Coca-Cola & child labor in sugarcane fields in El Salvador

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

http://www.guerrillanews.com/human_rights/doc4838.html

<snip
Coca-Cola is indirectly benefiting from the use of child labor in sugarcane fields in El Salvador, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), which is calling on the company to take more responsibility to ensure that such abuses are halted.

Between 5,000 and 30,000 Salvadoran children, some as young as 8 years old, are working in El Salvador's sugarcane plantations where injuries, particularly severe cuts and gashes, are common, according to the 139-page report, 'Turning a Blind Eye: Hazardous Labor in El Salvador's Sugarcane Cultivation.'

Since the 1950s, sugar production has grown in importance in El Salvador since the 1950s, and by 1971 it exceeded the production of basic grains. By the 1990s, sugar, which was produced mainly by state-owned plantations, had become El Salvador's second-largest export crop after coffee. Beginning in 1995, most of the plantations were privatized.

While Coca-Cola does not own or buy cane directly from any of these plantations, its local bottler buys sugar from El Salvador's largest refinery, Central Izalco, and distributes the soft drink throughout Central America. HRW found that Izalco purchased sugarcane from at least four plantations that use child labor in violation of the law.
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[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. They hate us....

cuz we make them "unfree".

Coca-Cola is indirectly benefiting from the use of child labor in sugarcane fields in El Salvador, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), which is calling on the company to take more responsibility to ensure that such abuses are halted.<<

www.globalizethis.org

[RandomKoolzip]

2. Good Morning!

I just quit Ginger Ale. Water ONLY for me from now on. (I'm serious. I was drinking a LOT of Ginger Ale for the last 5 years, almost 2 liters a day.)

And I'm certainly not going to buy any Giner Ale bottled by Choka-Cola.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

5. You pronouncing your undying love of ginger ale ony days ago

glad to see you're doing the sensible hing.
Oh - don't drinkDasani water - its cocaone-cola again!

[RandomKoolzip]

8. No....just tap water or Fiji....

Or one of the locally owned bottled waters.

At work, I was drinking so much Ginger Ale from the bar, the owner paid me a little visit and told me that my GA consumption was eating into his profits. (I'm not kidding.)

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

11. Stealin' from the Man - fits your profile

a rebel to the end!

[RandomKoolzip]

14. Hopefully, a rebel without diabetes.

I'm starting to worry about my health. Too much sugar and starch....

I don't want be Jerry Garcia.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

18. You have a few advatages over Jerry - the no heroin thing for one

:)

[truthspeaker]

3. This is why we had to help ARENA fight those godless commies

The FMLN might have insisted that child labor be abolished and farm workers have the right to organize unions. Good thing St. Reagan saved the Salvadorans from themselves!

[SheBop]

4. Oh, crud!

Do I need to plan for withdrawal now?

I'm gonna miss my daily Coca-cola, but what's right is right!

[cheezus]

6. Don't worry, USA coke hasn't had cane sugar for a long time

it's all high fructose corn syrup

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

9. Yeah but even Dasani water puts money in Coke's pockets

Incidentally there have been some theories that the switch from sugar to corn syrup by most manufacturers coincides with the alarming spike in obesity and childhood diabetes.

[cheezus]

20. oh yeah. corn syrup sucks

that's why i like stocking up on coke when i go to Canada (that and ketchup flavored potato chips).

btw - isn't Dasani just bottled municipal water?

[Joanne98]

7. Aren't they're any corperations who aren't evil?

Or is it just the "nature of the beast". This is disgusting.

[RandomKoolzip]

10. CostCo n/t

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

12. Hos is CostCo not evil? n/t

[RandomKoolzip]

15. The WSJ editorial page, I believe....

contained a tidbit few months ago, IIRC, that Costco was a "bad" corporation because they pay their workers 12 dollars an hour or above and the CEO elected to take a pay cut and smaller package to pay his workers better. I believe his salary was around 300,000....as compared to Walmart's CEO, who makes something like 70 mil every year.

And Citgo donates money to liberal causes too.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

16. Doesn't Citgo also refuse to sell Saudi Oil?

[RandomKoolzip]

19. Not sure about that.....

I'll do some googling.

[Blue Wally]

13. Does "big" equal "evil"??

Raising subsidies for domestic sugar cane and beets would essentially be a nation-wide boycott on Salvadoran sugar. Of course the Salvadorans would lose their livelihood.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

17. That's like the sweatshops where boycotts make life even worse for the

youth who are working in such horrible conditions.

Once again, though - what do you suggest? How do you send a message to a company when all they listen to is money?

[Blue Wally]

21. We could break up Coca-Cola

Into fifteen different regional sodapop bottling companies like we did with Ma Bell, but they would all still be buying sugar.