Enjoy, Coca-Cola
June,
2004
Lila Schow
In the early morning of April 20, 2004, assailants armed with machine guns entered Gabriel Remolina’s home. They killed Gabriel, his wife and wounded all three of their children. Gabriel Remolina’s crime? Being the brother-in-law of Efrain Guerrero, Coca-Cola’s Colombian union leader.1
Almost a year earlier on July 22, 2003, the International Day of Action against Coca-Cola began a year-long boycott of all Coca-Cola products.2
Though the world’s number one soft drink, sales of Coca-Cola began declining in July 1998. Since that time the company has lost almost 40% of its market value.3 The lack of worldwide consumption is a result of numerous issues facing the company today. “[I]nvestors are increasingly worried about the company's ability to sustain sales in its largest market, North America, combined with concerns that anti-American sentiment will depress its international business.”7
The war on “terror” isn’t the only issue affecting Coca-Cola. “The biggest decline abroad for Coke was in Germany [in 2003], where unit case volume dropped 10% due to a new deposit law on non-returnable packages, such as beer or soda cans.”7
Sales also dipped amid worries over the health affects of aspartame, a key ingredient in Coca-Cola diet sodas. Aspartame, found in NutraSweet and Equal, is believed to cause:
brain tumors,4 grand mal seizures, decreased vision, pain in the eyes, decreased tears, ringing in the ears, hearing impairment, headache, dizziness and unsteadiness, confusion, memory loss, drowsiness, sleepiness, slurring of speech, numbness and tingling, tremors, depression, irritability, aggression, anxiety, insomnia, phobias, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, high blood pressure, nausea, diarrhea, abdominal pain, itching, hives, menstrual changes, weight gain, hair thinning and hair loss, urinary burning and frequency, excessive thirst, fluid retention, bloating, increased infection, and even death.10
In 1999, dozens of people in Belgium, mostly children, fell ill after drinking Coke. This forced Coca-Cola to enact the largest product recall in their history. A resulting investigation found traces of carbonyl sulfide*13 in the gas used to create the soda’s fizz. Even though Paul Pendergrass, Coke’s European Director of Communications, reported the amount of carbonyl sulfide “would have to have been thousands and thousands of times higher to have been anything near toxic,” sales remained depressed.5
* Carbonyl Sulfide may damage the brain. High exposure can cause nausea, vomiting, weakness and muscle cramps. It may cause the heart to beat fast (tachycardia) or irregular (arrhythmia). High or repeated exposure may affect the nervous system causing headache, dizziness, and confusion with memory problems. Higher concentrations can cause unconsciousness, convulsions, coma, sudden collapse and even death.
In a separate development, suggestions that Coca-Cola drinks produced in India contain illegally high levels of pesticide hurt 2003 sales of Coca-Cola.12
Massive layoffs have also contributed to the drop in coca-cola’s market value. The layoffs began in 2000 when market shares fell 20%. As of today, the company has laid off 18% of its American workforce.6
In the wake of these layoffs, Coca-Cola has pursued a tremendous profit push by relocating jobs overseas. Columbia violent conflict atmosphere and India’s desperate poverty have provided Coca-Cola a rewarding business strategy. One that led to the death of Gabriel Remolina, shot with his wife and children by Colombian paramilitaries a little over a month ago.
Murdering and terrorizing union employees and their family members is not uncommon for workers at Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia. “In 2000, assassinations took the lives of 153 of the nation's trade-union leaders.”8 More than 143 were killed the following year. This carnage adds to “the disappearance, arbitrary detention, torture, kidnap and sacking of hundreds more of their workers at Coca-Cola bottling plants throughout Colombia.”2
The executions of Colombia union members have raised the concern of both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch but it has not been enough to deter the paramilitaries who enjoy powerful economic support from the Colombian government.
Robin Kirk with Human Rights Watch explains, “The paramilitaries are an armed wing of the same military forces and government structures that have historically taken positions against [the unions]. In Colombia, they're called the army's 'sixth division.'"8 These paramilitaries are commonly hired by private corporations to discourage employees from organizing.9
President Andre’s Pastrana’s administration views unions as a threat challenging Colombia’s basic economic policies. The attempts to organize come at a time when Pastrana faces “intense pressure from the International Monetary Fund to cut its public-sector budget, in part through privatizing public services.”8
These policies are opposed by union leaders throughout the nation, an action that endangers not only the unionists, but their families as well.
One of the most highly publicized killings in Colombia is that of Isidoro Segundo Gil. Contacted December 5, 1996 by the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), Gil traveled to the Coca-Cola bottling plant to meet with the paramilitary force. A high-ranking member of the union, Gil “went to see what they wanted.”8
The AUC killed Gil inside coca-cola’s bottling facility, and then kidnapped another union leader who later escaped. As another measure of intimidation, the AUC broke into the union offices and burned them to the ground.
