Coca Cola boycott reaches Munich

Cafe Ruffini in Neuhausen has become Munich's first establishment to join the international boycott of Coca-Cola products. An ÖDP counselor has called for all operations managed by the city council to also join the boycott.

The international boycott has been gathering support since the summer of 2003. It was initiated by the Colombian trade union SINALTRAINAL. The Coca-Cola Company and its bottlers are accused of directing or tolerating the actions of paramilitaries against their workers in order to prevent them from setting up trade unions, resulting in some of the leaders of said attempted trade unions being murdered.

In January 2004, the New York City Fact-Finding Delegation on Coca-Cola in Colombia confirmed the workers' allegations. They found that to date there have been a total of 179 major human rights violations of Coca-Cola's workers, including nine murders. Family members of union activists have been abducted and tortured. Union members have been fired for attending union meetings. The company has pressured workers to resign their union membership and contractual rights, and fired workers who refused to do so.

Most troubling to the delegation were the persistent allegations that paramilitary violence against workers was done with the knowledge of and likely under the direction of company managers. The physical access that paramilitaries have had to Coca-Cola bottling plants is impossible without company knowledge and/or tacit approval.

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