Terminate Exclusivity Contract with Coca-Cola

We, the undersigned students, faculty, staff and community members of Sackville, New Brunswick, call upon Mount Allison University to temporarily suspend business with the Coca-Cola Company until the Company agrees to independent third-party investigations into allegations of human rights and environmental abuses, adequately reconciles alleged abuses, compensates those people affected, and adopts a global code of conduct.

The Coca-Cola Company has been accused of assisting in the murder, kidnapping, forced resignations, and harassment of union leaders in Colombia and Guatemala, in addition to similar anti-unionist practices in Indonesia, Turkey, and Pakistan. In India, Coca-Colaвs bottling plants have had detrimental effects on the local environment and the local populationвs health including: the contamination of groundwater supplies to the point that it is no longer fit for human consumption; selling waste containing lead and cadmium as fertilizer to local farmers; and selling products containing dangerously high levels of pesticides to the Indian public. Consistent, credible reports by media and human rights groups have documented these violations amongst others not mentioned here.

Mount Allison University has attempted to assert itself as an environmental leader and internationally engaged community. Giving Coca-Cola an exclusive contract on campus only asserts the opposite: the University is willing to pursue economic gain at the expense of environmental sustainability and the struggle for human rights. Associating Mount Allison with a corporation that demonstrates such severe disregard for human life, environmental degradation, and social responsibility ought to be a significant concern for this institution; universities have a special responsibility to act as a voice of conscience in our society.

We, the undersigned, petition the University Administration to refuse to renew the exclusive contract with Coca-Cola until the company takes adequate responsibility for its business practices and exercises its considerable power to prevent more violence from taking place. The Administration should issue an open letter to Coca-Cola publicly stating why they are terminating the business partnership, denouncing Cokeвs human rights and environmental violations, and urging the company to abide by higher ethical standards.