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The Coca-Cola Murders in Colombia
Did you know that 3 out of every 5 trade unionists killed throughout the world are murdered in Colombia? ________________________________ Coca Cola is the largest manufacturer, distributor and marketer of nonalcoholic beverages, concentrates and syrups in the world. Coca Cola was invented in Columbus, Georgia and has today more than 200 branches. The gross profit of the company is $14, 324,000 a year, which equals 65,2% profit every year. Nevertheless there are many critics of both the company’s products and trade practices.
Hundreds of Coke workers have been tortured, kidnapped and/or illegally detained by paramilitary death squads hired by Coke’s bottlers. Coke managers have ordered the assassinations of 8 union leaders. June 21, 2001: union leader Oscar Dario Soto Polo shot dead in Montería, 500 km from Bogotá, while walking his 8 year-old daughter home from school. Soto was the president of the food and beverage union local. Coke is sued for $500 million in U.S. Federal Court: US District Judge Jose E Martínez (Miami) ruled in 2003 that Panamco, Coca-Cola’s main Latin American bottler, can stand trial for hiring right-wing paramilitaries to intimidate and kill union leaders in Colombia. Although Coke owns 39.6% of their Latin American subsidiary, the judge exempted The Coca-Cola Company itself, saying they did not have “explicit control” over labor issues in Colombia. This is the first time that a U.S. judge has ordered a company to stand trial for human rights violations committed overseas under the Alien Tort Claims Act. But Coca-Cola in Atlanta could get away with murder!
COKE CAN'T HIDE ITS CRIMES IN COLOMBIA Isidro Segundo Gil, an employee at a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Colombia, was killed at his workplace by paramilitary thugs. His children, now living in hiding with relatives, understand all too well why their homeland is known as "a country where union work is like carrying a tombstone on your back." Read More...
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.
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Links: International Labor Rights Fond www.laborrights.org Killer Coke http://killercoke.org/ United Students Against Sweatshops http://www.studentsagainstsweatshops.org/campaigns/coke_main.php |
Stop Killer Coke
