Labor Union Solidarity
"1.6 Million-Member American Federation of Teachers Bans Coca-Cola Products Citing Child Labor and Human Rights Record," by Corporate Campaign, Inc., November 24, 2014
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"Corporate Campaign, Inc. applauds the American Federation of Teachers (AFT, AFL-CIO) for its historic move to ban all Coca-Cola products from its facilities and events, based on Coke's human rights record. The Union calls on affiliates to "participate in campaigns to remove Coca-Cola products from their schools, colleges, hospitals and other places in which they work."
UAW President Bob King Plans to Remove Coca-Cola from UAW Facilities
UAW President Bob King plans to remove Coca-Cola products from UAW union facilities and also vows to pull UAW funds from Chase Bank in support of farm workers represented by FLOC.
Sample Resolution to Shut Down SOA & Remove Coca-Cola Beverages from All UAW Locals, Shops & Functions
Download the Sample Labor Resolution in .DOC
(Insert your local number for the "[X]" in the two "Resolved"s)
"Coca-Cola viola derechos humanos," Javier Correa, President of SINALTRAINAL, making a statement in Spanish
Local 103's huge electronic billboard promoting a showing of "The Coca-Cola Case" was seen by hundreds of thousands of Boston-area commuters. IBEW local 103, the largest building trades local in New England, had earlier removed their Coca-Cola machine and banned Coca-Cola products from their facilities and functions.
Sample Resolution to Remove Coca-Cola Products from Union Facilities & Functions
WHEREAS, Coca-Cola is complicit in continuing death threats and the systematic intimidation, kidnapping, torture and murder of union leaders and members of their families in Colombia and Guatemala in efforts to crush their unions;
WHEREAS Coca-Cola is a leader in busting unions, undermining union organizing worldwide by outsourcing jobs, supporting brutal police actions against outsourced workers and firing them when they try to join a union;
WHEREAS, Coca-Cola promotes anti-worker and anti-union free-trade agreements;
WHEREAS, Coca-Cola continues to benefit from hazardous child labor in the sugarcane fields of El Salvador;
WHEREAS, many local, national and international unions and labor councils have passed resolutions banning Coke products from their facilities and functions;
WHEREAS, Coca-Cola is depleting and polluting drinking water in Michigan, Mexico, India and elsewhere, and is destroying water sources of entire communities around the world needed for irrigation, drinking and sanitation;
WHEREAS, in July 2006, the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF) divested 1.25 million shares of Coca-Cola Co. stock and has banned further investments in its $9 billion CREF Social Choice Account, the nation's largest socially screened fund for individual investors, because The Coca-Cola Co. does not meet TIAA-CREF's standards as a socially responsible company.
WHEREAS, dozens of colleges and universities and secondary schools have removed Coca-Cola products from their campuses including large universities such as Rutgers (NJ), DePaul (IL) and State University of New York-Stony Brook (NY), as well as smaller campuses such as Smith College (MA), Guilford College (NC), San Jose City College (CA) and Union Theological Seminary (NY).
WHEREAS, these injustices are featured in "The Coca-Cola Case," a film produced in 2009 by The National Film Board of Canada; "Mark Thomas on Coca-Cola," a film premiered on prime-time television in the UK in 2007; "Belching Out the Devil," a book by Mark Thomas published in 2008, and "The Coke Machine," a 2010 book by Michael Blanding;
WHEREAS, the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke's website (www.KillerCoke.org) contains a wealth of well-documented information in print, video, audio and images about Coke's widespread labor, human rights and environmental abuses;
RESOLVED, that [Union X] will ban all Coke products from its facilities, meetings and events;
RESOLVED, that [Union X] calls on its members to help initiate and support resolutions in labor councils, to similarly hold The Coca-Cola Co. accountable by removing all Coke machines and Coke beverages and banning the sale and advertising of Coke products;
RESOLVED, that our members will urge brothers and sisters in other unions to initiate similar resolutions.
