bell, said the company has not engaged in unfair labor practices and pays about $40 for each bucket of tomatoes it buys.

“It is not our fault, but the growers’ fault, that workers receive such low compensation,” she said.

Labor complaints are directed toward Sixcel, one of six growers in the Immokalee region, she said.

Taco Bell only purchases tomatoes from Florida six months each year and purchases them through a broker that does not always purchase from Sixcel, she added.

“We don’t have a contract specifically with Sixcel ... so we cannot change anything,” she said.

Sixcel says it pays workers $9 an hour, a claim Benitez called “ridiculous,” saying U.S. Department of Labor documents dispute the $9-an- hour claim.

Neither Sixcel nor the CIW provided requested documentation to prove or disprove the alleged abuses, Schalow said during the meeting. The dispute is between growers and workers – not between Taco Bell and workers, she said.

However, Sarah Church, a member of the Social Justice Alliance at UCLA, said Taco Bell and its parent company, Yum! Brands Inc., is responsible for the actions of companies that provide its products.

According to Yum! Brands’ Web site, the company monitors its suppliers to ensure they use humane procedures in caring for and handling animals supplied to Taco Bell.

The Web site states that Yum! Brands, “as a major purchaser of food products, (has) the opportunity, and responsibility, to influence the way animals supplied to us are treated.”

Yum! Brands’ philosophy on keeping suppliers socially responsible toward animals should be extended to include its labor policies, Church said.