Union threatens strikes at Coca-Cola

Source: Beverage Daily

Union threatens strikes at Coca-Cola

By Chris Mercer

17/04/2007 - Plans to cut 3,500 jobs in a restructuring drive at Coca-Cola's main bottling arm may lead to widespread industrial action in the US, warned a prominent union for soft drinks sector workers.

Low morale, looming job losses and a failure to provide affordable healthcare meant workers may soon down tools at Coca-Cola and its bottling arm, Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE), the Teamsters union said.

It held a special conference with investors, analysts and journalists on Monday to express its concerns about Coca-Cola, where the union represents 18,000 workers. The conference comes in the same week Coca-Cola is due to hold its annual meeting.

A previous Teamsters strike across CCE bottling plants in 2005 caused disruption as drivers, packers and warehouse workers picketed lines.

Now, the union has warned of more "widespread work stoppages" in the near future.

Read more: http://www.beveragedaily.com/news/ng.asp?n=75793-coca-cola-cce-strikes

---

Coke is my drink of choice after coffee. I buy it imported in glass bottles from Mexico. It is made with cane sugar, not corn fructose syrup. It tastes the way Coke did when I was young. Don't ask when that was.

coke? I never drink the stuff, but I support the workers and wish them luck in achieving a fair contract.:)

I won't buy Coke. I'm pro union and or workers too.

Back to Dr. Pepper.

I will be watching for when I won't drink another drop. I prefer Pepsi anyway.

I didn't know anybody still made it with sugar.

I don't buy much soda anymore. It's so damned expensive, and has 0 nutritional value. I won't buy it if it costs more than $1 for a 2 liter bottle, unless it's for medicinal purposes, like ginger ale or cola.

I wish the workers all the best; and support any boycott that the union supports.

the workers, like Colombia. There has been godawful trouble there for ages, between Coca Cola, and union workers who dare to try to get better than deplorable conditions. Everyone ELSE in the world knows about it outside the U.S.

Boycott Coca-Cola!

By Andy Higginbottom

25 July, 2003

"We ask Coca Cola to stop killing ... and you to stop drinking Coke" Carlos Julia, SINALTRAINAL, Colombia

An international boycott of Coca Cola products will be launched this Tuesday. Its main aim is to stop the policy of violent treatment that has left eight Colombian Coca Cola workers assassinated in recent years. The boycott has been called by Colombian food and drinks workers union SINALTRAINAL and has the endorsement of the country's main trade union federation the CUT as well as the World Social Forum.

SINALTRAINAL accuses Coca Cola of working in consort with paramilitary death squads to remove union activists and hence the union organisation from its plants. Accusations centre on the murder of Carepa plant in Antioquia where 5 union members were assassinated between 1994 and 1996.

The union and the families of assassinated Coca Cola workers have also brought a civil court case under the US Alien Torts Act which is being considered by courts in Miami. On 31st March 2003 US District Court Judge Jose E. Martinez ruled that the case for compensation for human rights violations committed by paramilitaries on behalf of Coca-Cola bottlers Panamerican Beverages, Inc. ("Panamco") and Bebidas y Alimentos ("Bebidas") in Colombia can go forward.
(snip/...)

http://www.countercurrents.org/glo-higginbottom250703.htm

I might turn into a crabby bitch...perfect for a picket line. If they go out-I'll support them 100%