Park Slope Food Coop, Brooklyn, NY, Resolution to Remove Coke Products

Resolution to Remove Coca-Cola Products From the Shelves of the Park Slope Food Coop

Passed at the General Meeting of April 27, 2004

RESOLVED that the Park Slope Food Coop severs all ties with The Coca-Cola Co., its units and subsidiaries and will no longer sell the company's products, which have "The Coca-Cola Co." logo on the packaging or are advertised as Coca-Cola products, such as, Odwalla or Minute Maid products. The supporting reasons are in the accompanying document (below).

WHEREAS, the Park Slope Food Coop Mission Statement declares: "...We seek to avoid products that depend on the exploitation of others," and

WHEREAS, The Coca-Cola Co. and its Latin American bottlers have been accused in lawsuits of "contracting with or otherwise directed paramilitary security forces that utilized extreme violence and murdered, tortured, unlawfully detained or otherwise silenced trade union leaders." Seven leaders of SINALTRAINAL, the union of the Coca-Cola bottling plant workers in Colombia, and a manager friendly to the union have been murdered, and

WHEREAS, Coca-Cola's plant managers and the paramilitaries have together sought to destroy SINALTRAINAL and to replace union members with new hires at much lower wages, and

WHEREAS, the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke is coordinating a worldwide effort to pressure Coca-Cola to protect the lives and safety of workers in their bottling plants and to provide restitution to victims and families of victims of corporate abuse, and

WHEREAS, our Mission Statement further says: "We try to lead by example, educating ourselves and others about health and nutrition, cooperation and the environment," and

WHEREAS, The Coca-Cola Co. has been charged in India with over-exploitation and pollution of water, thus depriving rural communities of scarce water resources; supplying poor local farmers with fertilizer containing toxic chemicals and selling soft drinks with high levels of toxins, and

WHEREAS, our Mission Statement further says, "...We oppose discrimination in any form," and

WHEREAS, in Nov. 2000, The Coca-Cola Co. had to pay $192.5 million to settle a highly publicized class-action lawsuit, charging racial discrimination, and many similar lawsuits are pending, and

WHEREAS, our Mission Statement adds, "We offer a diversity of products with an emphasis on organic, minimally processed and healthful foods," and

WHEREAS, Coca-Cola's advertising campaigns aimed at children (such as "Harry Potter" tie-ins) and its contracts with high schools and colleges establishing exclusive rights to sell its products in school facilities have a direct connection to the causes of the childhood obesity epidemic in the United States, which in turn fuels a growing diabetes epidemic, and

WHEREAS, unions, student groups and peace and human rights groups have joined the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke to force Coke to end its abuses around the world, and WHEREAS, When The Coca-Cola Co. purchased Odwalla, Inc. in October 2001, the juice company became a unit of The Minute Maid Co., Coca-Cola's juice division, and

WHEREAS, the sale of Coca-Cola products (specifically Odwalla, Inc. and Minute Maid juices) is a violation of a number of the provisions of our Mission Statement.