Coca-Cola Decision on Restructuring/Redundancies Sparks Opposition
Published: 23 February 2006
In January Coca-Cola 3E announced restructuring that will involve the dismissal of around 150 workers. The company’s decision has sparked opposition not only from its employees and their trade union representatives, but also from the Greek General Confederation of Labor (GSEE).
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In January Coca-Cola 3E announced restructuring that will involve the dismissal of around 150 workers. The company’s decision has sparked opposition not only from its employees and their trade union representatives, but also from the Greek General Confederation of Labor (GSEE).
In January, Coca-Cola 3E announced restructuring that will cause a substantial number of workers to lose their jobs. The Greek General Confederation of Labour (GSEE) joined Coca-Cola employees and their representatives in opposing the company’s decision.
The restructuring will involve closure of three of the company’s warehouses in the country’s regions and relocation of its Athens factory to an area outside Athens. According to the company, these restructuring operations will affect 150 people: some will be transferred to other jobs, but most will be included in a voluntary exit scheme. According to GSEE estimates the number of redundancies will be higher (250-300 employees).
To this decision by the management of Coca-Cola 3E, the company’s employee unions - which are engaging in parallel consultations with management in order to prevent the redundancies - reacted by calling a 24-hour strike, a protest march in the centre of Athens and a rally of the Athens factory’s workers outside the Ministry of Employment.
A tripartite meeting with at the Ministry of Employment followed, in which the Deputy Minister of Employment, employer representatives and the employees’ union representatives from GSEE and the Athens Labour Centre took part. The meeting concluded with a commitment on the part of the employer not to dismiss any staff and not to close the Athens factory or the regional warehouses for the duration of the consultations with the employee representatives.
Although company management maintained that these are necessary changes that will allow it to remain competitive, control costs and finance further investments for its growth in the Greek market, in a press release dated 24 January 2006 GSEE made the following argument: 'During the three hours of consultations it became patently obvious that the company has no business plan for restructuring and growth whatsoever, apart from the decision to lay off employees!!!'
Given that the meeting at the Ministry of Employment failed to arrive at a satisfactory solution for the employees, developments and mobilizations are anticipated. For instance, the president of the Athens Labour Centre (EKA) left open the possibility that EKA will decide on a campaign to boycott the company’s products should it go ahead with the redundancies.
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (2006), Coca-Cola Decision on Restructuring/Redundancies Sparks Opposition, article.
