[Via Communist Internet... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] . . ----- Original Message ----- From: Brad Sigal <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2001 2:27 PM Subject: [activistcolombia] CLM: Coca-Cola sued for paramilitary links I thought I'd forward this along in case people hadn't seen it yet....it's a bunch of articles about Coca-Cola's alleged use of right wing paramilitary death squads in Colombia to target labor leaders in their bottling plants there. ---Brad, MN Anti-War Committee > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Colombian Labor Monitor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Sunday, July 22, 2001 2:54 PM > Subject: CLM: Coca-Cola sued for paramilitary links > > ________________________________________________________________ COLOMBIAN LABOR MONITOR www.prairienet.org/clm Sunday, 22 July 2001 [NOTE: CLM has campaigned on behalf of SINALTRAINAL's workers for the past three years, so it is with some measure of pride that we now greet this development. You can see the original SINALTRAINAL denunciation at http://www.prairienet.org/clm/SINALTRAINAL.html Also, find out more info at www.laborrights.org -DG] 1. AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE -- Saturday, 21 July 2001 Coca-Cola Colombia denies connection with bottlers' workforce 2. EFE NEWS [Spain] -- Saturday, 21 July 2001 Coca-Cola bottler denies paramilitary links 3. THE GUARDIAN [London] -- Saturday, 21 July 2001 Coca-Cola sued over bottling plant terror campaign By Julian Borger 4. THE INDEPENDENT [London] -- Saturday, 21 July 2001 Coke accused of allowing murder at bottling plants By Andrew Buncombe 5. THE TIMES [London] -- Saturday, 21 July 2001 Coca-Cola sued over killings By Katty Kay 6. AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE -- Friday, 20 July 2001 US soft-drink maker accused of hiring paramilitaries in Colombia By Luis Torres de la Llosa 7. ASSOCIATED PRESS -- Friday, 20 July 2001 Colombian union suing Coca-Cola in death squad case By Nick Rosen 8. INTER PRESS SERVICE -- Friday, 20 July 2001 Coca-Cola to be sued for bottlers' abuses By Jim Lobe 9. UNITED STEEL WORKERS OF AMERICA -- Thursday, 19 July 2001 PRESS RELEASE Coke to be Sued in U.S. Court for Human Rights Abuses in Colombia ________________________________________________________________ **************************************************************** * 1 * AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE Saturday, 21 July 2001 Coca-Cola Colombia denies connection with bottlers' workforce ----------------------------------- BOGOTA -- Soft-drink giant Coca-Cola denied any links with Colombian bottlers' workers or unions, media reported Friday, following claims it hired right-wing paramilitaries to kill, torture and kidnap union leaders at its plants here. Pablo Largacha, a spokesman for Coca-Cola in Colombia, also declined to comment on a lawsuit alleging abuses against union leaders at the plant, telling the daily El Tiempo newspaper the company had received no notification of any such lawsuit. According to Largacha, Coca-Cola has nothing to do with bottlers' employees or unions because "bottlers in Colombia are completely independent of the Coca-Cola Company." Lawyers for the United Steel Workers Union and the International Labor Rights Fund filed suit Friday against Coca-Cola and Panamerican Beverages -- its principal bottler in Latin America -- in US federal court in Miami, Dan Kovalik, a lawyer for the steel union, told AFP Friday. The two organizations are suing in order to force a halt to the alleged practices. The lawsuit is a result of a complaint by Sinaltrainal, the union representing bottling plant workers in Colombia. Filing of the suit was timed to coincide with Colombia's Independence Day, the groups said. "There is no question that Coke knew about and benefited from the systematic repression of trade union rights at its bottling plant in Colombia, and the case will make the company accountable," said Terry Collingsworth, general counsel for the International Labor Rights Fund. Sinaltrainal accuses Coca-Cola of employing right-wing death squads to intimidate union leaders at its Colombian plants through murder, torture and kidnapping, according to a copy of the complaint made public Thursday. Coca-Cola spokesman Rafael Fernandez Quiros told AFP by telephone from the company's Atlanta, Georgia headquarters on Thursday that the company "denies any connection to any human-rights violation of this type." Copyright 2001 Agence France Presse ________________________________________________________________ **************************************************************** * 2 * EFE NEWS [Spain] Saturday, 21 July 2001 Coca-Cola bottler denies paramilitary links ------------------------------------------- BOGOTA -- The company that bottles Coca-Cola in Colombia is denying charges of ties to paramilitary death squads said to have killed several labor leaders, company spokesmen said. The Coca-Cola Company and Panamerican Beverages, Inc. of Colombia (Panamco Colombia), which bottles the soft drink, denied "malicious" reports linking the bottler to groups that operate outside the law and to illegal practices. Last week, Panamco Colombia received information that Colombia's National Union of Food Industries Workers (Sintrainal), supported by the U.S.