Guatemalan Labor-Coke Boycott Wins (For Now)
Fried, John
After five years of bitter struggle, the workers of the Embotelladora Guatemalteca, S.A. (EGSA) -the U.S.-owned Coca-Cola franchise in Guatemala-have won an agreement guaranteeing...
...Secretary General Mendizbal, center left, was later killed, and Florentino Gomez Lopez, center right, was abducted...
...Francisco Javier Rojas (Ret...
...It will appoint new management, retain control for five years, and guarantee full trade union rights at the plant...
...The Coca-Cola Company also received considerable pressure from independent bottlers in various countries, especially in Scandinavia, who were affected by the boycott...
...Early this year, Lt...
...Pressure exerted on the Coca-Cola Company by the international trade union movement, especially the International Union of Food and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF), played a key role in this victory...
...repression at the EGSA plant...
...Repression of the union has escalated since April of this year, when 28 workers were fired...
...The company agreed to finance a consortium, in which it will participate as a minority shareholder (35%), to purchase EGSA...
...In the United States, six unions are affiliated with the IUF, including 200,000 food processing workers in the 1.3 million member United Food and Commercial Workers' International Union (UFCWI, AFL-CIO...
...military aid to the Lucas Garcia government...
...Coca-Cola is becoming a leading brand name of oppression here," said a U.S...
...To substantiate this last point, the company agreed that the president of the consortium will sign a statement agreeing to: (1) remove all police forces from the plant...
...As the starting date of the boycott neared, the company entered into frequent negotiations with the IUF, and made efforts to attract buyers for the franchise...
...the International Association of Machinists and the United Auto Workers all lent their voices of protest to the E o a c a h campaign, but no boycott actions were launched in the United States...
...3) reinstate workers dismissed by Trotter...
...The Value of International Solidarity Organized labor in Guatemala and the popular movement as a whole have in recent months taken a more overtly political position, calling for the overthrow of the dictatorship and the installation of a revolutionary, popular and democratic government...
...Coca-Cola has put up the money for the purchase of EGSA and the sale has already taken place...
...investor quoted in Newsweek, "and believe me, they've got heavy competition for that market...
...Attacks against the EGSA union have taken the lives of three of its secretaries general and several other union members...
...EGSA) -the U.S.-owned Coca-Cola franchise in Guatemala-have won an agreement guaranteeing company recognition for their union and full trade union rights...
...Guerrilla activities have increased dramatically in spite of the Guatemalan Army's counterinsurgency efforts...
...In May and June of this year alone, five CocaCola workers were assassinated and four more were kidnapped...
...labor movement are moving slowly towards support for the struggle of the Guatemalan labor movement and the Guatemalan people as a whole...
...was minimal compared to the rank-and-file actions taken in other countries...
...The IUF Campaign Throughout this period, the Coca-Cola Company stuck to its position that it does not interfere with management-labor relations of its franchises and that, in any case, there was insufficient evidence linking EGSA management to the violence...
...Meanwhile, the repression of the union escalated, and there was no evidence that Trotter's influence had diminished...
...However, as their limited participation in the Coca-Cola campaign showed, some sectors of the U.S...
...The UCFWI...
...Trotter's anti-communism parallels that of the military regime, without whose complicity and participation, the repression of the union could not be carried out...
...2) replace all management personnel associated with Trotter...
...representative of the IUF...
...The company also pledged to take steps with government authorities to assure the agreement is not undermined by further violence, and to consider the establishment of a fund to aid the families of assassinated EGSA workers...
...Rodas reportedly told members of the union's executive committee that none of them would live to see the signing of a new contract...
...Legal recognition of the union wasn't gained until April 1976 when, after 150 fired union members occupying the plant were violently evicted by the police, 50 unions threatened to go out on strike in solidarity...
...Boycott actions, beginning on April 15, 1980, were carried out in several European countries, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, as well as in Mexico, where a street demonstration supported the demands of Guatemalan Coca-Cola workers, and in VenezueSeptlOct la, where the Beverage Workers' Federation staged 15-minute stoppages in all five Coca-Cola bottling plants...
...At the same time, the company distributed misleading reports about the imminent sale of the factory, their willingness to accept the IUF's demands and the cancellation of the boycott...
...the Bakery, Confectionary and Tobacco Workers' Union...
...According to IUF representative Enckell, Coca-Cola paid three times the actual value of the franchise, highlighting the effectiveness of the boycott...
...corporate domination and the military dictatorship...
...John Fried is a member of the Committee of Solidarity with the People of Guatemala...
