Tell Coca-Cola to Act Now in Turkey and Indonesia!

Students have been protesting Coca-cola regarding human right abuses in Colombia and environmental abuses in India. Recently, there have also been mass firings of union workers in Turkey and Indonesia. In Turkey, workers have been camped outside the plant since June demanding reinstatement and have experienced police violence and repression. Coca-Cola is now telling college administrators that it wants to "clean up its act" but still refuses to take any action. Tell Coca-Cola to take action in Turkey and Indonesia now!

Sample Letter for Campaign

Subject: Take Action in Turkey and Indonesia

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

It has been just over a month since we first contacted you regarding remediation for illegally fired workers in Coca-Cola bottling plants in Turkey and Indonesia. We are sorely disappointed with the lack of progress coming from your office.

Through contact with the Turkish workers who are holding vigil outside the plant, waiting for the reinstatement of their jobs, we have seen absolutely no action on the part of anyone in the company. Since the first letter was sent to you, not only has there been no sign of action coming from your office, there has been an increase in police presence at the plant and police intimidation of the workers, who have been camped out in front of the plant since the time of their firing. As recently as August 20th, a Saturday on which there was no work taking place in the plant, there were over 100 armed police stationed inside the bottling plant fence. On one occasion, a contingency of the police force came to the encamped workers and tried to provoke action from them by making obscene orders regarding the site of their previous encampment.

These workers have been out over two and a half months without any pay. They are running out of money for food for themselves and their families, they can't afford school supplies for their children who are supposed to but won't be going back to school soon, and they can't afford basic medication to keep their families healthy.

The insistence by the company not to rehire the workers but only offer them severance pay is an insult to workers who had faithfully served the company for upwards of 15 years. A claim by the company saying that the jobs had been contracted out to another company and couldn't be reinstated is simply not true, as the subcontractor that these workers worked under is still doing business in Turkey with other Coca-Cola bottling plants, meaning they could very easily be recontracted to work in this plant.

The background facts of this case don't need to be stated again; the firing of the workers trying to unionize was both illegal by Turkish law as well as contradictory to internationally recognized labor standards and also company policy.

It is a travesty that you, time and time again, say that the Coca-Cola company is trying to change its practices, that the company is working to be a better global citizen, that the company respects the rights of its employees, yet you haven't been able to hold anyone accountable or remediate the situation in any way for the workers, in such a clear cut case as these illegal firings. Situations like this, where your office has the ability to remediate an obvious illegal act by one of your bottling plants yet fails to complete any action towards solving the problem, disgusts those working with the company on other global labor issues, as they have now experienced the extreme disparity between what you say you will do and what the workers see done.

The student movement is quickly loosing faith in any statement from the company, particularly from your office, of possible changes in global labor practices. With regard to the workers at the United Can Company in Tangerang, Indonesia- your office has ignored the firings of union workers- even with evidence that their dismissal was due to union activity. There has been no communication about this case from your office to the Indonesian workers or to USAS.

The Coca-Cola company must reconsider its own policies and its suppliers policies with regards to freedom of association. We sincerely hope that you will accept the seriousness of this issue and earnestly work towards the reinstatement the workers to their previous positions in both Turkey and Indonesia.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
September 06, 2005

Background Information

Violations of Worker Rights in Turkey

Within the past several months, workers engaged in the distribution of Coca-Cola products have been fired en masse in what appears to be a transparent effort to end a unionization effort. Workers and family members were then subjected to violence by riot police acting at the behest of the company and placed under arrest. The violations of worker rights concern workers who perform distribution operations for Coca-Cola in Turkey with the contractor Trakya Nakliyat ve Ticaret Ltd. Sti.. They are members of the union DISK/Nakliyat-Is. The following timeline provides background on these incidents:

Mass termination of union members at Dudullu plant

- Earlier this year, Trakya Nakliyat terminated 5 workers who have been leaders in a unionization effort at Coca-Cola's Dudullu facility. The workers are Fahrettin Takici, Erol Turedi, Hasan Sirinyurt, Fatih Dilbaz and Mustafa Akin. While management claimed the lay-offs were due to poor work performance, management provided no evidence of this claim; the workers have long, positive records of employment ranging from five to nine years.

- On May 19, 2005, shortly after the terminations were carried out, a group of workers visited management at Coca-Cola's Dudullu plant to inquire about the reasons for the termination of their colleagues. A meeting ensued among the managers of Coca-Cola's Marmara operations, its Asia distribution program, and the concerned workers. During this meeting, the Coca-Cola representatives told the workers that they should resign from the union, stating that "the Coca-Cola Company shall let no members of the union work with us."

- On the following day, May 20, 2005, facility management announced the termination of 50 additional workers who were members of the union. The workers were dismissed without severance pay. Since the terminations occured, the 55 terminated workers have been campaigning to return to work, protesting day-to-night in a cardboard hut in front of the facility.

Mass termination of workers at Yenibosna plant

- On May 25, 2005, one day after the president of the DISK union federation met with the chairman of Anadolu Endustri Holding A.S - Coca-Cola's Turkish partner - and recieved an assurance that problems with labor violations would be resolved, Trakya Nakliyat ve Ticaret Ltd. Sti. announced the termination of over 50 workers from the its Yenibosna plant, who are members of the DISK union. The terminations were effecitve July 2, 2005. Trakya Nakliyat claimed that the firings were made necessary by a decision by Coca-Cola Turkey to cancel business with Trakya Nakliyat.

