From Edward Potter, director, global labour relations & workplace accountability, Coca-Cola

In recent years, there has been considerable public interest in The Coca-Cola Company’s operations in Colombia. Allegations about our business there were the subject of a 2001 lawsuit filed against The Coca-Cola Company and two Coca-Cola bottlers in Colombia in a US District court in Miami. The Coca-Cola Company was dismissed from the lawsuit in 2003. On September 29, 2006 the court dismissed all remaining cases against the two Coca-Cola bottlers in Colombia. The court also denied plaintiffs’ motion to amend the complaints to bring The Coca-Cola Company back into the lawsuit and directed the clerk to close the cases.

We are gratified by Judge Martinez’ decision to dismiss the cases. We reaffirm our belief that the claims in the suit filed against The Coca-Cola Company and the two bottlers in Colombia are inaccurate and based on distorted versions of events.

This most recent ruling follows two different inquiries in Colombia – one in a Colombian Court, and one by the Colombian Attorney General’s office – that found no evidence to support the claim that bottler management conspired with paramilitaries to threaten or intimidate Colombian trade unionists.

We hope this new decision will now enable us to put this case behind us as we continue to focus on working constructively to ensure the rights and safety of Coca-Cola workers in Colombia and worldwide. We are open to discussions with everyone who shares a commitment to finding constructive solutions to workplace issues in areas of conflict around the world.

We will continue our dialogue with important trade union federations such as the IUF, the CUT (the United Workers’ Confederation in Colombia), and other trade union federations. Additionally, our support for the United Nations Global Compact is a formal expression of The Coca-Cola Company's commitment to conduct our business with the utmost respect for universal principles around human rights, workplace standards, responsible environmental practices and anti-corruption. Many stakeholders are now working constructively with us to bring together business, government and the NGO community and seek real and lasting solutions to the ongoing violence in Colombia. Part of this dialogue includes our sponsorship and participation in multi-stakeholder conferences being convened by the International Business Leaders Forum to further understand how business can promote peace in Colombia. A public report is being issued from the conferences.

The International Labor Organization, a specialized multilateral organization within the United Nations which is responsible for establishing international labor standards, agreed to conduct an independent and impartial investigation and evaluation of the labor relations and workers’ rights practices of Coca-Cola bottlers in Colombia. The Coca-Cola Company and the Coca-Cola bottlers in Colombia will cooperate fully with the ILO assessment team and we are committed to moving forward with the assessment regardless of the decision of the Miami Federal District Court.

Last June the Colombian government, business community and unions reached a historic agreement to establish a permanent ILO office in Colombia. Since late July 2006, the ILO has taken a holistic approach to Colombia, placing a priority on establishing the office before conducting our assessment. As a consequence, there has been a delay in the start date of the assessment. In view of these circumstances, we expect that the ILO assessment will be conducted sometime between the fourth quarter of 2006 and the first quarter of 2007, depending on how soon the overall framework of the ILO office and activities in Colombia has been finalized with the Colombian Government.