C OCA C OLA A NATURAL B ORN K ILLER ?? By: Cecilia Hurtado Andrea Ladrón de Guevara

C OCA C OLAS RACIAL ISSUES April 1999 the largest settlement ever in a racial discrimination case, the Coca-Cola Company agreed yesterday to pay more than $156 million to resolve a federal lawsuit brought by black employees.

B LACK P EOPLE Black employees were put at the bottom of the pay scale, averaging $26,000 a year less than white workers. In a 1995 report they complained about an atmosphere in which they felt ''humiliated, ignored, overlooked or unacknowledged.''

T HE P ANEL Coke is a company that operates in nearly 200 countries. The panel is charged with ensuring that Coke's record of paying and promoting all minority workers and women improves

R ACIAL P ROBLEMS When a Coke official visited Asia this spring, Chinese reporters hounded him about the company's racial problems, driving home the point that a global company operating in roughly 200 countries can ill-afford to develop a reputation for intolerance.

P AYMENT D IFFERENCES In 1990 at interviews, Coke officials did not deny that black employees had often been paid less than they should have or failed to get the promotions they deserved.

R ACISM In the company's defense, they said workers throughout the company, regardless of gender or race, had similar experiences. The Coke lawsuit illustrates a shift in the battle over race in the American workplace.

H EALTH C ONCERNS Drinks contained pesticides that posed health risks. Soft drink manufacturers have denied the charges. CSE director, Sunita Narain, has criticised the government for failing to set up purity standards for soft drinks The government says it will look into the matter but only after receiving an official complaint.

ALEC' S ROLE ALEC is an organization that help the corporations to have a better and convenient relationship with the government. American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative group that has been pushing the Crown Cork bill in state legislatures across the nation since 2006.

ALEC ALEC, founded almost four decades ago by the father of the modern conservative movement, Paul Weyrich, includes about 2,000 state legislators as well as 300 companies, such as: ExxonMobil, Coca-Cola and Wal-Mart Stores, according to group officials and documents.

C OKE TOLD TO CLOSE I NDIAN PLANT Environmental issues Coca Cola has long faced protests from the villagers who accused the US company of depleting local groundwater. Thousands of protesters gathered near manufacturing plants of the two firms and demanded that they stop production on concerns over groundwater depletion.

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