Latin American Development Issues Course, Ballsbridge College

by Dermot Lacey Thu Sep 29, 2005 18:34

Oh the joys you might even get a Certificate from the Chairperson of the College Committee - Guess who!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

by anton Thu Sep 08, 2005 15:04

Okay Chiara aka no153 . Just one question : I was thinking of signing up to the Hurricane Katrina disaster studies module but if I was to choose your course instead ,at the end of it, will I get a nice certificate?

by Boycotter Wed Sep 07, 2005 13:16

Oh look in Colombia, they do lay offs as well.

Coca Cola: The “Spark of Life” (“La chispa de la vida” is its Spanish slogan), the symbol par excellence of the American dream. It has bottling plants, stockholders, and customers all over the world. In some countries, it has become an example of austerity for workers everywhere, promoting opportunities for poor children to contribute to the family economy, as in the case of the sugar plantation workers in El Salvador. This company – which has been “progressing with Colombia for 60 years,” as the slogan on their website proclaims, and which considers itself a friend to society in every place that it is does business – has twenty bottling plants in Colombia, seventeen of which belong to the Coca Cola FEMSA company, while the rest belong to individual owners. It has learned how to very efficiently exploit our water and sugar reserves, as well as other resources. The company has over $300 million in capital invested in Colombia, which it has invested very wisely in acquiring assets, improving factories, advertising, and other activities. And what could be the secret to such enviable prosperity? Let’s take a look below at the secret to this company’s success.

Coca Cola’s strategy has basically consisted of reducing production costs, something it has accomplished quite effectively through massive layoffs (as they say, “lo que no sirve que no estorbe” – don’t let he who isn’t needed get in the way). In this way, it becomes possible to invest in the latest technology, rather than take on the unnecessary expenses that labor implies: healthcare, insurance premiums, vacations, pensions, and other workers’ benefits. And if labor is needed, a method can be utilized that’s very popular in Colombia right now: subcontracting (PDF), that is, employing temporary workers who can’t demand any kind of guarantees because they have no job security or possibility of another job anytime soon.

And as Coca Cola Colombia knows, any strong, respectable economic strategy is sustained by cost cutting and saving. So, since September 2003, the company has been closing several of its bottling plants. Which, in the end, has been really positive for the more than 500 already forcibly retired workers. That’s how Coca Cola thanks its employees for so many years of hard work and dedication.

Of course, to reach this kind of prosperity one must also overcome all kinds of obstacles. In Coca Cola’s case there was no choice but to create a strategy to defend itself from the danger presented by those thankless employees who build organizations to damage the prestige of such a magnificent company; organizations also known as “unions.” For example, most of Coca Cola’s workers in Colombia have, for some time, been members of the National Food Industry Workers’ Union (SINALTRAINAL in Spanish). They oppose what they call “massive layoffs” (which, as we already explained, are nothing more than forced retirements), what they consider to be unfair salaries (they complain every time their salary goes down just a little – what do they expect with a modest budget of just $300 million?) , and because they claim the company’s layoffs are actually part of a policy to break up the union.

Since these gentlemen from the union don’t understand that the company does all these things for their own good, there is no choice but to confront the matter with a firm hand. And there’s nothing wrong with that, because they have links to subversive elements, as the respectable manager of Coca Cola Colombia, José Gabriel Gastro, claimed in 1992 when he publicly accused the workers and the union of being guerrilla agents. And on that front, the Colombian military, and the hopefully soon-to-be legal paramilitary forces, have done excellent work. Just think of all the military-corporate victories in the past few years, like the raid on the headquarters of the Coca Cola Workers’ Cooperative on September 30, 1996 by an elite squad of the National Police. Or that December 9, 1996, when members of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC in Spanish, the umbrella organization for paramilitary groups) entered the Coca Cola plant in Carepa, Antioquia, to “forcibly retire” all of the SINALTRAINAL employees at gunpoint.

According to SINALTRAINAL, nine union members and leaders at Coca Cola plants have been assassinated, 38 have had to flee their homes, and 67 others have received death threats. It’s facts like these that give this company so much confidence in Colombia.

by Speedwatch Tue Sep 06, 2005 16:51

How's the defence of the jobs in the Republic coming along?

by Boycotter Tue Sep 06, 2005 16:50

Actually anton you gave the advice on May 30th. Please, please do keep up with your own drivel.

by anton Tue Sep 06, 2005 16:40

sorry wrong link.Here's the right one:
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69627&search_text=coca%20cola

by anton Tue Sep 06, 2005 16:36

So now ,no153 we know who you are! But it's nice to know you took my May 20 advice all the same . link here:
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?
story_id=69627&search_text=coca%20cola