Coke to Examine Overseas Labor Practices (boycotts works)

[IChing]

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) -- The Coca-Cola Co. says it is willing to examine its labor and business practices in India and Colombia to keep $1.3 million worth of contracts with the University of Michigan.>>>snip

Atlanta-based Coca-Cola has for years faced questions about its labor practices abroad, and college students have levied some of the most vocal complaints. The company has repeatedly denied allegations of environmental and human rights abuses, but officials said they would look into the matter.

The student group accused Coca-Cola of draining the water table in India, causing farmers' crops to go dry; distributing bottling plant sludge containing contaminants to Indian farmers as fertilizer; selling products that contain pesticides in India; and conspiring with paramilitary groups in Colombia to harass and harm union members.

"The main issue ... is that the university is pandering to corporate interests and not necessarily to its constituents, the students," said Saamir Rahman, a 19-year-old junior and member of the group.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/COKE_COMPLAINTS?SITE=MNMAN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-06-20-11-09-49

Boycotts work folks these students show that it does
http://www.colombiaactionnetwork.org/boycott.html
The reasons to boycott coke

http://killercoke.org/crimes.htm

[getmeouttahere]

1. Just give me a reason!

not that I need one, because I've said it before and I'll say it again and again, boycotts/buycotts are the only power we have left, and if done in a massive way, can effect change

[ooglymoogly]

2. for the naysayers...one thing is for sure boycotts cannot help our enemies

and if persistent by all of us will destroy them

[Marthe48]

3. I've been boycotting Coke since Feb. 2001

and all the other corporations that funded Bush and supported him into the White House.

Actually the longer Bush is in the White House, the less I want to support anything 'mainstream'

[IChing]

4. look at their stock history

From the news article:

Coca-Cola shares fell 17 cents to $43.88 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Its shares traded in a 52-week range of $38.30 to $51.85.

At Coke's annual meeting in April, chief executive Neville Isdell promised to continue to listen to the critics,
though he insisted there is no proof of their claims.
Even so, Isdell conceded that the company's best efforts to put the questions to rest have not been successful.

[Judi Lynn]

5. They can't imagine they've done anything wrong. Oh, yeah.

The protests going back years and years are probably the work of them there commie-nists, who envy them for their freedoms, apparently.

We stopped using the product as much as we dearly loved it YEARS ago, once we were sufficiently aware of how Coca Cola behaves when the local governments can be bought. Pure evil.








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.......In July 2001, the United Steelworkers of America and the International Labor Rights Fund (www.laborrights.org) filed a lawsuit on behalf of SINALTRAINAL, several of its members and the estate of Isidro Gil, one of its murdered officers. The lawsuit and campaign aim to force Coca-Cola to prevent further bloodshed and to provide safe working conditions.

Coca-Cola bottlers “contracted with or otherwise directed paramilitary security forces that utilize extreme violence and murdered, tortured, unlawfully detained or otherwise silenced trade union leaders,” the lawsuit states. It also notes that Colombian troops connected with the paramilitaries have trained at the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning, Ga., where trainees were encouraged to torture and murder those who do “union organizing and recruiting;” pass out “propaganda in favor of workers;” and “sympathize with demonstrators or strikes.” This was made public when the Pentagon was forced to reveal the contents of training manuals used at the school. (For more information, see www.soaw.org, the website of SOA Watch.) The year that the lawsuit was filed, The Coca-Cola Co. made $4 billion in profits and paid its CEO, Douglas Daft, more than $105 million. Coca-Cola continues to rake in billions each year, yet the frightening conditions at the Coke plants remain unchanged. Labor unions and human rights advocates in the United States can stop these atrocities at Coca-Cola’s bottling plants.
(snip)

http://killercoke.org/protest.htm

[Say_What]

6. Thugs go better with Coke...