Coca-Cola executives think providing only 1.5% of their workers
in Africa with access to HIV/AIDS treatment and care is enough.
- 17 APRIL 2002 (Manhattan) AIDS activists target Coca-Cola's annual shareholder meeting for refusing HIV/AIDS treatment for workers and their dependents in Africa. Coke's policy excludes all but the smallest fraction of African employees with access to treatment. Rally press advisory |
Health GAP Floor Statements
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Coke's neglect = death for African workforce
Coke, the largest private employer in Africa, profits off workers faced with a health pandemic of unprecedented scale.
-- In 2001 alone, AIDS killed 2.3 million African people.
-- That same year, Coca-Cola's net operating revenues in Africa came to $621 million, the highest growth rates among all regions.
-- Coke's most profitable markets in the continent are in sub-Saharan Africa--where 26 million people are infected.
-- Every day 8,000 people with HIV/AIDS die because the life-sustaining antiretroviral medications that have dramatically improved the health of people with HIV in wealthy nations are out of reach.
-- 95% of the world's 40 million people with HIV do not have access to necessary treatment and care because multinational corporations and world leaders don't consider treating them to be "cost effective."
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Stop Coke's deadly neglect.
For info contact Sharonann Lynch of Health GAP
tel: (212) 674-9598| em: salynch@healthgap.org
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STOP MEDICAL APARTHEID -- SIGN THE COMMUNITY LETTER TO CEO DAFT
Join ACT UP & Health GAP to demand Coke:
- Provide all 100,000 African workers and their dependents with comprehensive healthcareincluding life-sustaining antiretroviral treatments.
- Offer confidential HIV testing and counseling to all workers, in the context of a clear anti-discrimination policy.
- Distribute free condoms in the workplace, and provide safer-sex and sexual health education classes.
- Develop further HIV/AIDS prevention and education policies in collaboration with affected employees, their labor representatives, and community-based health initiatives.
For the full set of demands, read the community letter to CEO Douglas Daft
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TO SIGN THE COMMUNITY LETTER TO COKE's CEO DOUGLAS DAFT
1) read the community letter to CEO Douglas Daft
2) Send you name and organizational affiliation to salynch@healthgap.org
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FIGHT FOR WORKERS & FAMILIES TO HAVE ACCESS TO HIV/AIDS TREATMENT
To get involved and to stay abreast of news and actions as part of this campaign, contact Health GAP:
tel: (212) 674-9598| em: salynch@healthgap.org
