SIPTU HAS called for an international campaign against Coca Cola over the sacking of 130 members at the company and the outsourcing of jobs.
Siptu members at Coca Cola HBC Ireland have been on strike for seven weeks.
Delegates at the union’s biennial conference in Tralee, Co Kerry, unanimously passed a motion condemning the decision by the company to reject Labour Court proposals aimed at resolving the row.
The conference called on the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to “issue an all-out strike regarding the dispute”. It also urged all union members to use their influence in the workplace to put pressure on Coca Cola HBC in whatever way they could to achieve a just and reasonable settlement.
The recently retired Siptu convenor for the Coca Cola staff, Paddy Cahill, said that even though the company had made more than €200 million in profit in Ireland in the first half of 2009, it still wanted to cut costs and was prepared to do whatever it took to achieve them.
“Coca Cola might be the real thing, but we ask you to do the right thing – think before you drink,” he said.