----- Forwarded message from [log in to unmask] -----
Date: Sun, 26 Mar 2006 19:55:13 +0200
From: "KillerCoke.org" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: "KillerCoke.org" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: To Leaders of NUS & Media Re: Killer Coke
To: [log in to unmask]
Dear Leaders of the National Union of Students:
CAMPAIGN TO STOP KILLER COKE Cooper Station, P.O. Box 1004 New York,
NY 10276-1004 (718) 852-2808 /StopKillerCoke.org/ www.KillerCoke.org[1]
www.CorporateCampaign.org
March 25, 2006
Dear Leaders of the National Union of Students:
We’ve had a good response to our recent newsletter highlighting the
upcoming NUS vote on Coca-Cola and we were asked to respond further
to three questions and concerns that members of the board have:
1. IT HAS BEEN SAID THAT A BAN OF COKE PRODUCTS AT NUS FACILITIES
WILL HURT COKE WORKERS IN COLOMBIA.
Supporting a ban of Coke products at all NUS facilities will not
hurt but help Coke workers in Colombia and workers and communities
worldwide. The loss of contracts and the damage to Coke’s brand name
are the key factors that have gotten the Company’s attention at the
highest executive levels.
Years of so-called “constructive engagement” has not stopped Coke’s
attacks on workers, but has only maintained the /status quo/ and
allowed conditions to worsen, not only in Colombia, but for workers
and communities worldwide, including those in El Salvador, Guatemala,
India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Russia and Turkey. One
only has to read War on Want’s (one of NUS’s affiliates) report
released on Monday, March 20th, to see that Coca-Cola continues
widespread labor, human rights and environmental abuses.
The Coca-Cola Co. and its biggest bottler, Coca-Cola Enterprises
(CCE), which services the UK market are scared to death that NUS will
kick them out just like many of the largest universities in the U.S.
and Ireland have done. And remember, Gary Fayard, Executive Vice
President and Chief Financial Officer, The Coca-Cola Co., and Irial
Finan, Executive Vice President and President of Bottling Investments
of The Coca-Cola Co., serve on the boards of directors of both CCE
and Coca-Cola FEMSA, which is Colombia’s largest bottler and a
defendant in the lawsuit charging Coke’s bottlers in Colombia with
the systematic intimidation, kidnapping, torture and murder of union
leaders. When NUS kicks Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola Enterprises off the
campuses, it also kicks top policymakers of Colombia’s largest
bottler, Coca-Cola FEMSA, off the campuses.
Coca-Cola has been a leader in eliminating good union jobs for
workers in Colombia for more than a decade. In 1993, SINALTRAINAL
represented about 1,400 to 1,500 members in the Coke plants in
Colombia. SINALTRAINAL now represents between 300 and 400 Coke
workers because of efforts including human rights abuses to crush the
union. Another reason for the drop in membership is because Coke and
other multinationals use their political clout in Colombia to pass
laws that encourage subcontracting and temporary working. Because of
this, about 95% of workers in the Coca-Cola System (the network of
all workers producing and distributing Coca-Cola products) are
considered flexible, subcontracted workers who receive low pay,
meager, if any benefits, have no job security and can’t join the
union. Many of these workers are mired in poverty.
SINALTRAINAL released a statement on 18th May 2005: “We commemorate
the 10th anniversary of a strike on the North Coast in which, working
with the complicity of the Ministry of Labour, the employer sacked
twelve thousand employed workers. Now they are replaced by workers in
various forms of sub-contracted slavery, to which 95% of the
workforce is subject. The working conditions are inhuman, having to
complete working days longer than 12 hours, without social security
and on marginal wages that are not enough for a family.”
Even now, Coca-Cola has been taking out full-page newspaper ads in
colleges and universities across the United States claiming that more
than 30% of its employees in Colombia belong to unions. What Coke
isn’t saying is that most of the workers in the Coca-Cola System in
Colombia are not considered employees of the company.
2. IT HAS BEEN SAID THAT UNIONS IN COLOMBIA AND ELSEWHERE DO NOT
SUPPORT COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES BANNING COKE PRODUCTS.
In Colombia, the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores de Colombia (CUT
— the TUC of Colombia), recently issued a public statement from their
acting President, reaffirming their commitment and their backing of
SINALTRAINAL’s struggle.
