Coca-Cola Bottling Workers End Strike (CA)

[struggle4progress]

Workers at Coca-Cola bottling plants in Southern California have returned to work following a two-week strike after members ratified a five-year contract over the weekend, a union spokeswoman said.

Three of four locals with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters had ratified the contract with Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. earlier in the week, but one rejected the deal. On Sunday, however, Local 896 voted again and ratified the contract 277 to 70, said union spokeswoman Hilda Delgado.

Workers returned for their Sunday night shifts, she said. Wages and health care coverage had been sticking points for some 1,700 employees at Coca-Cola bottling facilities in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

http://www.labusinessjournal.com/article.asp?aID=24435477.6810567.1152372.3642207.3151558.898&aID2=88635

[Judi Lynn]

1. Someone at Coca Cola dropped the ball. They forgot to murder union leaders

It's probably killing them that they didn't knock off several workers' rights proponents. They'll have to make up for it in Colombia:Coca-Cola Accused of Using Death Squads
to Target Union Leaders

by Garry M. Leech, Colombia Report

July 23, 2001


A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Florida accuses the Coca-Cola Company, its Colombian subsidiary and business affiliates of using paramilitary death squads to murder, torture, kidnap and threaten union leaders at the multinational soft drink manufacturer's Colombian bottling plants. The suit was filed on July 20 by the United Steelworkers of America and the International Labor Rights Fund on behalf of SINALTRAINAL, the Colombian union that represents workers at Coca-Cola's Colombian bottling plants; the estate of a murdered union leader; and five other unionists who worked for Coca-Cola and were threatened, kidnapped or tortured by paramilitaries.

Colombia has long been the most dangerous country in the world for trade unionists with almost 4,000 murdered in the past 15 years. Last year saw 128 labor leaders assassinated. Most of the killings have been attributed to right-wing paramilitaries belonging to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), who view union organizers as subversives and, therefore, "legitimate" targets in their dirty war against Colombia's guerrilla insurgents. Three out of every five trade unionists killed in the world are Colombian. The most recent killing of a union leader at one of Coca-Cola's Colombian bottling plants was June 21 when Oscar Dario Soto Polo was gunned down.

Needless to say, companies in Colombia benefit from the reduced effectiveness of union organizing that results from the intimidation of workers by paramilitaries. But the complaint filed against Coca-Cola last week claims that the company does more than just benefit from paramilitary violence: it claims the company orchestrates it.

According to Terry Collingsworth of the Washington DC-based International Labor Rights Fund and co-counsel for the plaintiffs, "There is no question that Coke knew about, and benefits from, the systematic repression of trade union rights at its bottling plants in Colombia, and this case will make the company accountable." The plaintiffs are seeking compensation and an end to the human rights abuses committed against Coca-Cola's employees and union members.
(snip/...)

Coca-Cola and Anti-Union Death Squads in Colombia
Violations of human rights are rampant in Colombia due to lawless activities of both the right wing paramilitaries and leftist guerillas. The paramilitaries in Colombia are particularly well known for murdering, abducting and torturing trade union leaders. Specifically, much of the violence against trade unionists in Colombia is directed at leaders of unions at multinational firms, including the Coca-Cola company.
(snip/...)

http://www.laborrights.org/projects/corporate/coke/

[struggle4progress]

2. !

:(