Boycott Coke

[realFedUp]

and milk.
aside from what Coke's done in Columbia: www.killercoke.org

from a local activist group e-mail:

Boycott, Walk the Line, Sabotage - Victory for the workers, by any means necessary.

Over 2000 Teamsters working for Coca-Cola went out on strike in Connecticut and Southern California, Monday, the 23rd, 2005 after contract negotiations failed. In southern California alone 1700 production and truck drivers throughout San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Orange County, and Riverside are out.

Coke doesnt want to make a reasonable contract return offer, and health and welfare is part of it, and theyre trying to shift cost onto their employees. Frank Sevila, a Teamster manager in the city of Orange, said. We want a fair contract that provides decent wage increases as well as adequate health coverage.

Coca-Cola is aiming to raise medical plan premiums, wants to take away many of the workers seniority options, add Sunday as part of the regular scheduled work week, reduce overtime earnings, and end work options when faced with layoffs. One worker said, Coca-Colas negotiator tried to propose that all retirement benefits would be cancelled retroactively. This while the companies CEOs work two years retire with health care for life and millions of dollars and theyre saying the company doesnt have enough money, bullshit.

My wife has a $700 a month maintenance drug bill, she has lupus, shes had it for 23 years and thats why I'm out there on the line, we need health insurance. Mike whos a side loader for coca-cola said.

These coke employees make between $15 - $20 an hour, which are certified and highly skilled. Coke who is hiring scabs and replacements is showing where the companies priorities are at by hiring non-certified drivers, at $9-$13 an hour. While reporting at the Orange distribution center I witnessed scabs breaking federal regulations again and again. Drivers who werent pre-checking the trucks before taking them onto public roads (a pre-check is where the whole of the truck is checked for cracks or any other safety problem). I was shown pictures of drivers running over curbs and barricades while making deliveries and another of a driver who didnt pre-check and the whole back fell off as he pulled out. These are workers who are endangering the public and have no right to be doing the jobs given to them.

Contract negotiations resume Tuesday May 31st, and a Rally and press conference have been called for Wednesday, June 1st, at noon at the bottling plant in downtown Los Angeles thats located off of Pico and Central at 12.

The teamsters are asking that people do not buy any Coke product while the strike is on, these include; Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Vanilla Coke, Canada Dry, Fanta, Dasani Water, Dr. Pepper, Fresca, minute maid, Sprite, and Squirt. If you wish to help you can go to a local distribution center in your area and help with the strike line, or go pick up some leaflets and pass them around local markets and to friends urging them to boycott coke.

[Joebert]

1. Aww man.

My one and only vice, a 42 oz. Coke.

Gone.

How depressing.

But not as depressing as the stories from Columbia.

I was mad at them over their policies on buying Indian water wells, and had stopped buying all but a coke at lunch once in a while.

Now I will stop completely.

Thank you for the information.

[LosinIt]

2. I haven't purchased brand-name soda/pop in years

Aldi baby, $1.79/12pack, but an icy Fresca would be great right about now!

[Jane Austin]

3. I don't know their politics, but the RC Cola drinks

are my favorites because they have no sodium, no caffeine, and their diet ones are sweetened, not with aspartame, but with Splenda.

If you like Orange Soda, try their Tangerine Diet Soda.

It is mmmm-mmmm-good!

They have a Raspberry Diet soda, and a White Grape Diet soda, too, as well as RC Cola, Diet RC and Diet Rite Cola.

Commercial over. :)

[shockra]

4. Not only that...

Coca-Cola Strikes Again!

With one documented lie after another, Coke has demonstrated that it has no compassion for animals, and no regard for the truth. Coca-Cola openly trades its integrity in pursuit of profits.

Coke has a long, bloody history of sponsoring bullrings in Mexico, Spain and other bullfighting countries. When SHARK successfully campaigned to force Pepsi Cola to remove its advertisements from bullrings in the late 1990s, Coke promised it had already dumped bullfighting years before. It was a lie. Coke's ads were still in the bullrings. Pepsi's ads are now gone.

