Coca-Cola feels heat on killing death in Colombia

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Tue, Feb. 14, 2006
Coca-Cola feels heat on killing death in Colombia
BY GARY MARX
Chicago Tribune

BOGOTA, Colombia - Nearly a decade ago, union activist Isidro Gil was shot and killed by a paramilitary gunman as he manned the front gate of a Coca-Cola bottling plant in the humid plains of northern Colombia.

Today, Gil's slaying and the alleged assassinations and intimidation of other trade unionists in Colombia are the centerpiece of a campaign by colleges in the United States to ban the beverage giant's products from their campuses.

New York University and the University of Michigan recently suspended the sale of Coca-Cola, Sprite, Minute Maid juice and all other Coke products until the Atlanta-based company agrees to an independent investigation into allegations that its Colombian bottlers used right-wing gunmen to attack unionists.

Coca-Cola Co. denies the accusations, saying it is the target of a smear campaign run by professional agitators.
(snip/...)

http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/world/13868481.htm

[McKenzie]

1. there is a big campaign against Coca-Cola - website link inside

http://www.killercoke.org/

[MrPrax]

2. Hopefully this time...

The campaign will get results--rather than Coke merely agreeing to look into the matter, the movement should just cut to the chase and tak on the aims of the union movement and tell COKE to unionize it's facilities and pay higher wages...

That is ultimately what this and others have sacraficed themselves for--not an idea, but results.

[SoCalDem]

3. Weird headline.....killing death"?...n/t

[Judi Lynn]

4. It's the worst kind of death, when you get killed!

It is an odd choice of words, isn't it?

[phrenzy]

5. Yeah, it sucks

When you get "killed to death"

But, hey, I guess sometimes people can get killed and it doesn't actually result in death!

[WhiteTara]

7. Also known as MURDER

Some newspaper editor must have gone nuts at that headline. Usual effort is to use fewer number of words...but I guess obfuscation works best when it is murder.

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

9. murder by Death

[Centered]

16. Great Movie!!!

[mom cat]

6. Not to mention the water shortages they are causing in India

No Coke till they clean up their act.

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

8. Boycott Coke- use GMO Corn Syrup sweetner-it will kill us all over time

Coca Cola-Amost as bad as the cigarette industry !!!
billions made while pumping deadly chemicals into everyone who consumes the product.

Genetically Modified Corn (syrup) is the main ingredient in Coke.

try instead -Iced tea, Juice, flavored sparkling water, etc.,

You'll be glad you did in 20 or 30 years when the news breaks that Coke is a health risk!

[Judi Lynn]

10. The death threat the Colombian Coca Cola company poses for its

union workers and their families is far more immediate, and a lot more painful, as well as scary.

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

14. don't downplay the GMO issue though- it can slowly kill everyone who

consumes the product--
I posted some links in response to the other poster below--
check it out--

[Bill McBlueState]

12. what about the fact that it's genetically modified

makes it worse than regular high fructose corn syrup?

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

13. oh yes! GMO causes serious health complications and US Corporations want

to keep us in the dark--They try and sell GMO corn to Europe and find that no one will buy it...
Why? They sell it here and it's in everything that's not specifically labeled "organic" / "non-GMO".

Scientific studies prove undoubtedly that GMO grains are not only a health risk to consumers but a potential destructive timebomb to the genepool of crops on this planet --GMO = a serious "timebomb"-

links:

http://www.biotech-info.net/health_risks.html

http://www.netlink.de/gen/home.html

http://www.happytonics.org/pubbtcorn.htm

http://www.foei.org/gmo/corn.html

http://www.consciouschoice.com/2003/cc1611/gmofoodrisk1611.html

http://www.soyinfo.com/haz/gehaz.shtml

[Bill McBlueState]

11. Oh, f**k NYU.

I mean really. If they're so pro-labor, why don't they bargain with their graduate employees?

This is just a stunt to up their credibility with the wealthy liberals who send their kids there. If it really hits them in the pocketbook, the NYU administration will align itself with anyone.

[Judi Lynn]

15. This is a little deeper than you appear to recognize.

A lot of Democrats have been following this information for a long time. It's probably more than a "stunt." It's not as if the information hasn't been out there for ages.

