Since the University upheld its cutting-edge Vendor Code of Conduct and suspended its contracts with the Coca-Cola Company, there have been many concerns about the efforts of the Coalition to Cut the Contract with Coca-Cola: the effect on local jobs, the effect on Coca-Cola's business practices and international solidarity, to name a few. We as a Coalition appreciate these concerns because they are our concerns as well - they are issues we have tried to address from the very beginning of our campaign, and we would like to discuss some of them with you now.

Why target Coke? Do not Pepsi and every other multinational corporation have similar human rights or environmental violations?

The Coke campaign is an international worker solidarity campaign. We take the potential effects on local workers of cutting contracts very seriously. The requests by workers in Colombia and activists in India compelled us to support their struggle on the University campus. We were asked specifically to take on this campaign against Coca-Cola, and we have continued to direct our campaign according to the wishes of the workers. We do not propose to become international police, nor do we endorse Pepsi. We, as international consumers, have an international responsibility to the workers who produce the products we consume.

How can Coca-Cola be responsible for the death of union leaders in Colombia? Colombia is plagued by extrajudicial violence and notorious government corruption-you can not blame their deaths on Coca-Cola.

An excellent point. This judicial corruption is the exact reason SINALTRAINAL (the National Association of Food Industry Workers, the affected Colombian union) brought a lawsuit against Coca-Cola to the U.S. District Court in Miami. The reality is that Coke exploits the situation in Colombia. One lawsuit's claims is that Ariosto Milan Mosquera, plant manager in Carepa, Colombia, made public announcements that "he had given an order to the paramilitaries to carry out the task of destroying the union." Isidro Gil, one of the union leaders, was murdered inside the Carepa plant by paramilitaries two months later. The paramilitaries encountered no resistance when entering the plant. After Gil was murdered, the union members were forced at gunpoint to sign union resignations. Coca-Cola has refused to acknowledge the details of the murder and rejects the testimony of eyewitnesses.

Cutting the contract won't create change within Coca-Cola's business practices - it will just hurt local jobs and businesses.

This was a major concern of ours. Just lately we have met with Bill Black, the legislative and community affairs director and international representative of the Michigan Teamsters Joint Council No. 43 (the local chapter of the Teamsters, the union representing Coke, Pepsi, and Faygo workers), who assured us that as of yet there has not been any effect on Teamsters locally and that the International Brotherhood of Teamsters supported our efforts. The Michigan Daily quoted Percy Wells (Life after Coke, 01/12/2006) as stating that the University purchases 80,000 cases of Coca-Cola products each year. According to the transcript from the Dispute Review Board trial on April 25, 2005, the same Mr. Wells stated that "the local bottling companies produce and distribute over 50 million cases of product - right here in Michigan in our Flint, Grand Rapids, and Detroit production centers." A little basic math reveals that University purchasing constitutes a mere .16 percent of statewide Coke consumption.

So if $1.4 million is nothing but chump change to Coca-Cola, how will this create change?

While the economic blow to Coca-Cola's profits is negligible, the effects on the company's public image are vast. The University's contract suspension has received considerable attention from national and international media outlets. This coverage has brought Coca-Cola's human rights and environmental violations to mainstream audiences who have demanded answers from Coca-Cola and given hope to those fighting in the affected communities. No company can continue disguise such abhorrent practices amongst such international uproar.

We hope this letter has assured any concerned members of the community, but if there are any other concerns you wish us to address, please e-mail them to cokecampaign@umich.edu. We would also like to extend you an invitation to come to the Michigan Theater on Tuesday, Jan. 24 at 5:00 p.m. to see some videos documenting Coca-Cola's violations and hear Terry Collingsworth, the director of the International Labor Rights Fund and the lawyer representing SINALTRAINAL in the Miami lawsuit against Coca-Cola, speak about Coca-Cola's culpability. (Admission is free.)