-based International Labor Rights Fund, was about to file suit against the company in the U.S. Southern District Court in Miami. The suit was reportedly based on Panamco Colombia's suspected close ties to right-wing paramilitary death squads believed to have killed 11 Colombian labor leaders - all affiliated with unions of Coca-Cola and Nestle workers - since 1986. In a communique, Panamco Colombia said it would defend itself against all charges and undertake legal action in response to attempts to defame the company, its partners and affiliates. Copyright 2001 EFE News ________________________________________________________________ **************************************************************** * 3 * THE GUARDIAN [London] Saturday, 21 July 2001 Coca-Cola sued over bottling plant terror campaign ---------------------------- By Julian Borger WASHINGTON -- Coca-Cola's bottling plants in Colombia used rightwing death squads to terrorise workers and prevent the organisation of unions, it was alleged in a Miami court yesterday. The US union United Steelworkers is suing Coca-Cola on behalf of the Colombian union Sinaltrainal for what the lawsuit describes as the systematic intimidation, kidnapping, detention and murder' of workers in Colombian plants. Sinaltrainal claims that five of its members working in Coca-Cola bottling plants have been killed since 1994. Coca-Cola denied any responsibility for the alleged atrocities yesterday, saying the company did not own the bottling plants, which operated under contract. But union lawyers argued that the world's best-known soft drinks company closely controlled the operations of its contractors and was well aware of the brutal intimidation of workers in the bottling factories. The case has focused attention on frequent complaints by critics of globalisation that the process of contracting out work to developing countries allows corporations to shirk their responsibilities for safeguarding the basic rights of their workers. The lawsuit details a litany of assassinations and terror which, it claims, were carried out by rightwing paramilitary groups on behalf of the management of the Colombian bottling plants. It points to the murder of a unionmember working at a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Monertia, Cordoba province, on June 21 this year. Oscar Polo was shot to death as he was walking in the street with his youngest daughter. At the time, he had been involved in negotiations with the management over proposals to provide security to trade unionists under threat. The lawsuit also gives details of alleged paramilitary operations at the Bebidas y Alimentos bottling plant in the town of Carepa, which operates under contract for Coca-Cola. Two Sinaltrainal members, Jose David and Luis Granado, were murdered in 1994. The union lawsuit alleges that the killings were carried out by paramilitary forces, which then presented the rest of the workforce with an ultimatum either to resign from the union or flee Carepa. The management of Bebidas y Alimentos permitted these paramilitary forces to appear within the plant to deliver this message to union mem- bers and leaders,' the lawsuit alleges. Sinaltrainal tried to rebuild its presence at the Carepa plant in 1995, but within a year the death squads had killed a new union board member, Isidro Gil. Coca-Cola distanced itself from its bottling plants yesterday. The Coca-Cola company does not own or operate any bottling plants in Colombia,' a corporate spokesman, Rafael Fernandez said. We deny any wrongdoing regarding human rights or any other unlawful activities in Colombia or anywhere else in the world.' Daniel Kovalik, a US steelworkers' lawyer, said that Coca-Cola had stepped in to curb human rights abuses in Guatemala after three union leaders had been killed in the 1980s. That intervention showed that the company could stop the killings if it chose to, he argued. Copyright 2001 Guardian Newspapers Limited ________________________________________________________________ **************************************************************** * 4 * THE INDEPENDENT [London] Saturday, 21 July 2001 Coke accused of allowing murder at bottling plants ------------------------- By Andrew Buncombe WASHINGTON -- Coca-Cola has become embroiled in a court case in which a bottling company in Colombia stands accused of allowing paramilitaries to murder trade union officials. The drinks producer was named in a suit