PLEASE ACT NOW!

CALL COCA-COLA!!!

Coca-Cola CEO,
E. Neville Isdell
404-676-3808

Coca-Cola President and CEO, Steven Heyer
404-676-2121


"Hello, my name is ______________ and as a member of Colombia Action Network (or student group, union, solidarity committee_), I demand that you stop the firing of 63 SINALTRAINAL union members at Coca-Cola FEMSA in Colombia. I want Coca-Cola’s union busting campaign to stop. Additionally, Coke must respect the right to organize and stop the campaign of murder and intimidation against the Colombian workers. I will be promoting the Coca-Cola Boycott until the rights of the SINALTRAINAL union are protected."


BACKGROUND:


Coca-Cola Prepares to Lay Off Trade Unionists in Colombia
By Meredith Aby

"Nine companeros have been assassinated, 45 have been displaced, and 75 have
had their lives threatened. The only thing these people have in common is
that they work for Coca-Cola. Now the military SINALTRAINAL and the Colombia Action Network are calling for solidarity.
They are asking for supporters to call or contact Killer Coke headquarters
on July 22, the International Day of Action Against Coke, to denounce
Coca-Cola's union busting. Colombian union leaders need support from the
US. They are concerned that current international pressure is protecting
them and their families from murder, and that when they are laid off from
Coca-Cola and no longer members of a union in the spotlight that the
para-militaries will kill them. By voicing support for the members of
SINALTRAINAL, we can try to prevent another murderous attack against the
courageous sisters and brothers of the Colombian labor movement!and the para-militaries are
threatening our families." William Mendoza, the Vice President of
SINALTRAINAL, told the Colombia Action Network delegation on July 2nd in
Barrancabermeja.

However, Killer Coke's use of terror tactics has not broken the spirit of
the Colombian beverage worker's union, SINALTRAINAL. The union's struggle
has won international attention, and last July an international boycott of
Coca-Cola products began in response to Coke's use and support of
para-military death squads in Colombia. The Colombia Action Network (CAN)
has organized support for the militant labor movement in Colombia. From
June 30th to July 14th a delegation of CAN student and anti-war activists
from Connecticut, Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin met with
representatives from many human rights groups, campesino organizations, and
unions in Colombia, including SINALTRAINAL, to hear about the effects of
Plan Colombia (the US military aid package).

Mendoza explained that Coca-Cola is changing their strategy. Due to
international pressure, less of Killer Coke's strategy of union breaking has
been through actual murder. Now the company is manipulating the Colombian
government to break the union. The Ministry of Social Protection (formerly
the Labor Ministry) decided in favor of the Coca-Cola Corporation in the
third, and final, appeal of their dismissal of 63 members of the beverage
workers' union. In this way, Coca-Cola and the Ministry are working together
to deliver a precise blow to SINALTRAINAL.

The situation for the members of SINALTRAINAL has become extremely critical.
Twenty days after the union is formally notified of the decision, the
company will be able to dismiss more than 30 of the union workers. The other
affected workers are union leaders who have union protection. In order to
dismiss those union leaders, the company will have to formally request the
removal of their union protection. That process can take as little as one
month. Through this process the union could be eliminated from ALL the
Coca-Cola plants. The union's leadership, like SINALTRAINAL Vice President
William Mendoza, could be out of work and without security protection in
less than two months.

William Mendoza explained the importance of the government's decision as,
"The judicial system in this country is now making its decisions based on
politics rather than the law. The most likely outcome is that Coca-Cola
(with its economic, political, and legal power) will apply pressure so that
the decision comes out in its favor and it can dismiss the union leaders.
This will then conclude the greatest infamy against an organization that
struggles to improve the conditions of workers and in favor of the human
rights of all Colombians. The only desire of Colombian president Alvaro
Uribe's government is to eliminate all the forms of organization of the
Colombian people in order to impose a totalitarian regime. A regime in which
the common denominator will be terror, hunger, and misery for the people, so
that the rich can become even richer."



To contact Coke:
Douglas N. Daft, CEO Board of Directors
Coca-Cola Company Coca-Cola Company
One Coca-Cola Plaza PO Box 1734
Atlanta, GA 30313 Atlanta, GA 30301

For more information go to:
www.colombiaactionnetwork.org
www.sinaltrainal.org
www.fightbacknews.org



International Day of Action Against Coca, 7-22-04.doc