United University Professions (UUP) Delegate Assembly votes to boycott Coke

Committee Name: Solidarity Committee Meeting

Date: April 20, 2007

PROPOSAL REGARDING THE COCA-COLA COMPANY WHEREAS more than 3,000 trade unionists have been assassinated in Colombia since 1990; and

WHEREAS the Coca-Cola Company and its Colombian bottlers are being sued in the United States under the Alien Claims Tort Act for having "contracted with or otherwise directed paramilitary security forces that used extreme violence and murdered, tortured, and unlawfully detained or otherwise silenced trade union leaders.";

WHEREAS a fact-finding delegation of labor, educator and student representatives led by New York City Council member Hiram Monserrate and including members of AFT, AFSCME/CSEA and CWA concluded, based on a 10-day trip to Colombia in January of 2004, that Coca-Cola is complicit in human rights abuses in Colombia" and that its "complicity is deepened by its repeated pattern of bringing criminal charges against union activists who have spoken out about the company's collusion with the paramilitaries.";

WHEREAS various courts, government agencies and independent studies have confirmed community concerns in India that the Coca-Cola Company is responsible for polluting the groundwater and soil, distributing toxic waste as fertilizer, causing severe water shortages and selling drinks with high levels of pesticides in India;

WHEREAS the Coca-Cola Company uses sugar harvested by children in El Salvador who, in the process of harvesting, suffer from smoke inhalation, burns, and cuts from machetes yet are not provided with health care;

WHEREAS union activists in Colombia and throughout the world are calling on their union brothers and sisters to boycott Coca-Cola,

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the UUP Delegate Assembly recommends to the statewide UUP Executive Board that UUP not serve Coca-Cola products at its events, meetings, conferences, and delegate assemblies,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the UUP Delegate Assembly recommends to the statewide UUP Executive Board that it urge UUP chapters not to serve Coca-Cola products at their events, meetings, and conferences,

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the UUP Delegate Assembly recommends to the statewide UUP Executive Board that it urge UUP chapters to press for the termination of contracts with Coca-Cola on their campuses.