brought by a human rights group yesterday. It said there was a "campaign of terror" waged against unionists at plants used by Coca-Cola, enforced by members of "paramilitary groups working as agents of corporate concerns" in Colombia. "This is an extremely serious case. It alleges that Coke is allowing its employees to be murdered in their plants," said Terry Collingsworth, a spokesman for the International Labour Rights Fund, which is bringing the case with the United Steel Workers Union. The abuses are alleged to have taken place at plants owned by the Florida- based firm, Panamerican Beverages, which is also named in the suit, placed before a court in Miami. The campaigners claim that Coca-Cola Inc has a legal responsibility for what takes place in the plants because of the nature of its contract with the owners. Dan Kovalik, a lawyer with the United Steel Workers Union, said the aim of the lawsuit was to "try to get Coca-Cola to quickly take some affirmative actions to prevent this type of thing from happening in the future". He added: "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 worldwide bottling facilities then we have a long way to go in making the global economy safe for trade unionists." Also named as a plaintiff in the suit, which is seeking undisclosed damages, is the estate of Isidro Segundo Gil, a trade union leader who was murdered while working at a Colombian bottling plant in Carepa. It is claimed that the manager of that plant specifically threatened to kill union officials if they continued their activities. A spokesman for Coca-Cola, Rafael Fernandez Quiros, said: "We do not own or operate the plants. Wherever we operate, we adhere to the highest ethical standards. Wherever we do business ... we adhere to the highest standards of business practices." No one from Panamerican was available for comment yesterday. Copyright 2001 Newspaper Publishing PLC ________________________________________________________________ **************************************************************** * 5 * THE TIMES [London] Saturday, 21 July 2001 Coca-Cola sued over killings ---------------------------- By Katty Kay WASHINGTON -- Coca-Cola is being sued for allegedly allowing death squads to terrorise workers at a bottling plant in Colombia. American trade union leaders filed the case in a Miami court yesterday on behalf of Sinaltrainal, the Colombian union that represents workers in the local plants. The suit describes a reign of terror in Colombian plants, where union workers say that their leaders are being killed, tortured and kidnapped by paramilitary groups. The case is being brought on behalf of the estates of six trade unionists who were killed by death squads. One, Oscar Soto, was allegedly killed last month after he had petitioned Coca-Cola for protection for union workers. The suit claims that Coca-Cola and Panamerican Beverages, the company's main bottler in Latin America, knew that workers were being threatened by the death squads. "There is no doubt that Coca-Cola knew about the systematic repression of labour rights in its Colombian bottling plants," Terry Collingsworth, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, said. Coca-Cola denied the allegations. "Coca-Cola denies any connection to any human rights violation of this type. We do not own or operate the plants," a spokesman said. A trade union lawyer said that the company had the right to inspect the plants. Copyright 2001 Times Newspapers Limited ________________________________________________________________ **************************************************************** * 6 * AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE Friday, 20 July 2001 US soft-drink maker accused of hiring paramilitaries in Colombia --------------------------------- By Luis Torres de la Llosa WASHINGTON -- Labor leaders and human-rights activists on Thursday accused soft-drink giant Coca-Cola of hiring right-wing paramilitaries to kill, torture and kidnap union leaders at its Colombian plants and said they will sue the company to force it to stop. The lawsuit is to be filed Friday against Coca-Cola and Panamerican Beverages -- its principal bottler in Latin America -- in US federal court in Miami, lawyers for the United Steel Workers Union and the International Labor Rights Fund said at a news conference here. The filing on behalf of the Colombian union Sinaltrainal is timed to coincide with Colombia's Independence Day, the groups said in a statement. "There is no question that Coke knew about and benefited from the systematic repression of trade union rights at its bottling plant in Colombia, and the case will make the company accountable," said Terry Collingsworth, general counsel for the International Labor Rights Fund. Coca-Cola, through a spokesman, denied the accusations. "Coca-Cola denies any connection to any human-rights violation of this type," company