Workers Contend Coke Sent Old Soda to Minority Areas
William D. Wright says he learned how to keep quiet and do as he was told.

For years, he says, he stripped expired soda cans from their cardboard sheaths, stuffed them into fresh boxes with new dates stamped on the side, then piled them on store shelves as if they were new.

As long as they had no leaks, dented cans were sometimes repackaged, too. It was all part of what his co-workers called the fire sale.


"I knew what we were doing was not right," said Mr. Wright, a Coke deliveryman for 14 years. "But every time I brought it up, I'd hear: `I'm the boss. You do what I say.' "

Marching with bullhorns and spreading their message over talk radio, dozens of Coke drivers, plant workers and salespeople are accusing their bosses of inching up profits for almost a decade by pawning off expired soda cans and bottles on minority communities across North Texas.

Rather than throw the old drinks away, the workers contend, factory managers have ordered them to salvage truckloads of old, unsold drinks from stores in predominantly white areas, only to cart them to the poorest neighborhoods — where shoppers are seen as just as thirsty but a lot less discriminating.

"It still looks good to the naked eye," said John Wayne Waleford, a Coke driver for the last 14 years. "But the people in the community don't know what they're buying."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/19/national/19COLA.html?todaysheadlines