On NOW - America's lowest-paid workers take on corporate giant

[Dover]

PBS - Friday 9pm EST

* Boot the bell. America's lowest-paid workers take on corporate giant
Taco Bell and its parent company for better working conditions and
wages. NOW reports in FOOD FIGHT.

* Arnold and me. Rose Ann DeMoro, director of the California Nurses
Association, has led a surprisingly effective fight against much of
California Governor Schwarzenegger's policy agenda. A David Brancaccio
interview.

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FOOD FIGHT

It's the dirty little secret of our fast food nation: the people who
pick the cheap fruits and vegetables we enjoy every day are among the
worst paid and worst treated workers in America. So how did a small
band of immigrant workers pressure the largest fast food company in the
world to do something that could help transform these workers lives?
NOW tells the remarkable David vs. Goliath story of a group of Florida
tomato pickers that went toe to toe with a corporate giant and won.
Overcoming a climate of fear and violence, these workers fought an
incredible four-year battle against Taco Bell and its parent company,
Yum! Brands, to improve their working conditions and wages. Their
success may have sparked a movement that could have important
consequences for the nation.

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ROSE ANN DEMORO

As director of the California Nurses Association (CNA), a 60,000-member
labor union, Rose Ann Demoro has rallied her members to take on a
formidable political adversary-California Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger. Motivated by his attempts to block an
association-sponsored law that requires more nurses in California
hospitals, DeMoro and the CNA have led a fight against the governor's
staffing and pension proposal and have been surprisingly effective in
influencing Schwarzenegger's policy agenda. Some credit the CNA with
Schwarzenegger's slumping approval ratings "You have to engage in
civic responsibility," she says. "Otherwise the corporations
essentially have the coup....They have endless money. We will never
have the amount of money they will have. But they will never have the
number of people that we have." Before joining the association staff 19
years ago, DeMoro organized Hollywood producers for the Teamsters.

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NOW continues online at PBS.org (www.pbs.org/now). Log on to learn more
about the strategies of the Coaliition of Immokalee (CIW) workers and
the history of boycotts worldwide; to view a photo essay of the CIW's
truth tour; to explore the work and wages of U.S. farm labor; to find
out why the California Nurses Association is fighting Governor
Schwarzenegger; and more.

[John Q. Citizen]

1. I caught the show last night and it was great. A classic example

of organizing and Winning the good fight!

Now the fight is moving to Subway, MacDonalds, and Burger King.

DUers can help by talking with their local franchise owners and managers and asking them to follow Taco Bell's lead.

Here's a link to the Coalitions webpages

http://www.ciw-online.org/index.html

[donsu]

2. kick

nt