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The International Campaign Against Coca-Cola
 Various
groups are organizing to pressure Coca-Cola to take all necessary steps
to ensure that its bottlers and franchises around the world, and specifically
in Colombia, reject any connection to paramilitaries, to reject all use
of violence against trade unionists, and to support right of workers to
organize.
Global Agreement
The International Union of Foodworkers (IUF) has called on Coca-Cola
to negotiate and sign a global worker rights agreement with its unions
that would cover all of Coca-Cola's operations, including the anchor
bottlers. The demand for a global worker rights agreement is a core
demand of the growing campaign against Coca-Cola supported by US/LEAP,
Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), the Interntional
Berotherhood of Teamsters, the United Steelworkers of America, student
groups, and others.
Lawsuit Against Coke
On July 20, 2001, the United Steelworkers of America and the International
Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) filed a lawsuit in U.S. district court against
the Coca-Cola Company and its locally-owned bottling company in Colombia,
the Panamerican Beverage Company (Panamco) alleging that management
at Coca-Cola plants in Colombia have used paramilitaries to crush unions
with a campaign of threats, kidnap and murder. The suit was filed on
behalf of a Coca-Cola union in Colombia, SINALTRAINAL (Sindicato Nacional
de Trabajadores de la Alimentacion).
Shareholder Resolutions
In April 2002, the Christian Brothers, which own stock in the Coca-Cola
Compant, coordinated with ICCR to present a resolution calling on Coke
to adopt a global "code of conduct." Representatives from
Coca-Cola unions in Colombia, Guatemala, Zimbabwe, the Philippines,
and the U.S. joined together in a powerful display of problems afflicting
Coke workers around the world. The resolution was rejected, as such
resolutions routinely are, but demonstrated growing concerns regarding
Coca-Cola's social responsibiliy.
In Guatemala
One of the most famous international labor solidarity campaigns was
when U.S. and European pressured Coca-Cola to take responsibility for
ending violence against Guatemalan trade union leaders at a bottling
plant in Guatemala. Several of the union's executive committee members
were murdered during a violent labor conflict that included an occupation
of the factory in the early 1980s. The violence ended and the labor
conflict was settled when Coca-Cola finally brought in a new franchise
operator who then negotiated a settlement with the union.
This same Coke union is again under fire.
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