Even with the best of intentions, corporations sometimes have a tough time keeping pace with demands for social reform. Consider the case of the Coca-Cola Co. It has exemplary programs for hiring the hard-core unemployed and controlling pollution. But just after Earth Day, the company was singled out by pollution protesters, who dumped mounds of nonreturnable bottles at its Atlanta headquarters. Lately Coca-Cola has found itself a target of criticism in a more serious matter that it has too long neglected: its treatment of migrant workers.
The living conditions of workers in...