The next day, the heavily armed group went inside the bottling plant, called the workers together, and gave them until 4:00 p.m. to resign from the union. "They said that if they didn't resign, the same thing would happen to them that happened to Gil--they would be killed," recalls [witness Edgar] Paéz ... Not surprisingly, union members resigned en masse. A number of workers also quit their jobs outright, undoubtedly fearing that they would be killed simply for showing up.8
In response to the several thousand murders of unionists since 1986,9 Coca-Cola denies any wrongdoing. Their Colombian spokesperson, Pablo Largacha insists that the bottling plants are owned independently of the large multinational. Largacha defends the bottling company’s inaction against the paramilitaries; after all, they had the weapons.8
Another Coca-Cola spokesperson, Rafael Fernandez, claims they were not at fault. ''We deny any wrongdoing regarding human rights in Colombia or anywhere else.'' Thought the company requires all employees and associates to adhere to a strict code of conduct, Fernandez says the lack of ''specific information'' regarding bottling plant abuses prevents Coca-Cola from being held responsible.9
Many disagree with Fernandez and coca-cola’s stated lack of accountability. In three separate, well-documented cases of intimidation and abuse, union leaders repeatedly requested assistance and protection from both Coca-Cola and the bottling companies. ''Coke did nothing,'' said American lawyer, Dan Kovalik. ''We are confident that if any of these plants make a mistake in applying Coca-Cola's formula or in delivering Coke, they would be there to correct it. But in cases where they kill union leaders, they do nothing.''9
Edgar Paéz, co-worker of murdered union leader Isidoro Segundo Gil, feels Coke clearly benefited from the actions of the AUC. At the time of Gil's death, the union was negotiating with the bottling company. In the two months that followed Gil’s murder, the paramilitaries continued their intimidation tactic by camping outside the plant gate.
All the workers promptly abandoned the union, completely destroying the organization. Twenty-seven workers in twelve departments quit the plant and fled. During that time, Coca-Cola never complained to the authorities. “The experienced workers who left the plant, who'd been earning between $380 and $400 a month, were replaced by new employees at minimum wage--$130 a month,”8 savings passed on to Coca-Cola CEOs.
Coca-Cola claims to be apolitical but its inaction in Columbia have benefited its shareholders immensely from a regime that denies freedom for its people. “[I]ts red and white advertising presence is used by the military as a propaganda tool to show that even the best known company/product on earth endorses military rule.”10
Not only do they benefit directly from the repression of these people, in order to invest and operate in Colombia, Coca-Cola must deal with the illegal military regime. This creates major political issues for a company claiming neutrality.
When Coca-Cola invests money in Colombia, it provides resources to the illegal militaries to buy more weapons to use in their efforts to suppress company workers. This is not apolitical. When Coca-Cola does not speak out against human rights abuses committed by the people they are contracting, they give silent approval to such abuses. This is a political issue.
In India, Coca-Cola’s abuses have directly poisoned the people of Plachimada, a small community. In 2000, the company was commissioned to create over one million bottles of various Coke products, and issued a license for “installing a motor for drawing water.”11 However, Coca-Cola began a campaign of hydro-piracy, using the license to illegally extract water from the lush region, dropping the aquifer from 150 feet to 500. “As a result of this, 260 bore wells which were provided by public authorities for drinking water and agriculture facilities have become dry.”11
The bottling plant also used toxic mixtures of chemicals including lead and cadmium to clean the bottles. The waste sludge was then offered free to farmers in the area to use as fertilizer.12 It was also dumped into dry bore wells and areas outside the company property-line.11
Before the testing of the local water (which verified unsafe levels of chlorine), the women in Plachimada knew their water was toxic. “Instead of drawing water from the wells in their homes they had to walk miles. Coca-Cola had created a water scarcity in a water abundant region.”12
Amidst these serious problems, some people abused by Coca-Cola are finally close to gaining restitution. In Miami, a lawsuit has been filed against the company, charging that Coke, “by failing to prevent its bottlers in Colombia from bringing in right-wing paramilitary death squads to break up unions at its plants, bears responsibility for the abuses, including murder and torture, under both US and state law.”9
The suit has grounds to win by charging that plant manager, Ariosto Milán Mosquera, ordered paramilitaries to destroy the union.9
The lawsuit is one of two being pressed by the United Steel Workers Association(USWA), who’s 2000 study showed that “three out of every five trade unionists killed in the world were Colombian.”9 Filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act, the lawsuit accuses Coca-Cola and their bottlers of conspiring with paramilitaries to intimidate, torture, and murder trade union activists in Colombia.13
Suing is the new strategy of Colombia's labor movement, designed to stop the murders. The unions believe international labor cooperation is the only way left to oppose the power of corporations that instigate and benefit from repression.8
Another stated objective of the suit is to pressure the Colombian and U.S. governments into complying with rights guaranteed to unions and workers by the International Labor Organization and the Geneva Accords on human rights.9
Increasingly, U.S.-based unions have been willing to support the lawsuit. Teamsters President James P. Hoffa feels “the violent attack on trade union leaders to eliminate or suppress the rights of workers”14 is the most unconscionable offense of a company. He suggests the murders are a pattern by “Coca-Cola to refuse to take action or responsibility for protecting workers’ human rights at facilities where its products are made and distributed.” 14
The United Steel Worker’s Association and Teamsters aren’t the only Americans alarmed by Coke’s actions. Several members of Congress have warned that our $1.3 billion military assistance to the country may be funding the anti-union bloodbath. Democratic Representative Jan Schakowsky of Illinois feels that "cutting funds from the Colombian military makes sense. This is a military that has repeatedly been implicated in the brutalization and murder of the very people that it is supposed to protect." 9
This is a hard position to sell to Congress, where in 2001 George W. Bush requested they add $400 million dollars to 'Plan Colombia,' in a monetary effort to help government forces gain control of coca-growing regions.
