|
Tell COKE students won't stop!
Students, workers and community members have been pressuring Coke for 4 years now to meet the demands of SINALTRAINAL in Colombia and the community groups in India affected by Coca-Cola. However, Coke has responded with continued denials and public relations efforts to "clean up their image"- without actually addressing the human rights abuses that exist in bottling plants worldwide. Tell Coke and college administrators from the University of California, University of Michigan, University of Montana, University of Iowa, New York University, Indiana University, Rutgers University and Hofstra University that students won't stop until Coke takes responsibility for its actions here and abroad!!
| Sample Letter for Campaign |
Subject: Coke and Universities: Take Responsibility!
Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,
I am writing to let you know that your public relations attempts will not work to quell student protest against Coca-Cola. You can try and change your image, but we will not stop until real change is made. Students around the world are fed up with Coca-Cola's disregard for human rights. Coke needs to take concrete action to change the situation on the ground. Investigations by for-profit monitoring organizations and large general donations are not enough now and they will never be enough.
It is time that Coke meets the demands of the workers in Colombia and India. In Colombia:
--Acknowledge Underlying Facts. The events alleged in the four Complaints filed in federal district court in Miami, Florida are objectively verifiable. For example, Mr. Isidro Gil was murdered in the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Carepa. The Plaintiffs are extremely distraught that Coca-Cola's public statements have labeled these allegations as "false" since this constitutes an effort to alter the historical record.
--Public Statements Denouncing Anti-Union Violence. Coca-Cola and Panamco/FEMSA should issue strong, public statements throughout the press in Colombia and in the world denouncing violence, and particularly anti-union violence, by all armed actors in Colombia.
--Human Rights Committee. Coca-Cola and Panamco/FEMSA must agree to support the creation of an independent committee to which workers can submit complaints about anti-union violence and intimidation at or around any Coca-Cola bottling plant.
--Investigation and Training: Coca-Cola and Panamco/FEMSA must encourage the proper authorities in Colombia to investigate links between local Colombian management and the armed groups, particularly the paramilitaries. Further, the companies must conduct their own internal investigations and remove management with such links. This investigation must be subject to independent review. Coca-Cola and Panamco/FEMSA should also conduct training with all management personnel and employees in which they strongly stress that any collusion with armed actors or any encouragement of anti-union violence by these actors, whether material or moral, will not be tolerated and will result in immediate discharge.
--Address Anti-Union Impact of Violence. As a consequence of the anti-union violence that is the subject of the four legal cases, SINALTRAINAL has suffered significant losses of members and other institutional damage. In order to address this distinct aspect of the violence, Coca-Cola must agree to require its bottlers to negotiate with SINALTRAINAL and to agree to a process to repair the damage suffered by SINALTRAINAL.
--Cessation of Criminal Charges. Coca-Cola and Panamco/FEMSA must stop pressing criminal legal action against the Plaintiffs as they have done since shortly after, and in retaliation for, the Plaintiffs' commencement of the civil human rights lawsuit in Miami.
--Compensation for Victims
In India:
--permanently shut down the bottling facilities in Mehdiganj, Kala Dera and Plachimada.
--compensate the affected community members.
--recharge the depleted groundwater
--clean up the contaminated water and soil.
--ensure that workers laid off as a result of Coca-Cola's negligence are retrained and relocated in a more sustainable industry.
--admit liability for the long term consequences of exposure to toxic waste and pesticide laden drinks in India.
Students will continue to demand that Coca-Cola products be removed from their campuses until these demands are met. I strongly encourage you to take action now- because the student movement won't stop until Coca-Cola takes responsibility for its actions here and abroad.
