Workers at three Chinese Coca-Cola bottling factories protested on Wednesday the pending sale of their company to local buyers amid concern over the potential for layoffs and other unfair treatment under new ownership.
Global beverage giant Coca-Cola announced last week it will sell its China bottling operations for $1 billion as it attempts to place more emphasis on brand-building and marketing, while letting local franchising partners handle more of the day-to-day operations such as bottling.
Coca-Cola, which counts China as its third-largest global market, said it sent an email to its employees explaining the reorganization, adding that everything was being done in accordance with Chinese labor laws. It encouraged employees to use regular communications channels to make their views known to the company.
Workers at plants in the interior cities of Chongqing and Chengdu and the northeastern province of Jilin began protesting with collective action as early as Monday, media reports said, just days after the soft-drink giant announced its plans to sell the operations to Hong Kong conglomerate Swire Pacific and to China Foods, a unit of state-owned food giant COFCO.
Coca-Cola didn't address the specific labor actions in a statement, but said that all operations were continuing as normal at its bottling plants.
Workers at three Chinese Coca-Cola bottling factories protested on Wednesday the pending sale of their company to local buyers amid concern over the potential for layoffs and other unfair treatment under new ownership.