Coke continues to sponsor rodeos -- pouring money into the violent abuse, maiming and killing of countless animals, even after promising in writing that it would no longer do so. It was another Coke lie. Coke ads remain in rodeos across North America.

Coke sponsors greyhound racing, an industry that annually kills thousands of "surplus" animals ranging from excess puppies to older racing dogs that can no longer make money for their exploiters. The greyhound industry also uses live animals such as rabbits as "lures." These animals are often allowed to be torn apart by the greyhounds as part of their "training."

http://www.sharkonline.org/indexcoke.mv

Some of Coke's most common products:

Bacardi Mixers
Barq's
Canada Dry
Cherry Coke
Crystal
Dasani water
Dr. Pepper
Fanta
Fresca
Fruitopia
Hi-C Punch
Ice Mountain
Limonaid products
Mello Yello
Minute Maid products
Mr. Pibb
Nescafe
Nestea products
Power aid
Red Lion
Refresh Tea
Splash
Sprite
Squirt
Sun Valley
Tab
Tai
Tasters Choice

The address for Coke's CEO -- Doug Daft(yup) is on the SHARK webpage.

[Theduckno2]

5. Stopped buying Coke products after hearing of the Indian water

stuation. I am even less inclined to go back now. Thanks for the heads up. :)

[BlueIris]

6. I haven't been able to drink Coke, or any other soda products,

since about 2001. I didn't have to read very much about the way they treat their workers to be too disgusted to drink another can. When I read about the terrible things the additives and special mix of refined sugar can do to your kidneys long-term, I swore off the stuff forever.

[REP]

8. The Kidney Rumors Are Just Rumors

The only thing in only cola drink that is harmful to a person who already has kidney disease is the phosphorus; the same is true for milk and beans. Renal diets limit or prohibit consumption of colas, milk, beans, nuts, bran, chocolate and other high phosphorus foods. I could tell you why, but I suspect no one is too interested in a lecture on what happens in renal failure.

Among the tinfoil community, there is far more fear about aspartame than there is about high fructose corn syrup when it comes to kidney function.

[bdot]

7. I get the stuff free anyways.

We get Coke and Pepsi products free at work anyways so I can still drink it. ;)

[Judi Lynn]

9. Haven't bought Cokes for years, although we dearly loved the product.

All it took was to learn about Coca-Cola actions against workers to do the trick. Makes a real mockery of their tv commercial from years ago: "I'd love to teach the world to sing in perfect harmoneeeeee."

Reuters: US Group Adds Coke to Colombia Death Squad Lawsuit

April 21, 2004

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Coca-Cola Co. should be held responsible for the death of a worker who was murdered by paramilitaries at one of the soft drink maker's bottling plants in Colombia, a U.S. human rights group said Monday.

The charge was part of an amended lawsuit filed in a Miami court by the International Labor Rights Fund, a group that has been pursuing the world's largest soft drink firm and its Colombian bottlers in U.S. courts for nearly three years.

The suit filed by the relatives of Isidro Gil and a group linked to the SINALTRAINAL union in Colombia accuses Coca-Cola and its bottlers of hiring right-wing death squads to intimidate union activists at bottling plants in the Latin American nation.

Gil was shot to death at a Coke bottling facility in northern Colombia in 1996. More than half a dozen union activists who worked at Coke bottling plants in Colombia have been murdered since 1989, according to SINALTRAINAL.
(snip/...)

http://www.cokewatch.org/news/hn_040421_1.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Human rights Abuses in Colombia against Coca Cola Workers: KillerCoke in a Distant land.
The struggle to unionize workers at a Coca-Cola bottling facility in Carepa, Colombia has resulted in the murder of one leader on the day the company was supposed to respond to the union. Days later paramilitary forces entered the plant and told workers: reign from the union, leave town or be murdered. Then the forces burned down the union hall and 40 workers were forced to resign from the union.

This is nothing new - in recent years, seven trade union leaders at Coke bottling plants have been tortured and murdered. Other unionists that supported the Coke workers have also been tortured and murdered. In dangerous Colombia 62 labour activists have been killed this year.