Across the globe, India has also seen some success in its dealings with Coca-Cola. When the residents in Plachimada asked for details about Coca-Cola’s maintenance of drinking sources and water scarcity, the company failed to comply and lost their license. Prompted by the BBC, scientists at Exeter University in England analyzed samples of the sludge in Plachimada India. They verified increased amounts of lead and cadmium and concluded that there was little or no benefit of the sludge as a fertilizer.
In 2003, the district medical officer informed the people of Plachimada their water was unfit for drinking. In an order given on December 16, 2003, Justice Balakrishnana Nair ordered Coca-Cola to stop pirating Plachimada's water stating:
[Our] Public Trust Doctrine primarily rests on the principle that certain resources like air, sea waters and the forests have such a great importance to the people as a whole that it would be wholly unjustified to make them a subject of private ownership. The said resources being a gift of nature, they should be made freely available to everyone irrespective of the status in life. The doctrine enjoins upon the government to protect the resources for the enjoyment of the general public rather than to permit their use for private ownership or commercial purpose.12
Now the company must truck in fresh water for the community, which led to the closure of the Coke plant February 17th, 2004.11
Not surprisingly, Coca-Cola faces a lawsuit in India as well. The residents of Plachimada can look to Colombia for guidelines on reparations. Edgar Paéz explains his reasons for joining in the Steelworkers and Teamster suite:
We want to strip off the mask hiding the involvement of transnational corporations in our internal conflict. To do this, we need a judicial forum outside the country, since within Colombia those guilty of these crimes are treated with impunity.9
Hoffa and the Teamsters are the largest union representing Coca-Cola workers around the globe. Together, they openly condemn the company’s refusal to address human rights abuses in its production chain. In his statements on the murders of Colombian union leaders, Hoffa declared
[t]he International Brotherhood of Teamsters believes that global corporations like Coca-Cola have an affirmative responsibility to ensure that the people, who produce and deliver their products are treated with dignity and respect. The Teamsters union extends its hand of solidarity, in the struggle to protect the human rights of workers everywhere.14
Trivia
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Coca-Cola CEO-to-Worker Comparisons from 1999 |
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Annual |
Weekly |
Daily |
Hourly |
Per |
|
M. Douglas Ivester [CEO] |
$33,593,552 |
$646,029 |
$129,205 |
$16,150 |
$269 |
|
Minimum-Wage Worker |
$10,712 |
$206 |
$41 |
$5.15 |
$0.09 |
|
Average Worker |
$25,501 |
$490 |
$98 |
$12.26 |
$0.20 |
|
President of the U.S.A. |
$200,000 |
$3,846 |
$769 |
$96 |
$1.60 |
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How Many Years to Equal M. Douglas Ivester's 1999 Compensation? |
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Minimum-Wage Worker |
3136 years |
Completion Date 5136 A.D. |
|
Average Worker |
1317 years |
Completion Date 3317 A.D. |
|
President of the U.S.A. |
167 years |
Completion Date 2167 A.D. |
| How Many Workers Equal M. Douglas Ivester's Compensation? | |
|
Minimum Wage Worker |
3136 workers |
|
Average Worker |
1317 workers |
|
President of the U.S.A. |
167 presidents |
Sources
1. Colombia Solidarity Campaign URGENT COMMUNIQUE FROM SINALTRAINAL by LUIS JAVIER CORREA SUAREZ President SINALTRAINAL 20th April, 2004 http://www.colombiasolidarity.org.uk/UA%20Apr-Jun%2004/UA04.04.20.html
2. Dawn Ontario, Disabled Woman’s Network: Ontario Boycott Coca-Cola - 22nd July 2003 - International Day of Action & Boycott Launch http://dawn.thot.net/boycott_coca-cola.html
3. Teamsters Online Headline News Party Time for Coke Stars Come Out at MSG Meeting by Nancy Dillon April 18, 2002 http://www.teamster.org/02news/hn%5F020418%5F1.htm
4. FDA Talk Paper FDA Statement on Aspartame by Arthur Whitmore November 18, 1996 http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/ANSWERS/ANS00772.html
5. People for the Ethical Reform of Commerce Belgian Investigation of Coca-cola closes [From CBS Martwatch at: source, http://www.homestead.com/perc/files/companies/cocacola.html