View from the North
excerpted from the book
Colombia and the United States
War, Unrest and Destabilization
by Mario A. Murillo
Seven Stories Press, 2004, paper

~snip~
p133
Union activism, considered to be the most dangerous work in Colombia, has picked up despite the fact that between June 3, 2001 and May 2002 at least 175 trade unionists were killed, 9 disappeared, 156 received death threats, 38 were kidnapped, and 4 were victims of arbitrary detentions by state security forces. In the past decade, 1,500 trade unionists have been killed, detained, forcibly disappeared, or forced to leave Colombia, lending credence to the CUT's description of this process as a "genocide whose purpose is to exterminate the union leadership and our organizations" in general. All of this is carried out with complete impunity: Of the only 376 criminal investigations that have been conducted since 1986 involving violations against trade unionists, a full 321 remain in the preliminary stages, while only five people have been brought to justice. In the vast majority of the cases, the alleged perpetrators are members of paramilitary groups who accuse labor activists of collaborating with the guerrillas.

In some instances, these attacks have been linked to multinational corporations whose subsidiaries have been threatened by union organizing in Colombia, including such names as British Petroleum and Coca-Cola. For example, according to the "Campaign to Stop Killer Coke," a national effort run by U.S.-based trade unions such as the United Steelworkers of America, the International Labor Rights Fund, and the Colombian labor union Sinaltrainal (food and beverage workers union) paramilitary groups have killed at least eight labor leaders who had been trying to unionize the bottling factories operated by Coca-Cola's Colombian subsidiaries, a charge Coca-Cola dismisses out of hand. In the l990s, British Petroleum (BP) was linked to the assassination of a number of union and community leaders who were against the privatization of the oil industry. These activists were highly critical of the contamination of the town of el Morro in the Casanare department, in the heart of Colombia's oil region, paying the ultimate price for daring to speak out against the practices of the oil company. While BP denied having any links with paramilitaries, it acknowledged using private security contractors in the area who were training Colombian police in counterinsurgency techniques.'; Clearly, Colombia is the most difficult place in the world to do labor organizing. Neither Plan Colombia nor any of the other public policy pronouncements from Washington relating to Colombia have adequately addressed this harsh reality.
(snip/...)

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/South_America/View_North_CUS.html

[Bill McBlueState]

18. how do you come to that conclusion?

What in my post indicates that I don't understand the depth of Coke's anti-labor practices? Nothing in the excerpt you posted is particularly surprising to me.

My gripe is with NYU, which is willing to jump on the pro-labor bandwagon as long as the labor in question isn't drawing their paychecks from the NYU budget. When supporting labor directly impacts NYU's bottom line, they're more than willing to roll over and side with the anti-worker decisions of the Bush-appointed National Labor Relations Board.

From the website of the NYU graduate employee union:

In 2002, GSOC won the first contract for graduate assistants at a private university. Our contract improved the lives of graduate students dramatically and was praised by the NYU administration. Now, thanks to a regressive Bush administration ruling, NYU is refusing to bargain a second contract with GSOC. GSOC members voted by a margin of 85% to strike for a new contract, and our strike began on Wednesday, November 9, 2005.

If the NYU administration really cared about workers, they would kick Coke off campus and come to the bargaining table with their graduate employees. Until the latter takes place, their anti-Coke stance comes across as hypocritical.

[nyublue]

19. NYU was the first private school to sign a union contract

So, in that sense, they are more pro-labor than other schools, like Columbia, Yale, Harvard, etc, are.

Also, the Coke ban came from the student council - the strike is being caused by the adminstration.

[Judi Lynn]

20. Thank you. It's very helpful reading your clarification.

Welcome to D.U., nyublue! :hi: :hi: :hi:

[Bill McBlueState]

21. good for them

Why won't they bargain a second one?

[fushuugi]

24. welcome to D.U. [n/t]

[jayfish]

17. "Professional Agitators" Huh?

How much does that shite pay? Sounds like a great career move.

Jay

[ronnie624]

22. Slightly off topic,

but over the years I have caught rumors and snippets implying that Coca-Cola and possibly Pepsi were involved in the financing of death squads in Latin America. Would you happen to have any information on this subject?

[lonestarnot]

23. Pepsi is now my drink of choice, not that they're probably any

better where labor is concerned.