US: Coca–Cola cleared of union deaths in Colombia

Date: 11 Aug 2009

A US federal appeals court has said that it can find no connection between Coca–Cola or its Colombian bottling subsidiary in attacks made against union leaders during the last decade.

The ruling drew on a recent precedent to throw out the case under America's Alien Claims Tort Act because the plaintiffs had failed to show that killings had been carried out paramilitary murderers had been acting as state agents – a requirement under the statute.

As a result, no connection could be drawn between the company and the violent events that had taken place in the country. Family members of victims had argued that the Coca–Cola bottlers had worked hand in hand with paramilitary forces to silence union leaders at their plants.

Coca–Cola welcomed the ruling, and set that all investigations into the claims had found that employees at the plant enjoyed a safe working environment.

Bookmark with:

 Del.icio.us |  Digg |  reddit |  Facebook |  StumbleUpon

Comments

You must be logged in to add comments