A look at Coke around globe

Do things always go better with Coke? Not necessarily. Colombia, El Salvador, Turkey and India are some of the places where British comedian and political activist Mark Thomas traveled “to find the reality behind the PR image of the world’s most famous brand, Coca-Cola” —- a harsh reality that formed the basis for his book “Belching Out the Devil.”

Thomas’ journey begins here in Atlanta at the World of Coca-Cola with an overview of the company’s carefully managed image and a peek at its net worth: $65 billion, all of it from sales of “brown fizzy sugar water.”

Next, he moves behind the scenes to interview workers from the bottling plants in Colombia, where they said fair wages, health benefits and job security were once the norm under the trade union Sinaltrainal.

What Thomas discovers is shocking: According to workers and human rights organizations, Sinaltrainal, after more than a decade of union-busting attacks and intimidation by paramilitaries allegedly hired by the Coca-Cola plants, is struggling to survive.

Eight leaders and organizers were killed between 1994 and 2002; union membership has dwindled from thousands to a few hundred; and the surviving union leaders have fled the country.

When asked to look into these human rights allegations, the Coca-Cola Co. denied accountability, claiming that the franchised bottlers were neither owned nor operated by Coke —- and, therefore, not under its jurisdiction.

However, the fact that Coke owns shares of the plants, and continues to license the production, provides the syrup, dictates the type of bottles, cans, processes, advertising and promotions used by the bottlers tells a different story. Thomas asserts: “If it’s your name on the label, then you’re responsible for sorting it out.”

In Turkey, union organizers told Thomas that wages were fair and working conditions were good back when employees worked directly for bottling company Coca-Cola Icecek.

In 2000, a subcontractor was brought in, workers said, “to decrease wages and stop any attempt at unionizing.” Coke continued, though, to publicly announce its support of trade unions, even as the company laid off union members and a sit-in by trade unionists and their families at their Turkish plant ended in gassing and beatings by riot police.

Next stop: India, where Coca-Cola built water-intensive plants in two of the most drought-affected areas, extracting hundreds of thousands of gallons of water each day from the underground water supply —- a rate 35 percent greater than what could be recharged by rainfall. When the village wells dried up, Coke drilled deeper wells and set up a rainwater harvesting program. But local experts told Thomas these areas never did and never will get enough rain to fix what’s now broken, and that in addition, Coke’s wastewater has contaminated what’s left.

Most of the information in “Belching” is not new news. Coke’s global policies are by now well-documented, and the company vigorously argues that it is cleaning up its act. What Thomas suggests is that the cleanup is just a smokescreen. In response to his countless requests for accountability —- by phone, e-mail and in person —- Coke offers up evasive PR that would make any investigative reporter see red. Looking past the company’s repeated claims to be a responsible “global citizen,” Thomas makes a convincing case that Coke opposes labor rights, and that its community outreach and environmental “solutions” fail to address the damage left by its huge footprint.

“Belching’s” scathing, often hilarious reports make for a fun, as well as a revealing read. But it’s by presenting the human side of the controversy that Thomas makes the most serious case against Coke’s practices. He is always sympathetic to the people he meets whose desperation makes them such easy targets, and his portraits of them —- from Colombian trade union leaders to an angry villager in India (“I nickname her The Stare”) —- come alive.

Nonfiction paperback

“Belching Out the Devil”

By Mark Thomas

365 pages. Nations Books (Perseus). $16.95.