In spite of the University of Michigan's decision Tuesday to begin selling Coca-Cola products on campus after boycotting them since January, MSU students say it won't hinder their campaign against the company.
U-M stopped its contract with Coca-Cola on Jan. 1 because the school and company couldn't agree on the specifics of an outside investigation of the company's labor and environmental practices in Colombia and India.
But the school decided to resume its business with Coca-Cola on Tuesday after the company promised to allow an outside investigation of labor practices at Colombian bottling plants and started plans for an investigation of environmental practices in India.
Members of MSU's Students for Economic Justice, or SEJ, say the company is responsible for violence and death at Colombian bottling plants and harming the water supply in India. The group has launched a campaign to get university officials to stop selling Coca-Cola products on campus.
"(Coca-Cola is) able to do things and make them look in the public's eye that they are legitimate when in fact they are totally covering up the truth," said Tommy Simon, regional organizer for the United Students Against Sweatshops and SEJ member. "I don't think that this is going to slow down our campaign. I have faith that our administration will be able to see through this."
U-M and MSU students say they're not satisfied with the planned investigation because they feel there is a conflict of interest. Ed Potter is Coca-Cola's director of global labor relations and is the U.S. employer representative for the International Labor Organization, or ILO, which is investigating in Colombia.
"While he has had a long history of engagement in various ILO initiatives, it's unfathomable that the ILO would compromise its standards in its investigation of the Coca-Cola Co.," the company's spokesperson Kerry Kerr said.
U-M officials have spoken with the ILO and are satisfied with their investigation plans, according to a letter to Coca-Cola from Timothy Slottow, U-M's executive vice president and chief financial officer.
"We understand that the methodology and findings of their investigation will not be influenced by the Coca-Cola Co. or other third parties," Slottow wrote in his letter, dated Tuesday.
Ashwini Hardikar, a member of U-M's anti-Coca-Cola campaign, said U-M should have waited to reinstate its contracts only if investigations return positive results.
"The manner was not transparent at all — they did not consult us at all," Hardikar said. "We didn't know until reporters started calling us."
But U-M spokeswoman Julie Peterson said administrators met with students a couple weeks ago, and made it clear they were moving toward this decision. Peterson said U-M officials e-mailed student groups that brought about the original boycott Tuesday, but the e-mail was delayed due to computer problems.
Plans are in the making for an investigation in India by The Energy and Resources Institute, a nonprofit organization based in New Delhi.
The company hopes the investigations in Colombia and India will be finished by this fall, Kerr said.
