Coca Cola and the unions
As Coke’s questionable employment practices become more widely known, their claim that the company 'exists to benefit and refresh everyone it touches' becomes a sick joke.
We all know how countries with volatile or corrupt establishments are gold mines to profit-seeking corporations – after all, labour is far cheaper and more importantly, workers have fewer rights.
A place like Colombia, then, is Coca-Cola’s dream: for years, paramilitaries with documented links to the government have regularly abducted, tortured and murdered trade union leaders. Call it coincidence if you will, but since 1990, eight employees of Coca-Cola bottlers in Colombia have been killed by these paramilitaries.
Adolfo de Jesus Munera, a trade union leader at a bottling plant in Barranquilla, was murdered by paramilitaries in 2002 after a long period of intimidation. This June, the US-based International Labor Rights Fund filed a legal complaint against Coca-Cola to bring them to account for his death.
Managers at the plant are charged with conspiracy with both the Colombian government and Colombia’s main paramilitary group, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), to kill Munera, who was a leader for trade union SINALTRAINAL. The complainants also allege that, despite a number of warnings to Coca-Cola head office in Atlanta, management at the Barranquilla plant has continued to meet the paramilitaries and still grants them access to the workplace.
A place like Colombia, then, is Coca-Cola’s dream: for years, paramilitaries with documented links to the government have regularly abducted, tortured and murdered trade union leaders. Call it coincidence if you will, but since 1990, eight employees of Coca-Cola bottlers in Colombia have been killed by these paramilitaries.
Adolfo de Jesus Munera, a trade union leader at a bottling plant in Barranquilla, was murdered by paramilitaries in 2002 after a long period of intimidation. This June, the US-based International Labor Rights Fund filed a legal complaint against Coca-Cola to bring them to account for his death.
Managers at the plant are charged with conspiracy with both the Colombian government and Colombia’s main paramilitary group, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), to kill Munera, who was a leader for trade union SINALTRAINAL. The complainants also allege that, despite a number of warnings to Coca-Cola head office in Atlanta, management at the Barranquilla plant has continued to meet the paramilitaries and still grants them access to the workplace.
'We believe that the objective of this ongoing and escalating campaign is to crush the union.'
The AUC has even kidnapped the child of one SINALTRAINAL leader. SINALTRAINAL reports that another 48 workers have been forced into hiding and 65 have received death threats. Isidro Segundo Gil, a member of the union’s executive board, was doing his job as gatekeeper at Coca-Cola’s franchise bottlers when a paramilitary squad showed up at the gates and shot him.
In Turkey, Coca-Cola is being sued on behalf of 14 truck drivers for its part in the alleged intimidation and torture of trade unionists and their families by special branch police.
Around 1,000 riot police used tear gas and brutal beatings on young children, mothers and workers who were peacefully protesting outside the offices of Coca-Cola’s Turkish bottlers against the dismissal of union workers, and many of the protestors were injured. Coca-Cola claims that the protestors broke into the offices illegally and that police were required to use tear gas inside the building.
In October 2001 Coca-Cola workers in Punjab, Pakistan were dismissed for calling a ‘strike’. The strike turned out to be a brief delay before work in the morning due to understaffing. The Labour Court ordered that the dismissed workers be reinstated, but Coca-Cola refused to comply with the ruling, only conceding finally when the International Union of Foodworkers intervened.
In Nicaragua, the Sole Union of Coca-Cola Company Workers (SUTEC) has complained that its workers at Coca-Cola bottlers PANAMCO have been denied the right to organise, as well as being threatened and unlawfully dismissed. The General Secretary of SUTEC, Daniel Reyes, has said: 'We believe that the objective of this ongoing and escalating campaign is to crush the union.' The union is seeking legal redress.
In fact, the struggle for union rights is happening everywhere: In Peru, Coca-Cola workers have been calling strikes and protests, despite violent police repression. As a result 50 of them have been and Coca-Cola has refused to comply with a judicial order to reinstate them. In Chile, Coca-Cola workers have been striking because the company is forcing them to work 16 hours a day for less than minimum wage.
In Russia, there have been attempts to get rid of the chief organiser at Coca-Cola Moscow. Kidnapping and assassination of union leaders in Guatemala goes back as far as the 1970s – and despite the international boycott in 1980, when many public institutions in Europe and America banned the drink from their bars and cafes, the union-busting continues.
In Turkey, Coca-Cola is being sued on behalf of 14 truck drivers for its part in the alleged intimidation and torture of trade unionists and their families by special branch police.
Around 1,000 riot police used tear gas and brutal beatings on young children, mothers and workers who were peacefully protesting outside the offices of Coca-Cola’s Turkish bottlers against the dismissal of union workers, and many of the protestors were injured. Coca-Cola claims that the protestors broke into the offices illegally and that police were required to use tear gas inside the building.
In October 2001 Coca-Cola workers in Punjab, Pakistan were dismissed for calling a ‘strike’. The strike turned out to be a brief delay before work in the morning due to understaffing. The Labour Court ordered that the dismissed workers be reinstated, but Coca-Cola refused to comply with the ruling, only conceding finally when the International Union of Foodworkers intervened.
In Nicaragua, the Sole Union of Coca-Cola Company Workers (SUTEC) has complained that its workers at Coca-Cola bottlers PANAMCO have been denied the right to organise, as well as being threatened and unlawfully dismissed. The General Secretary of SUTEC, Daniel Reyes, has said: 'We believe that the objective of this ongoing and escalating campaign is to crush the union.' The union is seeking legal redress.
In fact, the struggle for union rights is happening everywhere: In Peru, Coca-Cola workers have been calling strikes and protests, despite violent police repression. As a result 50 of them have been and Coca-Cola has refused to comply with a judicial order to reinstate them. In Chile, Coca-Cola workers have been striking because the company is forcing them to work 16 hours a day for less than minimum wage.
In Russia, there have been attempts to get rid of the chief organiser at Coca-Cola Moscow. Kidnapping and assassination of union leaders in Guatemala goes back as far as the 1970s – and despite the international boycott in 1980, when many public institutions in Europe and America banned the drink from their bars and cafes, the union-busting continues.
You can help
No wonder Coke has to spend $2 billion a year promoting its supposed devotion to healthy, wholesome living. Its World Cup sponsorship campaign apparently 'brings to life the optimistic vision of brand Coca-Cola to draw people together and set aside their differences, as a way of making the world a little bit better'. Its TV ad shows a lumberjack hugging a tree and a postman hugging a Rottweiler, all for the love of Coca-Cola.
London is gearing up for the Olympics in 2012, and Coke is set to receive huge contracts which will mean the only soft drink you’ll be able to buy is Coke. But the protests are growing – just look at the 2005 Winter Olympics, or the university campus bans across the US and Europe. The huge gap between Coke’s image and its reality is becoming obvious – and you can make it more so.
London is gearing up for the Olympics in 2012, and Coke is set to receive huge contracts which will mean the only soft drink you’ll be able to buy is Coke. But the protests are growing – just look at the 2005 Winter Olympics, or the university campus bans across the US and Europe. The huge gap between Coke’s image and its reality is becoming obvious – and you can make it more so.
Further reading
To read the first full expose of Coca-Cola’s abuses around the globe go to www.waronwant.org/cocacola
To learn more about corporate social responsibility read Christian Aid's report Behind the mask
To learn more about corporate social responsibility read Christian Aid's report Behind the mask
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