spokesman Rafael Fernandez Quiros said by telephone from the company's Atlanta, Georgia headquarters, adding that the complaint "has no merit." Sinaltrainal accuses Coca-Cola of employing right-wing death squads to intimidate union leaders through murder, torture and kidnapping, according to a copy of the complaint made public Thursday. The complaint seeks both compensatory and punitive damages and an end to human-rights abuses by the company. More than 50 union leaders have been killed in Colombia this year, 128 last year and more than 1,500 in the past 10 years, according to the complaint. Also among the plaintiffs is the family of Isidro Segundo Gil, described in the complaint as a union leader murdered in 1996 by paramilitary forces while negotiating a contract for workers at a bottling plant in Carepa, Colombia. Gil was killed after he had received a threat from plant managers, according to the complaint. The complaint cites as justification a 1789 law allowing foreigners to seek justice in US courts for the actions of US nationals or US companies that violate international law. Colombia has been locked in a bloody, 37-year civil war, which pits leftist rebels against right-wing paramilitaries and the armed forces. The government of Andres Pastrana has denounced the paramilitaries for acts of violence against civilians they suspect are members or supporters of leftist antigovernment guerrilla groups. The United States has declared the group a terrorist organization. Copyright 2001 Agence France Presse ________________________________________________________________ **************************************************************** * 7 * ASSOCIATED PRESS Friday, 20 July 2001 Colombian union suing Coca-Cola in death squad case ------------------------------- By Nick Rosen BOGOTA -- Coca-Cola Co.'s Colombian bottlers are working with death squads to kill, threaten and intimidate plant workers, a labor union charged in a federal lawsuit filed Friday in Miami. Coca-Cola, which is named as a defendant, immediately dismissed the racketeering lawsuit, which claims two bottling companies have ties to right-wing paramilitary groups believed responsible for assassinations of union members. "The Coca-Cola Company does not own or operate any bottling plants in Colombia," spokesman Rafael Fernandez said by phone from company headquarters in Atlanta. "We deny any wrongdoing regarding human rights or any other unlawful activities in Colombia or anywhere else in the world." Sinaltrainal, a union representing 2,300 food workers, including 500 Coke bottling plant employees, filed the suit along with the estate of a union leader killed in 1996 and current union leaders. The United Steelworkers of America and the International Labor Rights Fund are backing the lawsuit. In a 66-page complaint issued at a news conference Thursday in Bogota, Sinaltrainal alleges that Coca-Cola bears indirect responsibility for the killing of Isidro Segundo Gil, who was shot to death at the entrance to a bottling plant in the northern town of Carepa. The union claims Gil was killed by paramilitaries acting on orders from a plant manager and on behalf of the bottling company's owners. The lawsuit was filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act, a centuries-old law allowing foreigners to sue U.S. companies for damages caused abroad. Although Coca-Cola does not own the bottling plants in Colombia, lawyers for the union say they have named the soft drink giant as a defendant because it "exercises considerable control" over them and benefitted from labor repression. The bottling companies named in the suit are American-owned, the suit says. Daniel Kovalik, a U.S. Steelworkers staff attorney, said the plaintiffs will ask for millions of dollars in damages, but he did not specify a figure. The Washington-based labor rights group has filed similar lawsuits against Exxon Mobil for operations in Indonesia and Unocal in Burma. Copyright 2001 Associated Press ________________________________________________________________ **************************************************************** * 8 * INTER PRESS SERVICE Friday, 20 July 2001 Coca-Cola to be sued for bottlers' abuses ----------------------------------------- By Jim Lobe WASHINGTON -- Labor rights activists are suing Coca-Cola, the giant U.S.