Letters to the Editor | Coke misrepresented facts in letter

This is a response to the letter, “Coca-Cola supports workers’ rights,” by Diana Garza Ciarlante,
Director of Issues Management, Coca-Cola North America, which appeared in the 11.29.07 issue. The letter repeatedly misrepresented the “facts,” as has consistently been the case with Coca-Cola public relations efforts on campuses around the world. The Vassar Kick Coke campaign would like to take this opportunity to respond point-by-point to some of the “facts” presented by Ciarlante in her letter.
“In a country where violence against union members has deterred all but four percent of workers from unionizing, 31 percent of Coca-Cola bottler employees belong to unions.”

Not included in this statement is that 90 percent of Coca-Cola bottler employees are “flexible,” or subcontracted workers. These workers have no chance of union representation, receive low pay and meager (if any) benefits, and have no job security. In 2007, subcontracted workers who tried to join SINALTRAINAL were fired in response. Carliante was not lying when she wrote that 31 percent of Coca-Cola bottling employees are unionized, but that number is unrepresentative when discussing all people working in Coca-Cola’s bottling plants in Colombia. When looking at the 8,000-person workforce, only four percent actually belong to unions.

“Credible independent third parties, including U.S. and Colombian courts, have investigated and dismissed allegations of misconduct by the company.”

“Cases where the instigators and perpetrators of the murders of trade union leaders are identified are practically nonexistent, as is the handing down of guilty verdicts,” said the U.S. State Department.
Knowing this, SINALTRAINAL leaders brought their case to U.S. courts. In 2001 and 2006, the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) and the United Steelworkers (USW) sued Coca-Cola on their behalf, charging the bottlers of conspiring with paramilitary squads to intimidate, kidnap, torture and murder union leaders.

Federal Judge Jose E. Martinez dismissed the cases, which are being appealed, stating that the Coca-Cola Company did not have control of its Colombian bottler, Coca-Cola FEMSA.

This decision was made despite Coca-Cola owning 31.6 percent of Coca-Cola FEMSA, making it a major equity stake holder, and having several top Coca-Cola executives sitting on the Board of Directors of Coca-Cola FEMSA.

Coca-Cola has stated that it holds Standard International Bottlers Agreements with all of its bottling plants, giving the company control over its plants’ operations. The merits of the cases were never explored, only the question of if Coca-Cola should be held accountable for the actions of its bottling plants.

Martinez, appointed by President Bush in 2002, is a former corporate lawyer whose firm represented such clients as United States Tobacco International and The Philip Morris Companies.

Coca-Cola cites investigations that have supposedly cleared them of wrongdoing in Colombia, referring to two reports that were commissioned by Coca-Cola. They are a 2005 report by Cal Safety Compliance Corporation, a Los Angeles-based company that has been widely discredited, including in publications like the Los Angeles Times and Business Week, and a report done by White & Case, an international corporate law firm that has represented Coca-Cola, which has never been made publicly available.

“International Labor Organization (ILO) agreed in late March 2006 to assess the industrial relations practices of our independent Colombian bottlers.”

This investigation has yet to occur, and it is unlikely that it ever will. The ILO has agreed to conduct an assessment of current working conditions in Coca-Cola’s Colombian bottling plants, but has repeatedly missed all deadlines set for the assessment. Ed Potter, Director of Global Relations for Coca-Cola, is the head spokesperson for the business sector of the ILO, and repeatedly used his authority in the organization to compromise the assessment.

If you would like to explore more information on Coca-Cola’s human rights, labor and environmental abuses around the world, please refer to the Vassar Kick Coke campaign’s newsletter and proposal to the College Investment Responsibility Committee, which can be found at vckickcoke.blogspot.com, or by e-mailing redunlea@vassar.edu.

Also, please refer to the widespread documentation of Coca-Cola’s abuses in Colombia, reported by the mainstream and independent media, professors, elected officials, and varying watchdogs and organizations. Particularly useful are reports by the delegation to Colombia led by NYC Councilman Hiram Monserrate, and “‘The Real Thing’ in Colombia,” a report by anthropologist Leslie Gil of American University. In closing, I would like to include one last quote from Ciarlante’s letter: “Is there more we can do to help improve the lives of our workers? Of course!”

—Reed Dunlea ’09, Member of Vassar Kick Coke Campaign