Latin American Solidarity Network (LASNET)

Manifesto on the campaign against the
Coca-Cola Company

As SINALTRAINAL (National Food Industry Workers Union) has maintained since the beginning of its human rights campaign against the Coca-Cola Company, we demand that the company resolve the ongoing violence and meet the victims’ demands. However, this has yet to be achieved. On the contrary, the Coca-Cola Company has adopted a strategy of lies to mislead public opinion and the workforce, dissolve our popular support, and terminate our campaign.

The Coca-Cola Company wants to avoid pressure that would force them to engage with SINALTRAINAL and move forward on a process for truth, justice, and comprehensive reparations for the victims and their families. We, SINALTRAINAL, continue to denounce the abuses of the Coca-Cola Company and the complicit Colombian state. We will continue our fight until Coca-Cola meets the following demands:

1. SINALTRAINAL will never be silenced and will always be free to speak truthfully about the buses of the Coca-Cola Company.

2. SINALTRAINAL is autonomous in its projects and the management of its social funds.

3. The Coca-Cola Company must guarantee that it will accept the responsibility of new problems and must promise SINALTRAINAL that these will be resolved by Coca-Cola rather than treated as mere local issues with the Coca-Cola bottlers.

4. The Coca-Cola Company must publicly acknowledge the benefits it has received from what has happened and its commitment that such violence will not reoccur.

5. An agreement necessitates the inclusion of reparations for the union; indemnification of the victims; labour policy that adheres with human rights, collective bargaining agreements, and international treaties; the right to the preservation of historical memory, truth, justice, and reparation that will allow for the advancement of SINALTRAINAL’s social processes.

6. The Coca-Cola Company must adopt an agreement to modify its practice, recently well documented y the ILO, of decimating unions by using subcontractors.

7. SINALTRAINAL preserves its union sovereignty and its right to solidarity with the causes of theirs workers and sectors in Colombia and the world.

8. SINALTRAINAL communicates its willingness to reach an agreement with the Coca-Cola Company that is not harmful to workers and the union.

9. The Coca-Cola Company has forced SINALTRAINAL to inform the world about its abuses – s these abuses are not resolved and the company’s anti-union conduct persists, INALTRAINAL must continue to seek support to pressure the Coca-Cola Company to adopt a global policy respectful of Human Rights.

Luis Javier Correa Suárez, Sinaltrainal President - Colombia
& Latin American Solidarity Network (LASNET) - Australia