11:00 AM: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 2002 o MANHATTAN
Demand Coke Provide Treatment to all Workers with HIV/AIDS in Africa

What: Bearing a grim-reaper, life-size skeleton puppets, a 25 foot Coke bottle balloon, signs, black flags, protestors demand an end to Coke's neglect of workers with HIV/AIDS in vast African workforce. A "people's court" finds CEO Douglas Daft guilty of discriminatory medical treatment of workers at Coke's bottlers and distributors in Africa.

Who: ACT UP New York (The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and Health GAP (Global Access Project)

Where: Outside of the Coca-Cola shareholder meeting at Madison Square Garden Theater at 31st Street and 7th Avenue.

When: Wednesday April 17, 2002 at 11:00 AM

Why: Coke only provides HIV/AIDS health care coverage to the fraction HIV infected people among its 1,500 "direct employees," deliberately neglecting scores of HIV positive workers among the 100,000 people who bottle and distribute Coke products under exclusive licensing agreements in Africa. Coke is the largest single private sector employer on the continent, and is expected to be announcing their must substantial increase in profits in Africa today.

"Coke was afraid what shareholders would do when it just mentioned the word "AIDS"­now that Douglas Daft has decided to write off the lives of infected employees, shareholders need to know the truth: Coke has the blood of thousands of workers with AIDS on its hands," said Eustacia Smith, ACT UP member

Activists contend that at a modest cost, Coca-Cola can prevent further infections and needless deaths among the men and women that bottle, can, and distribute Coke products throughout Africa. Antiretrovirals have been shown to extend the lives of people with HIV/AIDS in wealthy countries.

"Coca-Cola trumpets their own efforts to provide condoms and display AIDS awareness posters, while continuing to sit on their hands while workers die," said Mark Milano of Health GAP. "Coke executives are making a killing off the labor of Africans, while workers with HIV and their families are left behind."

Every day 8,000 people with AIDS die because AIDS drugs aren't available. Coke is the largest private employer in Africa. It's most profitable markets in the continent are in sub-Saharan Africa, where 26 million people are infected with HIV. HIV infection rates run as high as 25% in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Worldwide, 20 million workers are infected with the virus, most reside in the developing world.

Every day 8,000 people with AIDS die because affordable AIDS drugs aren't available. Coke is the largest private employer in Africa COKE's most profitable markets in the continent are in sub-Saharan Africa, where 26 million people are infected with HIV. HIV infection rates run as high as 25% in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Worldwide, 20 million workers are infected with HIV, most reside in the developing world.

"People with AIDS and their advocates exposed massive price gouging by the pharmaceutical industry and shamed the US for its restrictive trade policies against poor countries. Now, ŚCoke is It' and we will not stop until their policy of willful neglect of the lives of workers with HIV/AIDS is revised," said Michael Korn, member of ACT UP New York.

Some stockholders are expected to call for resolutions calling for full coverage for all Coke workers regardless whether they are direct employees or not.

Health GAP and ACT UP demand that Coke implement HIV/AIDS workplace policies that include non-discriminatory policies, awareness and prevention programs, confidential voluntary counseling and testing, and the provision for treatment, care, and support for affected/infected employees and their dependents­for all of Coke's employees.

AIDS activists will protest Coke's deadly neglect for HIV+ workers in Africa--then join union activists for a rally against Coke's complicity in the face of murder and torture of union workers in Columbia.

Coca-Cola has similarly tried to dodge responsibility for the murder of labor activists at its bottlers and distributors in Columbia with the same argument that they are not direct employees. The Teamster Union is expected to turn out large numbers of its members for an 11:30 AM protest in the same area.

Background:

ACT UP/NY is a grassroots direct action group formed in 1987 to fight for a cure for AIDS and against discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS.

Health GAP (Global Access Project) is a United States-based organization of AIDS activists, public health experts, human rights groups, fair trade advocates, and concerned individuals dedicated to eliminating barriers to global access to affordable life-sustaining medicines for people living with HIV/AIDS.

The global movement for access to AIDS drugs has exposed massive price gouging on the part of the international pharmaceutical industry. US based AIDS activists embarrassed then vice-president Gore, and the Clinton administration, to drop their opposition to the generic manufacture of AIDS drugs.

An effective "AIDS cocktail" costing $10,000/person/year in the US can be produced and sold for a modest profit by generic companies for as little as $300/person/year.