Coca-Cola bottler accused of using corporate clout to censor calls for boycott in Greece

According to AVGI newspaper (link in Greek), Coca-Cola Tria Epsilon has appealed to the Athens Court of First Instance seeking the issue of a temporary order which would effectively silence striking workers pushing for a widespread boycott of Coca-Cola products.

The Athens based Coca-Cola Tria Epsion is a subsidiary of Coca Cola Hellenic, one of the few Greek multinationals, now headquartered in Switzerland. The mother company was founded in 1969 in Greece and is still controlled by the David – Leventis family. According to its website, it serves 585 million people in 28 countries. It is one of the largest bottlers and vendors of The Coca-Cola Company’s products in the world, and the largest based in Europe.
 
The call for a boycott was launched several months ago by striking workers and campaigners protesting plant closures and layoffs in Greece. According to campaigners, the company has closed numerous ‘crucial local plants’ in the country and cut back hundreds of paid positions, seeking to replace them with cheaper jobs in Bulgaria. They accuse Coca-Cola Tria Epsilon of hypocritical behaviour, preaching corporate social responsibility on the one hand while ruthlessly laying off workers on the other in order to maximise profits, effectively turning its back on the country in which it has seen decades of growth. An online petition site has been set up here by several workers’ unions calling for a boycott to pressure the company to rehire the employees it has laid off and behave truly 'responsibly'.  
 
Troubled relations between the company and its staff have been ongoing since the decision by the company to close two bottling plants in Thessaloniki and Patras in 2012. In October of the same year the parent Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company (Coca Cola HBC AG) also announced that it was moving its headquarters to Switzerland from Athens and list its shares on the London Stock Exchange. Before the move, which was yet another blow to the economy, the company was the largest in Greece, with subsidiaries in 28 countries and with net sales revenue of 6.874 billion euros in 2013. The company stated that it was moving partly due to the excessive tax burden it faced in the country.
 
Subsequently in October 2013 another round of 33 job losses in a distribution center in Thessaloniki triggered more strikes on the part of workers. In November 2013 the company filed a suit against members of the Panhellenic Union of Bottled Drinks Workers (POEEP) and union members in Thessaloniki demanding 250,000 euros in damages for defamation following the protests and allegations that the company was pulling out of Greece and moving its facilities to countries with cheaper labour. In a statement the company vehemently denied the accusation saying that it ‘would not allow questioning of our powerful commitment for a stable and substantial presence in Thessaloniki and Northern Greece.” It also claimed that the money, if awarded would be given to charity. That case is still pending and due to be tried in the autumn.
 
However in the face of ongoing Thessaloniki strike actions and calls for a boycott, Coca-Cola Tria Epsilon appears unwilling to wait that long, and is now seeking the temporary order in order to silence the calls – according to Avgi newspaper even going so far as to demand that striking workers be prevented by court order from wearing ‘boycott Coca-Cola until the factory is reopened’ t-shirts.

While the online campaign to amass 100,000 signatures remains a ways from its target (as of the time of writing almost 17,000 people have signed), Coca-Cola Tria Epsilon will be eyeing it with concern and seeking to ensure that it does not pick up further momentum. A similar boycott in Spain following the shuttering of four bottling plants reportedly led to a 50% drop in consumption in February compared to February of the previous year (link in Greek).
 
Facing stiff competition from Greek soft drink and cola producers, for Coca-Cola to be seen as turning its back on the country and putting people out of work would no doubt be highly damaging for the company – particularly one which goes out of its way to cultivate its ‘socially responsible’ profile.
 
It is also clear that the company with its hefty advertising budget has – directly or indirectly – prevented news broadcasters from covering the strikes and calls for a boycott, with media groups unwilling to risk angering such an important client by giving protesters airtime. That point was made by the Panhellenic Federation of Editors Unions (POESY) which recently released a statement in which it stated the striking Coca-Cola workers have been ‘excluded’ from media coverage despite their 9-month struggle, and called on journalists to report on them as 'much as they can'.  

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