‘Ride of Justice’ targets Coca-Cola board
meeting
By
Dianne Mathiowetz
Atlanta
Starting the
afternoon of April 15, several buses carrying 150 current and
laid-off Coca-Cola employees and their supporters will depart
from Atlanta. Their final destination is Wilmington, Del.,
where the giant soft-drink company's annual shareholders'
meeting is scheduled for April 19.
The caravan is headed
up by Larry Jones, a 15-year employee of the corporation. Many
see his surprise layoff in February as retaliation for his
challenging Coke's racist practices.
Jones says the
employees "have a story to tell the stockholders and America
about how corporate racism works."
He and the other
workers want substantive changes inside Coca-Cola. The "ride
for justice" seeks to pressure the multi-billion-dollar company
to settle a federal lawsuit quickly and fairly. The lawsuit,
filed originally by four Black employees in April 1999, charges
discrimination in pay, promotions and performance
evaluations.
There are now eight
plaintiffs in the case. They are seeking class-action status,
which would expand any settlement to include an additional
2,000 people.
Jones says the trip
by the Campaign for Corporate Justice will signal Coca-Cola and
the rest of corporate America "that business as usual can't be
accepted." Along the way, there will be rallies where bus
riders will testify about Coke's racist policies.
On April 16, the
caravan will stop in Greensboro, N.C., the site of
history-making sit-ins at Woolworth's that galvanized the mass
struggle to end Jim Crow segregation. Events will also be held
in Richmond, Va., on April 17 and Washington on April
18.
On April 19, as Coke
stockholders, including billionaire Warren Buffett, arrive at
the Playhouse Theater in Wilmington, caravan participants will
be there to greet them. Stockholders themselves, they plan to
raise their issues inside the meeting.
These issues include
the $120 million severance package Coke paid ousted Chief
Executive Officer M. Douglas Ivester. And they include the
layoffs of almost 40 percent of the company's
workers.
In recent days, Coke
has announced the appointment of two African Americans to
executive positions. Jones says these promotions are attempts
"to manipulate the situation" instead of actually correct the
injustices. He notes that Coke has delayed any mediation talks
on settling the lawsuit, which says more than any
public-relations appointments.
For more information
on the Campaign for Corporate Justice, readers can call (404)
371-0749.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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