Coca Cola Workers Hunger Strike News

Communique 18th March 2004:
1. There is a serious risk situation in the tent at Barrancabermeja. At 8.30 p.m. on 16th March Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad DAS was asked to attend because of the appearance of four unknown individuals near to the tent; but this state security organisation refused support. Electricity supply to the zone had been turned off at the same time. After several efforts and pressure finally the National Police made a presence at the site, occasioning the unidentified persons to withdraw.

2. 5 p.m. on 16th March at the tent outside Coke’s administrative centre in Bogotá: several officers of the National Police turn up demanding that the hunger strikers’ placards are taken down. This by order of Mayor of Fontibón, on the pretext of visual contamination. After several interjections the removal of the placards was stopped. Coca Cola did not succeed in breaking our protest with favours from the police.

3. Today, 18th March, there has been a press conference in Barranquilla with comrade Daniel Kovalik, lawyer for the victims taking Coca Cola to court in Florida. The written and spoken press attended, as did the workers’ families and social organisations in the city.

4. Due to the total arbitrariness of the multinational Coca Cola, its intention to cut the workers rights and its interest in carrying out a new wave of mass sackings, negotiations over the unions’ demands have broken down with Panamco Colombia S.A.

5. Several comrades at the Bucaramanga bottling plant were called to disciplinary hearings for participating in the protest. They had to present themselves accompanied by a doctor due to their state of health, and to stay connected to clinical equipment to avoid dehydration.

6. We maintain the firm commitment to save our jobs. The 30 comrades, with our President LUIS JAVIER CORREA SUAREZ at the head, are continuing the hunger strike. Their morale remains high, their ideals firm and their health is stable.

7. Up to now Coca Cola has shown no intention of resolving the conflict.


Communique 19th March 2004:
120 hours have now passed since the start of this great protest for the rights of work and of life by our glorious trade union. We inform the national and international community:

1. With the aim of seeking a solution that would see the workers relocated and a solution to the conflict, we have been petitioning the relevant government offices -Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Social Protection, Prosecutor General, Ombudsman, Presidential Human Rights Programme – without up to now the glimpse of any positive response from them.

2. 5 days into the protest and Coca Cola maintains a total silence that shows once again its scorn for life, security and well being of its workers.

3. 120 HOURS from day one and the health of our comrades is beginning to deteriorate. According to the last medical reports, some of the participants in this just protest started a critical process of weakening that demanded measures to be taken to protect their lives. The most critical situation is at the Cúcuta plant where one of the comrade suffered a pre-heart attack and I snow in a delicate state of health.

4. We have asked the International red Cross and the National Red Cross to be present at the places where the hunger strikers are located, with the aim that the take any humanitarian action necessary for our comrades to maintain their health and save their lives.

5. We reaffirm the justice of our struggle and the firm commitment of those engaged in the protest to keep on going until we have saved the jobs and ensured our union SINALTRAINAL’s stability. Other comrades have joined our protest, so we have had to enlarge the tents to make space.

6. We are receiving solidarity messages and new support from the four corners of the world. New groups of men and women who love life and liberty are ready to join our dignified protest. This protest is going onward and is sowing seeds that will germinate.

7. In three days time we are due to receive at each of the tents installed in front of the bottling plant visits from many friends. The hunger strikers will be garlanded with hugs and kisses. There will be cultural groups and we will share our dreams of the future and dignity. The National United Command formed by the union centres , Confederación General de Trabajadores Democráticas CGTD, La Central Unitaria de Trabajadores de Colombia CUT, la Confederación de Trabajadores de Colombia CTC, and the Confederation of Colombian Pensioners has called for a all its affiliated organisations to share Monday 22 March ( a holiday day in Colombia) with the hunger strikers. We await them with open heart.

Communique 21st March 2004: PARAMILITARIES MAKE THREATS AGAINST SINALTRAINAL OFFICIAL
The hunger strike is proceeding successfully. We have passed 170 hours on strike and we remain firm and strengthened by the justice of our cause.

Coca Cola maintains a sepulchral silence. It does not move, it is not seen or felt; neither the health nor the life of our comrades bother it. The hunger strikers are presenting signs of dehydration and they continue to lose weight, but their morale is strong and their yearnings for life and liberty have been met with massive solidarity that we continue receiving from all corners of the world.

We are advancing in our struggle against this most aggressive multinational in the food sector, and one of the the most important representatives of the imperialist invasion and neo-colonisation.

Struggling against the criminal policy of the multinationals, we are also facing the macabre offensive of the US invasion forces. They do not only invade peoples with their armies as happened in Iraq and other lands; but countries are also invaded and killed by hunger and misery through the multinationals. The workers of Coca Cola in Colombia continue resisting the oppression of this multinational.

