PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Fight Murderous Coke at the SEA Meeting Thursday!!
by A. Wob Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2003 at 6:20 PM
pittsburghiww@yahoo.com

Tomorrow morning (11/20) members of the Pittsburgh General Membership Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World will present Pittsburgh’s Sports and Exhibition Authority with a request for disclosure of its contract with Coke.

Murderous Killer Coke has obtained a multi year contract to provide exclusive beverage service in Pittsburgh's new Convention Center.


We will ask members of the authority to express their concern about the murder of trade unionists in Colombia and insist that a Coke representative come to Pittsburgh and address the board on its actions to stop the murders and pay remediation to the families of murdered Coke workers.

The new Convention Center is the place where we welcome visitors from Pittsburgh from all over the world. It is a publicly owned building that must represent the highest standards for accountability and commitment to human rights.

Join us at 9 AM tomorrow morning (please show up a little early) in Room 330 of the new Convention Center. Come and speak to this Authority… they need to hear that our standards are high and that we are united for human dignity and extending our civil liberties from Pittsburgh to the World. Please represent your groups, and your actions and your persistent commitment to building a city that is welcoming and kind and -NOT IN COMPETITION, BUT IN SOLIDARITY- with the the whole wide world.

MORE ON KILLER COKE AND PITTSBURGH…

July 5 2003, Homestead PA

Nearly 40 people converged on the Pump House this afternoon to hear Dan Kovalik, USWA staff attorney talk about cases being brought against Drummond Coal Company and Coca-cola bottlers for colluding with right wing paramilitaries who murder trade unionists. Joel Woller of the Battle of Homestead Foundation told those assembled about the significance of the Pump House site before introducing Dan, “This place is all about the struggle for free speech and free assembly,” he gestures to a window and the Monongahela River behind him, “This is the spot where the Pinkerton guards landed their barges. The first worker to die was shot thru this window.” He went onto explain, “This was a union town… Busting the union with the military was the ultimate violation of these town peoples’ freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. This Pump House will stand as reminder to us and the world that we have these rights and we will protect them.”

Dan Kovalik picked up the historical note by pointing out that the history of Colombia is filled with violence against trade unionists, pointing out that Boston based United Fruit massacred and disappeared more than 100 banana pickers to bust their union in Columbia around the same time as the Battle of Homestead. He went on to describe two of his cases.

On March 12, 2002 two union leaders were on a bus returning from the mine. They had previously requested that the company allow them to spend the night because that they were afraid that paramilitaries would pull the bus over and murder them on the road. The company ignored their request and that is exactly what happened. These two unionists were called by name by the paramilitaries and there is every reason to believe that the company told the paramilitary which bus these workers were on. The worker who stepped into the union leadership after these workers were murdered was killed himself several months later.

Drummond Coal Company is based in Alabama where they used to mine coal until they shut down most of their US operations and opened up in Columbia. Part of The USWA’s interest in the case comes from the handful of Drummond employees still in Alabama and many retirees who have taken an interest in following their work and the workers’ rights violations that went with it. Drummond owns its own railway and port now in Colombia. The current case is being tied in North Alabama District Court on behalf of family members.

The second law suit is against Coca-cola and its Colombian bottlers for a murder that took place on the shop floor when paramilitaries entered a bottling plant on December 5, 1996 after the boss had told the workers the union would be wiped out by the local paramilitaries and that to protect themselves workers should decertify. That is exactly what happened and after the murder was done, the paramilitary came back to force union members to resign at gun point.

In 2002 185 of the 212 unionists killed were killed in Columbia, this year us looking a little better – only half way through and only 35 Columbian unions have been murdered in 2003. Why the decrease? Two possibilities were discussed. First that international attention to these crimes is starting to provide some protection for workers. The AFL-CIO helped bring 30-targeted unionists to the United States for a year to help raise their profiles. The campaign to force Coke out of large institutions like universities seems to getting the bosses attention as well.

The other possible reason for the slow down in killings is a little less inspiring, it is that a critical mass of unionists are already dead and the communities have in fact been sufficiently terrorized. Asked about the left wing paramilitaries and their connection to the drug trade, and the right wing paramilitaries and their relationship to the drug trade and the Columbian military, Kovalik boiled it down, “These groups don’t really fight each other. What they do is they murder civilians. Columbians need protection from all these groups for civil society and labor unions to function.” Kovalik’s talk was followed by a Q and A session and when that was over, the assembled heard the drumming and dancing of (get it from CC) who were able to join us from their home state of New Mexico. They sang praise for the workers at the Battle of Homestead and reminded us that the enemies of working people and indigenous people are most often the same. The pounding drums inspired us all towards the work ahead.

UPDATE: On July 23, 2003 Carlos Barrera, a member of the hospital workers union was killed by a gunman, bringing the number of workers killed this year in Columbia to 45. We will never forget!

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