-based multinational beverage company, for the killings and intimidation of union leaders at several of its bottling plants in Colombia. The lawsuit, to be filed today in a Miami federal court, charges that Coke, by failing to prevent its bottlers in Colombia from bringing in right-wing paramilitary death squads to break up unions at its plants, bears responsibility for the abuses, including murder and torture, under both U.S. and state law. A Coca-Cola spokesman, Rafael Fernandez, said the Atlanta-based company was not at fault. "We deny any wrongdoing regarding human rights in Colombia or anywhere else," he said, adding that the company had no "specific information" regarding abuses at its bottling plants there. Also named as defendants in the lawsuit, which is being brought by the United Steel Workers of America (USWA) and the Washington-based International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF), are the bottlers themselves, Miami-based Panamco and Bebidas y Alimentos, a company owned by Richard Kirby and his son, Richard Kirby Keilland, both U.S. citizens living in Key Biscayne, Florida. No one answered the phone listed for the Kirbys, while a Panamco employee said that its management was attending a board meeting and was unavailable for comment. Plaintiffs include SINALTRAINAL, a Colombian trade union that represents workers at a number of beverage and food companies in Colombia; the survivors of Isidro Segundo Gil, who was murdered by paramilitary forces inside the Carepa bottling plant in 1995, and several other union members who allegedly have been subjected to the paramilitaries' campaign of violence and intimidation. The case is being brought in part to highlight the appalling plight of Colombian labor unionists, several thousand of whom have been murdered over the past 15 years -- a record that has drawn the attention of the International Labor Organization (ILO), among others. "There has been a very concerted campaign against trade unionists for many years and it seems to have even stepped up in recent months," according to Robin Kirk, a Colombia expert at Human Rights Watch. "Of every five trade unionists murdered in the world, three are Colombian," said Dan Kovalik, a USWA lawyer. He said more than 50 trade union leaders have been killed so far this year, including Oscar Dario Soto Polo, an employee and union official at a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Monertia who was gunned down June 21. The case also is being brought as the House of Representatives this week considers a request by President George W. Bush to add some $ 400 million in economic and military aid to $ 1.3 billion already approved for Plan Colombia, an effort to help government forces gain control of coca-growing regions. The request has run into unexpectedly strong resistance, especially among Democrats, who are concerned that the money would only fuel abuses, particularly by right-wing paramilitary forces that have been supported by military commanders in the past. The paramilitaries, which human rights groups claim are responsible for most of the violence in Colombia, have often acted as hired guns for big landowners and private companies, precisely to discourage workers from organizing. The case is based primarily on the Alien Tort Claims Act, a 200-year-old law that permits foreigners to sue anyone for damages arising from grave human rights abuses committed abroad. The only constraint is that defendants must be served on U.S. territory. The Act has been used with striking success in gaining big judgments against individuals, including about a dozen foreign heads of state and senior military officers, in lawsuits brought over the past 15 years. Its use against corporations is relatively untested. The ILRF helped bring a suit against UNOCAL, the California-based energy company, for its alleged complicity with Burma's military government in drafting forced labor to build a pipeline, but that case remains in the courts. Last month, it filed another case against Exxon-Mobil for Mobil's alleged backing for military abuses in Aceh, Indonesia. At the Carepa bottling plant, according to the 60-page complaint, paramilitary forces murdered two activists in April 1994 and then were invited by management at Bebidos y Alimentos to come onto the premises to threaten other members of the local SINALTRAINAL leadership if they did not resign from the union or flee the town altogether. In 1995, every member of the union's executive board left. When the union elected a new board, management hired members of the paramilitaries to work in the sales and production departments. They carried out a campaign of intimidation that included death threats against specific board members and culminated in the murder inside the plant of Isidro Segundo Gil in Dec 1996. At Panamco's Coca-Cola plant in Bucaramanga, the plaintiffs allege that five members of the local union executive board were falsely accused in 1996 of planting a bomb on the premises during a labor dispute, were badly beaten by local police, and were incarcerated in terrible conditions for six months before the regional prosecutor found that the charges were groundless and ordered them released. At Panamco's Cucata and Barrancabermeja plants, the local union officials have been forced into hiding after receiving death threats, from paramilitaries beginning in 1999, in connection with their union work. In Barrancabermeja, plant management has openly collaborated