Former Coca Cola Employees in Venezuela Announce Possible Occupation of Pl

Coca-Cola (Coke) to be Sued for Human Rights Abuses in Colombia

Coke Bottling Plants in Colombia Use Paramilitary Security Forces to Murder, Torture, and Kidnap Trade Union Leaders

Coke Controls All Aspects of Production and Operation of its Bottling Plants and Allows Local Managers to Engage in Systematic Human Rights Abuses

Thursday, July 19, 2001

Contact:
Terry Collingsworth
Tel: (202) 347-4100
Fax: (202) 347-4885
email: laborrights@igc.org

The United Steel Workers Union and the International Labor Rights Fund will file suit tomorrow, July 20, in US District Court for the Southern District of Florida (Miami) against Coke and Panamerican Beverages, Inc., the primary bottler of Coke products in Latin America. Additional defendants include owners of a bottling plant in Colombia where trade union leaders have been murdered. The case was initiated by SINALTRAINAL, the trade union that represents workers at the Coke facilities in Colombia. SINALTRAINAL has long maintained that Coke is among the most notorious employers in Colombia and that the company maintains open relations with murderous death squads as part of a program to intimidate trade union leaders. The union is using the filing of this case on July 20, Colombian Independence Day, to renew its campaign to highlight that Colombia holds the terrible distinction of being ranked number one in the world for the number of trade union leaders murdered each year, and that Coke plays a key role in maintaining that distinction.

Other Plaintiffs include the Estate of Isidro Segundo Gil, a trade union leader who was murdered
while working at the Coke bottling plant in Carepa, Colombia. The manager of that facility, owned by an American, Richard Kirby, who is also a defendant in this case, specifically threatened to kill the leaders of the union if they continued their union activities. He made good on the threat and ordered the murder of Mr. Gil. The other Plaintiffs are Luis Eduardo Garcia, Alvaro Gonzalez, José Domingo Flores, Jorge Humberto Leal and Juan Carlos Galvis, all leaders of SINALTRAINAL, and, while employed by Coke, were subjected to torture, kidnapping, and/or unlawful detention in order to encourage them to cease their trade union activities. These Plaintiffs allege that Coke employees either ordered the violence directly, or delegated the job to paramilitary death squads that were acting as agents for Coke.

"This case is extremely important for trade union and human rights. If we cannot get Coke, one of the most well known companies in the world, to protect the lives and human rights of the workers at its world-wide bottling facilities, then we certainly have a long way to go in making the global economy safe for trade unionists, " said Daniel Kovalik, Assistant General Counsel of the Steelworkers and co-counsel for the Plaintiffs. "While the offenses detailed in the Complaint occurred in an industry outside the Steelworkers' core jurisdiction, we are filing this case to show our solidarity with the embattled trade unions of Colombia. We absolutely must stand up together to stop such criminal activity against our union brothers and sisters regardless of where or in what industry it occurs." he added.

"The case is very strong from a legal perspective," said Terry Collingsworth, general counsel of the
DC-based International Labor Rights Fund, who is co-counsel for the Plaintiffs, and who has brought similar cases against Exxon Mobil and Unocal Corporation for human rights violations in Aceh, Indonesia and Burma, respectively. "There is no question that Coke knew about and benefited from the systematic repression of trade union rights at its bottling plants in Colombia, and this case will make the company accountable," he stated.
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COMPLAINT

I. INTRODUCTION

1. This case involves the systematic intimidation, kidnapping, detention and murder of trade unionists in Colombia, South America at the hands of paramilitaries working as agents of corporations doing business in that country. The violent persecution of trade unionists in Colombia has been at epidemic proportions for many years. Since 1986 when the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores de Colombia ("CUT"), the largest trade union confederation in Colombia, was formed, over 3,800 trade unionists have been murdered. Presently, of every five (5) trade unionists murdered in the world, over 3 are Colombian. This case, brought under the Alien Tort Claims Act, RICO and state tort law, is brought to remedy and prevent the violent persecution of trade unionists at various locations of one particular company doing business in Colombia -- Coca Cola. This campaign of terror against trade unionists in Colombia and at Coca Cola in particular is ongoing. For example, on June 21, 2001, at a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Monertia, in the Cordoba Province of Colombia, Oscar Dario Soto Polo an employee at this operation, and a member of the Executive Committee of the CUT, was gunned down in the street as he was accompanying his youngest daughter to her house. Sen. Oscar Soto was engaged in negotiations with Coca Cola at the time over union proposals to provide security to trade unionists under threat.