6. People for the Ethical Reform of Commerce Sales Rebound In Key Market's Under Restructuring [From Cisneros News at: http://www.cisneros.com/April2000News/nws042105.html] http://www.homestead.com/perc/files/companies/cocacola.html
7. The Wichita Eagle Investors Dump Coca-Cola Co. Shares By HARRY R. WEBER Associated Press Apr. 17, 2003 http://www.miami.com/mld/kansas/business/5653615.htm?1c
8. The American Prospect The Coca-Cola Killings: Is Plan Colombia funding a bloodbath of union activists? By David Bacon Issue Date: 1.28.02 http://www.prospect.org/print/V13/2/bacon-d.html
9. Common Dreams Coca-Cola To Be Sued for Bottlers' Abuses by Jim Lobe July 20, 2001 http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0720-01.htm
10. People for the Ethical Reform of Commerce Coca-Cola Highlights http://www.homestead.com/perc/files/companies/cocacola.html
11. Z-net Building Water Democracy : People's victory against Coca-Cola in Plachimada By Vandana Shiva May 13, 2004 http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2004-05/13shiva.cfm
12. Biz/Ed External Influences: Business Ethics and Moral Behaviour http://www.bized.ac.uk/educators/16-19/activity/business/2003_4/241103.htm
13. United Steelworkers of America USWA Strongly Urges Colombian President to Intervene to Save Lives of Missing Trade Unionists October 8, 2003
Teamsters Statement on
Coca-Cola's Responsibility to Ensure
Human Rights of Workers Teamsters
General President James P. Hoffa’s Statement on the Murders of Columbian Labor
Leaders July 26, 2001
http://www.teamster.org/01news/nr%5F010726%5F1.htm
14. Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND SENIOR SERVICES, http://www.state.nj.us/health/eoh/rtkweb/0349.pdf
Take Action!
Human Rights Watch: What You Can Do to Stop Abuses by Paramilitary Groups
AND
Here is a sample letter you can send to the principal officers of the Coca-Cola Company. For the purpose of the boycott, the Strategic Officers you should target are:
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Douglas N. Daft |
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28, 2004 - The |
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Herbert A. Allen |
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Ronald W. Allen |
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Cathleen P. Black |
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Warren E. Buffett |
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Barry Diller |
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Donald R. Keough |
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Susan B. King |
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Maria Elena
Lagomasino |
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Donald F. McHenry |
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Robert L. Nardelli |
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Sam Nunn |
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J. Pedro Reinhard |
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James D. Robinson III |
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Peter V. Ueberroth |
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James B. Williams |
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read bio »Board of Directors, The Coca-Cola Co., P.O. Box 1734, Atlanta, GA 30301
Dear Coca-Cola Board Members,
I am shocked to learn of your indifference to the safety of workers who bottle your products. There are undisputed reports that Coca-Cola bottling plant managers in Colombia, South America, allowed and encouraged paramilitary death squads to murder, torture and kidnap SINALTRAINAL leaders and members in an effort to crush their union.
You dismiss such charges, but you can’t escape the fact that massive human rights violations have occurred. Coca-Cola is responsible for the actions of its partners in Colombia.
Apart from any legal liability you will face, you have failed to use your influence to end violence against workers and their families. Your silence, both individually and as a board, is scandalous.I ask you to act now to ensure that workers’ basic human rights are respected. I cannot support a company that profits from murder and torture. If you do not act responsibly, I will encourage my friends, family and colleagues not to purchase any Coca-Cola products, including Sprite, Fanta, Minute Maid, Nestea, Powerade, Swerve daily drink and Dasani water, nor to do business with SunTrust, the bank of "Killer Coke."
Please let me know how you intend to address my concerns.
Sincerely,
