Report from Coca-Cola Shareholders' Meeting

Report from Coca-Cola Shareholders' Meeting

Dear Members of the UAS Board,

On Wednesday, April 16 two members of Students for Workers' Rights attended the Coca-Cola Shareholders' meeting in Wilmington, Delaware. We were able to get two proxy seats through the international Stop Killer Coke campaign and made a comment at the meeting regarding our concerns with the corporations' business practices in Colombia, India, El Salvador, and Mexico.

The majority of the comments made at the meeting consisted of human rights concerns with their business practices. 'Coca-Cola's own assessment has shown that the company has acted irresponsibly by locating many of its bottling plants in India in areas with water scarcity, and as a result, exacerbating the already existing water crises in India,' said Amit Srivastava of the India Resource Center.

Neville Isdell, the CEO of Coca-Cola, failed to address any of the concerns raised by representatives from Students for Workers' Rights, the Stop Killer Coke Campaign, Corporate Accountability International, Amnesty International, and India Resource Center (amongst others). We encourage you again to take this information and the concerns raised by all of these organizations into account when making the decision regarding the next beverage contract.

You can view the live webcast of the meeting by logging on to Coke’s website at http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/ and clicking on “Investors” and then on the link to the webcast. An archived copy of the webcast will be available until May 16, 2008.

Thank you for your time.
Take care,

Jackie Hayes
Students for Workers' Rights