Class Struggle at Coca-Cola

For several years now, transnational capital has accumulated ever-higher profits via the geographical reorganization of the production and circulation of commodities and services. By extracting enormous surplus value, multinational corporations generate profits that dialectically lay the foundation for a further expansion of capital realization on the financial markets. Transnational corporations have concentrated and centralized capital to such an extent that they essentially operate international monopolies, disciplining and subsuming labour in multiple regions of the world. The Coca-Cola Company is in many ways emblematic of this development, with its iconic logo serving as a symbol of transnational capital’s power.

To respond to these strategies from the capital side, it is vital for workers’ movements to reorganize the struggle in two directions: firstly, by building international links between struggles at the site of production, and secondly, by working towards a convergence of different struggles outside the factories carried out by social movements and other political forces. The pathway to achieving this goal is opening spaces for meeting and discussion for workers from different regions, representatives of organized social movements, political forces, and intellectuals.

Bottlers of the Continent, Unite!

As part of its work around workers’ struggles and social movements, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation has supported the workers behind the unionization drive at one of the companies most symbolic of the exploitation of labour and nature: Coca-Cola. This work began in Germany in 2011 in Germany, before migrating to the foundation’s Brussels Office in 2011.

Starting in Western Europe, the office accompanied the formation of a collective convergence of interests of bottlers in the Coca-Cola Company. The project culminated with preparatory steps towards the formation of a European Works Council (EWC). The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation accompanied the workers in their struggle for the establishment of a works council for several years until the agreement was ratified.

This process was of great significance for trade unions across Europe. Faced with a major restructuring by management, the EWC proved to be a very useful tool to receive information on management decisions as well as one of the only opportunities for exchange and discussion between colleagues from the various countries involved. Moreover, the EWC served as a space in which trade unions from various countries could develop a coherent strategy and speak to management with a unified voice.

The meetings promoted and supported by the foundation’s Brussels Office enabled communication between trade unionists and workers’ representatives at a time when there was no real EWC to facilitate this kind of exchange and coordination. Secondly, it enabled the trade unions to develop a negotiating strategy both for the establishment of the works council and for the next steps. Despite the limits imposed by the balance of forces between labour and management, this process nevertheless allowed for significant progress and the building of solidarity among workers. One example is the support of the workers in Fuenlabrada near Madrid received during their long, ultimately victorious struggle, along with the common demonstration in front of the Coca-Cola Europacific Partners headquarter in Brussels.

In the same spirit, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation held an event in late November 2019 under the title “Coca Cola in Struggle” together with the French National Agrifood and Forestry Federation (FNAF_CGT), the German Food, Beverages and Catering Union (NGG), and European workers’ representatives. The discussion proceeded from the specific individual cases to build a common framing of the issues unions face in all of the affected countries. Shuttering of production sites, imposition of flexible working hours, and the use of digitalization to simplify and increase control of the production procedures were widely identified as core issues. Moreover, representatives of social movements fighting against water privatization, especially in South America, highlighted the company’s disastrous environmental impact.

Corporations use the spatial relocation of production and circulation of commodities via powerful logistics facilities, political pressure, and social repression to marginalize every effort to shift the balance of power in society.

This shuttering of production sites and pressure on the environment have deep roots in the company’s corporate strategy. For years, Coca-Cola has pursued a strategy of delocalization and diversification of its activity, acquiring a great number of brands around the world. This concentration of capital has a positive impact on the company’s stock value, linking it ever tighter with finance capital.

Indeed, to maintain this upward motion on the financial markets, the company must generate higher and higher profits margins to buy other brands and distribute growing dividends to investors. Thus, while shareholders enjoy incredibly high returns, workers in the companies owned by Coca-Cola are subjected to worsening working conditions and salary squeezes. The total divergence of interests and the consequent struggle between the owners of capital and working people is both evident and unavoidable.

Working conditions in Coca-Cola factories deteriorated further during the COVID-19 emergency. The fall of profits in particular accelerated restructuring processes, with further closing of production sites and wage cuts to shift the burden from capital to labour. Furthermore, unions allege that the company took advantage of the state of emergency to undermine union rights in several countries.

Reigniting the Struggle

As infections went down and pandemic measures were relaxed, struggle returned with a vengeance. Since mid-2022, Coca-Cola has been hit by a wave of strikes and protests. Demands for better working conditions and higher pay can be heard across Europe.

The wave began in the UK with protests against wage cuts. A few months later, a strike wave coordinated by the unions hit all production sites in France, with workers protesting against wage stagnation while investors hauled in dividends. Since early 2023, workers in Germany have also been fighting for wage increases and better working conditions at all production sites in the country.

On top of these industrial actions are struggles connected to climate justice. In Nogara, in the province of Verona in northern Italy, trade unions and climate movements have united in protest against Coca-Cola’s relentless extraction of groundwater at derisory prices, despite the dramatic drought and water rationing imposed on the population.

These struggles inside Coca-Cola are part of the growing wave of protests that began in 2022 with the inflation crisis and continuous deterioration of working conditions during and after the pandemic. The polarization between capital and labour and the overwhelming power of the former in today’s world is creating ever-deeper cracks in social peace and stability. In that sense, the common ground of all these struggles is that they are rooted in material issues like wages or access to water. Moreover, a feeling of exploitation and injustice ties them together.

This massive accumulation of wealth corresponds to deepened exploitation and a tightening of work discipline. This same mechanism is also cause of irresponsible exploitation of natural resources, which irreversibly compromises the ecosystem. Meanwhile, the opulence of the ruling class is growing to an obscene extent, in parallel to the concern and dissatisfaction among workers inside the working places and growing segments of the global population.

Resistance is growing, albeit in a disjointed and fragmented way, both within factories and in the wider community. Nevertheless, their force is limited. Corporations use the spatial relocation of production and circulation of commodities via powerful logistics facilities, political pressure, and social repression to marginalize every effort to shift the balance of power in society.

It is thus vital that working-class organizations bridge individual demands and fights, building common ground to face the corporate giants together. Moreover, there is a need to articulate all of these particular struggles into a coherent vison. After all, the cohesion and strength needed to face such overwhelming force comes from unity between the different struggles as much as from a collective and shared vision.

In that sense, open spaces of discussion for workers and their organizations as well as providing some elements of reflection to engage in a broader and systemic vision have equal relevance. It is not only about building a shared consciousness to inspire people, but also embedding individual struggles in a common horizon.

At Coca-Cola, the struggle continues.