National student movement pushes Coca-Cola ban
A growing student movement yet to hit GW is attempting to stop Coca-Cola Company products from being sold on campus because of the company's alleged human rights abuses.
The Campaign to Stop Killer Coke, a grassroots organization based in New York, has reached 90 campuses worldwide and is encouraging colleges to eliminate their contracts with the beverage company. The campaign hopes to get Coca-Cola to address allegations against them and change their labor practices after enough campuses withdraw from Coke's market.
The campaign began after U.S. labor groups filed a lawsuit against Coca-Cola in 2001 on behalf of SINALTRAINAL, the union that protects bottlers in Colombian factories. Union members charged that Coca-Cola contracted with the country's paramilitary security forces, which later murdered, tortured and unlawfully detained trade union leaders.
Six universities in the United States - Bard College in New York, Carleton College in Minnesota, College of DuPage in Illinois, Lake Forest College in Illinois, Oberlin College in Ohio and Salem State College in Massachusetts - along with five in Western Europe and Canada have terminated their contracts with the Coca-Cola Company.
Coke responded to calls for campus boycotts and the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke by denying the allegations and saying that they treat all of their employees "with fairness, dignity and respect."
"Given the local nature and the purpose of the Coca-Cola business, we believe that calls for boycotts of our products are not the appropriate way to further any cause, as they primarily hurt the local economy, local businesses and local citizens," the company said in a statement.
The Fair Labor Organizing Committee at Bard College decided to end its contract with Coca-Cola in 2003 after nearly two years of dialogue with the company and no results. As a part of Bard's policy, all companies they deal with must sign a code of conduct holding them to a high standard of business ethics, which they said Coca-Cola's labor practices violated. Fall 2004 was the first semester Bard's campus venues did not serve Coca-Cola.
The Campaign to Stop Killer Coke, a grassroots organization based in New York, has reached 90 campuses worldwide and is encouraging colleges to eliminate their contracts with the beverage company. The campaign hopes to get Coca-Cola to address allegations against them and change their labor practices after enough campuses withdraw from Coke's market.
The campaign began after U.S. labor groups filed a lawsuit against Coca-Cola in 2001 on behalf of SINALTRAINAL, the union that protects bottlers in Colombian factories. Union members charged that Coca-Cola contracted with the country's paramilitary security forces, which later murdered, tortured and unlawfully detained trade union leaders.
Six universities in the United States - Bard College in New York, Carleton College in Minnesota, College of DuPage in Illinois, Lake Forest College in Illinois, Oberlin College in Ohio and Salem State College in Massachusetts - along with five in Western Europe and Canada have terminated their contracts with the Coca-Cola Company.
Coke responded to calls for campus boycotts and the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke by denying the allegations and saying that they treat all of their employees "with fairness, dignity and respect."
"Given the local nature and the purpose of the Coca-Cola business, we believe that calls for boycotts of our products are not the appropriate way to further any cause, as they primarily hurt the local economy, local businesses and local citizens," the company said in a statement.
The Fair Labor Organizing Committee at Bard College decided to end its contract with Coca-Cola in 2003 after nearly two years of dialogue with the company and no results. As a part of Bard's policy, all companies they deal with must sign a code of conduct holding them to a high standard of business ethics, which they said Coca-Cola's labor practices violated. Fall 2004 was the first semester Bard's campus venues did not serve Coca-Cola.
