Another attack against workers in Coke's bottling plants

international | consumer issues | news report

Monday December 15, 2003 19:21

by Michelle

A quick report from the Sinatrainal union which represents workers in Coke's bottling plants in Colombia

Dec 12, 2003 events at Coca Cola plant

Source: Sinaltrainal seccional Barrancabermeja

On December 12, 2003, at 8:50 pm, 2 strangers on a motorcycle shot
4 times in front of the Coca cola plant in Barrancabermeja. Some
people who were nearby say the shots were fired towards the plant,
others say they were fired into the air.

Sinaltrainal and human rights organizations have concluded that
this was an attempt to harass the workers at the plant and
especially Juan Carlos Galvis who is the most at-risk unionist who
was present at the time.

We are greatly concerned that the plant guards did not react, they
were just spectators to the incident. Sinaltrainal wrote a letter
to ANDRÉS FELIPE PALACIOS, manager of the Coca Cola bottling
plants in Bucaramanga and Barrancabermeja, asking him to denounce
these events before the authorities, and to inform Sinaltrainal
what security measures the company will take to prevent such
incidents, or worse, from occurring again.

Sinaltrainal holds Mr. Palacios and the Coca Cola company
responsible for any incident that endangers the life of Coca Cola
workers, inside or outside the factory or at the moment of
entering or leaving the factory, because Sinaltrainal has
repeatedly informed the company about these kinds of events that
threaten workers' safety, and the company has not done anything to
protect the lives of its workers.