Venezuelan Workers Seize Coca-Cola Plants

Posted October 28, 2006 in [Corporations]

CARACAS (Dow Jones)--A Venezuelan lawmaker said early Monday that workers have taken over several Coca-Cola Co. (KO) plants with support from pro-government politicians in protest over worker debts.
 
"We have seized Coca-Cola plants.... We will not allow a single truck from Coca-Cola to leave with soft drinks," Iris Varela, a National Assembly member, said during a televised interview.

Varela did not specify how long the seizure would last or what role the government is playing in the dispute between the company and its workers.

"Now we will see if they will pay workers what they owe them," she said.

A Coca-Cola official, who declined to be named, said former soft drink distribution contractors have blocked access to all four bottling plants in Venezuela, effectively paralyzing production since early Monday morning. Protesters are also picketing outside some administrative offices in Caracas.

The company has fought a legal battle with former distribuitors over unpaid severance for years.

The protesters are blocking people from entering the plants but have allowed other employees to leave, the official noted.

Varela expressed support for the worker cause and suggested the government should eventually expropriate the company's assets if it fails to comply with worker demands.

If Coca-Cola doesn't follow through, "the company should be expropriated," she said, and a new company could produce "Venezuelan soft drinks instead."

Venezuela's congress is now completely dominated by politicians who support President Hugo Chavez, since opposition parties decided to pull out of last year's congressional election citing electoral irregularities.

Chavez has vowed to create a socialism for the 21st century in Venezuela and to expropriate "idle" land and company assets. He has also threatened expropriation in cases where companies have unresolved disputes with workers.

-By Raul Gallegos, Dow Jones Newswires; 58-414-288-7461; raul.gallegos@dowjones.com [ 23-10-06 1441GMT ]