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 5th, 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 20th, 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment