Labour Practices
Coca-Cola has been accused of many labour crimes in developing and newly industrializing countries, such as China, Columbia, and Guatemala. An investigative report was published by the CCSG (Coke Concerned Student Group) highlighting the harsh labour practices in China's Coca-Cola bottling plants. Some violations include, the "excessive use of dispatch labour, inadequate protective equipment, unequal treatment, deception in signing contracts, denial of the right to unionize, and working overtime."[18]. In the Swire Guangdong Coca-Cola plant, it was reported that dispatched labour always had overtime work, of even up to 150 hours during the Summer.
In 2009, an incident took place in China's Hangzhou bottling plant, where a worker, Xiao Liang, was "beaten up by two managers at the labour dispatch company's office", solely because he had asked for wages owed by the labour dispatch company. As a result, he was sent to the hospital and later diagnosed with a broken eardrum, limiting his hearing abilities [18].
Child Labour
In 2004, it was exposed by the "Human Rights Watch" that the CocaCola's sugar supplier in El Salvador used child labour to harvest sugar canes. As many as 30000 children as young as eight years old were working in the dangerous sugar cane plantations where injuries very commonly occured. An excerpt from the Human Rights Watch Report stated that:
"Harvesting cane is dangerous work. It requires children to use machetes and
other sharp knives to cut sugarcane and strip the leaves off the stalks, work
they perform for up to nine hours each day in the hot sun. Nearly every child we
spoke with told us that he or she had suffered gashes on the hands or legs while
cutting cane. These risks led one former labor inspector to tell Human Rights
Watch, "It's indisputable-sugarcane is the most dangerous" of all forms of
agricultural work." [19]
If the CocaCola Company is serious enough to care about the labour practices in all the suppliers they are linked to, child labour in El Salvador would never have happened.
[18] "Coke's Crimes in China." Campaign to Stop Killer Coke. Accessed May 28, 2012. http://killercoke.org/crimes_china.php.
[19] "Coke's Crimes in El Salvador." Campaign to Stop Killer Coke. Accessed June 02, 2012. http://killercoke.org/crimes_el_salvador.php.
[19] "Coke's Crimes in El Salvador." Campaign to Stop Killer Coke. Accessed June 02, 2012. http://killercoke.org/crimes_el_salvador.php.