with and supported the paramilitaries, according to the complaint. In each case, the union repeatedly asked Coca-Cola Colombia and the bottling company's management for protection. "Coke did nothing," said Kovalik. In all these cases, according to Terry Collingsworth, ILRF's chief attorney, the bottlers effectively acted as Coca-Cola's agent due to the degree of control the soft drink company exercised over their operations under the standard bottling contract. "We are confident that if any of these plants make a mistake in applying Coca-Cola's formula or in delivering Coke, they would be there to correct it," said Kovalik. "But in cases where they kill union leaders, they do nothing." Collingsworth pointed out that, in a similar case in Guatemala 20 years ago, Coke arranged for the bottling plant owner, John Trotter, to sell his franchise. Trotter was accused of using death squads to kill several union officials between 1978 and 1979. After the sale, the repression at the plant ceased. But in the case of the Carepa plant, Coke turned down an offer by the Kirbys to sell the plant in 1997, despite reports that the elder Kirby had specifically threatened to kill union leaders before Gil's death. "There is no question that Coke knew about and benefited from the systematic repression of trade union rights at its bottling plants in Colombia, and this case will make the company accountable," said Collingsworth. Coke's Fernandez denied, however, that the company received "any notice from Colombian police or anybody of any wrongdoing" in any of the plants. "It is not true that the agreement (between the bottlers and the company) gives us control," he added, noting that Coke expects all its employees and associates to abide by a business code of conduct dating back to 1980. Copyright 2001 Inter Press Service ________________________________________________________________ **************************************************************** * 9 * UNITED STEEL WORKERS OF AMERICA Thursday, 19 July 2001 ***************** * PRESS RELEASE * ***************** Coke to be Sued in U.S. Court for Human Rights Abuses in Colombia ----------------------------------- PITTSBURGH, Penn. -- The United Steelworkers of America (USWA) and the International Labor Rights Fund will file suit tomorrow, July 20, in U.S. 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 Coke facilities in Colombia. 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. SINALTRAINAL is filing the 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. The suit alleges 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, Colombia. The suit alleges that 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, and that he made good on the threat and ordered the murder of Mr. Gil. The other Plaintiffs are Luis Eduardo Garcia, Alvaro Gonzalez, Jose Domingo Flores, Jorge Humberto Leal and Juan Carlos Galvis, all leaders of SINALTRAINAL, who, while employed by Coke, were allegedly subjected to torture, kidnapping, and/or unlawful detention in order to intimidate them into ceasing 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," said Steelworkers President Leo Gerard. "If we can't get Coke, one of the best 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. "While the offenses detailed in the Complaint occurred in an industry outside the Steelworkers' core jurisdiction," he added, "we are filing this case to show our solidarity with the embattled trade unions of Colombia. We absolutely must stand together to stop such criminal activity against our union brothers and sisters, regardless of where or in what industry it occurs." "The case is extremely strong from a legal perspective," said Terry Collingsworth, general counsel of the Washington, D.C.-based International Labor Rights Fund, who is co-counsel for the 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." 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 Steelworkers, 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 Steelworkers 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. A copy of the Complaint will be available at www.laborrights.org CONTACT: International Labor Rights Fund Terry Collingsworth, 202/347-4100 Ext. 2 or United Steelworkers of America Dan Kovalik, 412/562-2518 ________________________________________________________________ **************************************************************** * CLM-NEWS is brought to you by the COLOMBIAN LABOR MONITOR at * * http://www.prairienet.org/clm * * and the CHICAGO COLOMBIA COMMITTEE * * Email us at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or * * Dennis Grammenos at [EMAIL PROTECTED] * **************************************************************** * To unsubscribe send request to [EMAIL PROTECTED] * * unsubscribe clm-news * **************************************************************** > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