Seven days of hunger strike and the struggle continues. We are profoundly concerned by the following events:

1. On 19th March a communique on the letter-headed paper of the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia [lit. United Self Defences of Colombia – paramilitaries] circulated in Valle del Cauca Departament. This makes official the threats already made against our organisation. Part of the text reads:

"Our struggle as defenders of democracy and enemies of the authoritarianism embodied by these "communistoid" stirrers is to point out these false personalities with their democratic speechifying, who at bottom only want to do away with all the country’s productive institutions.

The aforesaid camouflage artists belong to the [food workers] trade union SINALTRAINAL, known as an auxiliary and collaborator of the insurgency in Valle de Cauca. Diverting from its true interests and concerns as a union, these little pastors shield themselves behind slogans like defending jobs and the workers.

The Calima-Pacific Block [of the AUC] and other collaborators declare war on the individuals that we have already identified as leaders of the organisation. They must leave within three months or they will become military targets of our organisation and we will finish them all off. ANTI-SUBVERSIVE JUSTICE WILL CARRY OUT JUSTICE"

2. This death threat comes in the midst of the hunger strike by SINALTRAINAL members working for the multinational. We make Coca Cola responsible for any attempt against the health and life of our comrades participating in this dignified protest.

We call urgently on all social organisations and defenders of human rights around the world to reject this new threat against any outcome of the conflict that is not to the benefit of Coca Cola. We ask you to send letters of protest to:

COCA COLA FEMSA
Juan Manuel Arbeláez (Director de Recursos Humanos)
Armando Gómez (Jefe de Relaciones Laborales
Teléfonos 2942800 y 4011413 fax. 4011687
 agomari@femsa.com.mx y  cocacola@hotmail.com

DEFENSORIA DEL PUEBLO
VOLMAR PÉREZ (Defensor del Pueblo)
MARTHA LUCIA MELO (Directora Nacional de Quejas)
Teléfonos: 3147300 y 5708331

MINISTERIO DE PROTECCIÓN SOCIAL
Dr. DIEGO PALACIO BETANCURT (Ministro)
Dra. LUZ STELLA VEIRA (Jefe de Unidad e Inspección)
Teléfonos: 3365066 y3410631

MINISTERIO DEL INTERIOR
Dr. SABAS PRETEL DE LA VEGA
Fax. 5602604

With a copy to: SINALTRAINAL, fax (00571) 2455325 and to electronic mail:
 sinaltrainal@sinaltrainal.org,  areainternacional@sinaltrainal.org *

Food Industry Workers Union "SINALTRAINAL"

FOR OUR JUST CLAIMS …LONG LIVE THE WORLD CAMPAIGN AGAINST COCA COLA!
FOR A DIGNIFIED AND SOVEREIGN COUNTRY…WE CONTINUE RESISTING FOR LIFE!
DOWN WITH THE IMPERIALIST INVASION PLAN…LONG LIVE THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE PEOPLES!
YOUR SUPPORT AND PARTICIPATION ARE GUARANTEES OF VICTORY.

* and in the UK and Europe to Jose Nunez Cervera, Director Coca Cola European Public Affairs e-mail  jnunezcervera@eur.ko.com and to Martin Norris, Communications Director, Coca-Cola, UK  mnorris@eur.ko.com.
With copies to:  colombia_sc@hotmail.com


THERE WILL BE AN EMERGENCY MEETING OF THE COLOMBIA SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN open to all those who want to help with Solidarity Action in support of the Coca Cola Hunger Strikers.
From 6.30pm Thursday 25th March at CORAS, 161 Lambeth Walk, SE11 (nearest tubes Vauxhall and North Lambeth)

Coke and BP in the News

Things get worse with Coke Felicity Lawrence, consumer affairs correspondent March 20 2004
Oil and water - Busted brands Leader Saturday March 20, 2004 The Guardian

See also the Corporate Social Responsibility special report in the Business Section of the Observer Sunday 21 March 2004
(p7) "When talk is cheap - and life can be cheaper" on Burma, Coca-Cola and BP

Scottish Socialist Party Solidarity Motion to Scottish Parliament

S2M-01055 Frances Curran (West of Scotland) (SSP):

"That the Parliament notes with grave concern the hunger strike that commenced on Monday 15 March 2004 by Coca-Cola workers in front of the Coca-Cola bottling plants in eight Colombian towns in protest at the company's plans to dismiss 91 workers from the plants; expresses its great concern at the continuing oppression of workers in Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia, particularly trade union leaders and members, and the company's efforts to eliminate the trade unions by pressurising workers to resign from contracts; further notes with concern allegations that paramilitary groups have attacked and murdered trade unionists working in Coca-Cola plants in Colombia, and believes that all Coca-Cola products and advertising should be removed from the parliamentary estate and all publicly owned buildings, especially schools, at once as an act of solidarity with the workers and trade unions in Colombia."

