Speaker shares message about Coke's unethical practices in India

Coca-Cola’s contract to exclusively sell products on campus expires June 30, and leaders for IU’s No Sweat! group continued efforts March 12 to prevent an agreement renewal.

No Sweat!, an IU organization aimed at ending sweatshop practices, is vying to ensure a new contract with Coca-Cola never goes through, said Amit Srivastava, coordinator of India Resource Center and director of Global Resistance.

With the debate about the contract ongoing, No Sweat! asked Srivastava to speak to students about the “unethical” practices of Coca-Cola in India.

“IU is a university of ethical institutions,” said Cole Wehrle, liaison for No Sweat! “We have to uphold a standard of values.”

Six years ago, the India Resource Center decided to take its message national after the center said Coca-Cola would not take them seriously.

Since then, Srivastava has spoken at more than 100 universities in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Norway in an attempt to get students to apply pressure on Coca-Cola.

The two main issues which with the center is concerned, Srivastava said, are the Coca-Cola plants located in areas already experiencing water shortages and the factories that polluted the scarce water available.

Criticisms of the multinational corporation aren’t new and have found particular footing within many university communities.

Despite allegations against company officials of union-busting, irresponsible resource management and employee mistreatment at production facilities around the world, executives have maintained that their practices are socially just. 

But for many students, including members of No Sweat!, these claims seem false.

“A year after they began operations, villages began experiencing severe water shortages,” Srivastava said.

He said the factories use the same groundwater resources people of the surrounding communities use in everyday life.

When the factories first opened, the company used nine liters of water to make one liter of beverage.

The other eight liters, Srivastava said, were turned into waste water, which the factories emptied into surrounding fields.

Government agencies tested the water after the problems were brought to their attention and found the water had been contaminated with pollutants that could be traced back to the Coca-Cola factories, Srivastava said.

“Seventy percent of individuals living in India make their living in agriculture,” he said. “Poisoning the water and soil destroys lives and communities across India.”

Srivastava said 30 to 40 percent of crop yields dropped since the opening of the Coca-Cola factories in some villages, and children are taken out of school to walk five or six miles each day to get water.

Through the efforts of the India Resource Center, two problematic factories have already been shut down, Srivastava said.

The center hopes to further shut down five of the existing 49 factories in India.
“Our efforts have worked significantly,” he said. “More than 20 universities have
taken action.”

Srivastava said when the University of Michigan canceled its contract with Coca-Cola, the company agreed to a third-party assessment of its factories in India.

When the assessment came out in 2008, Coca-Cola was more shocked with the finding than the center was, he said.

The assessment investigated six of the factories in India and concluded Coca-Cola operated without regard to the communities where the plants are located, Srivastava said.

The assessment said Coca-Cola did not abide by all environmental laws and did not meet its own company standards in any of the investigated factories.

Wehrle said members of No Sweat! hope to use students as leverage to put Coca-Cola in position to change its behavior by ceasing IU’s business with the company.

“We’re using that as our bartering chip,” Wehrle said.

After petitioning President Michael McRobbie on the issue, the investigation was turned over to the Anti-Sweatshop Advisory Committee, Wehrle said.

Through its investigations, the committee found the practices of the Coca-Cola Company to be beyond unacceptable.

The committee, comprised of IU students, faculty and staff, focuses on making sure IU’s licensing code of conduct is imposed, Wehrle said. The code of conduct requires all companies using IU’s label to ensure workers’ basic rights.

“Companies using IU’s label have to have ethical business practices,” Wehrle said. “We hope in the long-term for companies to adhere to standard civil rights.”

Srivastava said there are now five active campaigns across India that have made it clear that Coca-Cola’s needs for water and the communities’ needs for water cannot coexist.

“If anyone knows anything about water, its farmers,” he said. “For many of these farmers, this is a fight for their lives.”