Friday, August 1, 2014

Coca-Cola makes feel-good commercial about modern slavery


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/07/29/1317559/-Coca-Cola-makes-feel-good-commercial-about-modern-slavery?detail=facebook?detail=email


Workers in line for a Coca-Cola phone booth that takes coke caps as currency.


Scandal continues to plague FIFA over the absurd announcement that the tiny country of Qatar would play host for the 2022 World Cup. First came the allegations of serious corruption in the bidding process. Now the spotlight is on the atrocious conditions of the immigrant workers who've moved to Qatar to build the nine new stadiums required to host the world's biggest event (in a country slightly smaller than Connecticut).
The Guardian has done a superb job documenting the abuses of immigrant labor in Qatar, including this week's revelations that the workers who built extravagant offices for the 2022 World Cup organizers haven't been paid in over a year:
The offices, which cost £2.5m to fit, feature expensive etched glass, handmade Italian furniture, and even a heated executive toilet, project sources said. Yet some of the workers have not been paid, despite complaining to the Qatari authorities months ago and being owed wages as modest as £6 a day.
The workers are living in wretched conditions:
The migrants are squeezed seven to a room, sleeping on thin, dirty mattresses on the floor and on bunk beds, in breach of Qatar's own labour standards. They live in constant fear of imprisonment because they have been left without paperwork after the contractor on the project, Lee Trading and Contracting, collapsed. They say they are now being exploited on wages as low as 50p an hour.
 Worse yet, without the permission of their employers, they are forbidden from returning home. Employers hold the passports and to get them back, workers are required to sign documents saying they've been paid in full, even if they haven't been paid at all.
All those workers need to do is spend part of their $6 per day to buy a Coke and a smile.
The International Trade Union Confederation estimates that 4,000 immigrant workers will die before the first ball is even kicked.

really don't think this will make the world sing in harmony their old staple advertisement.  I agree this is insensitive to the strife of these workers and to suggest that a coke would make it all better, maybe the coke of old that had real cocaine in it might take their mind off their peril for a moment, but that's all a hot moment.  shame on coke they should be opposed by international commercial and then boycotted.  a cola does not solve the plight of indentured servitude.