The Coca-Cola Conundrum

It's brown. It fizzles. It helps you stay awake while you finish that paper at 4:00am and gives you a quick energy boost during activity period. But look past the carbonated zing and you'll find something far from sweet.

The Coca-Cola company, responsible for selling that tasty beverage you just can't get enough of, is also responsible for thousands of human rights violations around the globe, including the ongoing murder, kidnapping, torture, and illegal detainment of union leaders and organizers at bottling plants in Columbia, South America.

Isidro Segundo Gil was one of these union leaders, who worked at a bottling plant in Carepa, Columbia and served on the union executive. While Gil was at work, members of a paramilitary group entered the factory shot him repeatedly, killing him instantly. Hours later, another union leader was kidnapped from his home and union offices were set ablaze.

The following day a similar group of men returned to the plant to demand that workers quit the union or face death. Terrified, union members resigned and fled the area. The paramilitary group camped at the gate of the factory for the next two months. Workers who made around $380/month were replaced with new employees earning $130/month and the union was demolished. Between 1994 and 2002 eight union leaders in Columbia were murdered, and hundreds more have been silenced with torture, threats, and intimidation.

In drought-affected Kala Dera, India, the Coca-Cola Company has built a water-intensive plant, extracting hundreds of thousands of gallons of water each day from the community's underground water supply. Today Kala Dera is in the midst of the worst drought in 40 years, and groundwater levels have dropped 19 meters since the Coca-Cola Company opened the plant. Communities in El Salvador, China, Panama, and Turkey have been exploited in similar ways.

The Coca-Cola Company owns popular beverages such as Sprite, Fanta, Diet Coke, Barq's, Fruitopia, Minute Maid, Powerade, and Dasani water. In 2008, the company had revenue of $29 billion. With a peek net worth of $65 billion, they have more than enough resources to pay their workers a fair wage. Unfortunately, the money seems to be going to line the pockets of top executives instead, as CEO Neville Isdell received a salary of $7 million in 2006.

Some find it easy to dismiss these statistics and reply, “Everything we buy oppresses somebody, somewhere. There is little we can do.” Some may even go far enough to admit they prefer the convenience and taste of these beverages over the human rights and dignity of others.

How should Redeemer, as a Christian community, respond? Are we satisfied with brief moments of conviction with no follow-up action? Or are we willing to take the steps required to begin the process of “letting justice roll down like a mighty stream?” If we can get solar panels on our roof and build a world-class soccer dome, then I have no doubt that we can wash the blood of Isidro Segundo Gil from our hands. We can end our ties with the Coca-Cola Company if we are willing.

For more information on this topic visit: www.knowmore.org, www.corpwatch.org, and watch films Killer Coke and The Coca-Cola Case.