Wednesday, February 12,2003 Buy V-day gifts online O b s e r v e r p a g e 1 2 The Independent Newspaper Serving Notre Dame and Saint Mary's VOL. XXXVII NO. 93 HTTP://OBS ERVER.ND.EDU Workers speak out against Azteca Items ♦ Workers have been stolen strike since Sept. 30 protest of contract from pub By KATERI McCARTHY News Writer By AMANDA ROTHEY News Writer Employees from Azteca Foods Inc. of Chicago spoke about their current four month Fiddler’s Hearth, the pop­ long strike in at Tuesday’s lecture entitled, ular downtown Irish pub, “Support Justice.” has experienced several Joscfina Bonilla and Maria Montcsof Azteca incidents of theft this winter, Foods, employees who walked out on Sept. 30, the owners said. spoke of the abuses and injustices they and Among the stolen items their fellow employees claimed they experi­ are family heirlooms and enced working at the Azteca Foods factory. collector's pieces ripped Azteca Foods, a tortilla company that boasts from the walls of the restau­ of producing “3 million tortillas a day,” is rant. owned by Art Velasquez, a Notre Dame grad­ Owner Carol Meehan noted uate and a member of the Board of Trustees. an increase in stealing since Velasquez is said to have made the com­ the Notre Dame-Boston ment that his company “is the best paid tor­ College football game on tilla company in the nation,” while his workers Nov. 2, 2002, when a circa- are being paid $9 to 10.75 an hour, said Leah 1870 photograph of the Freed, a representative of United Electrical Notre Dame Crew team on Workers Union. The annual revenues for St. Mary’s Lake disappeared. Azteca are approximately to $33 million, In subsequent weeks, more while labor costs is less than 10 percent, items vanished, including a Freed said. picture of Meehan’s father- in-law as a young boy in Azteca employees said that while the com­ { ^ B O Y C O T T pany is making millions, they struggle to make South Bend and a receipt ends meet — with many working almost daily from the Bank of Scotland. overtime. Bollina regularly worked 12 hours a TUHTILLA! Meehan removed many of the more valuable items day, 6 days a week, often under verbally abu­ ANDY KENNA/The Observer sive supervisors and hostile work conditions. Maria Montes speaks to students as Joseflna Bonilla looks on at the presentation from the walls. Items that remained were secured with Although almost all of the employees speak given Tuesday by workers and union representatives. The group asked for a boycott glue. Spanish, Azteca Foods refuses to translate of Azteca Foods products. their proposals or the bargaining meetings “I began gluing things to said Freed. workers. ... When you’re only making $9 .32 tions it was fair to say the workers have not the wall, so that they could “It’s an ugly place, it’s hot in there and an hour, [this] is a lot.” made any progress with Velasquez. not be taken very easily,” there is metal everywhere,” Bonilla said Freed said the company also wants to Two weeks into the strike, the union called said Meehan. “But soon after through a translator. “In the summer we are remove seniority rights, make cuts on job pro­ for a national boycott of all Azteca Foods tor­ that, we lost another picture very sweaty, some faint because they can not tection and ban union leaflets from the com­ tillas and chips. An audience member said that someone had pulled off leave to get water.” pany property. Beckers, an on-campus restaurant, serves tor­ the wall, taking some of the Freed said Azteca Foods wants to “cut take- “Someone who graduated from this presti­ tillas chips that are made from Azteca. plaster along with it.” home pay up to 32 cents an hour by increas­ gious university, I [didn’t] think he could act In one particular incident, several items were taken ing health insurance costs by up to 700 per­ this way,” Bollina said. Contact Kateri McCarthy at from an area where a group cent, while offering raises of 5 cents to most Freed said that after four moths of negotia­ kmccart3@nd. edu of young people had spent the evening, including the receipt from the Bank of Scotland, a family photo­ graph and a bronze plaque Faculty members speak against war in Iraq emblazoned with a Celtic cross. As the group left, a bar­ the side of peace,” Shrader- speak to the U.N. alone.” Frechette said. tender noticed the plaque By MATT BRAMANT1 Frechette said. While calling for more Shrader-Frechette also partially hidden in the coat News Writer The number of full-time inspectors, Shrader- called for campaign finance of a young