Health GAP targets Coke's treatment of workers in Africa

Outside Coca-Cola’s annual shareholder meeting at New York City’s Madison Square Garden this spring, activists from Health GAP and other groups had a simple message written on a 25-foot Coke bottle: “Coke’s neglect = death for workers in Africa.”

Coca-Cola, the largest private employer in Africa with approximately 100,000 workers, has neglected to provide health-care for all but 1,500 of those workers, leaving many HIV positive employees without the resources for treatment.

To spread the word, Health GAP is taking its 25-foot Coke bottle on the road ­ to college campuses, gay pride rallies, even Coca-Cola’s headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.

“The good thing about Coke,” Health GAP member Sharonann Lynch says, “is that Coke is everywhere. Students can make sure that Coca-Cola is off their campus, that their university divests from Coca-Cola, and that all their friends know it is heinous.”

Health GAP is also working with union workers and AIDS activists in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as ACT UP chapters in New York, Philadelphia, and East Bay/Berkeley.

For more information, visit www.healthgap.org or contact Sharonann Lynch at 212-674-9598 or salynch@healthgap.org.