 "Photo: Photo Courtesy of Killer Coke")
Editor's Note: The Daily Tar Heel regularly runs advertisements underwritten by Coca-Cola.
Union activist Ray Rogers said he will never forget a meeting he had with Juan Carlos Galvis, vice president of a union of Coca-Cola bottling workers in Colombia.
"He said, 'Ray, if we lose this fight against Coca-Cola, first we will lose our union; then we will lose our jobs; then we will lose our lives.'"
Rogers said accounts such as this prompted him and a group of labor organizers to launch the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke almost four years ago. Killer Coke seeks to end the company's alleged widespread labor, human rights and environmental abuses worldwide.
Coca-Cola vehemently denies the accusations.
Instead of calling for a boycott, Killer Coke has attempted to eliminate the company's markets, particularly college campuses.
"They know that if they get a student hooked on their brand name, they have a customer for the next 50 or 60 years," Rogers said.
"When they lose something like this, it has quite an impact."
UNC has an exclusive vending contract with PepsiCo Inc., which means Pepsi products are the only beverages that can be sold in campus facilities - aside from athletic venues. UNC switched to Pepsi from Coca-Cola in 2004 after a competitive bidding process.
Coca-Cola is a major sponsor of UNC athletics and has concession rights at all Tar Heel sports events.
A student-led movement
New York University senior Dave Hancock is a major player in the campaign against Coca-Cola at NYU - one of the nation's largest private universities.
Starting in late 2003, Hancock and other activists began an effort to build support for a Coca-Cola ban.
"At first, most folks were skeptical of a campaign that claimed that the most ubiquitous brand known to man is directly complicit in a concerted effort to violently suppress union activities, ranging all the way to assassination," Hancock said.
NYU's Killer Coke campaign made appeals to administrators and student clubs and had Hancock debate company representatives on two occasions.
In December 2005, after Coca-Cola refused NYU's demand for an independent investigation into its operations in Colombia, the University instituted a ban.
Coca-Cola said it would not agree to an independent investigation at the time because it didn't want revealed information to be admissible in its legal battle against Colombian union SINALTRAINAL.
Almost 40 schools in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. have reduced or terminated business with Coca-Cola. The University of Guelph in Canada is the most recent institution to take action against the company. Last week, 65 percent of its students supported a binding referendum to remove Coca-Cola from campus.
The beverage giant has worked to counter negative perceptions of its practices. Often, it will send representatives to speak with students in an attempt to assuage their doubts concerning the company's ethics.
"We're obviously concerned about the campaigns on various campuses," said Kerry Kerr, Coca-Cola spokeswoman.
"We've worked to share the facts with students and administrators."
All quiet at UNC
At UNC, there has been no substantial movement against the company, and Killer Coke does not list the University as a participant in its campaign.
Local social change groups such as Students United for Darfur Awareness Now said they are aware of the allegations that Coca-Cola is propping up the Sudanese government by doing business with a private company there.
SUDAN said they do not consider Coca-Cola to be a significant contributor to the Sudanese government.
The UNC Department of Athletics - which has millions of dollars in business ties with the soft drink maker - said it was previously unaware of the campaign. Department officials expressed doubt about the allegations.
"They're hard for us to confirm without any third-party, independent verification," said Steve Kirschner, director of communications.
Kirschner said he has been in contact with Coca-Cola and with some universities listed as being active in the campaign.
Still a top dog
Despite the scope of the campaign against it, Coca-Cola remains a global corporate powerhouse.
The company's gross profits rose in 2006 to almost $16 billion.
But since January 2004, Coca-Cola shares have fallen 1.4 percent to close at $49.64 Wednesday.
During the same period, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index climbed 29.8 percent to 1,438.87.
Killer Coke kicked off its campaign in late 2003.
In a speech delivered in Atlanta in 2006, Coca-Cola CEO and Chairman E. Neville Isdell said, "Our international business continues to show steady improvement."
Coca-Cola's domestic market share dipped to 42.9 percent last year from 43.1 percent in 2005, industry publication Beverage Digest said in its annual look at the industry.
PepsiCo - the No. 2 player - also saw its share fall from 31.4 percent to 31.2 percent.
Denouncing the soda giant
Though universities have been its main focus, the campaign against Coca-Cola has had a wider appeal.
In 2006, the financial service company TIAA-CREF removed Coca-Cola from one of its major mutual funds - the CREF Social Choice Account - saying that it no longer qualifies as a socially responsible company.
The CREF Social Choice Account contained 1.25 million Coca-Cola shares worth more than $50 million.
Domestic labor groups also have denounced the company.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, one of the largest U.S. unions, has been a vocal critic.
The organization held a rally in Atlanta outside a men's NCAA Tournament Final Four game last month demanding that the NCAA drop its Coca-Cola sponsorship.
Rogers and anti-Coca-Cola activists predict that the company eventually will experience a critical mass of opposition that will force a change in policy.
"Students are realizing that we have the power to determine who can contract with universities and who they can do business with," said Zack Knorr, international campaigns coordinator for United Students Against Sweatshops. "That's going to continue to grow."
Contact the Investigative Team Editor at iteam@unc.edu.
The anti-Coca-Cola movement
