According to campus opponents of Coca-Cola, the company has retained pouring rights to the University of Massachusetts campus for five more years, through a process that keeps student involvement to a minimum. Recently, opponents claim, the company has battled allegations of worker abuse and murder abroad.

Coca-Cola denies the charges of abuse and murder. Under its renewed UMass contract the company will have exclusive beverage sales rights everywhere on campus with few exceptions.

Emma Lang, a member of the Radical Student Union who opposed Coke’s UMass contract and helped to organize the “Stop Killer Coke” campaign to end what it claimed were worker rights violations in Coca-Cola plants in Africa and South America, said “We are all completely appalled by this. By signing this contract, UMass is saying that it is still ok to support such a company.”

In a letter sent in June to Chancellor John V. Lombardi, Coca-Cola denied involvement in several violent acts, including the murder of union leader Isidro Segundo Gil in 1996 at a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Carepa, Colombia. Paramilitary forces fired 10 shots at Gil outside of the plant, according to eyewitness accounts in a July 2001 civil lawsuit in Miami. The lawsuit was brought by the bottling union Sinaltrainal, the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) and the United Steelworkers of America. The plaintiffs filed suit under the Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789 that allows foreigners to sue in U.S. courts for violations of fundamental human rights.

According to the lawsuit, Coke bottlers “contracted with or otherwise directed paramilitary security forces that utilized extreme violence and murdered, tortured, unlawfully detained or otherwise silenced trade union leaders.”

According to Coca-Cola’s website, www.cokefacts.org, the corporation was dismissed from the lawsuit “because the plaintiff failed to offer factual or legal basis for the allegations against the company.”

Coca-Cola blamed the violence on political unrest in Colombia, where eight Coca-Cola unionists have been murdered since 1989.

According to the “Killer Coke” campaign, however, Coke’s denials of guilt are misleading.

“Though [Coca-Cola] claims that they are not involved in these militant unionist murders, all of the union leaders who were killed were in Coca-Cola plants, as opposed to other plants,” Lang said.

Coca-Cola’s letter to Lombardi claims that Coke has “independently investigated the claims regarding human rights abuses in Colombia and have found no evidence to support them.”

The allegations alone were not enough to tip the UMass contract to Polar Beverages of Worcester, the only other company to submit a bid. Polar offered $40,000 per year to UMass in return for the UMass contracts, according to John Martin, director of procurement, the office that handles all university contracts.

“Polar wasn’t able to offer the full range of benefits that the Coca-Cola package was able to offer,” Martin said.

According to Martin, the new contract will bring more money to the school than Coca-Cola’s previous contract. Coca-Cola is offering $350,000 per year for five years (instead of the previous contract’s seven), as well as $250,000 more in one-time contributions that include the Chancellor’s Merit Scholarship, renovation of beverage areas, UCard Ethernet upgrade, and the Bill Cosby Initiative fund. About $286,000 of the $350,000 will go to athletic sponsorships, the Mullins Center, the Fine Arts Center, the alumni association, UMass magazine and the Sports Management program. In addition to exclusive beverage sales rights, the corporation will also receive a select number of free event tickets and designated signage in various areas on campus. The remaining 9 percent of the money, $64,000, “royalties,” will be used mostly to support student programming.

In 1997, under the previous contract, Coca-Cola offered less: $250,000 yearly, with $220,000 in one-time contributions, and $85,100 in royalties. 18 percent of the total donations, double the royalty percentage of the new contract, were designated for student programming in the previous contract. The price per gallon of Coca-Cola has also gone up by a dollar since 1997, to $2.99, which helps account for the price hike this year in 20oz. sodas.

Campus vending machine prices under the new contract rose from last year’s $1.10 for a 20 oz. Coca-Cola product to $1.25. Coca-Cola gives 46 percent of their vending profits to the school. The revenue the campus collects from the vending percentage (minus expenses related to the vending operation) goes to the Student Affairs Cultural Enrichment, according to director of Administration and Finance Budget and Operations, Ruth Yanka. The company is not required to state their own profit margins, Yanka said. She noted that what is important is the benefit to the school.

Martin said a request for bid went out this summer and representatives from interested companies then toured the campus. Interested parties sent in offers shortly after, and a committee consisting of representatives from the units of the school that will benefit (FAC, Mullins Center, etc.) reviewed. According to Martin, students had a representative at the meeting, but the Radical Student Union doesn’t believe that it was enough of a voice to represent the students who are being made into “marketing targets.”

“There isn’t enough student involvement in the process,” Lang commented. “It’s just the way the bidding system is set up.”

The campus contract opens access to 178 vending machines and exclusive pouring rights in the Mullins center, all athletic venues, auxiliary service venues, dining halls, dormitories, the Student Union, and the Campus Center. Another clause in the contract states that student-run businesses on campus can choose or choose not to sell Coca-Cola products.

Student businesses such as People’s Market choose not to carry Coca-Cola products. “It’s a conscious choice,” said employee Dolph Paulsen. Another employee at People’s Market, Dalyah Assil said: “We try to keep it on as fair grounds as possible, and we don’t believe that Coca-Cola keeps the playing field level.” People’s Market carries a variety of organic juices and sodas, many produced by companies smaller than Coca-Cola.

Greenough sub shop, a student-run business in central, has always carried some Coca-Cola products. Now, according to employee Lisa MacDougal, sub shop employees have voted Coke out of the business out of moral and health concerns.

“We don’t get any privileges from Coca-Cola, only cavities and too much fructose corn syrup.” Odwalla fruit beverages soon will be removed from Greenough too, since Coca-Cola recently bought the juice company, MacDougal said.

Aside from human rights allegations, Coca-Cola has received criticism from the medical community. A Harvard study released at the end of August linked Coca-Cola to diabetes and weight gain in women. Those who drank a soda per day gained 19 pounds over eight years and increased the risk for type two diabetes by 83 percent. Soda consumption and phosphorous, more specifically, an ingredient in all soda, are linked to an increased chance of osteoporosis by the National Osteoporosis Foundation, among others.

The struggle against Coca-Cola has occurred mostly in private universities, Lang said. “If we could get could [get rid of Coca-Cola], we could set a standard for other public schools.”

One high school in the region, Cranston High in Rhode Island, has recently taken action to ensure healthier students, installing a health food vending machine, but the products are more expensive, and most public universities are forced to compromise due to lack of state funding.

For now, it appears that Coca-Cola will retain its campus presence until 2009, with a possible five year extension at the university’s discretion, but Lang said that the “Killer Coke” campaign will continue as well. “It [the campaign] has evolved into a separate s
ubgroup, Lang said. The RSU is now only a supporter of the campaign. We will certainly participate in any event on campus in the future.”

Coca-Cola representatives did not return repeated calls for comment.