By Shara Esbenshade
Gargoyle contributor
Posted Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2006, The OG, opinions

Queremos Chipotle? NO!
Queremos justicia? SI!

The voices of nearly 30 marchers in front of a local Chipotle restaurant Tuesday turned the afternoon's cloudy sky into a bright horizon.

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) visited Champaign-Urbana as part of their Midwest mini-tour. They left Immokalee, Fla., on Oct. 15 and are headed toward Chicago. The CIW is a community-based organization of mostly Latino, Haitian, and Mayan Indian workers from Florida who have decided to stand up for their right to a living wage and fair treatment.

The workers who pick tomatoes for Chipotle go to the fields each day hoping for work, but they go without a job officially put aside for them. They are denied the right to overtime pay, denied the right to organize, and they earn annual wages of between $8,000 and $10,000. That is half America's poverty line.

From what members of the CIW said at the rally, a worker earns 40 cents per one bucket of tomatoes picked. They must pick two tons a day just to earn that yearly wage. They also receive no sick leave, no health insurance, no holiday pay, and no retirement plan. If it rains one day and they cannot go to work in the fields — tough sh*t; they don't make money that day.

CIW workers also talked about their living conditions. Most are forced to live in run-down, dilapidated, cockroach-infested trailers in order to be near the fields and pay a rent equaling that of an apartment in Miami.

Taking these descriptions into account, it is no stretch to say that the tomato pickers of Florida work in nearly slave conditions. Hmm, I thought we outlawed slavery back in 1863.

Coke's and Pepsi's outrageous human rights violations, Nike's child-employed sweatshops, Chipotle's use of oppressed workers … yes, it gets depressing. Even I, who am all about action, feel hopeless at times against the evil corporate forces and their stranglehold on our world. But a small rally like CIW's Tuesday can provide a ray of hope. It was invigorating to shout out loud that there is something wrong, to know that there are others out there as enraged as I am about these issues.

For those of you who believe there is nothing we can do: Know that change has been accomplished. CIW led a four-year campaign against Taco Bell's treatment of field workers, which was as bad as Chipotle's. After a nationwide boycott and student action at universities across the country, Taco Bell could no longer ignore the demands of CIW and other workers rights organizations.

CIW successfully negotiated with Taco Bell to pay one cent more for each pound of tomatoes. Yes, that is all they asked of Taco Bell, and that extra cent went a long way for the desperate workers on the receiving end.

And on Tuesday, as we chanted and marched, I noticed the faces of Chipotle customers pale as they read our flyers on their way out of the restaurant. I saw them realize what it was they were supporting. I know that Americans on the whole are good people, and if they only care to be informed, they won't stand by passively to such abuse of our people. El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido!

Check out CIW's Web site here.

For stuff about Chipotle in particular, click here.