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12/16/2005:

"Coca-Cola Faces Mounting Pressure over Abusive Practices at Plants Worldwide"

NEW YORK - Coca-Cola, the multinational soft drink giant, is facing the wrath of rights advocacy groups here in the United States and abroad for refusing to take responsibility for abusive practices at its bottling plants.

While a number of universities and colleges in the United States have already banned the sale of Coke products on their campuses, mounting pressure from student bodies throughout Europe is pushing hundreds of schools to terminate their contracts with the company as well.

The company is also under fire in a number of Asian and Latin American countries, where labor unions, peasant groups, and consumer associations are relentlessly campaigning to force Coca-Cola to just pack up and leave.

Last week, in India, for example, hundreds of villagers protested outside the company's bottling plant in Kala Dera in the northern state of Rajasthan. Demanding immediate closure of its plant, they charged that Coca-Cola was directly responsible for severe water shortages in the area because its continued operations had caused massive groundwater depletion and soil pollution.
commondreams.org