COLOMBIA: COCA-COLA WORKERS FACE INSULT ON TOP OF INJURY

COLOMBIA: COCA-COLA WORKERS FACE INSULT ON TOP OF INJURY

By Berta Joubert-Ceci

August 22, 2003--With the audacity characteristic of imperialist transnational corporations, the Coca-Cola Co. in Colombia has accused the leadership of the union SINALTRAINAL of libel and defamation. The union—National Union of the Food Industry Workers—represents workers in the Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia who recently launched an international campaign against the company for crimes committed against its workers and the failure of the company to address the union’s requests and demands.

The “Unthinkable! Undrinkable!” campaign was announced July 22 through media conferences and other actions in several cities of the United States, Europe and in Colombia. This campaign has been receiving a very positive response worldwide from unions, churches and many progressive organizations, who are pledging to move and publicize it. Its success apparently has triggered a vindictive and cowardly response from the beverage giant.

The campaign is the latest action in a long-standing drive by SINALTRAINAL to achieve justice, not only for its members, but for the entire people of Colombia. It is part of the Permanent National and International Campaign Against Impunity—Colombia Demands Justice, which was initiated in June 1998.

It unites nationally and internationally with other sectors of society who are victims of globalization, known in Latin America as the neoliberal process. It has held international opinion tribunals in the U.S. and Colombia and organized three hearings about the situation in the Coca- Cola plants—the first in Atlanta, Ga., the headquarters of Coca-Cola; the second in Brussels, Belgium; and the last in Bogotá, Colombia, last December.

These hearings were named after Héctor Daniel Useche Berón, the first SINALTRAINAL member assassinated by Colombian paramilitaries. His murder in 1986 marked the beginning of violent repression against the union. According to the union, it resulted in the killing of eight more unionists, the exile of two, the forced displacement of 48, death threats against 67, false accusations leading to the unjust imprisonment of 15 workers, and deaths and threats against family members of unionists.

This campaign of terror has undermined the union. It has lost more than 50 percent of its members, declining from 5,400 to 2,300. More than 10,000 Coca-Cola workers have been fired, replaced by temporary workers who are subcontracted at lower wages with no benefits.

On July 2001 the union filed a suit against Coca-Cola in the Miami Federal Court under the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) for human rights abuses against union workers committed by Colombian paramilitaries on behalf of the company. Last March, in a partial victory for SINALTRAINAL, the court ruled that there were grounds for the demands and therefore the case could proceed.

This ruling acknowledges the complicity of the Colombian state and President Álvaro Uribe Vélez with the paramilitaries. A technical requirement of ATCA is that there must be a component of “state action” in acts of violence against the plaintiff. However, the ruling also limited any action taken by the court to Panamco Coca-Cola, the Colombian subsidiary. Its U.S.-based parent is exempt.

The collusion of the Colombian government and transnational corporations—in this case Coca-Cola—is highlighted in a new attempt by the company to criminalize the labor union struggle by pressing defamation charges against Luis Javier Correa and Edgar Alberto Páez, national president and vice-president of SINALTRAINAL, respectively, and five other leaders of the union. This move also has the effect of undermining and putting at risk the legal case in the U.S. court.

Tellingly, the lawyer representing the company now, Jaime Bernal Cuellar, was Colombia’s general prosecutor at the time several of the crimes alleged by the union were committed. He never responded to the union’s requests for an investigation.

The union has requested that letters of protest be sent to Colombian and Coca-Cola officials. Their names, titles and email addresses are available at www.sinaltrainal.org. Queries can be sent to direccionnacional@sinaltrainal.org .