Coca-Cola Employee Allegedly Fired For Drinking Pepsi...

[ShotgunSteven]

It's the real thing: US Coke worker sacked for drinking Pepsi

Fri Jun 13, 6:19 PM ET Add U.S. National - AFP to My Yahoo!



LOS ANGELES (AFP) - A US truck driver who worked for the Coca-Cola Bottling Company has been sacked after being spotted glugging down a soft drink made by the rival Pepsi company, union officials said.


Rick Bronson, who worked for the world's biggest soft drink firm for 12 years, was fired after someone reported him for supporting the enemy, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said.


"Coke is really grasping at straws on this one," said Jim Santangelo, principal officer of Teamsters' branch of which Bronson is a member in El Monte, east of the California hub of Los Angeles.


"This is nothing more than an attempt to get rid of a pro-union employee. The Teamsters will fight every step of the way to get Rick's job back," he vowed.


The Teamsters claim that Coke really sacked the worker because of his work three months ago in organizing Coke merchandising workers under the powerful union's aegis.


The dismissal came after he was allegedly spotted in the back room of a store where he was making a delivery swigging on a Pepsi.


Bronson believes the person who reported him for publicly straying from his home brand had been hired by Coke to follow him and catch him off guard.


The union alleges that Coke fired Bronson under a company rule that bars "slander" of the world famous product after he was seen drinking the rival soft drink, Santangelo said.


"Hey, Rick's a Pepsi drinker, what can he do?" he said. But it's not as if he was seen drinking a Pepsi in Times Square on live TV -- he was in the backroom of a store.


"This wasn't slanderous, they just wanted him because of his union activity and because he is a union leader," he claimed.


A spokesman for the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. in Southern California, Bob Phillips, declined to comment on the allegations and on the case citing California's privacy laws, but said the company would not resort to a pretext to fire an employee active in a union.


"I can tell you that we have at this company a strict policy against retaliation and the company does not retaliate, nor do we tolerate any retaliation against employees," he said.


The Teamsters Local 848 has filed unfair labour practice charges against Coca-Cola over the incident, according to the union.


Coca-Cola in California and the Teamster have been at loggerheads over labour-related disputes, including strikes, involving Coke workers in recent months and negotiations over other contentious issues are still under way.

 

[Spikey289]

Man the dude cant help it if he likes another drink, big deal. I hope that dude gets his job back. Unless it was for another reason he was canned, probably more to the story that the news doesnt know.

 

[BillGates]

That's bad.

 

[Angrymarshmello]

That is pretty bad

 

[Howard]

If he hadn't been fired there would have been less grief. Now it's news. Great for Pepsi, I guess.

 

[Walleye]

haha

 

[GTaudiophile]

I can see this happening, being someone who lives in Atlanta.

Coke gives mucho dinero to GA Tech and rumor has it that a PEPSI vending machine lasted all of 30 minutes on campus once. As a matter of fact, no one on campus is permitted to sell or vend any PEPSI product (from the on-campus market to the dining halls, etc).

 

[DrPizza]

Has anyone verified this story.... seems to be almost identical to one I read about a year ago...
(i.e. this isn't a planted story that's really an advertisement for Pepsi or something, is it? Companies have planted these fake stories in the past; don't believe everything you read)

 

[Imdmn04]

pepsi should hire this guy

 

[Linux23]

Originally posted by: Imdmn04
pepsi should hire this guy

yeah, now that would be great marketing.

 

[fr]

He was just taking the Pepsi Challenge.

 

[NogginBoink]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
Has anyone verified this story.... seems to be almost identical to one I read about a year ago...
(i.e. this isn't a planted story that's really an advertisement for Pepsi or something, is it? Companies have planted these fake stories in the past; don't believe everything you read)

I was thinking the same... didn't this happen years ago? Maybe it's an archive story and this year also happened to have a Friday, June 13. There's no year in the story...

....but the URL does indeed suggest that the story is legit.

 

[wyvrn]

Coca-cola is the microsoft of the cola business

 

[ScottyB]

My cousin's husband is a manger at Pepsi and I heard he got a guy fired because he saw him buying a coke at the store.

 

[ScottyB]

My cousin's husband is a manger at Pepsi and I heard he got a guy fired because he saw him buying a coke at the store.

 

[newbiepcuser]

Didn't Pepsi get pretty upset for Britney Spears for drinking cola that was Pepsi's compeitior?

 

[chr6]

tis true

i was fired from trojan for using saran wrap.

 

[Dragnov]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
I can see this happening, being someone who lives in Atlanta.

Coke gives mucho dinero to GA Tech and rumor has it that a PEPSI vending machine lasted all of 30 minutes on campus once. As a matter of fact, no one on campus is permitted to sell or vend any PEPSI product (from the on-campus market to the dining halls, etc).

Thats not at all unusual.

These companies pay off schools big time to have an exlcusive contract.

Pepsi has a contract with the University of California (so its affect at ALL the UC's). Now THATS paying them off big time... 10 schools, many being HUGE in terms of student size. Only Pespi vending machines and only Pepsi fountain drinks in the cafeterias. Only place you can find Coca-Cola is in the on campus little shopping store for snacks, drinks, etc.

 

[Rufio]

i like pepsi more anyway

 

[LethalWolfe]

Originally posted by: newbiepcuser
Didn't Pepsi get pretty upset for Britney Spears for drinking cola that was Pepsi's compeitior?

If she was still under contract as a spokesperson for Pepsi they had every right to get pissed.


Lethal

 

[Eli]

I smell a lawsuit..

Isn't that wrongful termination? Unless it was in his contract...

 

[sandorski]

If true, this should not be allowed to stand. Imagine if GM, Ford, or Chrysler started firing employees for driving competitors cars.

 

[ElFenix]

see what happens when you drink pepsi?

*sips his coke*

 

[Kevin]

Wrongful Termination = Millions

 

[Booster]

Coca-Cola Employee Allegedly Fired For Drinking Pepsi...

That's a horribly unjust story. Makes no sense to me. I think that Coca-Cola worker could have told in his defense that he was investigating the rival product to understand further why it sucks so much and to diss it in public. Who said that he enjoyed it?