Colombia: Activists target Coca-Cola

Activists from the U.S. and Colombia are targeting the World of Coca-Cola museum, located near its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, accusing the company of "union busting", paying its workers "poverty wages", and engaging in environmentally destructive practices. "We're an unofficial coalition with the India Resource Center, focusing on Coca-Cola overusing waters in drought areas. We're supporting Corporate Accountability International, that have been trying to stop the use of bottled water over tap water," Lew Friedman, of Killer Coke, told IPS. "We're working on behalf of Sinaltrainal, the food workers in Colombia. They had eight union leaders murdered. We've been augmenting their legal suit," Friedman said. "There's plenty of evidence that shows the plant managers were very cozy with the paramilitaries," he added. Sinaltrainal v. Coca-Cola was filed in 2001 by the United Steelworkers of America and the International Labor Rights Fund on behalf of the Colombian trade union Sinaltrainal, several of its members, and the estate of Isidro Gil, one of its officers who was murdered.