In an unusual and bold move, Colombian unions, supported by some USA unions are going to court in the USA to press charges of human rights abuses against USA based companies - Coke and its associated bottling companies. The case is still in court and the suit has drawn much needed attention to Colombia and the actions of USA-based transnational corporations around the world.

In the meantime, the USA government provides massive military aid to Colombia's right wing government and USA is Colombia's largest investor. Drugs, oil, minerals, even flowers from Colombia end up in the USA and benefit USA elites. There is an international call for a boycott against Coca-Cola products to support the workers in Colombia, added to the boycott because the company support George Bush and his war policies.
(snip/...)

http://www.islandnet.com/~bbcf/_articles/coca_cola_human_rights.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

.....The union of the Coca Cola and other food-processing workers in Colombia, SINALTRAINAL, aimed at showing through the public hearing that Coca Cola management in Colombia engages in a conscious anti-union policy. This policy includes using paramilitary forces known as death squads to intimidate, beat and murder union activists. Coca Cola management does this in collusion with the Colombian government.

The union President Javier Correa of SINALTRAINAL gave an overall view of how disappearances of union activists, searches of factories by paramilitary death squads and police led to what he called a “militarization of the work place.”Those at the hearing learned that of the 5,500 union workers at bottling plant in Bogota, now only 1,700 are left. Coca Cola management has replaced some 2,000 unionized workers by temporary workers. These temps get lower pay and work longer hours. Coca Cola, an Atlanta-based transnational company, is trying to increase this replacement in Bogota and at other plants around Colombia.

Coca Cola headquarters in Atlanta claim they have no responsibility for what happens locally. The workers argue that it certainly does, as the firm profits from any additional exploitation of local workers. Murders have taken the lives of 16 SINALTRAINAL members, eight of them workers at Coca Cola, the most recent on August 31 of this year.

With the portraits of murdered union workers hanging on the walls of the meeting hall, other workers took the platform to testify to a systematic policy of terror against the union. Workers told of death threats, forced displacements, the incarceration of workers and union leaders on trumped-up charges, the raiding of union offices, cooperatives and homes of union members, union de-certification, extortion and kidnapping of union members in order to force them to renounce their right to association, and the violation of collective agreements.
(snip/...)

http://www.iacenter.org/col_update2.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Biography of Luis Adolfo
Luis Adolfo Cardona is a Colombian trade unionist that Coca-Cola death squads kidnapped and threatened to kill. On December 5th, 1996, a paramilitary death squad came to the Carepa bottling plant and shot dead lead union negotiator Isidro Gil. Luis Adolfo Cardona was kidnapped later that afternoon by corporate thugs, but escaped and was forced to flee his home. The following day, union negotiations with Coca-Cola were to begin, but the paramilitary death squad burned down the union hall of the food and beverage workers union, SINALTRAINAL. Then Coca-Cola Management printed up a letter of resignation and forced all the union workers to sign it.

The Coca-Cola death squads continued to threaten and hunt for Luis Adolfo. A semiprofessional soccer player, Luis dodged the paramilitary death squads’ attempts to catch him in various towns and cities. The death squads continue to publicly threaten Luis, his wife, and daughter although they know he is living in the U.S. Luis, his family, and his union, SINALTRAINAL, are seeking justice from Coca-Cola here in the U.S.

Luis Adolfo was brought to the U.S. under the protection of the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center. Luis lives in Chicago with the aid of the United Steel Workers of America and a retired steel worker’s family hosts the Cardona family in their home. Various local unions—SEIU, Teamsters, UFCW, UNITE, USWA—have hosted or helped Luis Adolfo Cardona and the Consumer Campaign Against Coke. Luis has spoken at two-dozen colleges and schools about the Coca-Cola boycott and stopping Plan Colombia, the $1.2 billion dollar U.S. Government war plan for Colombia.
(snip)

http://colombiaactionnetwork.org/bio.html



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

......SINALTRAINAL and other unions have been placed in the context of being enemies of the armed actors. Workers are intimidated.

