Global Policy Forum

By James Lamont and Betty Liu

Coca-Cola, the international soft drinks company, today faces worldwide demonstrations by HIV/Aids activists campaigning for greater access for its employees in Africa to life-prolonging treatments. Under the banner of "Treat-Your-Workers", a coalition of HIV/Aids activist groups is co-ordinating a day of action to press Coca-Cola into devoting more resources to combating the HIV/Aids pandemic ravaging Africa.

Africa has some of the highest HIV/Aids infection rates in the world. In South Africa, Coca-Cola's largest market on the continent, as much as 25 per cent of the economically active population is estimated to be HIV-positive.

US-based non-governmental organisations Health Gap and Act Up have local activists in a Pan-African HIV/ Aids Treatment Access Movement to mount a day of action against Coca-Cola's health record in Africa. They accuse the company of restricting access to costly anti-retroviral drug treatments to core staff and not doing enough to ensure the wider supply of the drugs to employees of bottling plants in the region.

Multinational corporations in southern Africa have taken the lead in making anti-retroviral drugs available to their workforces. Many governments in the region, including South Africa, regard the drugs as too costly to provide universally. Mining groups Anglo American and De Beers and carmaker DaimlerChrysler have been commended by former President Nelson Mandela for offering HIV/ Aids treatments to their employees.

Coca-Cola, which is in partnership with UNAids, argues that it too is at the forefront of the corporate campaign to halt the spread of HIV/Aids. But it acknowledges that responses among its bottlers need to be accelerated. A spokesman said anti-retroviral drugs were available to employees' families throughout Africa.

The Coca-Cola Foundation pays half the costs of the HIV/Aids drug treatments for workers, leaving the bottling company and the employee to pay the rest. Coca-Cola also supports HIV/ Aids care and prevention campaigns, like LoveLife and Starfish in South Africa.

But activists complain that the extended health benefits are not on offer to bottlers' entire workforces.

"It's very unfortunate that the companies stepping forward and trying to do something are the ones coming under attack. Some other groups, like the South Africa-based Treatment Action Campaign, have a better way of engaging with us," said Robert Lindsay, London-based president of the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation. Coca-Cola has about 1,200 employees in Africa. Its 40 bottlers employ about 60,000 people.

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