[879] in peace2
HR violatons by COKE in Colombia (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Aimee L Smith)
Thu Jul 19 00:16:02 2001
Message-Id: <200107190415.AAA04580@gold.mit.edu>
To: peace-list@MIT.EDU
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Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 00:15:56 -0400
From: Aimee L Smith <alsmith@MIT.EDU>
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Life tastes good, unless you are a Columbian labor
organizor...
United Steel Workers International Labor Rights Fund
EMBARGOED UNTIL THURSDAY, JULY 19 AT NOONCONTACT:
Terry Collingsworth (202) 347-4100 Ext. 2
Dan Kovalik (412) 562-2518
Press Conference To Be Held at National Press Club, Murrow Room, on Thursday,
July 19 at Noon To Provide Details of the Coke Case.
Copy of the Complaint will also be available at <www.laborrights.org>
COKE TO BE SUED IN U.S. COURT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN COLOMBIA
Coke Bottling Plants in Colombia Use Paramilitary Security Forces to
Murder, Torture, and Kidnap Trade Union Leaders
Coke Controls All Aspects of Production and Operation of its Bottling
Plants and Allows Local Managers to Engage in Systematic Human Rights
Abuses
The United Steel Workers Union and the International Labor Rights Fund
will file suit tomorrow, July 20, in US District Court for the Southern
District of Florida (Miami) against Coke and Panamerican Beverages, Inc.,
the primary bottler of Coke products in Latin America. Additional defendants
include owners of a bottling plant in Colombia where trade union leaders
have been murdered. The case was initiated by SINALTRAINAL, the trade union
that represents workers at the Coke facilities in Columbia. SINALTRAINAL
has long maintained that Coke is among the most notorious employers in
Colombia and that the company maintains open relations with murderous death
squads as part of a program to intimidate trade union leaders. The union
is using the filing of this case on July 20, Colombian Independence Day,
to renew its campaign to highlight that Colombia holds the terrible
distinction of being ranked number one in the world for the number of trade
union leaders murdered each year, and that Coke plays a key role in maintaining
that distinction.
Other Plaintiffs include the Estate of Isidro Segundo Gil, a trade union
leader who was murdered while working at the Coke bottling plant in Carepa,
Columbia. The manager of that facility, owned by an American, Richard Kirby,
who is also a defendant in this case, specifically threatened to kill the
leaders of the union if they continued their union activities. He made good
on the threat and ordered the murder of Mr. Gil. The other Plaintiffs are
Luis Eduardo Garcia, Alvaro Gonzalez, José Domingo Flores, Jorge Humberto
Leal and Juan Carlos Galvis, all leaders of SINALTRAINAL, and, while
employed by Coke, were subjected to torture, kidnapping, and/or unlawful
detention in order to encourage them to cease their trade union activities.
These Plaintiffs allege that Coke employees either ordered the violence
directly, or delegated the job to paramilitary death squads that were
acting as agents for Coke.
"This case is extremely important for trade union and human rights. If
we cannot get Coke, one of the most well known companies in the world,
to protect the lives and human rights of the workers at its world-wide
bottling facilities, then we certainly have a long way to go in making
the global economy safe for trade unionists, " said Leo Gerard, President
of the Steelworkers. "While the offenses detailed in the Complaint occurred
in an industry outside the Steelworkers' core jurisdiction, we are filing
this case to show our solidarity with the embattled trade unions of Colombia.
We absolutely must stand up together to stop such criminal activity against
our union brothers and sisters regardless of where or in what industry it
occurs." he added.
"The case is extremely strong from a legal perspective," said Terry
Collingsworth,
general counsel of the DC-based International Labor Rights Fund, who is co-
counsel forthe Plaintiffs, and has brought similar cases against Exxon Mobil
and Unocal Corporation for human rights violations in Aceh, Indonesia and
Burma, respectively. "There is no question that Coke knew about and benefits
from the
systematic repression of trade union rights at its bottling plants in Colombia,
and this case will make the company accountable," he stated.
The case is based on the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), a law passed by Congress
in 1789 aimed at protecting the new nation's international reputation by
enabling
non-citizens to use federal courts to hold Americans accountable for
violations of international law. "The Plaintiffs allege that Coke and the
other defendants
violated clear standards of international law by maintaining a willful campaign
of terror against members and leaders of SINALTRAINAL," explained Dan Kovalik,
a lawyer with the Steel Workers who is co-counsel for the Plaintiffs and who
interviewed many of the Coke victims in Colombia.
In addition to pursuing legal remedies in federal court, the Steel Workers and
the International Labor Rights Fund join with SINALTRAINAL in asking workers
and consumers around the world to send a message to Coke to end the terror at
the Coke facilities in Colombia and makes reparations to the victims.
