I am writing to you as an AU alumna and as a proud member of the Coca-Cola family. I read your front-page article with heightened concern for the lack of balanced reporting of the issue at hand. Your citing of one Web site as the basis for your allegations begs for verification. Therefore I am writing to you to convey the facts regarding Coca-Cola's business in Colombia and around the world.
Over the past several decades, Colombia has experienced much internal conflict. Yet despite the volatile environment, Coca-Cola and its bottlers have maintained operations and provided safe, stable economic opportunities for the people of Colombia for more than 70 years. Coca-Cola has supported programs that aid children, promote education, and bring relief to victims of the country's ongoing conflict, including a recent $10 million grant to start the Colombian Foundation for Education and Opportunity, an organization that addresses the needs of victims of violence. We openly and publicly deplore and condemn all acts of violence committed by any paramilitary group. And, the company and our bottlers continue to take steps to protect the individual freedoms and the personal safety of Coca-Cola workers and their families.
The allegations that Coca-Cola bottlers in Colombia have been complicit in violence against union members are absolutely not true and has been proven false time and time again. In fact, two different judicial inquiries in Colombia ? one in a Colombian Court and one by the Colombian attorney general ? found no evidence to support the allegations that bottler management conspired to intimidate or threaten trade unionists.
These allegations were the thrust of a lawsuit filed in 2001 against the Coca-Cola company in a U.S. district court in Miami. The company was dismissed as a defendant. On Sept. 29, 2006, the court issued a decision to dismiss the two Coca-Cola bottlers in Colombia from all remaining cases as well. The court ordered that the cases be closed. The entire ruling can be accessed on www.cokefacts.com.
In 2006, The International Labor Organization, a United Nations governing body for workplace rights, accepted requests independently made by Coca-Cola and the International Union Federation of food and beverage workers to conduct an investigation and evaluation of Coca-Cola bottling operations in Colombia. The ILO has completed its independent evaluation and issued a report that may be reviewed at: www.ilo.org. The report found that Coca-Cola bottlers are upholding labor standards that have been ratified in Colombia, including respecting collective bargaining agreements and providing a safe working environment.
I would encourage students and others interested in understanding the complexities of doing business in Colombia to please review these public records. I believe that these would provide a more complete picture of our business and would add perspective to the Internet myths and rumors reported on this week.
AU students should know that Coca-Cola shares students' concerns. And we are sincere in our commitment to being part of the solution to the problems facing Colombia and in ensuring fair labor practices everywhere we do business. We welcome public, private, union and civil discourse and partnership as a means of addressing these issues. It is through these dialogues that real progress has been made.
A. Raquel White Alumna, Class of 1994 Group Director, Public Affairs and Communications Coca-Cola Eurasia and Africa Group
