American Federation of Teachers on Oct. 15 became the latest union to ban Coke products. The AFT Executive Council passed a resolution, held over from July 2014 convention in Los Angeles, which declares that Coca-Cola Company is complicit in violence against union leaders in Latin America, particularly Colombia and Guatemala. The resolution also holds the company responsible for purchasing sugar produced with child labor in El Salvador.
Since the “Campaign to Stop Killer Coke” began in 2004, several dozen union locals and state and central labor councils have passed resolutions. AFT is the fifth international union to do so, following American Postal Workers Union, Communications Workers of America, International Longshore and Warehouse Union, and Service Employees International Union.
AFT’s resolution says it will refrain from serving or selling Coca-Cola products at its offices or at any venue for events or meetings, recommend the same to all affiliates, and encourage them to participate in campaigns to remove Coke products from schools, colleges, hospitals and other AFT workplaces.
In the United States, Coke bottling and distribution employees are mostly represented by the Brewery and Soft Drink Workers Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The Teamsters has not taken a position on the Killer Coke campaign.
For its part, the Coca-Cola Company denies the allegations. In 2001, the Colombian union Sinaltrainal filed suit in U.S. District Court against Coca-Cola and two Colombian bottlers, alleging involvement by the bottlers in the murders of three union workers by right-wing paramilitaries. The judge dropped Coca-Cola as a defendant in 2003, and dismissed the case against the two bottlers in 2006. The dismissals were upheld by an appeals court in 2009.
