Cathie Black and Coca Cola

Union-busting Cathie Black sat on the board of union-busting Coca-Cola and collected hundreds of dollars for her efforts.

Coca-Cola is of course an all-American company that sells an All-American drink and engages in all-American activities like these:

(BOGOTA) - Coca-Cola: to many, it is simply the all-American cola that everyone grew up drinking. Originally created in the late 1800s as a medicine, Coca-Cola eventually evolved into one of the world's most popular soft drinks. Besides being a very unhealthy beverage, Coca-Cola has another dirty secret for which few people are aware; the Coca-Cola Company has been involved in a series of kidnappings involving union leaders and organizers at its Colombia bottling facilities. Many of those kidnapped have been severely tortured and even murdered by company thugs.

As shocking and unbelievable as all of this sounds, there is a trail of documented evidence against Coca-Cola for its crimes against union officials. In fact, back in 2001, the United Steelworkers of America and the International Labor Rights Fund, filed a joint lawsuit on behalf of SINALTRAINAL to address the problems in Colombia.

Javier Correa, President of the National Union of Food Industry Workers, and William Mendoza, President of the Barrancabermeja location in Colombia, have joined together with Ray Rogers, Director of the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke, to bring light to the issue and push for an end to the atrocities.

How did it all start?

Most people recognize that unions are formed to protect workers from unfair treatment and abuse by employers. Though some do not operate as intended, the general idea of unions is to ensure that workers are receiving fair pay for their labor and that they are not being grossly extorted by those for whom they work.

U.S. laws have been designed to protect American workers who form labor unions from being threatened or silenced by the companies for whom they work, and while they are not perfect, their intent was for the best interests of American workers.

When workers at Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia began to step up and organize unions, the Coca-Cola Company allegedly began to contract with paramilitary security forces to deal with leaders and organizers, something they would not legally be able to do in the U.S. Even today, these forces are using extreme tactics to silence anyone who would dare attempt to organize workers to form a union. These tactics include violent detention efforts, torture and even murder.

Internal Pentagon records that were eventually required to be made public revealed that Colombian troops connected with Coca-Cola's paramilitary forces were also being trained at the U.S. Army's School of the Americas (SOA) in Fort Benning, Georgia, to torture and murder those who conduct "union organizing and recruiting", distribute "propaganda in favor of workers", and "sympathize with demonstrators or strikes."

Is this an isolated incident?

This is not the first time, or the first country, in which Coca-Cola has been responsible for severe human rights abuses. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, the company was responsible for similar behavior in Guatemala, where eight workers in Guatemala City were murdered or otherwise killed for trying to keep their union alive.

Thanks to massive international protests against Coca-Cola following campaigns that brought the truth to light, the multi-national giant was forced to concede and the Guatemalan union survived. But at the time, even the government of Guatemala was unwilling to address the issue; it took the efforts of concerned citizens around the world to win the battle against Coca-Cola and achieve some sort of justice.

The Coca-Cola Company has also been accused of similar human rights abuses in other countries today, including in developing countries like India and China where it has plants. Because the company is so large and powerful, it exerts considerable sway on governments worldwide that turn a blind eye to its abuses.

You can read more about Coca-Cola's paramilitary thuggery here at Frontline's site.

Does Cathie Black know of Coca-Cola's murderous, union-busting tactics in Columbia?

If she did know, would she care?

I bet she would.

Given who she is and how she makes her money sitting on the boards of the Masters of the Universe, I bet she'd be in favor of these practices.

I'd like to see somebody ask her about what she did on the Coca-Cola board and how she feels about Coke's labor practices worldwide.

Perhaps she wants to employ similar practices here in New York City?