II. NATURE OF THE ACTION

2. Plaintiff SINALTRAINAL is a Colombian trade union and a member of the CUT. SINALTRAINAL represents workers at a number of beverage and food companies in Colombia, including several Coca-Cola bottling plants throughout Colombia. SINALTRAINAL (hereinafter referred to as the "Union") has been decimated by the intimidation, kidnap, detention, torture and assassination of numerous of its leaders by paramilitary forces working as agents of corporate concerns, including Defendants, in Colombia. Plaintiff Union brings this Complaint for equitable relief and damages to remedy the injury to itself caused by the wrongful conduct of the Defendants Coca-Cola Company (hereinafter referred to as "Coke"); Coca-Cola de Colombia, S.A. (hereinafter referred to as "Coke Colombia"); Panamerican Beverages, Inc., Panamco, LLC (collectively referred to herein as "Panamco"); Panamco Industrial de Gaseosas, S.A. a/k/a Panamco Colombia, S.A. (hereinafter referred to as "Panamco Colombia"); Richard I. Kirby, Richard Kirby Keilland and Bebidas y Alimentos de Uraba, S.A. (hereinafter referred to as "Bebidas y Alimentos").

3. Plaintiff Estate of Isidro Segundo Gil ("Plaintiff Estate") represents the estate of Isidro Segundo Gil who was murdered by paramilitary forces inside the Carepa plant of Defendant Bebidas y Alimentos. Plaintiff Estate brings this Complaint against Defendants Coke, Coke Colombia, Bebidas y Alimentos, Richard I. Kirby and Richard Kirby Keilland for damages to remedy the wrongful death of Isidro Segundo Gil which was proximately caused by the wrongful conduct of these Defendants.

4. Plaintiffs Luis Eduardo Garcia, Alvaro Gonzalez, José Domingo Flores, Jorge Humberto Leal and Juan Carlos Galvis bring this Complaint against Defendants Coke, Coke Colombia, Panamco and Panamco Colombia for equitable relief and for damages to remedy the injury to their persons caused by the wrongful conduct of these Defendants.
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Isidro Segundo Gil, an employee at a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Colombia, was killed at his workplace by paramilitary thugs. His children, now living in hiding with relatives, understand all too well why their homeland is known as "a country where union work is like carrying a tombstone on your back."

A chilling description of Gil's assassination, based on eyewitness accounts, is the centerpiece of a lawsuit filed in Miami in July 2001 against Coca-Cola, Panamerican Beverages (the largest soft drink bottler in Latin America) and Bebidas y Alimentos (a bottler owned by Richard Kirby of Key Biscayne, Fla., which operates the plant in which Gil was killed.

In the lawsuit, Gil's union, Sinaltrainal, the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) and the United Steelworkers of America assert that the Coke bottlers "contracted with or otherwise directed paramilitary security forces that utilized extreme violence and murdered, tortured, unlawfully detained or otherwise silenced trade union leaders."

Minutes after the thugs showed up at the Carepa plant gate, they fired 10 shots at Gil, a member of the union executive board, mortally wounding him. An hour later, another union leader was kidnapped at his home. That evening, a building that housed the union's offices, equipment and records was set ablaze.

The next day, a heavily armed group returned to the plant, called the workers together and told them if they didn't quit the union by 4 p.m., they, too, would be killed. Resignation forms were prepared in advance by Coca-Cola's plant manager, who had a history of socializing with the paramilitaries and had earlier "given (them) an order to carry out the task of destroying the union," the lawsuit says.

Fearing for their lives, union members at Carepa resigned en masse and fled the area. The company broke off contract negotiations, the paramilitaries camped outside the plant gate for the next two months, and the union was crushed. Experienced workers who made about $380 a month were replaced by new hires earning minimum wage ($130 a month).
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But, other members of the Bush family also have important ties to Venezuela. After the failed coup d'etat against Chavez, television magnate and Bush Sr. friend Gustavo Cisneros was implicated as one of the principal proponents of the coup.

Cisneros publicly denied his role in the coup, but the magazine Newsweek noted that Pedro Carmona "was seen leaving Cisneros' office" before going to the Government Palace to swear in as provisional president.

According to Newsweek, Venezuelan legislator Pedro Pablo Alcantara said that the brief Carmona dictatorship was organized in Cisneros' offices, and that Cisneros was the "supreme commander" of the operation.
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Billionaire Gustavo Cisneros Therefore, it's not strange that Cisneros has been identified as Bush Jr.'s prospect to confront Hugo Chavez in future presidential elections, which could take place earlier than scheduled if the opposition wins the US-supported presidential recall referendum.
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Of Cuban origin, Cisneros is the majority shareholder in Univision, the largest Spanish language TV chain in the United States, and he possesses channels with vast audiences in other countries, such as Venevision in Venezuela, ChileVision, Caracol Television of Colombia, and Caribbean Communications Network. He also owns the bottler Panamco, and is a major shareholder in Coca Cola.
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