I just can’t laugh, sorry …
COCA COLA WORKERS WHO HAVE BEEN ASSASSINATED
AVELINO ACHICANOY ERAZO
Worker at Embotelladora Nariñense S.A. -COCA COLA [Nariño Bottlers Ltd] in the city of Pasto in south west Colombia. He was assassinated by a shot through the right ear on 30th July 1990, at a time when the workers were on strike because their employer had refused to negotiate a set of demands presented by the Sintradingascol (Colombian National Union of Fizzy Drinks Workers). Avelino was member of the union’s Executive Committee and a member of the strike committee.
JOSÉ ELEASAR MANCO DAVID
A workers at Bebidas y Alimentos de Urabá S.A. -COCA COLA [Drinks and Foods of Urabá] in the town of Carepa, in Urabá, Antioquia. A leader of Sinaltrainal in that rich banana region in the north west of Colombia. He was assassinated on 8th April 1994.
LUIS ENRIQUE GIRALDO ARANGO
He worked for at Bebidas y Alimentos de Urabá S.A. -COCA COLA., in Carepa for 17 years. A member of Sinaltrainal, Luis was assassinated on 20th April 1994.
LUIS ENRIQUE GÓMEZ GRANADO
Also a worker at Bebidas y Alimentos de Urabá S.A. -COCA COLA- in Carepa. A regional leader of the union. He was assassinated in front of his wife and children at the door of his house in Carepa on 23rd April 1995.
ISIDRO SEGUNDO GIL GIL
Another worker at Bebidas y Alimentos de Urabá S.A. -COCA COLA in Carepa. The last post he fulfilled for Sinaltrainal was the union’s Secretary General and a member of the negotiating team that had presented demands to the employer on 30th November 1996, but the employer refused to negotiate. He was assassinated at his work post inside the Carepa plant on 6th December 1996. His brother Martín Emilio Gil Gil was an adviser to Sinaltrainal in these negotiations. Martín had had to renounce his job at the same employer due to continuous death threats. On 18th November 2000, ALCIRA DEL CARMEN HERRERA PEREZ, the wife of Isidro Segundo, was pulled out of her home in Apartadó - Urabá, Antioquia and assassinated a few yards away.
JOSÉ LIBARDO HERRERA OSORIO
At about 5.00pm on 26th December 1996 this gentleman aged 65 years old and a worker for Coca Cola in Carepa, was taken by force from the plant by heavily armed men, presumed to be paramilitaries, and assassinated near to the cemetery at Chigorodó. Señor Herrera had been working as Head of Technical Maintenance.
GUILLERMO GÓMEZ MAIGUAL
Worker with Embotelladora Nariñense “Embonar” Ltda. -COCA COLA- [Nariño Bottlers Ltd.] where he was a Sinaltrainal leader. He committed suicide by poisoning on 20th April 1998 inside the bottling plant, due to the economic difficulties of the workers and their families. This situation was a result of the cancellation of the franchise contract by Coca Cola with Embonar Ltda on 1st June 1996 Coca Cola, which occasioned closing the plant and sacking 150 workers, liquidating the Collective Agreement and the union organisation in Pasto. A note was found in Guillermo’s clothes, saying that he had made his decision due to “the total crisis” that he found himself in. The workers stayed in the plant for more than 2 years, fighting for the payment of their labour credits. When the workers evacuated the plant it was bought for a derisory sum by Panamco Colombia S.A. -Coca Cola- and reopened with temporay workers with lower wages, without a trade union and without a collective agreement.
ADOLFO DE JESÚS MÚNERA LÓPEZ
Ex-worker at the Coca Cola plant in Barranquilla, Atlántico department. He was assassinated at 7 p.m. on 31st August 2002 at the door of his mother’s home in en the “el Bosque” [the Woods] district of the city. Coca Cola had sacked him on 6th April 1997 after his home had been raided by state forces as a result of him being marked out by the employer. In this same year svereal Sinaltrainal leaders were imprisoned in Bucaramanga, having been branded by Coca Cola as reposnible for terrorism and rebellion. The comrades had been placed at liberty when this assassination occurred.
ÓSCAR DARÍO SOTO POLO
A worker with Embotelladoras Román S.A. -COCA COLA {Román Bottlers] at the Montería plant in Córdoba departament. He was a leader of Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Industria de las Bebidas en Colombia [Colombian National Union of Drinks Industry Workers] “Sinaltrainbec” and a member of the delegation presenting the workers demands to the employer on behalf of his union and Sinaltrainal. He was assassinated on 21st June 2001 in Montería, when we were negotiating these demands.
