Colombian unionist Luis Cardona came to Michigan this March, 2003 and talked about
Coca-Cola's campaign of assassination, abduction, against its union leaders in Colombia.

Luis's Story

Luis Adolfo Cardona used to be an employee of the Carepa Coca-Cola bottling plant in the department of Antioquia, Colombia. He worked there for 12 and a half years. A former champion soccer player, co-workers got him a job there so he could play on the company soccer team. It is not surprising then that his first position with SINALTRAINAL (the national food product workers' union) was as the head of his Local's culture & sports committee. The first four years Luis worked for Coca-Cola there was no union at the plant. Luis describes the days before SINALTRAINAL came to the Carepa Plant..."they would fire you for anything. If you got tired after hours of loading heavy boxes and took a short break, a supervisor would come up to and tell you that they could get rid of you in a minute and replace you with any of the dozens of other people who wanted your job." Wages were low, and working conditions difficult at best. In the years after the workers organized, things improved. At the time Luis was forced to flee his town, he was earning about $200 a month as a forklift operator; not much, but better than what he had been making before being in the union. The workers were also able to win important benefits like medical care, assistance with housing and education funds for their children. Over the years, Mr. Cardona became more active in SINALTRAINAL and eventually became one of the members of the local's executive board in 1996.

The fall of that same year, the workers at the Carepa plant entered into a difficult round of collective bargaining with the company over their new contract, which was set to begin in late December. Things were not going well and in mid-November the workers presented their bosses with their final offer, giving the company a deadline of December 6th to respond to the union's proposal. On December 5th 1996, as Mr. Cardona states, "we got our answer." At around 9:00 a.m. that morning two men, who the workers at the plant recognized as local residents active in the paramilitary (armed right-wing thugs with covert ties to the Colombian military), pulled up to the plant gates on a "moto" (motorcycle). One got off and walked through the plant's iron gates, as they opened for a delivery truck that was leaving. He walked right past the guardhouse without being stopped and into the plant grounds. He approached Isidro Segundo Gil, Secretary General of the Carepa plant local of SINALTRAINAL, and shot him 6 times. Mr. Cardona witnessed the murder…"I was working my machine at the time and I heard the first gunshot. That was the bullet that hit him straight in the forehead. By the time I turned around, I saw the man shoot him severely more times in the side of his body. I turned of my machine and ran towards where Isidro was laying, but the gunman had already run away."

It wasn't the first time union activists at the Carepa Coca-Cola facility had paid for their activities with their lives. Three other of the local's executive board members, Enrique Gomez, Enrique Giraldo, & Eleazar Maneo had been tortured and killed by members of the paramilitary during the two years before Mr. Gil's murder. The pattern had become familiar. First the paramilitaries would circulate flyers claiming that the person was a member of one of Colombia's guerilla forces. Within days, the man would disappear of the streets only to be found days later, dead. However, these assassinations had taken place off plant grounds in the surrounding neighborhoods. This time, the assassins walked right into the plant and shot Mr. Gil in plain view of other plant workers. As bold a move as this was, It did not surprise Luis and his fellow workers…"the plant manager had been telling us for years, that he knew the paramilitaries and that when ever he wanted, he would tell them and they would get rid of us." The manager of the Coca-Cola bottling facility was well known to associate with members of the paramilitaries. He was often seen drinking and partying with paramilitary in local bars, which also serve as paramilitary headquarters.

Mr. Cardona's nightmare had only just begun with the assassination of Isidro. After Mr. Gil's murder, the police were called and the plant was closed. The workers were all sent home, but the union called for a meeting of their executive board at the plant later that afternoon to discuss how to respond to what had happened. As Luis was riding his bike back to the plant for the afternoon meeting, he was approached by a man know as "Caliche", one of the highest-ranking members of paramilitary in the town. Caliche pulled up behind Luis on a moto and told him that "Sepillo", the head of the paramilitary in Carepa, wanted to see him. He ordered Luis to make his way to a local bar, which was known as one of Sepillo's "offices'. Afraid that Caliche was probably armed, and fearing his reputation, Luis followed his orders. When they arrived at the bar, a car was waiting for them along with a few more of Sepillo's hired guns. They told Luis to leave his bicycle by the sidewalk and to join them in the truck. He knew what this meant. He would be taken out of town to one of the paramilitaries favorite dumping grounds, probably tortured, and certainly executed. As he laid his bike down he made a fateful decision. Instead of walking over to their truck as instructed, he took off in the opposite direction running through the traffic to the other side of the road. What followed is something reminiscent of a chase scene from some Hollywood movie. Luis made his way through the narrow sides streets of the town dodging between people and vehicles. As Luis says, "when you are that scared you can run really fast." In pursuit were a number of the paramilitaries on their motos.

