AIDS Activists to Coke: "Where's the Real Thing?"

Global Day of Protest Scheduled for October 17, 2002

"Even as a first step, the plan leaves the majority of Coke's workers and their dependents in a deadly lurch," said Sharonann Lynch of Health GAP. "Fifteen months have passed since Coke first claimed it would negotiate with bottlers to cover AIDS drugs. Coke's glacial pace contradicts the companyšs rhetoric of compassion and action and makes us deeply skeptical about the rollout of the announced treatment program."

While the activists welcome the company's admission that the provision of AIDS treatment, including antiretroviral (ARV) therapy, for bottlers is a fundamental company responsibility, they claim that Coke's plans will be implemented too slowly, and that the framework will only suit the largest bottlers---leaving the majority of workers in the hardest hit regions and the smaller bottlers behind.

Coca-Cola first gained attention when it announced in June 2001 that its 1500-person so-called "direct workforce" in Africa would be eligible for HIV treatment. Critics have charged the company with hiding behind its labyrinthine African franchise system to resist covering its total workforce, which totaled 100,000 workers at the time of the announcement. Today's announced initiative will cover just 35% of Cokešs bottler workforce in Africa.

Activists speculate that Coke's 50% cost-sharing scheme with bottlers will delay the rollout of a treatment program with the numerous smaller bottlers that compose the rest of the Coke system. "The same cost-sharing scheme won't work for small and medium-sized bottlers. They can't foot the bill, and shouldn't be expected to," said Allison Dinsmore of Health GAP."

The bottlers are worried about paying for the high cost of treatment over the long-term. This concern is particularly acute since Coke has already announced its intent to withdraw from the program over time as the prices of drugs decreases, leaving workers and bottlers to foot the entire bill.

Activists also warn that the partnership with GlaxoSmithKline and PharmAccess International, which will apparently exclude purchases of lowest cost quality generic AIDS drugs, will mean that fewer workers will be able to afford treatment.

"Workers are too poor to cover of a 10 per cent co-payment on medicines, particularly at Big Pharma prices," said Asia Russell of Health GAP. "Coke, on the other hand, can easily bear the cost of subsidizing treatment in Africa--it's operating profit margin in Africa is twice that in North America. We demand that workers not be forced to pay for treatment and that Coke bring generic companies to the negotiating table."

Activists also charge Coke with putting its profits above the lives of people with AIDS by refusing to extend coverage to children and dependents of workers other than spouses. "The prospect of parents taking life-saving medicines while their HIV-infected children die is inexplicable and indefensible," said Brook Baker of Health GAP. "Coke should treat whole families, not just fathers and mothers."

Activists criticized Coca-Cola's for its failure to commit to provide treatment for workers in poor areas outside of Africa. "Coke employes hundreds of thousands of other system workers worldwide in developing countries," said John Riley of ACT UP New York. "Given the explosive epidemics in India, South East Asia, and Latin America, Coke's solution should be global, not just where activists have turned up the heat the highest."

"When it comes to bad faith and people with AIDS, Coke is neck and neck with Big Pharma," said Eustacia Smith of ACT UP New York.

Coke's announcement comes just three weeks before a day of international protests on October 17, 2002, against Coca-Cola for the company's refusal to pay for AIDS treatment for workers in developing countries, planned by an international coalition of AIDS groups (see list below). Protests are scheduled to take place in multiple cities and on major college campuses in the U.S. Events are also planned in South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Morocco, and several other African countries, as well as in Thailand, Canada, Portugal, Japan, Norway, India, UK, and France.

Sponsors of the Global Day of Protest: Treatment Action Campaign (South Africa), Pan-African HIV/AIDS Treatment Access Movement (PHATAM), Health GAP, ACT UP New York, ACT UP Philadelphia, Act Up-Paris, ACT UP East Bay, Global AIDS Alliance, European AIDS Treatment Group, Association Marocaine de Lutte Contre le Sida (Association Fighting AIDS), Morocco, The Japan-Africa Forum, Thai Network of People Living with HIV (TNP+), and Student Global AIDS Campaign.

Full details and endorsements: http://www.treat-your-workers.org

#30#