Coca-Cola Workers go on Hunger Strike in Colombia

This morning, Monday March 15, Coca-Cola union workers in Colombia began a hunger strike in front of the Coke bottling plants in Barrancabermeja, Bogotá, Bucaramanga, Cali, Cartagena, Cúcuta, Medellín, and Valledupar. Juan Carlos Galvis, vice president of the local union in Barrancabermeja, has said, "If we lose the fight against Coca-Cola, we will first lose our union, next our jobs and then our lives."

On September 9, 2003, Coca-Cola FEMSA, Coca-Cola's largest Colombian bottler, closed the production lines at 11 of their 16 bottling plants. (The Coca-Cola Company shares several board members with Coca-Cola FEMSA and owns 46.4 % of its voting stock.) Since then, they've pressured more than 500 workers into "voluntarily resigning" from their contracts in exchange for a lump-sum payment. Most of the union leaders ave refused to resign and the company has now escalated the pressure against them. On February 25, the Colombian Ministry of Social Protection (Labor) authorized Coca-Cola FEMSA's plans to dismiss 91 workers - 70 percent of whom are union leaders. This is Coca-Cola's effort to essentially eliminate the union.

The Campaign To Stop Killer Coke supports the union's call for Coca-Cola FEMSA to relocate those workers to other positions within those plants or to transfer them to other plants. This is what the company is required to do, according to Articles 18 and 91 of the current collective bargaining agreements. In January, a Colombian judge also ordered the company to do this for the workers at the plants in Barrancabermeja and Cúcuta.

On behalf of the workers and their families, please send the strongest possible message to The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta and Coca-Cola FEMSA in Colombia. Here are sample messages and contact information, along with a communication that was issued by the union this morning.