Karla Yaan Fazon

1. Which ethical standard are being violated here?

In Colombia, Coca-Cola is charged with complicity in the murder, torture and

intimidation, of trade union organizers in Coca-Cola bottling plants. The Livelihood of
farmers was destroyed and the coca cola products in India were contaminated.
There were few complaints against coke such as the use of ground water, the
complaints alleged that Coca-Cola is drawing down the water table by using deep
bore wells, water quality has declined, shallow wells used by local farmers have
gone dry, and poor crop harvests near bottling plants have resulted from lack of
sufficient irrigation waters. The other one is the bio solid waste disposal in India. The
complaints alleged that bottling plant sludge containing cadmium and other
contaminants has been distributed to local farmers as fertilizer.

2. Is the university being unreasonable in the high standards demanded in its

Vendor Code of Conduct?

No, because each of them would have their own CSR. They would have acted
differently towards the charges of unethical conduct. The code of conduct outlines
the “primary standards” including nondiscrimination and freedom of collective
bargaining, as well as “preferential standards” that the university demands its
contracted vendors to uphold. The student coalition accused the soft drink company
of polluting groundwater in India with pesticides and promoting unsafe working
conditions and interfering with labor unions in Colombia.

3. Do you think the university would have developed the vendor code of conduct
without the aggressive campaign put forward by SOLE?

The aggressive campaign put forward by SOLE certainly put the code of conduct
initiative into motion. The university probably would not have had as through or as
high standard as pushed for by SOLE.

4. How should Coca-Cola respond in order to keep the University of Michigan

contracts?

They should collaborate with independent investigator and NGO agencies, be

more transparent, and plan to have a corrective action. The university of Michigan
should work with other universities to develop common wording for a code of
conduct that can be used by as many universities as possible. The Coca-Cola
company should try and regain its reputation by providing quality goods and
services. They should not engage in competitive malpractices that would lower their
level of fame. The company should set strict rules and procedures that will guide the
actions of executives and employees in order to prevent ethical crisis in future. They
should embrace or adopt ethical CSR.
5. How would you relate the situation in the local government?

Many companies awoke to Corporate Social Responsibility only after being

surprised by public responses to issues they had not previously thought were
part of their business responsibilities. Like business companies having CSR the
government has laws that we should obey. Failing to follow the rules and/or the
law can have many kinds of consequences, both internal and external.