New York University’s thirty-seven month ban on Coca-Cola products will soon to come to an end.By a 28-22 vote the University Senate overturned the ban which had been put in place due to the soft drink giant’s suspected involvement in the deaths of Colombian labor representatives.
One of the main sticking points behind the ban was that Coca-Cola refusal to allow an independent review of worker conditions in Colombia. Yet opponents of the ban were aided when Coca-Cola agreed to an assessment of its Colombian business practices by the International Labor Organization (ILO). Supporters of the prohibition argued that the presence of ILO member and director of global labor relations Edward Potter would taint the investigation.
Since 2005 approximately forty other universities aside from NYU enacted bans on Coca-Cola products. Yet a recent Washington Square News (NYU student newspaper) poll of 132 students found a 50-50 split over whether or not to keep the ban.
Coca-Cola vehemently denies the allegations of worker abuse in countries like Colombia and India. Nevertheless, the “Killer Coke” campaign has alleged that Coke’s Colombian subsidiary has ties to rightist paramilitaries:
Isidro Segundo Gil, an employee at a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Colombia, was killed at his workplace by paramilitary thugs. His children, now living in hiding with relatives, understand all too well why their homeland is known as "a country where union work is like carrying a tombstone on your back"...Image- BusinessWeek
(In a 2001) lawsuit, Gil's union, Sinaltrainal, the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) and the United Steelworkers of America assert that the Coke bottlers "contracted with or otherwise directed paramilitary security forces that utilized extreme violence and murdered, tortured, unlawfully detained or otherwise silenced trade union leaders."
Online Sources- Washington Square News, Killer Coke, Time, BusinessWeek
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