Students Against Sweatshops GVSU (SAS-GVSU) has presented the Grand Valley State University Student Senate with a resolution calling for the removal of Taco Bell from the GVSU campus. SAS-GVSU has been engaged in a nearly four year campaign to remove Taco Bell from campus in response to a call for a boycott from workers who pick tomatoes that are sold to Taco Bell--a campaign that has garnered a significant amount of local and national press. The workers, who are organized in the Coalition of the Immokalee Workers, issued a call for a boycott of Taco Bell due to the poor wages and living conditions in southern Florida where tomatoes sold to Taco Bell are picked.
The resolution was discussed by the Student Senate last night and while there were clearly many voices on the GVSU Student Senate that expressed both slightly veiled and overt forms of racism, in addition to demonstrating a fundamental lack of understanding of both the issue and their privilege as largely middle-class students at a university--there were a number of well-argued and constructive comments from many Senators. The resolution will be voted on next week Thursday and SAS-GVSU is asking that supporters come to the Senate meeting to show their support.
Previous Media Mouse Coverage:
03/14/04, 03/31/04, 04/06/04 and 04/08/04.
