Issue No 78 | 17 November 2000 | |
NewsCoca-Cola Hit by Racism ClaimsBy Andrew Casey
Allegations of Workplace Racism at Coca-Cola Australia have been taken to the Equal Opportunity Commission of Victoria.
"Round 2 is coming watch out you dirty black c*nt" was the ugly wording of one e-mail message sent to an iquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union union delegate. " We are concerned that the company is allowing a hostile atmosphere based on racism and discrimination to pervade the workplace," the LHMU's Victorian Branch Secretary, Brian Daley, said today. " We are worried the company is ignoring their own EEO policies in a strategic attempt to silence one of our workplace delegates - who just happens to be a Black-Australian. " Our delegate was born in Mauritius, and has worked for more than five years at Coca-Cola's Melbourne warehouse in suburban Clayton. He is one of their best employees and is prepared to stand up and represent the rights of his workmates," Brian Daley said. " We have told the Equal Opportunity Commission that the company pays only lip-service to an EEO policy and has never, to the best of our knowledge, conducted any EEO training of employees. Coca-Cola race case in the USA " Unfortunately Coca-Cola - the world's largest soft-drink manufacturer - has recently had highlighted a long history of workplace racism at the parent company in the USA. In June this year Coca-Cola, in America, settled a two-year old racial discrimination case in which damage claims were estimated by some sources to reach nearly $300 million. " It took years for Coca-Cola in America to face up to their history of racism. We in Australia are not going to allow this problem to fester," Brian Daley said.
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Interview: Doubly Blessed With that unforgettable name, Grace Grace is making her mark as the first female secretary of the Queensland trade union movement. Unions: On The Line Trade unions this week entered a landmark partnership with the call centre industry to improve the quality jobs in this growing sector. History: Conspiracy or Class? The Whitlam Sacking Never trust a man who wears a top hat and tails in Australia, in Summer. Neale Towart considers this and other evidence of conspiracy in the great shonky dismissal. Legal: Return Of The Lock-out Marian Baird reports on the increasing tendency of aggressive employers to use lock-outs to reduce wages and conditions and promote individual agreements. Activists: Waterfront Hero Bows Out John Coombs, the man the government compared to Ned Kelly - villain to the bosses, the big land owners and conservatives, folk hero to working Australians - bows out of the union movement next month. International: Morocco Stonewalls In Western Sahara Morocco has new king but its old game plan of defying world opinion over its occupation of the Western Sahara continues. Review: The Identity-Shifting Pragmatist If New Zealand should have an Australian as its first Labour Prime Minister, then it is only fitting that Australia should have as its first a man who spent much of his formative years across the ditch. Satire: Hackers Infect Microsoft Computers With Mysterious Windows Virus SEATTLE, Thursday: Shame-faced workers at Microsoft admitted today that hackers had succeeded in penetrating their network's defences and had installed a sophisticated virus on the Apple Macintosh machines used across the software giant's operations.
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