Download the Sample Labor Resolution in .DOC — .PDF
South Carolina AFL-CIO Convention September 9, 2010
South Carolina AFL-CIO President Donna Dewitt is standing at the center of the banner behind the word "Killer." AFT Colorado Organizing Director Russell Bannan, who took this photo, is kneeling at the far right next to Campaign Director Ray Rogers who addressed the Convention. Note the slogan "Shut Down SOA!" on the signs in the background. This refers to: "The U.S. government has trained over 10,000 of Colombia's military troops at the School of the Americas ("SOA") in Fort Benning, Georgia. And, SOA training manuals which the Pentagon was forced to turn over in 1996 show that the U.S. encouraged these troops to engage in torture and murder of those who, inter alia, do 'union organizing and recruiting'; pass out 'propaganda in favor of the interests of the workers'; and 'sympathize with demonstrators or strikes.' As a consequence of the official vilification of trade unionists by the Colombian and U.S. governments as well as corporations operating in Colombia, Colombia has led the world in the number of murders of trade unionists." [From the 2001 lawsuit describing Coca-Cola's human rights abuses in Colombia.]
A resolution to ban Coca-Cola products from the facilities of the South Carolina State AFL-CIO, representing 78,000 workers, was passed unanimously at their 2008 convention. The resolution called upon affiliates and their members to avoid purchasing Coca-Cola products.
"THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that South Carolina State AFL-CIO ban Coca-Cola products from its facilities and functions in solidarity with our union brothers and sisters fighting a life and death struggle to secure basic democratic and trade union rights, and
"RESOLVED that South Carolina State AFL-CIO, calls upon affiliates and their members to avoid purchasing Coca-Cola products, including Dasani, Fanta, Minute Maid, Nestea, Odwalla, Powerade and Sprite, until the violence against union leaders and organizers stops and the lawsuits are resolved."
National Organization of Legal Service Workers, UAW Local 2320
Resolution to Boycott Coca-Cola Beverages Because of Widespread Labor, Human Rights & Environmental Abuses, Passed unanimously at National Convention, June 2010.
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Unions on Record Supporting the Campaign
We have compiled this list of unions and labor councils that have officially supported the campaign. If your union has taken a position in support but is not listed, please contact us.
- American Association of University Professors, Rutgers University
- American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
- AFSCME Local 1549, New York City
- AFT, Local 3882, New York University, New York City
- American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO
- Bath Iron Works IAM Local S6, Maine
- Boston School Bus Drivers Union, USWA Local 8751
- California Federation of Teachers
- Communications Workers of America
- Denver Area Labor Federation, AFL-CIO
- International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 103, Dorchester, MA
- International Longshore and Warehouse Union, San Francisco, CA
- Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA)
- National Organization of Legal Service Workers, UAW Local 2320, New York City
- New York State United Teachers
- Plumbers and Fitters Local 393, San Jose, CA
- Professional Staff Congress/City University of New York
- San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO
- Secondary School Teachers Federation Bargaining Unit, District 12, Ontario
- SEIU Local 1199 (United Healthcare Workers East)
- SEIU Local 2028, San Diego, CA
- SEIU Local 415, Santa Cruz County, CA
- Service Employees International Union, AFL-CIO
- SEIU Local 73
- South Bay Labor Council, AFL-CIO
- South Carolina, AFL-CIO
- South Central Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO
- Southern Maine Labor Council, AFL-CIO
- UAW, International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America
- UAW Local 22, Detroit
- UAW Local 122, Twinsburg, OH
- UAW Local 259, Hicksville, NY
- United Brotherhood of Carpenters Local 405 and 22
- United Federation of Teachers, New York City
- United Hebrew Trades, New York City
- United Teachers Los Angeles
- United University Professions, New York State
- Western Maine Labor Council, AFL-CIO
Canada
- British Columbia Teachers' Federation
- Canadian Auto Workers Local 707
- Oakville & District Labour Council
- OPSEU (Ontario Public Service Employees Union)
- Yukon Area Council, Public Service Alliance of Canada
- United Steelworkers
Colombia
- SINALTRAINAL (National Union of Food Industry Workers)
Ireland
- Irish NationalTeachers Organisation
- Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance (NIPSA)
- Teachers Union of Ireland
United Kingdom
- UNISON
"...the union members [in SINALTRAINAL] do look to the lawsuit and the Killer Coke campaign as the reason they are still alive."
"The Coke Machine," by Michael Blanding, Penguin Group, September, 2010
"If we lose this fight against Coke, first we will lose our union, next we will lose our jobs, and then we will all lose our lives"
SINALTRAINAL Vice President Juan Carlos Galvis
"If it weren't for international solidarity, we would have been eliminated long age. That is the truth."
SINALTRAINAL Vice President Juan Carlos Galvis
