Students for Peace and Global Justice at the University of Vermont (UVM) are banding together to rid the campus of the Coca-Cola Company and its controversial history.
Beverage of choice
UVM senior Justin Hurtt is heading the campaign to get Coca-Cola products removed from campus and break the contract they have with Coca-Cola to bring in a more socially responsible beverage company.
One reason the effort is in effect is because nine union leaders have been killed by paramilitary soldiers which were paid off by the Coca-Cola Company in Colombia in 1989, he says.
“This campaign has been going on for about two years or so,” Hurtt says.
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Hank Strashnick, dining services general manager displays the various kinds of Coca-Cola products sold at St. Michael's. (Photo by Kaitlin Couillard) |
UVM's contract with Coca-Cola will be ending on July 30, 2012, and they are considering having half of the campus beverage product supply come from a well-known beverage company. They hope the other half would come from a more local and sustainable beverage company the university can support, he says.
It's not worth the trouble to get rid of Coca-Cola because there’s a good chance other companies have similar business practices as Coca-Cola, St. Michael's junior Greg Ander says.
“I doubt that absolutely, positively everyone in [UVM’s Students for Peace and Global Justice] knows exactly where they buy all their stuff, exactly where it’s made, exactly what kind of labor standards, exactly how the companies operate,” he says. “It just looks like to me that if they want to be serious about that, then why not be serious about where their clothes come from?”
The club’s goals are unrealistic and hypocritical because Coca-Cola can easily find other customers, and the club isn’t focusing on other organizations who may use similar business practices, he says.
Trish Siplon, a professor of political science and admitted consumer of Coke products, dislikes Coca-Cola business practices, however.
“When we had our boycott against them on campus about five years ago, it was because they made this big deal about providing HIV/AIDS treatment for their workers in sub-Saharan Africa,” she says. “It turned out that they only meant the people in the offices in South Africa and not the bottlers, not the distributors and drivers.”
A lot of student groups were involved across the country and eventually the company did broaden its treatment, but she believes the company will only change its policies when pressured, she says.
Hank Strashnick, Dining Services general manager, started working at St. Michael’s in 2002 and believes St. Michael’s became a “Coke campus” in 1998 or 1999, he says.
“Both Pepsi and Coca-Cola have been approaching colleges for over 10 years now,” he says. “Sometimes there are rebates on the sales. Sometimes it’s an upfront donation to the college.”
At first beverage companies like Coca-Cola, Pepsi and beer distributors wanted their names on the scoreboards. Then about 15 years ago they wanted their names all over campuses. Advertising has always been in the business, Strashnick says.
The real deal
Diana Garza, a spokesperson for Coca-Cola, says that the two main allegations facing the company that are causing concern are violence against union workers and leaders in Colombia, and the general use of water, specifically in India and other water-stressed areas around the world. These two allegations have been proven wrong, time and again, she says.
There are all kinds of Internet speculations about large organizations taking advantage of environmental opportunities, Garza says.
In response to an allegation that Coca-Cola had been intimidating, kidnapping and murdering plant workers in Colombia, according to the US Labor Education In the America Project (LEAP) Website, that same allegation has been applied to virtually any major corporation that has been doing business in Colombia, Garza says.
“We built our business there locally,” she says. “We hire locally. We produce locally. We distribute locally. It has been helpful in developing the economics of the country. To leave a country like that would actually hurt the country more than help it.”
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Strashnick shows where the different kinds of Coca-Cola syrups are stored. (Photo by Kaitlin Couillard) |
In order to sustain the business, the company must sustain the people who work there, she says.
“It’s really not logical for us (Coca-Cola) to hurt our workers and not provide them with the things that make them productive,” she says.
Garza recalls the story of a union leader as an unarmed security guard at the gate of a rural bottling facility who was killed in the crossfire between paramilitary groups and military guerillas. The unions in Colombia have been using his name as an essential figure in their campaign against Coca-Cola, she says.
“The implication is that the plant manager at the facility, the Coca-Cola Bottling management and the Coca-Cola Company were all somehow complicit in the violence against this one individual,” she says. “That is absolutely, uncategorically untrue. There is absolutely no truth to it. Totally false.”
Garza believes the boycotts are actually concerns because colleges should be, and sometime are, more apt to ask for explanations rather than make allegations, she says.
“If there is concern on the college campus, sometimes the school will invite us to come and visit with them,” she says. “We would love to come in and talk one-on-one and answer all the questions.”
It’s important to hear both sides to a story before a decision is made, she says.
The University of Michigan took Coca-Cola off its campus in 2006 and wouldn’t let them come back until Coca-Cola made an independent assessment of its operations in Colombia. The company asked the International Labour Organization to conduct that assessment and after an agreement was made to do the assessment, Coca-Cola was let back on campus, she says.
“There are a lot of really good things that happen when engaging with students and with the schools,” she says.
Catch the wave
Colleges or universities who are considering switching to Pepsi in light of the problems with Coca-Cola should base their reason on fact, and not judgment or allegations, Garza says.
“If a customer has a genuine concern and says, ‘Hey guys I’m hearing these terrible things, what’s the deal?’ come on in and talk to us,” she says. “We would love that opportunity.”
Although Pepsi is a strong competitor of Coca-Cola, Garza says, she sees them as much as a friend as they are a rival.
“We take care of each other because we are the beverage industry,” she says.
“Pepsi and Coke are kind of similar,” Hurtt says. “They have some bad track records, but Pepsi seems to be doing better than Coca-Cola. They’re trying to take the necessary steps in order to make themselves a responsible company.”
Pepsi is working to change its image and distance itself from Coca-Cola, Hurtt says.
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A thirsty patron fills his cup with Coca-Cola. (Photo by Kaitlin Couillard) |
“I think [Coke's] a terrible company, and I don’t think Pepsi is much better,” Siplon says.
Siplon would fully support St. Michael’s switch to Pepsi, she says.
“Five or six years ago when we tried to get them to do it, they had just moved from a Pepsi contract to a Coke contract,” she says. “It’s incredibly hard to get a school to switch because Coke buys them out in other ways, including scholarship money and students whose education is riding on it.”
Although Siplon didn’t specifically say she would organize an effort to get Coca-Cola out of St. Michael’s, she would support a student effort.
“When I go to Africa I think it’s disgusting because Coca-Cola is everywhere,” she says. “I’d be interested to know if anybody’s doing any studies to see into the dental health and obesity issues in Africa and I’m sure that it is negatively affecting both. There are places I go where it’s easier to get a bottle of Coke than it is to get a clean bottle of water, and I think that’s horrible.”
As a 120-year-old company, Coca-Cola evolves by improving it's operations, Garza says.
“The Coca-Cola Company today is a much better company than it was 70 years ago,” she says. “Are we perfect today? Absolutely not. Is there more that we can do? You bet.”