Unions protest Coca-Cola’s serial human rights violations at company-hosted conference on… Business and Human Rights

Attendees at the 11th Business and Human Rights Conference hosted by The Coca-Cola Company on September 12 at its Atlanta headquarters faced a group of fifty trade unionists at the entrance denouncing ongoing human rights abuses at Coca-Cola in countries around the world (click here to learn more).

IUF North American affiliates UFCW, BCTGM, RWDSU/UFCW, Teamsters and UniteHere joined IUF President Mark Lauritsen and representatives from the IUF’s International Secretariat to confront conference attendees and speakers with the stark contradiction between Coca-Cola’s lofty words and glossy publications and their egregious violations of fundamental worker rights in Haiti, Indonesia, Ireland and the USA.

IUF General Secretary Sue Longley reaffirmed the IUF’s support for workers in the global Coca-Cola system struggling to exercise their rights, saying “It is sheer hypocrisy for Coca-Cola to host a human rights conference when Coca-Cola workers in four countries have been struggling for years to exercise their basic rights against strong company opposition, harassment and intimidation. It’s time for the Company to take concrete action in place of public relations exercises and deliver on its human rights obligations.”

Click here for more photos of the action