The Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) has voted to boycott Coca-Cola products in spite of the fact that it is not official ICTU policy.
If the boycott affected only 5 per cent of Coca-Cola sales, it would still cost the multinational company more than if it was to provide proper facilities for its employees in Colombia, the union was told yesterday during a debate on the issue on the final day of its annual congress in Galway.
The motion to support the "Boycott Coca-Cola campaign" was proposed by the Dublin colleges in response to a request from the Colombian trade union movement. The year-long boycott was initiated last July by Sinaltrainal, the Colombian Food and Drink Workers' Union, and has been supported in Ireland by the students' unions at Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin.
Sponsorship by the company of the INTO conference in Tralee, Co Kerry, this week was also the subject of criticism by delegates there. Commending the student unions for their stance, Mr Eddie Collins, TUI delegate for the Dublin colleges, said the intimidation experienced by Coca-Cola employees in Colombia who sought the right to organise was similar to the 1913 Dublin lock-out.
Since 1990, eight Sinaltrainal union leaders working for Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia have been murdered by paramilitary death squads, while union members have also faced death threats, arrests, torture, kidnapping and the raiding of union offices and homes, Mr Collins said. This had resulted in a 50 per cent reduction in union membership.
Mr Jimmy Kelly of the TUI executive said that he was not there to defend Coca-Cola, but the company in Ireland was very union-friendly, and it was not official ICTU policy to support a boycott of its products.
Boycotting of Coca-Cola products in schools might not be the right route on this basis, he said. However, Mr Tom Dooley, a fellow executive member, said that the only message Coca-Cola would understand was financial pressure.
The motion instructs the TUI executive to support the boycott of Coca-Cola products and to demand of Coca-Cola Ireland that it acts to stop the "continuing repression of workers in its bottling plants in Colombia".
