This is the briefing paper I took to the Methodist Students' Council. Permission is granted for it to be circulated, providing no amendments are made to it.
Complaints against Coca-Cola
1. India
Coca-Cola is taking water from locals.
It takes three litres of water to make one litre of Coca-Cola. Several community campaigns in India.
In the state of Rajasthan, Coca-Cola established a bottling plant in 1999. There has since been " ... a serious decline in water levels. Locals are increasingly unable to irrigate their crops ... wells in use for drinking, cleaning, washing and sanitation are now in anger of drying up altogether." Water levels were stable from 1995-2000, then dropped 10 metres in five years.
Source: Graph produced by Ministry of Water Resources, Rajasthan.
Locals fear that Kaladera could become a 'dark zone'. (term used to describe areas that are abandoned due to depleted water resources.)
Activists in Chiapas, Mexico fear the same thing is about to happen there.
Land Contamination
Coca-Cola's plants provide a sludge-like waste which the company has sold as "fertiliser". Tests show that it has dangerous levels of cadmium and lead. Contamination, specifically lead, has spread to the water supply.
The Centre for Science and Environment tested Coca-Cola beverages and found levels of 30 pesticides 30 times higher than EU standards. Levels of DDT 9 times higher than EU limit.
Source (all above): War on Want, 2006. Quotes BBC, The Guardian, The Independent on Sunday
Other Reports: Ethical Consumer magazine, January 2006.
Also confirmed by eye-witness account; Sam, exchange student with Wesley College. Sam is a resident of Tamilnadu.
2. Colombia
Coca-Cola increasingly associated with union-busting activities. Eight employees in Colombia have been killed by paramilitaries. A lawsuit has been filed (June 2, 2006) under the Alien Tort Claims Act in the USA against the company and its bottlers.
Also being sued on behalf of 14 truck-drivers and other transport workers for its part in the torture and intimidation of trade unionists in Turkey.
Similar stories from the Punjab, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Peru, Chile, Russia.
Source: War on Want, 2006.
Action against Coca-Cola
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.”
Over 23 U.S. universities, including the University of Michigan, New York University and Rutgers University have cancelled or suspended Coca-Cola's supply contracts, costing the company millions of dollars in previously guaranteed revenues, but also, and more important, countless students say they will not drink Coke beverages, thereby breaking the cycle of consumption of this optional product that is tainted with the blood of Colombian workers.
Bristol University students are beginning a campaign. Other universities have voted to terminate commercial relations.
Campaigns as noted above.
Supported by Locals?
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), 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.
Workers in India want other countries to support their struggle by boycotting Coca-Cola.
3 comments:
And should you wish to purchase any coca-cola please go to THE WESLEY COLLEGE DINING HALL where they will be pleased to take your money and give you the product.
Sadly that is true, but we are working on it. We have discussed the fact that we have a big advert for Coke in the form of a chiller cabinet, and we are trying to point out to those in positions of power who sem interested in finance, and prefer not to believe unpalatable truths to that end, that this is primarily a theological issue.
So far we have got as far as getting other drinks more prominently displayed in said cabinet, but we have not managed to get Coke removed completely. The fight is still continuing however and we are encouraging a boycott; any assistance anyone can give in word and deed will be very warmly welcomed indeed.
If you have any complaints against any brand then Register on anyaayvirodh.com
Our legal adviser will help you.
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