In addition, CUT Vice President Fabio Arias said: "Coca-Cola has
been a persistent violator of trade unionists’ rights and for this
reason various universities in the United States have taken measures
to protest against their conduct…The CUT supports the University of
Michigan, in the United States, in discontinuing the sale of
Coca-Cola within their campus, as a result of accusations of
violating human rights and trade union rights in Colombia.
Some of the largest unions in the world, within and outside the IUF
(International Union of Food Workers based in Switzerland), support
the student movement to ban Coke products from the campuses. For
example, UNISON, the largest union in the UK and the 1.4
million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the world’s
largest Coca-Cola union, which represents more than 18,000 Coca-Cola
workers, supports the students’ campaign to pressure Coke. Europe’s
/Food Production Daily /reported on Feb. 9, 2006: “Coca-Cola is now
facing a labour relations problem in the US, after the Teamsters
Union joined protesters calling for boycotts against the company over
alleged human rights violations in Colombia.”
The IUF website claims the labor federation represents 12 million
workers worldwide. Many of their largest affiliates are fully
supportive of the campaign against Killer Coke and student actions
that have led to more than two dozen colleges and universities
kicking Coke off their campuses. These include the Service Employees
International Union, which represents 1.8 million workers;
UNITE-HERE, which represents 850 thousand workers, and the United
Steelworkers, which represents 1.2 million workers.
Unions that represent Coca-Cola workers in the UK — Amicus, the
Transport and General Workers Union and the GMB — altogether
represent about 2,100 Coca-Cola workers out of a total membership of
about 2.6 million workers. If these unions are concerned that
Coca-Cola would lay off some of their members due to kicking Coke off
campuses, it seems that the best response by those unions would be to
inform Coca-Cola’s Chief Executive Officer that they are prepared to
ask each of their 2.6 million members to contribute monthly to a
solidarity fund. That fund, in the spirit of international labour
solidarity, would be used to compensate those laid-off workers. Coke
would also be informed that any sacked workers will be hired to work
full-time to pressure Coke to end their labour and human rights
abuses, to organize other Coke workers and to fight for just
contracts for their own members in the UK. This would serve as a
great example of international labour solidarity in ! the global
economy for unions all over the world to emulate.
3. IF WE GET RID OF COKE, WHO WILL PROVIDE BEVERAGES AND THE SOURCE
OF FUNDING FOR STUDENT ACTIVITIES THAT COME FROM THE SALE OF THOSE
BEVERAGES?
NUS Services Limited’s /Sound sourcing guide for suppliers of NUS
Services /includes an excellent code of conduct for suppliers
regarding labour, human rights and environmental policies. Although
Coca-Cola may claim adherence to these principles, its practices
worldwide prove otherwise. Thus, NUS’s student unions should not be a
captive market for Coke’s products.
Companies such as Ben Shaws have already been replacing Coke at
various student unions. Many other companies, given a real
opportunity to compete with Coke, could provide excellent products
and a good source of revenue to the student unions.
The academic community in the UK, students, faculty and others,
could develop a marketing and business plan to replace Coke with
beverages produced by responsible companies which would also provide
as good or a better stream of revenues into student unions.
Terry Collingsworth, the Executive Director of the International
Labor Rights Fund and lead counsel in the Alien Tort Claims lawsuit,
charging Coca-Cola and its bottlers with crimes against humanity;
Camilo Romero, a leader in United Students Against Sweatshops; Amit
Srivastava, Coordinator of the India Resource Center, and I will be
available to answer questions at the NUS conference, March 28 to 30.
We all hope to have the opportunity to interact with each of you.
Peace & Justice,
Ray Rogers Director
CAMPAIGN TO STOP KILLER COKE
We are seeking your help to stop a gruesome cycle of murders,
kidnappings, and torture of union leaders and organizers involved in
daily life-and-death struggles at Coca-Cola bottling plants in
Colombia, South America.
"If we lose the fight against Coca-Cola, we will first lose our
union, next our jobs and then our lives." SINALTRAINAL VIce President
Juan Carlos Galvis -------------------------
Please donate to the Campaign.[2] -------------------------
LEARN THE TRUTH ABOUT THE COCA-COLA CO.
"We believe the evidence shows that Coca-Cola and its corporate
network are rife with immorality, corruption and complicity in
murder." Campaign to Stop Killer Coke/Corporate Campaign, Inc. Director Ray
Rogers
Visit www.KillerCoke.org[3]
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[3] http://www.killercoke.org
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