On 10 August 2004, the transnational corporation, with the consent of the Ministry of Labour, revoked Sinaltrainal’s by-laws, thus hindering membership by outsourced workers. The company tried to persuade judges to declare illegal Sinaltrainal sections in Bogotá, Girardot, Santa Marta, Cali and Villavicencio, among others, but it did not succeed. It has tried this several times, and now we face case N° 0240-2012 in the Bogotá Labor Court, where the Coca Cola Villavicencio bottling plant is again requesting that the union be declared illegal. Coca Cola has also tried – with no success – to get a permit from judiciary to fire labor leaders.
In order to terrorize workers so they either do not join Sinaltrainal or give up such membership, they use the ploy of criminalizing the victims: the corporation administration carries on systematic stigmatization campaigns against Sinaltrainal memberss by publishing images of workers and their families, accusing the union members of vandalism and damage to property, or gathering workers against their will so as to show them “graphics” accusing members of Sinaltrainal of being the guilty ones. They have caused moral and material damages, putting life and the integrity of several members of Sinaltrainal5 at stake, because they have been involved in criminal cases charging unionists with slander, calumny, damage to property, conspiracy to commit crime, rebellion and terrorism, among other things, with at least 12 leaders of Sinaltrainal unfairly imprisoned. An arrest warrant was issued against them, and the corporation took advantage of this to give them notice of dismissal for “just cause”. But the company was compelled to rehire them when they were acquitted.6
In order to hinder freedom of association, the transnational corporation militarizes repression for protesting. As in many other cases, there are the events that happened in the Medellín bottling plant on 17 December 2010, where police entered with armored cars to force removal of subcontracted and Sinaltrainal affiliated workers that refused to move the distribution vehicles. Some individuals, on behalf of Coca Cola and escorted by policemen, went to the workers’ homes with dismissal notices for them.
The social, political and armed conflict that continues in Colombia after more than 50 years is used as a pretext by the state and by transnationals such as Coca Cola to carry out an anti-trade union policy, aiming to link trade union activities, workers’ claims and protests with actions by outlaw organizations or organizations guilty of violent crimes. Several members of Sinaltrainal that work for Coca Cola bottling companies have been unjustifiably accused by the Administrative Department of Security (DAS) of being a danger for national security. Coca Cola has been implicated in having links to and supporting the war that the state security forces are carrying on. An example of this is the gathering of people from Coca Cola bottling plants in February 2010 on the military base of Tolemaida. Under the slogan “Guided by Pride” and dressed in military uniforms, they participated in war maneuvre training.7
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