 "Photo: Danielle Augeri / Collegian")
Today, the “Campaign to Stop Killer Coke” at the
The campaign at UMass is a nascent organization beginning to gain ground among students. Boone Shear, a member of the organization and an anthropology doctoral candidate at UMass, said “the boycott is meant as a symbolic beginning and as an informational, consciousness-raising exercise.”
The student group is planning on contacting and having dialogue with University administrators and decision makers about the University’s “exclusive pouring rights” contract with Coca-Cola, is eligible for renewal in August, according to the sponsorship agreement. Shear said the group hopes “to have representation and voice in the contract bidding process.”
However, according to contract administrator Ruth Yanka, “the University exercised its option to renew the contract in February of this year,” although the contract would not have been up for renewal until this August.
“We are aware that the University receives a significant amount of money from a company that is associated with torture, kidnapping, murder, union busting, draining of public groundwater in vulnerable communities and so on,” said Shear.
The allegations Shear is referencing regard the grievances lobbied against the Coca-Cola Company in the 2001 lawsuit, Sinaltrainal v. Coca- Cola, placed against Coca-Cola in a
The lawsuit alleged that paramilitary forces killed three workers, who were members of Sinaltrainal, the National Union for Food Industry Workers, who worked in the Coca Cola Bebidas y Alimentos plant in
Under the company’s insurance obligations in the Coca-Cola contract, the company is contractually obligated to “statutory workers’ compensation, including employer’s liability insurance, subject to limits of not less than $1,000,000, affording coverage under applicable workers’ compensation law.” However, there is no tangible evidence that this insurance clause was awarded to the murdered workers’ family members.
The campaign at UMass said in a letter to the editor that “the corporate giant has chosen to evade responsibility and thwart investigations.”
Despite these allegations, Ms. Yanka stated “the University cannot make a decision to exclude a vendor from the campus without some defendable basis.”
The Coca-Cola Company receives “exclusive pouring rights” under its multimillion-dollar contract with UMass. Under the contract, the University is to “use its reasonable, good faith efforts to maximize the sales and distribution of products on the campus, including hawking products in stands and approved cups or twenty-ounce contour bottles during all events when any items of any make or description are hawked.”
The University received up to 46 percent commission off of the sale of Coca-Cola products. The contract also states that “during the term, no competitive products of any kind whatsoever will be marketed, advertised, merchandised, promoted or sampled in any manner nor at any time on the campus and/or in connection with the University, the campus, or the University marks.”
At the time of bidding in August 2004, Polar Beverages of Worcester, Mass., was the other bidder. However, under review by a seven-person selection committee, Coca-Cola was chosen based on established criteria. Since the University renewed the contract in February, “there are no renegotiations – the contract is extended under the same terms and conditions,” said Ms. Yanka.
“The University has committed itself to a relationship with a corporation that is associated with human rights abuses and criminal acts. This relationship effectively excludes other businesses from selling competing products in most places on campus, thereby limiting student choice and compelling students to participate in this relationship. I think the onus is on the administration to figure out alternatives,” said Shear.
The University receives benefits from the exclusive contract with Coca-Cola, such as the Chancellor’s Merit Scholarship of $15,000, transferring the UCard debit program to an Ethernet-based infrastructure, renovations to dining hall beverage stations and a Bill Cosby event with a $10,000 cash sponsorship.
“The concrete benefits bestowed by this exclusive contract tacitly endorse, and indeed are a result of Coca-Cola’s unresolved abuses,” said the campaign. They also believe that it is unethical for the University to benefit from Coca-Cola’s “criminal acts.”
A petition has been circulating, distributed by Killer Coke at UMass, to rescind the “exclusive pouring rights” contract with the Coca-Cola Company. On whether the University took notice of the petition’s circulation and what would occur if the University were to rescind the contract, Ms. Yanka said, “I have not seen any petitions, nor have I had any questions or concerns raised to me regarding ending Coke’s contract for some time.”
Killer Coke at UMass said, “as part of a global effort to force Coca-Cola to take responsibility for its actions – and to allow for free choice on our campus – we call for the University to rescind its current contract and to refrain from any future agreements.”
