IU renews Coca-Cola contract

Students and faculty at all of IU campuses will continue to drink Coca-Cola products for the next five years.

On July 1, IU renewed its exclusive contract with Coca-Cola, said IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre. The soft drink company will pay IU $1.6 million per year.

IU’s Anti-Sweatshop Advisory Committee had been discussing recommendations with IU Vice President for Engagement Bill Stephan for months. The committee started to question the contract’s renewal because of concerns about the company’s alleged groundwater draining activity in India and Colombia.

In 2006, Coca-Cola issued a statement in responses to the allegations and said that its employees work in a union-friendly environment.

Big Ten schools such as the University of Illinois and the University of Michigan have ended their contracts with Coke since the allegations surfaced.

MacIntyre said a human rights clause has been added to the contract. The clause states that the parities are “committed to protecting the human rights of workers and to protecting the environment throughout the world.”

In addition, the clause states Coca-Cola will follow its Code of Business Conduct and its Code of Business Conduct Procedural Guidelines throughout the world.

Recent IU graduate and member of No Sweat! Cole Wehrle said the clause is important because it now serves as a legal way for everyone to play watchdog against the company.

Wehrle was also part of the Anti-Sweatshop Advisory Committee that helped make the recommendation.

He said the committee looked at the issue of renewing the contract thoroughly and had a lot of mixed feelings about it, but the decision was a University initiative.

The decision is a bittersweet victory for No Sweat!, which is made up of IU undergraduate and graduate students.

“We’re disappointed at IU’s failure to be more firm with Coca-Cola,” he said. “The campaign did achieve success in investigating the things and, through our contacts, really lobbied to have ethical clauses.”

Wehrle said he believes one of the reasons the contract was renewed was because of Coca-Cola’s willingness to look at the company’s problems and fix them. He also said the new clauses in the contract make this contract better than the last.

“These ethical clauses are a victory within itself,” he said.