In 2006, Coke started having more problems with its bottlers. Fifty-four lawsuits were filed trying to stop Coke from expanding its Powerade deliveries straight to Wal-Marts warehouses. Coke was trying to cut out the way things had been done for many years. Coke wanted to skip having to pay people to directly deliver their products to each individual store. This way they could drop shipments of at the warehouses and have the company selling the Coke product stock the shelves for them. (Ferrell et al., 2008, p. 314) Once again, Coke would face negativity in eyes of the media and all over the world. G. International Problems
One of the most major events Coke faced was trouble with their international unions. Explaining this best is in an article I summarized by Sarah Cairns. Something that started out as a simple class project on activism at McMaster University turned into a campaign over the last year to protest McMaster’s exclusivity contract with Coca Cola. In an interview quoted below goes as follows…“Nine of us worked on it… we planned a demonstration, and from there it’s just grown,” remembers Michelle Peek, a co–coordinator at McMaster’s Campus Choice. Initially, the students were concerned with the fact that the exclusivity contract prevented freedom of choice on campus. “We looked at what they’re teaching us and what universities are for,” explains Adam Tracey, also from Campus Choice. “What I think (universities are for) is critical thinking, research and making educated decisions and, obviously, the democratic process.” After further researching Coke and Cokes history, they found out.
The list of problems that Coke has been involved in is truly enormous. In a huge story in Columbia, union members of the union SinalTrainal have been terrorized for many years. “(Coke allegedly committed) 179 major human rights violations,” relates