“For life and freedom to organize, Coca-Cola workers are on hunger strike”

Since 2:00 p.m., April 13, 2015, workers at this multinational who are members of Sinaltrainal (national food and beverage trade union in Colombia) have called a Hunger Strike in the Plaza de Bolivar in Bogota, Colombia. They demand that Colombian authorities put together a national conference including Sinaltrainal and Coca Cola, to reach solutions in the following cases:

In Barrancabermeja, Coca Cola hired Carelis Cadavid, wife of the well-known paramilitary commander, Wilfred Martinez “alias Gavilan” (“Hawk”) who carried out the attack on Coca Cola’s infrastructure, and who threatened, displaced, and falsely accused the leaders of Sinaltrainal. Because of all this, the Attorney General opened an investigation for the crimes of criminal conspiracy and alleged terrorism…

We have been the victims of twelve murders, of unjust imprisonments, of 68 death threats, attacks on the lives of workers and their families, 54 displacements and several people have had to go into exile after surviving attacks and escaping from kidnapping. Paramilitaries barged into the plant in Carepa and forced the workers to resign from Sinaltrainal. After that they burned down the union office and stole equipment and files. The magazine Cambio on February 8, 1999, reported meetings between officials at the Coca Cola bottling plants and paramilitary commanders. In spite of that, up to now the paramilitaries who are under the Justice and Peace law have not reported the lengths to which the multinational has gone in its commitment in the Colombian conflict.