- During and prior to this period, employees of the Yenibosna plant were pressured to resign from the union by both the authorities of Coca-Cola and Trakya Nakliyat. The union has asserted that the individuals who pressured workers to resign were representatives of Coca-Cola, Oguz Aldemir and Sinan Oktay, and the manager of Trakya Nakliyat ve Ticaret Ltd. Sti,Yasar Erdogan.

- Since June 17, 2005, the workers who were to be dismissed on July 2, 2005, and who are on collective leave, have erected a tent in front of the Yenibosna plant and have protested to be reinstated.

- The business relations of Coca-Cola with Trakya Nakliyat ve Ticaret Ltd. Sti, as well as with the plants in Cerkezkoy-Corlu and Bursa, which are not organised, are still in force.

It is clear based upon the information available - the timing of the firings, the individuals fired, and the fact that only workers at unionized plants have been dimissed in such numbers that workers at both the Dudullu plant and the Yenibosna plant were singled out and terminated because of their membership in the union. This is a clear violation of Turkish law, internationally recognized labor standards, and Coca-Cola's own stated commitment to respecting basic worker rights.

Violence against workers family members at Yenibosna plant

Following the events described above, workers were subjected to violence during a protest regarding their dismissals.

- On July 20, 2005, sixty two days since their terminations were announced, the workers from Dudullu organized a demonstration with their families in front of the factory. The workers were protesting what they believed were illegal firings and demanded that they be reinstated. They were subjected to brutal violence by riot police acting at the behest of Coca-Cola.

- At 10:00 am on this day, workers and their family members, totalling roughly 150 people, entered the facility. Late in the afternoon, the head of the DISK and several other union officials had come to the factory and belived they were in the final process of negotiating a settlement with management when the police violently attacked the workers and family members. Police used tear gas and physically assaulted those present, causing serious injury to a number of and workers' children and spouses.

- Following this incident, 92 people - including the president, an executive committee member of DISK/Nakliyat-Is union, and the union's lawyer - were placed under arrest. 85 of these individuals were subsequently released, but seven people - including the president of Nakliyat-Is, Ali Riza Kucukosmanoglu and the executive committee member of Nakliyat-is Recep Vurmus - were still under arrest by the Security Administration of Istanbul as of July 22, 2005.

Given that the workers and their families were physically present in the Coca-Cola factory when they were attacked, it is clear that the police could not have carried out the violent actions described above without the authorization of Coca-Cola officials. Coca-Cola is therefore responsible for the violence against workers and for the arrest of union members and officials.

In light of these abuses, Coca-Cola and its partners should immediately take the following steps with respect to the situation in Turkey:

1) Offer immediate reinstatement with back-pay for each of the workers terminated at the Dudullu and Yenibosna plants.

2) Drop any criminal charges against workers or union officials arising from the protest by workers to win reinstatement.

3) Cease all acts of anti-union intimidation in the workplace, and issue a written statement to workers guaranteeing that workers will not be the subject of retaliation in any way for choosing to exercise their legal right to join a trade union.

Violations of Workers' Rights in Indonesia

We have also been recently made aware of abuses of worker rights at a Coca-Cola producing facility in Indonesia. This case concerns the United Can Company, which is among Asia's largest manufacturers of rigid packaging product. Its primary customer in Indonesia is Coca-Cola.

- In October 2004, 48 workers of the PT United Can Company announced their intention to form an independent union. The union is called Gabungan Serikat Buruh Indepedent PT (the Federation of Independent Trade Unions at United Can Company), which is affiliated with the national federation GSBI.

- Since the union announced its formation, factory management has engaged in a campaign of intimidation and bribery against union members and leaders. On repeated and persistent occasions since October 2004, factory managers have pressured workers to resign from the union by interrogating not only the workers concerned, but their children, spouses, and other family members. In these conversations, managers have made frequent threats that the workers and their families would suffer economically from membership in the union, and that the company will never accept a GSBI associated union in the facility. At the end of each conversation, management has typically given workers a form to resign from the union. Members of management have also offered substantial bribes to workers who are willing to resign; for example, the first president of the union was reportedly paid some $11,000 in exchange for resigning as president and a member of the union.

- In response, GSBI officials have sent letters and personally asked management to stop interrogating and intimidating its members. Factory management has ignored these communications and instead has continued to interrogate workers and promises financial rewards to workers who resign from the union.

- On and around June 21, 2005, the United Can Company announced the termination of 12 workers who are leaders in the unionization effort. In its dismissal letter, factory management explicitly states that the workers are being fired for their union activity, specifically for circulating a newsletter among workers in the facility saying that the factory has "lost trust and cannot tolerate" the workers, and they would be terminated immediately and barred from entering the company area without permission.

These actions represent clear illegal intimidation and retaliation against workers who have chosen to form a union. To correct these abuses, Coca-Cola should require United Can Company to:

1) Offer immediate reinstatement with back pay to each of the 12 union officials who have been terminated.

2) Cease all acts of anti-union intimidation in the workplace, and issue a written statement to workers guaranteeing that that workers will not be the subject of retaliation in any way for choosing to exercise their legal right to join a trade union.