UPDATE Posted Thursday July 9, 2009 -- 5:15pm
By Zac Schultz

Madison: On March 24th, twenty-eight Taco Bell employees reported to work and were sent home.

"They simply said you no longer have a job," says Fernando, a five year employee at the Taco Bell on Mineral Point Road.

The employees worked at five area Taco Bells that are owned by Taco Bell's parent company, Yum! Brands.

Fernando, through his translator Saul Castillo, says he was told their social security numbers did not match a federal database. "They said that they had gotten a letter from Social Security, but they would never show it to me."

Taco Bell spokesman Rob Poetsch says in a statement workers were given a chance to correct any problems with their social security numbers, saying "We... asked these employees to clear up the discrepancy and provided them several months to do so."

The fired workers were not new employees. Alberto spent nine years at the Taco Bell in Monona, rising all the way to Asst. Manager. He wants to know why this is just coming up now. "Nine years ago I gave them a social and everything and they took it and said that it was good. I worked those nine years and never had a problem with them."

The workers say this is actually about discrimination. "I think this is discrimination for being latino," says Fernando.

They say before they were fired they spent two weeks training their eventual replacements. They claim their replacements were not latino, and were hired at higher wages. "They had other privileges that we didn't have," says Fernando.

Nineteen of the workers have filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunities Commission.

The Workers' Rights Center has been helping them. Director Patrick Hickey says even if the social security numbers don't match, Taco Bell wasn't required to fire anybody. "There just seems to be a latent racism here. There's a different level of treatment for the latinos. Now that the economy is down the company has seen an opportunity to clean house and bring in new people."

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Posted Thursday, July 9, 2009 -- 1:45 pm
By Zac Schultz

Madison: Nineteen former Taco Bell employees have filed a complaint with the Federal Equal Employment Opportunities Commission, allleging discrimination by their former employer.

Twenty-eight Taco Bell workers from five Madison area restaurants were fired on March 24. They were told social security numbers they provided when they were hired did not match a federal database. But most of the employees had worked for Taco Bell for years, and claimed they were fired because of discrimination.

All of the workers are latino, and they claim they were replaced by inexperienced non-latino workers at higher wages.