Killer Coke : Anti-union Murder in Colombia

killercoke.org
cokefacts.com

Is this for REAL?

Please let me know if you have any insight on this.
Is Coke taking advantage of the Colombian political chaos in order to abuse workers and prevent unionization?

-UPDATE-
Coca-Cola has had setbacks in the last decade, but the stock price (KO) has increased 20% in the past year.
Coca-Cola sells in 200 countries and earns 85% of revenues outside of the US. Coke has 71,000 employees working in 8 countries.

Does Coca-Cola have an ethical responsibility to the 2,000 workers of Colombia?
Should Coca-Cola provide reparations to the families of the 10 dead union workers?

There is strong evidence that Coca-Cola meets its obligations well as a multinational company (MNC) operating in other countries. Throughout the world, Coca-Cola does not have a trend of poor employee treatment or anti-union sentiment. Colombian Coca-Cola employees are paid 2-3 times the national average income.

Coca-Cola has a 24 hour employee complaint line.
One union leader died on a Coca-Cola bottling company's property in Colombia, 10 total union related deaths are associated with Coca-Cola de Colombia, yet between 300 and 1000 union-related deaths have happened in Colombia over the same period of tiime.

The US government has tried to reduce violence through embargoes of military equipment (Pres. Clinton era) and eventually to incentives (Pres. Bush era). The US will offer military equipment twice per year if the Colombian government can prove an improvement in human rights.

Regarding the KillerCoke campaign, it appears that the activist, Ray Rogers, is a corporate terrorist and singles out Coca-Cola in a smear campaign because of the deep pockets and a thin association that provides access to the US courts.

The SinalTrial labor union is actually a political socialist movement and has nothing to do with bargaining employee wages, hours, and working conditions. Real labor unions (like the IUF) denounce the SINALTRAIN and its boycott methods.

It is very impressive that Coca-Cola is large enough to brush off the extremists and continue to contribute to the Colombian economy without kowtowing to terrorists like Nike did. The problems in Colombia are preventative only by its citizens; neither money nor outside influence will change this course. When Coca-Cola stands up to this attack, it protects American companies from becoming the target of militant radicals throughout the world. Imagine if Coca-Cola paid these people off to protect their profits, stock price, and brand equity. Militants would pop up all over the world and try to associate poor local standards to American responsibility in order to extort money.

I would look at this case carefully, because 13 American universities have boycotted Coke. I trust that there must be some credence for this, but from a business perspective, it appears that they have been misled by the sensationalism of the activist campaign. For those who avoid conflict and believe that Coca-Cola should just pull out, you should see there is no 'win' in this copout. Looking at how MNCs were treated in South Africa for pulling out during the apartheid, the people felt abandoned and have not let the companies return.

Grab a Coke and enjoy this video!