woman. The bar­ faculty who have signed the Frechette cast doubts on the reform, characterizing the tender followed the woman As thousands of U.S. troops petition is “in the hundreds,” president’s claims that Iraq Bush administration as outside and recovered the amass in the Middle East she said, without specifying retains weapons of mass beholden to political donors. plaque for the restaurant. poised to invade Iraq, Notre how many of the 760 full­ destruction. “It’s not national security Meehan expressed her dis­ Dame faculty members cir­ time faculty members at “Saddam Hussein doesn’t that runs this country, it’s may at the disappearance of culated a petition calling for Notre Dame have vested interests,” she said. the items and the effect the a diplomatic solution to the signed the n u c l e a r “Thomas Jefferson would say thefts have on the pub’s international crisis. petition. “It’s not national security w eapons, that we’ve become like the atmosphere. Kristin Shrader-Frechette, “W e ’ve h a d an d he worst part of corrupt “We enjoy having young a professor of biology and good responses that runs this country, c o u l d n ’t E urope.” people here who like the philosophy, wrote the peti­ from people all it’s vested interests. ” have The Bush administration’s slower atmosphere we pro­ tion in support of the U.S. over campus,” th e m for war plans hit speed bumps vide. It’s unfortunate that a Conference of Catholic Shrader- a lon g, recently, as France, Belgium few bad apples can spoil Kristin Shrader-Frechette Bishops’ open letter to Frechette said, long and G erm any blocked NATO things for the bunch,” President Bush last fall. That emphasizing biology and philosophy professor time,” plans for the defense of Meehan said. document called on the Bush the document’s she said. Turkey in the event of an Terry Meehan, co-owner of administration to “step back popularity in S h e Iraqi reprisal against that Fiddler’s Hearth, said the from the brink of war” and the English, also criti- country. items should be returned urged “moral limits on the theology, soci­ c i z e d According to U.S. defense and any of the stolen items use of military force.” ology, and philosophy U.S. policy on weapons of officials, some 150,000 would be accepted willingly The faculty petition also departments. mass destruction as hypo­ troops will be in position in with no questions asked. calls for the use of diplomat­ Shrader-Frechette said the critical, claiming the the Persian Gulf region by “These things have been in ic channels, broad in te rn a ­ solution to the brewing con­ Pentagon unleashed bio­ week’s end. They will join our family for a long time tional support, convincing flict lies in strengthened chemical agents on unsus­ four Navy battle groups, and we’d just like to see evidence and the implemen­ inspections by U.N. person­ pecting Americans. “The U.S. each with a complement of them again,” Terry Meehan tation of Catholic just-war nel. “There should be a mul­ government continues to 5,000 personnel and 75 war­ said. doctrine. tilateral agreement with experiment with chemical planes. “Being a Catholic universi­ multinational forces,” she and biological warheads on ty, we wanted to make it said. “We should make sure its own citizens without their Contact Matt Bramanti at Contact Amanda Rothey at clear that the Church is on that Iraqi scientists can knowledge,” Shrader- [email protected] [email protected] page 2 The Observer ♦ VTLAT S UP Wednesday, February 12, 2003 In s id e C o l u m n W h a t ’s In s id e CAMPUS WORLD & BUSINESS Lone star SCENE NEWS NATION NEWS VIEWPOINT SPORTS Yankee m isses Bar bust might CIA director Oil company Professor calls Still need to Womens B-ball Texas not affect warns of attack makes $6.75 for debate find that perfect play St. John’s most abroad billion deal gift? As I look out my window on the applications barren Indiana tundra, I can just barely make out the trees through the blowing snow. I know it’s just An official from Information the British Petroleum David Ruccio Check out Scene The Irish play St. another winter night in South Bend, the International CIA received sug­ makes a $6.75 bil­ calls for a respect­ if you are still clue­ John's tonight at 7 Study Programs gests al-Qaida may lion deal to acquire ful and rational less as to w hat to at the Joyce Center. but think of a‘few Matt Braman., said a citation from attack this week­ 50 percent of a debate about eco­ get that special little words: --------------------------- The Boat Club bust end.