Students walking past Parks Library looked on as eight bodies lay on the sidewalk Wednesday afternoon.

Members of the Ames Campaign to Boycott Coke staged a demonstration to raise awareness of Coca-Cola’s treatment of unions at bottling plants in Colombia.

At the demonstration, called a die-in, eight members of the campaign lay on the sidewalk outside of the library to symbolize eight union leaders killed in the past decade by paramilitary forces that were allegedly hired by Coca-Cola. Other members of the campaign held a banner and passed out information to passers-by.

Because the die-in occurred at 11:50 a.m., members of the campaign blocked students walking between classes. Dan Sherman, member of the campaign and freshman in liberal arts and sciences-open option, said the location outside the library was chosen because it was a high-traffic area and would help raise awareness.

“The inconvenience will increase the amount of attention,” he said.

Eric Oij, member of the campaign and sophomore in meteorology, said the event was successful.

“We definitely got the information out that needed to get out,” he said.

Eric Thies, sophomore in aerospace engineering, said he thought the demonstration was effective in drawing attention, but he’d have to do more research on the subject.

“I find demonstrations like this usually present only one side,” he said.

“It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.”

Heidi Pilloud, junior in accounting, said she was surprised by the allegations against Coca-Cola and said, if they are true, she would not buy Coke in the future.

“Many people assume that because a corporation is successful that they’re adhering to a high moral and ethical standard, and that’s not true,” she said.

Ashish Kumar, graduate student in journalism and mass communication, said he thought a die-in was an interesting way to make a point.

“I haven’t seen this being done before,” he said. “It’s certainly more creative than just having a booth and getting people on an e-mail list. Effective? I don’t know.”

After the event, members of the campaign went to the Memorial Union food court to stage a second demonstration around 12:30 p.m., Sherman said. ISU Police came and told them they could not demonstrate there.

“They said to us that our group is being investigated,” Sherman said. “They wouldn’t let us know anything.”

Jerry Stewart, director of public safety, said officers determined no offense had occurred after speaking to members of the campaign.

“We’ve had several incidents where there has been damage to vending machines or unauthorized access to vending areas,” he said. “In one case, refreshment coolers were chained and padlocked. We’re not making an assumption that this group was involved in those incidents.”

According to an official statement on Coca-Cola’s Web site, the allegations that the company’s bottling plants in Colombia hire paramilitaries to violently suppress union activity are a “publicity stunt.”

“The plaintiff’s accusations do not reflect the facts on the ground in Colombia,” the statement said. “In fact, our bottling partners enjoy extensive, normal relations with 14 separate unions in Colombia.”