A Brief History of Coca Cola vs. SINALTRAINAL

Coca Cola was developed in 1886 by John Pemberton. Originally meant to be a patent medicine, its bitter taste was unappealing, causing Pemberton to add more and more sugar and sweetener to the product until it became less medicinal and more confectionary. It quickly grew from its roots at drug store soda fountains, becoming a profitable and popular beverage. After Pemberton sold the recipe to Asa Candler the popularity continued to grow. During the first decade alone Candler increased profits by four thousand percent. With an innovative distribution method of selling cola syrup to bottlers who manufactured and distributed individual bottles, Coca Cola became available across the United States. The company’s growth has continued steadily, and today The Coca Cola Company is the largest beverage produce in the world, and over one billion Coca Cola Company products are consumed every day.

After entering the world market, The Coca Cola Company explored new options for production and distribution. Like several similarly successful American companies during the twentieth century, The Coca Cola Company invested in bottling plants off of United States soil. The chief appeal of this outsourcing is that they need only meet the labor regulations of whatever foreign soil they are occupying, which reduces production cost for the company.

Trade and labor unions exist in other countries, but they do not enjoy the same level of safe representation and influence as a comparable US organization would. An example would be SINALTRAINAL (Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Industria de Alimentos, or The National Union of Food Industry Workers) which is a Colombian organization that has attempted to create union for the workers in Coca Cola bottling plants as well as several other food corporations within the country. Originally founded by Nestle workers in 1982, SINALTRAINAL has faced an enormous amount of opposition towards their efforts to establish a safe and fair work environment. Their official website has an entire section devoted to “martyrs” to their cause. Twenty three people are listed as having died to promote the efforts of the organization, and there are more besides who have been displaced from their land or imprisoned.

The first recorded case of violence at the Colombian bottling plant occurred in 1990, when a union worker was killed. Response was limited as there was little that could be done. No further violence occurred until the end of 1994 and the beginning of 1995, a stretch of time in which three more workers were killed. The Coca Cola Company was oddly quiet during this five year period and barely responded to the fact that their workers were being killed.

On December 5^th, 1996, Isidro Gil was killed. Gil was the leader of SINALTRAINAL in northwestern Colombia, where the Coca Cola bottling plant is located. Allegedly he was killed on Coca Cola Company property after failed negotiations for the formation of a union to protect the bottling plant workers. After his death, the nearby SINALTRAINAL headquarters were burned to the ground. In addition, his brother (who had been active in the negotiations) was pressured with death threats to leave the union, and his wife was dragged from their home and killed. Two days after this string of violence, workers in the bottling plant were gathered by paramilitary forces and made to sign resignations from the SINALTRAINAL union.

SINALTRAINAL eventually accused The Coca Cola Company of ordering the AUC (Audtodefenas Unidas de Colombia, or the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia) to carry out these attacks on the plant workers in order to drive down wages through fear tactics. With the help of the United Steelworkers of America, SINALTRAINAL filed a lawsuit in Miami on July 20^th, 2001. Evidence was difficult to come by, but it was not lack of support for the SINALTRAINAL allegations that caused the case to be overturned by the district court in 2003. Instead, the ruling was based on the fact that these crimes in Colombia were too far removed from the Atlanta, Georgia based company, and therefore were not the concern of the American legal system.

Killer Coke was launched one month after this ruling with the intent of spreading public knowledge of The Coca Cola Company’s crimes and violations. Their efforts have caused twenty three college campuses to boycott the beverage so far. In addition to this, Costco Wholesale has recently refused to carry Coke products. More work needs to be done before conditions for the workers will change, but efforts are being made.

Click HERE to open the feedback tool.

The Last Can of Coca Cola

It’s a hot summer day. Heat is rising from the asphalt in vapor clouds. You’ve sweat enough to soak through your clothes. You reach into the ice chest at your side, feeling chilled water and a few remaining ice cubes as they bump into your hand. At the bottom of the chest you touch metal, and triumphantly you raise the last remaining can of Coca Cola. The top pops and hisses, and you enjoy gulp after gulp cooling ambrosia.

Would it surprise you to learn that the company behind this delicious beverage, a symbol of relaxation and refreshment worldwide has recently been accused of the kidnapping, torture, and murder of union leaders at their Colombian bottling plants? If you follow the link posted at the bottom of this page you will find Killer Coke, a website dedicated to investigating and exposing these acts to the general public. In conjunction with SINALTRAINAL (the National Union of Food Industry Workers) they hope to establish humane working conditions within the bottling plants and force Coca Cola to accept responsibility and face the consequences of their actions.

For a company that made four billion dollars last year with an advertising campaign based on commercials associating Coke with summer days, sports events, and symbols of American values, this information is shocking. It is hardly the first claim of harsh conditions in overseas plants that produce American goods; the Nike brand has been synonymous with sweatshop labor, and has contracted with companies in China, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Mexico, moving their company whenever workers organize and demand improved conditions that threaten profit and cheap production prices. Despite this however, there have been no claims leveled against Nike that compare to those brought against Coke. The chief similarity between the two companies seems to be that neither has seen more than a passing dip in their profits since these accusations have been made.

When I talk to people about their thoughts on what Coke is doing, it becomes easier to imagine how these companies have managed to maintain their profits in the face of a humanitarian crisis. A concerning number of responses have been that Coke is a delicious drink, why should we care how it arrives in our glasses? How can this sort of mentality be acceptable in the world today? A simplified answer would be that the workers are too far out of our sight. These are hardly the first people to die off of American soil due to poverty conditions and oppression, so why are they special? A simplistic answer is rarely the one that works, so I will not concern myself with one. My goal is only to aid in the exposure of this problem and to encourage dialogue around it.

The purpose of this blog is to continue the investigation and analysis begun by Killer Coke, to introduce the topic in another forum, to examine the conditions that have allowed lower class workers to be put in these situations, and to offer my own opinion and analysis of the information presented for and against Coke as it is made apparent. Expect more to follow in the coming weeks.

http:/www.killercoke.org/