IRELAND: SIPTU section supports Columbian Coca-Cola workers
By Alan MacSimoin - Workers Solidarity Movement

SIPTU members in Trinity College have called for no investment in Coca-Cola by the Trinity College pension fund (or by SIPTU¹s own pension fund). At Tuesday¹s annual general meeting of the union section - which represents over 550 security, cleaning, catering, secretarial, computer and other non-academic staff - there was overwhelming support for the dis-investment motion.
The members heard that Coca-Cola is implicated in the murder and intimidation of bottling plant trade unionists in Columbia. For this company to stand idly by when they are quite capable of bringing enormous pressure to bear on their bottlers is not acceptable. This motion arose from the request of the Columbian Trades Union Congress for concrete solidarity with the workers in the plants. As we like to put on our union banners "An Injury to One is the Concern of All". Previously the section committee (shop stewards) had invited representatives of the SIPTU bottling plant workers in Ireland and the Latin American Solidarity Centre to meet with them.


NEWS FROM KILLER COKE CAMPAIGN IN USA

US STUDENTS TO PARTICIPATE IN SOLIDARITY ACTIONS ON MARCH 23: On Tuesday, March 23, students organized by United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) will participate in fasting and other actions in solidarity with the Coca-Cola hunger strikers. Protests are expected to take place at Coca-Cola offices around the United States, including those in Needham Heights, MA (near Boston); Atlanta, GA; Cincinnati, OH; Niles, IL (near Chicago); Oakland, CA; Los Angeles, CA; New York City, and Columbia, MD. USAS also hopes to organize protests at Knoxville, TN; Tampa, FL; Mission, KS; Phoenix, AZ; Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, TX.

Thursday March 25: COKE IS DEFECTIVE DAY: Alone or with friends, go to stores and pick up a Coke product, bring it to the cash register or customer service desk and politely inform a store employee that you consider Coke products to be "Defective" — unfit to buy or consume in light of the suppression and murder of union workers at Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia, as well as the overexploitation of water and pollution in India; Coke's failure to live up to its promise to provide HIV/AIDS treatment to its African workers; the company's longstanding hostility toward environmental concerns, i.e. bottle bills (a major issue in New York), recycling and much more - see How Credible is Coca-Cola? Beyond Coke's Crimes in Colombia.

UK Campaign Timetable

Saturday 27th March "Free Trade vs Human Rights?" Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign Dayshool
10 a.m. t 5.00 p.m. at NUT, Hamilton House, Mabeldon Place, London WC1 (King's Cross / Euston tube)

Saturday 10th April London Branch meeting: Discussion on Free Trade Area of Americas / ALCA
with perspectives from other Latin American countries.
2pm - 5pm CORAS, 161 Lambeth Walk, London SE11 (Vauxhall / Lambeth North tube)

Thursday April 15th 2004, BP AGM ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL, SOUTH BANK, LONDON
We'll be in the AGM and London Rising Tide will have a protest, so join in.

Saturday 1st May Day Demonstrations where we will be leafletting for...

Tuesday 11th / Wednesday 12th May conference, "What's The Point Of Corporate Responsibility?"
by Ethical Corporation magazine more information at  http://www.ethicalcorporation.com

"Here are some of the brands and companies speaking, attending and sharing their experiences: Shell, BP, Coke, Siemens, The Economist, BSkyB, McDonald's,Gap, Timberland, National Grid, Transco, Levi's, Westpac, Vodafone, HypoVereinsBank, ISIS Asset management, TNT Express, BASF, The Times newspaper, and Hewlett-Packard to name just a few."

Entrance: CORPORATE PRICING 2-Days £895 + VAT 1-Day (May 11th or 12th Only) £595 + VAT NON-PROFIT ORGANISATION PRICING 2-Days £595 + VAT 1-Day (May 11th only) £395 + VAT Students: £295 + VAT (call us to book)

VENUE NOT ANNOUCED - WE WILL DO A PROTEST AND INVITE OTHERS
WOULD YOU LIKE TO COME TELL COKE AND BP THE POINT OF CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY?

Saturday 5th June Campaign Dayschool "The Unheard Colombia - Voices from the Social Movements"
followed by fiesta. London - venue and details to be announced.

Sunday 6th June Colombia Solidarity Campaign Annual General Meeting
Members only - motions in advance, by 22nd May to circulate and to allow amendments.

19th - 27th June INTERNATIONAL CARAVAN TO SAVE THE LIVES OF COLOMBIAN WORKERS
This is a very important opportunity to show direct solidarity and learn about Colombia.
We recommend delegates attend preparation meetings - for those in England 5/6th June. Other areas by arrangement.