In 2000, a worker was killed every third day.
In 2001, 151 unionists were killed.
In 2002 (as of early August) 180 unionists had been killed in Colombia, including Rodrigo Gamboyo the day before our meeting. So the rate of assassination is accelerating.

Workers are abused emotionally, physically, and economically, while Coke tries to keep a human rights-friendly profile in the US.
(snip/...)

http://www.circlevision.org/colombia/reportsbog/sinaltrainal/reportsinal.html

[realFedUp]

12. thanks for the info....nt

[Swamp Rat]

10. I bought some Coke about 7 years ago to clean the "glue bugs" off the

front of my car, but I'd never drink the poison. :puke:

[realFedUp]

11. the dried stuff does make good fly paper too....nt

[Pacifist Patriot]

13. Not a problem. Haven't used their products in well over a decade.

[qnr]

14. No problem here, detest Coke products anyway n/t

[RebelOne]

15. No problem with boycotting by me.

I never drink the stuff anyway.

[sellitman]

16. I don't drink any soda anymore.

Only supermarket brand seltzers.

Screwem all!

[lonestarnot]

17. Strike! Where can I pour out my stash with some effect?

[realFedUp]

18. here

Contract negotiations resume Tuesday May 31st, and a Rally and press
conference have been called for Wednesday, June 1st, at noon at the
bottling plant in downtown Los Angeles that's located off of Pico and Central at 12.

[lonestarnot]

20. Well I can't just run over to LA and dump today.... I was thinking of

something more local.

[proud2BlibKansan]

29. Use it to clean the terminals on your car battery

Cola drinks are probably the unhealthiest 'food' products in the grocery store.

I have never understood how people can drink acid and enjoy it. I have steered clear of cola ever since the first time I watched it used to clean a car battery. :puke:

[realFedUp]

19. Update on strike in LA

JUNE 01, 2005

CALIFORNIA COKE EMPLOYEES TENTATIVELY AGREE ON CONTRACT
(C) 2005 FWN Select. All Rights Reserved

LOS ANGELES -- Nearly two thousand Coca-Cola Co. employees in Southern California could end their strike against the company soon after reaching a tentative agreement on a new contract.

Negotiators from the workers' union and Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) agreed on a five-year contract early Wednesday morning. It came hours before the International Brotherhood of Teamsters planned to hold a rally and possible boycott later Wednesday. That rally has been called off.

The agreement would affect some 1,700 drivers, bottlers and warehouse workers in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. They went on strike last Tuesday amid a dispute over a new contract that promised a pay hike, but wouldn't cover increased health-care costs.

[lonestarnot]

21. Yeah! Guess I can keep my stash.

[realFedUp]

23. newest update on boycott...

I heard on the radio an hour or so ago that, although the rally has been cancelled, the picket lines will still be in place for a day or two, until the offer is voted on. This means that the boycott should stay on until then.

Then, of course, there's the whole "killer Coke" boycott, which is a different and broader issue.

[Protagoras]

22. When I was in boot camp the first thing we stopped

was drinking pop. I dropped coke and noticed an immediate improvement in everything from my weight to my breath. I have, in the last couple decades since then fell off the wagon...

But after a few months of weight gain, caffiene addiction, and yes...even a noticable change in achne..stopped again and every time I feel better.

Call it psychosomatic or whatever...but seems to me that I'm healthier and happier when I just don't drink the stuff anyway.

Maybe it's time for a Supersize me Documentary about the Cola industry.

[theboss]

24. So...we boycotted for an hour?

Good times.

[eissa]

25. I don't get it

We're being asked to boycott something because it has a negative impact on other people? Not because it's shaped like a penis or somehow tied to people being generally happy? Man, I'll never understand you liberals! :sarcasm:

[Heewack]

26. Pepsi too

Pepsi has been pulling the same stunts as Coke all over the country.

[jazzjunkysue]

27. And the #1 supplier of Pepsi sugar gives all his $ to the KKK.

So, drink french water.

[otohara]

28. I Don't Drink Toxic Corporate Liquids

full of sugar and corn syrup.