The Coca-Cola Company said today that it was "greatly disappointed and offended" by "false and inflammatory" allegations made in a press release issued by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters about the Coca-Cola system's labor relations practices...Last year, the Company signed a joint statement with the IUF, the international organization for food and beverage unions, confirming that Coca-Cola workers are "allowed to exercise rights to union membership and collective bargaining without pressure or interference." Two different judicial inquiries in Colombia have found no evidence to support allegations that bottler management there conspired to intimidate or threaten trade unionists. An additional independent assessment conducted by Cal Safety Compliance Corporation, an international social compliance auditor certified by the Fair Labor Association and Social Accountability 8000, confirmed that workers in Coca-Cola plants in Colombia enjoy freedom of association, collective bargaining rights and an atmosphere free of anti-union intimidation. In late January, The Coca-Cola Company announced that it is facilitating the design and development of another credible, objective and impartial independent third party assessment in Colombia during the first quarter of 2006...The Coca-Cola Company also has been working to develop a Worker Rights Policy that it expects to adopt by the end of the first quarter of 2006.