Siege on Coca-Cola lifted; operations resumed

Posted October 28, 2006 in [Corporations]

El Universal

Former workers with Coca-Cola Femsa distributors Thursday afternoon started to withdraw from the entrances of the company's plants and offices in Venezuela, a spokesman of the firm said.

Late Thursday, they lifted the siege on the bottling plant in southern Bolívar state, and demonstrators were expected to continue to abandon their blockade on Coca-Cola's premises late Thursday and early Friday.

On Thursday, parliamentarians Cilia Flores, Chair of the National Assembly, and Iris Varela and Marcela Máspero, members of the Social Development Committee, together with Coca-Cola Femsa workers and ex workers, agreed to lift the siege.

The coordinator of the National Front of Coca-Cola former workers Nixon López ensured: "Thursday night activities in the company will resume."

The former workers of the bottling firm's distributors agreed to abandon their protest after they reached two deals: first, next October 31st, the Legislature is to urge the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) to hear all of the cases of the former employees, and second that the Constitutional Court, TSJ, reviews all of the cases for which a ruling has been issued.

Some 5,000 former workers demanded payment of labor liabilities, but Coca-Cola directors claimed that the claim was appropriate only in 70 cases. According to Congress Chair Cilia Flores, Coca-Cola owes USD 7 billion to the demonstrators.

Rodrigo Anzola, Coca-Cola Femsa's director of Legal Affairs and Institutional Claims, said that entrances to the company would be unblocked early on Friday, in order to resume operations and distribution of their products.

He would not elaborate on the economic damages the protest caused.