Facts Show Coca-Cola Labor Practices Fair and Honest

To the editors:

Benjamin Weintraub’s February 17th article (“SLAM Takes Aim at Coke Contract,” news) noted that Harvard’s Student Labor Action Movement (SLAM) is planning to target Coca-Cola in an effort to secure for Coca-Cola workers the right to organize.

As the director of global labor relations at Coca-Cola, I share the concerns of student activists regarding labor conditions around the world. Through my work on the United Nations International Labor Organization, I have seen firsthand the manifold difference it makes in the lives of individuals, families, communities and entire countries when employers live up to the responsibilities due their workers. In my experience, the campaigns that are the most successful are those grounded in irrefutable fact and driven by a commitment to justice. In the case of the campaign against The Coca-Cola Company, the facts tell quite a different story than reported by SLAM, and ignoring them for the sake of political gain does justice great harm.

The Coca-Cola Company is committed to promoting fair labor practices everywhere we do business. In Colombia and around the world, we respect workers’ rights to unionize and we do not tolerate intimidation of union members. We engage regularly with internationally respected organizations to review our labor standards and to work with us in assessing compliance with these standards in our operations worldwide.

Because we take concerns about Coca-Cola operations in Colombia seriously, we are currently facilitating the design and development of another credible, impartial, and independent third party assessment of Coca-Cola bottling operations in Colombia. The development of the assessment will involve international labor organizations, nongovernmental organizations and our most vocal critics.

Beyond Colombia, our Global Labor Relations team at The Coca-Cola Company has been working to develop a Workplace Rights Policy—the first of its kind for our entire industry. The policy will contain our commitment to foster an open and inclusive environment based on recognized workplace human rights. We have received comments on the draft policy by external human rights organizations such as the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, Human Rights Watch, International Labor Rights Fund, and Oxfam. We have also met with numerous other organizations including the International Union of Food Workers (IUF), the United Food and Commercial Workers, and Amnesty International.

EDWARD E. POTTER
Atlanta, Ga.
February 23, 2006

The writer is the director of global labor relations and workplace accountability for the Coca-Cola Company.