Luis made his way to the local police station. Luis knew that the relying on the police was no guarantee of safety. The police never seriously investigated the murders committed by the paramilitaries. It was quite likely that the police would simple turn there backs and let the gunman take him. But he had few choices at that moment. Luckily the paramilitaries did not follow Luis into the station house. In the station, which usually houses ten officers, only one policeman was on duty. This is a frequent tactic of the police in Colombia when a paramilitary action is planned. The police are suddenly not in the area making it easy for them to claim not to have witnessed anything unusual. Luis explained his situation to the officer and demanded the police do their duty and protect him. Soon the police commander showed up at the station with a half dozen other officers. After some discussion the police agreed to help Luis, his wife and daughter leave the town, the only option open to Luis at this point. Luis insists the only reason the police agreed to help was that the whole chase had created such a commotion and so many witnesses that any collaboration with the paramilitaries at that point would have been far too blatant. As Luis was taken by police escort to collect his family, they drove by the same gunmen who had murdered Isidro and had chased him through the streets. He pointed them out to the police commander whose only response was "don't worry, I know those sons of bitches, they're fine, they're not going to do anything."

Mr. Cardona quickly gathered together two days worth of clothes for himself, his wife and his 3-year-old daughter. As they left the house, which he knew they would not likely see again, his daughter became agitated. It had been the only home she had ever known. "Up to then, I really hadn't felt any emotion other than fear. I really hadn't had time to think about anything. But when my daughter started to cry, I broke down and started to cry as well." Luis and his family fled to a near by town. Later they moved to Medellin where his wife's family lives. Leaving his wife and child in what he hoped was relative safety in Medellin, Luis went on to Bogotá, Colombia's capital, and home of the national headquarters of SINALTRAINAL.

The situation in Carepa didn't improve with Luis' departure. The same day Luis and his family fled the town, the paramilitaries torched the union hall and burned it to the ground. On the 12th of December, the paramilitaries marched into the plant and forced all the employees at gunpoint to renounce the union. Plant managers then passed out forms for each worker to sign that stated they would resign from membership in SINALTRAINAL. Fearing for their lives, the members were forced to sign these forms. The union at the Carepa Coca-Cola plant was no more. This still wasn't enough for the paramilitaries, who returned to the plant once more on December 26th to abduct and kill one of the few remaining union activists in the plant, Jose Herrera.

Mr. Cardona was joined in Bogotá by a number of his fellow union activists from the Carepa Coca-Cola plant. With the help of the union's national staff, they filed a grievance with Richard Kirby, the American owner of the Carepa facility. They requested that they be given jobs at other Coca-Cola facilities in other parts of the country, knowing a return to Carepa was out of the question. Kirby's response was to offer them back their jobs at the Carepa plant. The workers then requested a full severance package, realizing that working for Coca-Cola was no longer an option. Mr. Kirby responded by offering half the severance package the workers requested. When the workers turned down Mr. Kirby's offer, they were fired by the company for "abandoning their posts". The company would later tell the court that Luis and his fellow union members had left Carepa and fled to Bogotá because they "were lazy and wanted a vacation." The worker's sued Kirby over their dismissal and won their initial court case, quite a feat in Colombia's notoriously corrupt judicial system. However, this decision was later over turned by a higher court. In the end, the Carepa union members who were forced to flee their homes for fear of being kidnapped, tortured and killed, were paid roughly $1,500 dollars as severance.