Sincerely,
|
Campaign Launched:
May 02, 2005
|
Coca-Cola is one of the world's most powerful and profitable corporations. In 2002, Coca-Cola earned nearly $4 billion in profits, enough to pay its former Chairman, Douglas Daft, $105 million in compensation. Yet, despite repeated pleas for help, Coca-Cola has not found the time or resources to insure the most basic safety of the workers who bottle its products or prevent massive environmental devastation in the communities where it does business. Death Squads in Colombia Colombia has long been the most dangerous country in the world to organize a union. Since 1986, roughly 4000 Colombian trade unionists have been murdered. In 2000, three of every five trade unionists killed in the world were Colombian. The vast majority of these murders have been carried out by right-wing paramilitary groups (aka death squads) on an ideological mission to destroy the labor movement. These groups often work in collaboration with the official U.S.- supported Colombian military, and in some instances with managers at plants producing for multinational corporations. In the case of Coca-Cola, according to numerous credible reports, the company and its business partners have turned a blind eye to, financially supported, and actively colluded with paramilitary groups in efforts to destroy workers' attempts to organize unions and bargain collectively. -Since 1989, eight union leaders from Coca-Cola plants have been murdered by paramilitary forces. Dozens of other workers have been intimidated, kidnapped, or tortured. - In Carepa, members of the paramilitary murdered union leader Isidro Gil in broad daylight inside his factory's gates. They returned the next day and forced all of the plant's workers to resign from their union by signing documents on Coca-Cola letterhead. - The most recent murder attempt occurred on August 22, 2003, when two men riding motorcycles fired shots at Juan Carlos Galvis, a worker leader at Coca-Cola's Barrancabermeja plant. - There is substantial evidence that managers of several bottling plants have ordered assaults to occur and made regular payments to leaders of the paramilitary groups carrying out the attacks. These ongoing abuses have taken their toll on Coca-Cola workers' efforts to organize. Their union, SINALTRAINAL, has suffered a dramatic loss in membership, as worker leaders are intimidated or forced into hiding. SINALTRAINAL has appealed for solidarity and allies in the U.S. labor and social justice movements have answered their call. The United Steelworkers and the International Labor Rights Fund have filed a lawsuit against Coca-Cola on behalf of the union and victims' families in U.S. federal court. Other unions including the Teamsters and many community groups have launched public campaigns targeting Coke. If history is a guide, students could be the needed force that finally moves Coke to stop denying responsibility and take action to protect its workers' lives. ********** Coca-Cola is in serious crisis in India. Communities across India living next to its bottling plants are experiencing severe water shortages and a polluted groundwater resource and soil. In at least two communities, Coca-Cola was distributing its toxic waste under the guise of fertilizer, and repeated tests have confirmed that Coca-Cola was selling sub-standard products in the Indian marketplace with levels of pesticides exceeding 30 times those allowed by the European Union standards. A massive grassroots movement has emerged in India to hold Coca-Cola accountable for its crimes, and literally tens of thousands of community members, primarily from rural India, are taking action to put an end to Coca-Cola's abuses. Creating water shortages in India and poisoning the remaining groundwater and land is a sure recipe for disaster in India - where over 70% of the population still makes a living related to agriculture. Unfortunately, Coca-Cola has responded to the growing crisis through a campaign of misinformation and omission of key facts. At the most recent shareholders meeting, the CEO of Coca-Cola, Neville Isdell, announced that they could open their plant in Kerala whenever they wanted. Not only is this blatantly incorrect, it is indicative of the manner in which the Coca-Cola company has repeatedly treated Indian institutions with impunity. In fact, the local village council in Kerala has once again refused to issue Coca-Cola a license to operate because the company was unable to produce the necessary permit from the Pollution Control Board. As a result, one of Coca-Cola's largest bottling facilities remains shut down in India for over a year now. The Joint Parliamentary Committee, one of the most authoritative bodies possible to be set up in India, studied claims of pesticides in Coca-Cola products and concluded that indeed, Coca-Cola products contained high levels of pesticides, including DDT, malathion and lindane. In addition, the committee held that the Coca-Cola company was guilty of misleading the public by issuing false advertisements. It also charged the company with not doing enough to recharge the groundwater. Coca-Cola's response has been that "we (Coca-Cola) do not agree with the Joint Parliamentary Committee report." The Supreme Court Monitoring Committee, a body set up by the Supreme Court of India, has also repeatedly cited Coca-Cola for causing pollution around its plant. Nowhere in Coca-Cola's response is there made a mention of this committee's orders. Coca-Cola also has embarked upon a campaign to suggest that they closed their factory voluntarily, and that they stopped distributing toxic waste in India voluntarily. These again are part of a campaign of misinformation. In both cases, Coca-Cola was ordered by Indian government agencies to cease the practice. The community opposition to Coca-Cola in India continues to grow and no amount of misinformation by Coca-Cola is going to stop it.
|
