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Mr. Douglas Daft
Chief Executive Officer
The Coca Cola Company
Atlanta, GA
Dear Mr. Daft:
I am deeply concerned
to learn that union workers at Coca Cola facilities are once
again under attack. Recent reports indicate that workers
at Coca Cola bottling facilities in Colombia, South America have
been kidnapped, tortured and murdered. According to the
July 20, 2001 lawsuit against the Coca-Cola Company and its
Colombian bottler, management relationships with paramilitary
death squads have been utilized to intimidate and execute union
workers. It is widely known that more trade unionists are
killed in Colombia than in all other countries combined but we
are alarmed to learn of Coca Cola’s indifference to the safety
of workers who produce or bottle its products.
It is our
understanding that Coca-Cola’s managers have been accused of
allowing, if not encouraging, paramilitary security forces to
murder, torture and kidnap trade union leaders and workers in an
effort to prevent union organizing in their bottling plants in
Colombia. This obvious injustice denies workers their
basic right, as stipulated by the International Labor
Organization, to form unions to advocate for their interests,
and threatens the lives of workers and their families.
It is clear that
Coca-Cola controls aspects of its production, including
production that occurs in facilities overseas. Your
company has a responsibility to take all steps necessary to end
violence against workers. Regardless of Coca-Cola's legal
liability, the company’s moral responsibility is clear.
We urge you to take the following steps to stop the violence
against workers and ensure that the rights and safety of all
Coca Cola workers are respected:
- Publicly denounce
all violence against Coca-Cola workers in Colombia;
- Ensure that there
is no collaboration between Coca-Cola bottling management
and supervisors with armed groups, including the
paramilitaries;
- Cooperate fully
with all official investigations into the charges that have
been made against Coca-Cola bottling companies in Colombia
and conduct an internal investigation, as proposed by the
IUF;
- Appropriately
discipline managers or supervisors found to have
collaborated with armed groups;
- Ensure that all
core labor standards, including ILO Conventions 87, 98, 135
(with recommendation 143) and 138 are respected at all
facilities that produce, package/bottle or distribute
Coca-Cola products in Colombia as well as elsewhere in the
world; and
- Negotiate with
Coca-Cola unions and their representatives an enforceable
international worker rights agreement that recognizes the
company’s responsibility for the conditions under which
its products are produced, packaged, and distributed.
We urge you to take
immediate action to stop the violence against workers and ensure
that basic human rights are respected in the processing,
bottling and distribution of Coca Cola products. Time is
of the essence as people’s lives are at risk.
Sincerely,
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