After living in Bogotá for around 9 months, Luis rejoined his family in Medellin, and attempted to rebuild his life. Shortly afterwards, SINATRAINAL sent word to Luis that they had received information that Luis had been declared a "military target" by the paramilitaries countrywide. They requested he return to Bogotá where he was placed in a special protection program. But even Bogotá became unsafe. Union members reported that men with his picture and his national identification number were in town asking questions about him. He was forced once again to leave town for fear of being abducted. For the next 5 years, this pattern would reoccur, as Luis would move from town to town, trying to ward off danger. "These were the hardest times," Luis says, almost coming to tears as he says it. "I was away from my family far too much". By late 2001, things had become so risky that the union was paying for full time bodyguards for Luis and he never left home without a bulletproof jacket. When the AFL-CIO announced plans to launch a Colombian trade unionist protection program through its Washington D.C. based Solidarity Center in December of 2001, Luis was an obvious candidate. The idea was to allow threatened Colombian trade unionist to come to the United States for a year-long internship programs with various U.S. unions including the Teamsters, the Steelworkers and the Service Employees. By doing so, the AFL-CIO could help protect these fellow union activists as well as give them an opportunity to let U.S. workers know about the hard ships faced by unionists in Colombia. Luis was one of the first to take advantage of the program; coming to the U.S. in April of 2002.

Mr. Cardona is currently residing in Chicago and is interning with District 7 of the Steelworkers out of Gary, IN. He spends much of his time telling his story and raising awareness of the hardships faced by workers in Colombia in general, and workers at Colombian Coca-Cola facilities in particular. Mr. Cardona has spoken at universities, union halls and churches throughout the U.S. about the dire conditions under which Coca-Cola employees in Colombia work and live. The Global Justice Committee of Chicago Jobs With Justice has organized dozens of public events to allow Luis to tell his story in an effort to build a Chicago campaign against Coca-Cola. At each event, people who heard Luis Cardona's harrowing story and learned about the dangers trade unionist in Colombia face, expressed their anger that a well-known trans-national corporation like Coca-Cola could be allowed to engage is such brutal practices. Our committee's goal is to now turn that anger into creative action strategies aimed at pressuring Coca-Cola into abandoning its practice of relying on paramilitary thugs to break unions in Colombia.

Workers at Coca-Cola plants in Colombia are still in grave danger. In the past decade, 7 union leaders, who worked in different Coca-Cola bottling plants around the country, have been assassinated. 5 others have survived attempted assassinations. At times, family members of union activists have been targeted. Shortly after Isidro's murder, his wife was also killed. 61 unionists have received death threats. 74 workers have been kidnapped for various lengths of time during which many were subjected to torture. There have been 43 incidents of union members' homes or union offices being searched or ransacked. Though these actions are generally carried out by the "non-governmental" paramilitaries, the Colombian state has also played a direct role. 22 union members have been false accused of being subversives by members of the paramilitaries and held in prison for up to six months at a time before being released with no charges filed.

The United Steelworkers of America in partnership with the International Labor Rights Fund have filed suit against the Coca-Cola Corporation in U.S. District court, for failing to protect the lives and safety of workers at its contracted plants in Colombia. The goal of the lawsuit is for Coca-Cola to take responsibility for the lives and safety of its' workers at its contracted facilities in Colombia. Though Coca-Cola claims that violence is endemic in Colombia and that it has no responsibility for the murders, the cozy relationship of plant managers with the paramilitaries suggest otherwise. Coca-Cola also claims that since these facilities are not directly owned by Coca-Cola Enterprises, the have no legal responsibility for the conditions at these plants. The lawsuit argues that as these plants contract with Coca-Cola to distribute Coke product and, therefore, Coca-Cola must be held responsible for doing business with agents in Colombia that utilize the paramilitaries to suppress union activity. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters have undertaken a grass-roots campaign to encourage Coca-Cola's customers to express their concerns over the company's behavior in Colombia. One of their contributions has been the WWW.COKEWATCH.ORG website which updates activist on issue related to the lawsuit and the Coca-Cola campaign in general. Local campaigns have been launched In Washington D.C., New York and Boston as well as Chicago.

The Global Justice Committee plans to have Luis speak to dozens of more community based organizations, churches, unions, and student groups during the remainder of his internship, which is due to end in late April, 2003. We also hope to increase local media coverage of the Coca-Cola campaign and to move from an educational phase into an action phase including letter writing campaigns, visits to local Coca-Cola executives offices, visit to local politicians offices, and public rallies. For more info on the campaign call Jerry Mead at (312) 226-7867 or redjerry2@yahoo.com