...5) renegotiate the contract on improved terms...
...On May 16, the president of the Employees' Association was murdered, reportedly for having asked to resign his position, and on May 22, the 22-year-old Secretary General of the union, Marlon Mendizabal, was killed...
...4) recognize the union and withdraw all support 37update * update * update update from the association...
...The IUF demanded that CocaCola withdraw Trotter's license and guarantee recognition of the union and respect for basic trade union rights at its Guatemala plant...
...The EGSA union has become a symbol-both within Guatemala and internationally-of the resistance of Guatemalan workers to U.S...
...But on July 1, the occupation was brutally ended when police stormed the EGSA plant, kidnapped two workers and beat the rest...
...In July, Coca-Cola gave in on virtually all points...
...Work stoppages spread to twenty other factories to demand the release of the kidnapped workers...
...Only eight hours after the Rodas killing, a member of the union's executive committee, Edgar Rene Aldana, was kidnapped from the plant and murdered...
...For further information, contact the Committee at PO...
...It is therefore doubtful that the victory of the Coca-Cola workers -assuming continued adherence to the agreement and successful negotiation of a contract-will lead to any reduction of government and management repression of the labor movement in Guatemala...
...And Douglas Fraser, President of the UAW, has written to members of Congress asking them to oppose U.S...
...head of the company's union-busting campaign...
...The company said there was no violation of the franchise agreement and that it would be too expensive to buy out Trotter," said Laurent Enckell, U.S...
...It took IUF's international campaign of work stoppages, consumer andlor sales boycotts in a dozen countries, to force the company to accept responsibility for the anti-union NACLA Reportupdate * update . update * update EGSA union leaders in their office in April...
...The victory, nevertheless, is an 38 example for the Guatemalan people of what the determination of workers' organization, with international support, and at the cost of many lives, can accomplish...
...Support for the Coke boycott by the labor movement in the U.S...
...Since February of this year, however, the workers have been laboring without a contract...
...We warned them that our boycott would be more expensive...
...On June 20, the Fuerzas Armadas Rebeldes (FAR)-one of Guatemala's four major armed revolutionary organizations--responded to the attacks on the union by killing Lt...
...The Hotel and Restaurant Workers' Federation of Venezuela initiated a national sales boycott of the drink...
...Five Years of Struggle Since its formation in August 1975, the EGSA union has been intimidated by management through physical assaults, assassinations, imprisonment, firings and such legalistic maneuvers as the financing of a pro-management "Employees' Association" and the division of the franchise into separate legal entities...
...When the IUF insisted on the company itself buying the franchise and made clear its intentions to escalate its international campaign, and events at the plant again reached crisis proportions by the end of June, Coke's hand was forced...
...They're part of a ruthless worldwide communist campaign against big companies like Coca-Cola...
...Five of them were subsequently kidnapped during a May 1 protest in Guatemala City and two have since been found murdered...
...They urged the parent company to buy the EGSA plant as the only practical solution, given Trotter's intransigence and the difficulty of finding another buyer...
...Coke Comes to Terms From the beginning of the solidarity campaign, the Coca-Cola Company tried to stop the planned boycott without ever assuming responsibility for the Guatemalan situation...
...A tourist boycott of Guatemala, sponsored by the IUF, has received the endorsement of the UAW, the UFCWI and the Bakery, Confectionary and Tobacco Workers' Union...
...According to Enckell, not one of the independent bottlers sided with Trotter in the dispute...
...On June 21, 27 trade unionists (including two EGSA workers) were kidnapped by police from the headquarters of the National Workers' Central (CNT...
...Box 270 Wycoff Heights Station, Brooklyn, N. Y 11237...
...In response, assassinations by government-controlled right-wing paramilitary squads and government security forces have risen to 20 or more daily, and the government and the right wing seem more intransigent than ever...
...Trotter, a Texas lawyer and member of the John Birch Society, blames union mem36 bers for the violence...
...These and other actions prompted a majority of the workers at Coca-Cola, including members of the Employees' Association, to occupy the plant...
...It also demonstrates the importance of enlisting progressive sectors of the international trade union movement in the struggle against anti-union transnational corporations and a political system that guarantees their existence, for this victory could not have been won, considering the genocidal repression prevailing in Guatemala, without the IUF-led campaign...
...The IUF has asked affiliated unions to suspend any new actions until the end of September...
...Israel Marquez, former Secretary General of the union, now living in exile after three attempts on his life, places the principal responsibility for the killings and intimidation on plant manager John Clinton Trotter...
Vol. 14 • September 1980 • No. 5
