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News
Release
June 21, 2004
Coca-Cola’s Human Rights Record Under Fire;
Students Against Sweatshops Presses for Investigation of Exclusive UI Contract
Iowa City,
IA--In recent weeks, the campus group University of Iowa
Students Against
Sweatshops (UI SAS), echoing growing nationwide concern, has loudly called for
the University to investigate charges that the Coca-Cola Company grievously
violates the human and labor rights of its workers and those of the communities
in which it produces its products. Most notably, the
Workers’ Rights Consortium
(WRC), a labor monitoring organization to which the UI belongs, has been mulling
over the possibility of launching an investigation of the charge that Coke is
complicit in the brutal murder of eight union workers from its bottling plants
in Colombia. Three universities across the country with exclusive Coke
contracts (DePaul, Loyola-Chicago, Carleton College) have asked the WRC for a
formal investigation. SAS is urging that the University of Iowa add its name to
this list.
Chad Aldeman, a member of SAS and an undergraduate at the UI, said, “The
University has a chance to be a leader in the field of human rights. To turn
its back on Coke’s repugnant actions makes us part of the system of abuse.”
Over the past several weeks, SAS has been lobbying various decision-makers at
the UI to press for action, including the Charter Committee on Human Rights, the
UI’s WRC representatives, and President Skorton himself. At this stage, it
appears that the UI has cautiously agreed to attend one meeting to be brokered
by the WRC between Coke and various university representatives, and a second
between union members from Colombia and the same university reps. SAS argues
that this is only a start, and does not go far enough to assure that the UI’s
human rights record is not tainted by its huge contractual affiliation with
Coca-Cola.
In a lawsuit filed in Florida, Coca-Cola has been accused of looking the other
way when plant managers in Colombia support paramilitaries in order to destroy
unions with extreme violence, including torture and murder, against trade union
leaders. In April, SAS brought to the UI campus one Colombian union leader who
fled the country to save his life. Luis Adolfo Cardona spoke to over 60 SAS
members and community members on that day.
“We receive hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from Coke so it can call
itself the ‘Official Soft Drink of the Iowa Hawkeyes,’” noted SAS member and
undergraduate student Ethan Grundberg. “Isn’t it the least we can do to ensure
that this partnership reflects the principles of this University?”
Legal language justifying the WRC’s potential investigation may lie in the UI’s
Code of Conduct, drafted in 2000. Adds Girija Mahajan, SAS member and UI
undergraduate, “If the UI claims that the Code doesn’t cover the Coke contract,
however, it is unassailable that the spirit of the Code--mandating that the UI’s
licensee business partners protect human and workers’ rights--applies in this
circumstance.” If the current Code of Conduct is deemed inapplicable, SAS will
urge the University to draft a more comprehensive code to cover all its business
relationships to ensure that human and labor rights are sufficiently
protected.
The UI recently renewed its contact with Coca-Cola to run through 2008. In
addition to hundreds of thousands of dollars in sponsorship money, the
University also is guaranteed a minimum amount--usually $400,000 a year--from a
percentage of all Coke sales. With only a couple of exceptions, at all vending
locations on campus only Coke products are available. The contract began in
1998, and has net the University millions of dollars thus far.
The timetable for a potential WRC investigation is at the moment unclear, but
the implications of one are not. Ned Bertz, SAS member and UI graduate student,
says, “Either the UI uses its crucial leverage to get Coke to cease abusive
labor practices or the University loses all of its integrity with regards to
human rights.”
In addition to the allegations from Colombia, SAS has consistently pointed out
other areas in which Coke’s human rights record is deeply suspect. Last week, a
slew of newspaper reports came out revealing that Coke buys sugar from El
Salvador plantations that employ child labor. Communities in India which have
protested that Coke steals their clean groundwater and then pollutes it with
toxic chemicals from bottling run-off have been silenced with violence and
repressive arrests. African activists have noted that while Coke is the largest
private employer on the continent, and recorded record profits in recent years,
they provide AIDS medication to less than 1.5% of their employees suffering from
the disease.
In the coming months, Students Against Sweatshops wil continue to build a large
public campaign around these issues, with events to be held this summer and in
the fall. Currently, they meet on Thursday nights at 8pm in River Room 3 of the
Iowa Memorial Union.
Lon Moeller, a Professor in the College of Business, is the UI’s WRC
representative, appointed by President David Skorton. Marcella David, a
Professor of Law, is on the WRC’s Governing Board. Jan Waterhouse of the Office
of Affirmation Action heads the UI’s Charter Committee on Human Rights, also
directly responsible to President Skorton.
Students Against Sweatshops-University of Iowa
46 Iowa Memorial Union, University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52242
Contacts: Ned Bertz, 339-0214,
ned-bertz@uiowa.edu
Chad Aldeman, 321-1925,
chad-aldeman@uiowa.edu
Ethan Grundberg, 339-4821,
ethan-grundberg@uiowa.edu
Girija Mahajan, 515-556-4965,
girija-mahajan@uiowa.edu
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