Coke Lies About Providing Security for Colombian Trade Unionists

international | miscellaneous | news report

Wednesday December 03, 2003 10:53

by Gearoid O Loingsigh

Yet another Coke lie

Coke has claimed to be providing security for trade unionists and Siptu echoed these claims in their private meeting with Sinaltrainal. It was pointed out that this was untrue. here isa statement from the union as far back as may pointing out the lies.

Coca-Cola Lies About Providing Security
After months of evasions and stonewalling in response to charges by the Colombian union,
SINALTRAINAL, and the International Labor Rights Fund concerning its involvement in gross
human rights violations at bottling plants in Colombia, The Coca-Cola Co. is now shamelessly
— and falsely — taking credit for providing protective measures to endangered employees in the
war-torn country.
Until recently, Coke’s reactions to the July 2001 ILRF lawsuit on behalf of the family of
Isidro Segundo Gil, a union officer murdered by paramilitaries who were working closely with
Coke’s managers at a plant in Carepa, Colombia, have either been assertions that there is “no
evidence” to support “outrageous allegations” or platitudes about “shar(ing) the aspirations of the
people of Colombia for peace, stability and economic progress.”
But at least three times in the last month, Coke and its spokesmen have made the same
outrageous claims:
• In a statement posted on its corporate web site (www.coca-cola.com) on March
21, Coke said the company “and its local bottling partners have prioritized the
safety and security of all employees and labor union officials” by joining “with
the Colombian Government and labor unions to provide all employees
comprehensive safety and security benefits” such as “transportation, loans for
secure housing, paid leave, job transfers, security training, shift and job changes
and extensive life insurance” as well as “personal body guards (and) armored
vehicles” for union officials.
• In an April 16 article, the day before The Coca-Cola Co. annual meeting, the
Houston Chronicle quoted Rodrigo Calderon, vice president of public relations
for Coca-Cola Latin America in Mexico City: “The allegations (in the ILRF
lawsuit) are totally false.” The newspaper added: “He said Coca-Cola provides
bodyguards to union officials, cell phones, armored vehicles and loans to beef up
home security.”
• In its April 17 issue, the Chronicle reported: “Deval Patrick, Coke’s general
counsel, said the company has gone as far as providing security for Colombian
individuals being threatened.”
According to William Mendoza Gomez, president of the Barrancabermeja section of
SINALTRAINAL, who attended the Coke stockholders’ meeting in Houston, “I’m one of 65
members of SINALTRAINAL who are threatened with death by the paramilitaries. Bodyguards
are with me all day, and some nights they stay at my house for increased security. My family has
been victimized.”
But Mendoza and several other union leaders, including Javier Correa, president of the
national union, insist that all protection made available to union members is funded by the
Colombian Ministry of the Interior and partially subsidized by the U.S. government and unions
in Europe and the U.S.
“Coke has virtually nothing to do with providing or paying for any of the protective
measures,” Correa said. “We have received some help as a result of the (legal) cases we have
brought against the company. In one case, the Ministry of the Interior agreed to provide an
armored car but still has not given it, so Panamco (Coca-Cola’s “anchor bottler” in Latin
America) loaned him one. In another isolated case, a worker was granted permission to take a
few days out of the city where he’d received death threats. Coca-Cola wants the world to believe
that the things the Ministry of the Interior has provided were given because Coca-Cola asked for
them. That is completely false! These are things we have achieved with the CUT (the national
union federation) through complaints and requests for protection.”
“I am in the program that provides protection for union leaders and human rights
defenders,” Mendoza said. “This is a program created by the Colombian government, due to
pressure from the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights of the OAS. The Commission
forced the government to give me protection and this came through the CUT and through
Domingo Tovar (of the CUT human rights department), who took the necessary steps to obtain
the protection. Coca-Cola doesn’t have anything to do with this process.
“Coca-Cola also says they loaned me money to buy the weapon I have,” Mendoza added.
“This is a lie. I bought the weapon with my own money. I said this directly to the company
lawyer (Coke’s general counsel, Deval Patrick) at the shareholders’ meeting, and told him he
shouldn’t lie. He said he had received false information from Panamco.”