Union members marched to the Unilever Budapest head office to show their solidarity with the Lipton Khanewal workers on the World Day for Decent Work. Participants in the World Day for Decent Work demonstration in Budapest organized by the Hungarian Trade Union Federation (MSZOSZ) and the Metal Workers Federation (VASAS) carried out a "flash mob" when they learned of the Pakistan Casual-T workers and the international campaign.

Some 30 unionists and supporters joined the action by drinking a Lipton tea toast to the health of the injured members of the precarious workers action committee, Abdul Aziz, Shahzad Kaleem and Khizr Hayat…

... after which they threw the tea bags into the trash and handed it to the Hungarian communications director of Unilever together with a letter from the Hungarian Chemical Industry, Energy and Allied Workers' Trade Union (VDSZ) Unilever demanding "Make the Khanewal casual workers permanent through direct negotiations with the Pakistan Union."

On the same day ITUC general secretary Guy Ryder addressed the national center DGB's action for Decent Work in Berlin. “This 7 October trade unions are raising their voices across the continents, to keep up the pressure for fundamental change, for justice and equity. They face tremendous resistance from those who have profited from the exploitation of others in the past. Trade unions are determined to confront and defeat that resistance,” Ryder concluded - and signed a Casual-T postcard to Unilever CEO Polman.

01.10.2009

Unions NSW (the organisation representing trade unions in the state of New South Wales) led a protest at the Australasian headquarters of Unilever in Sydney in support of the casual Lipton workers in Pakistan. Members from fraternal unions - the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union and IUF affiliates the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AWMU) and the Australian Workers Union (AWU) - joined the protest.

Cathy-May Gill, a member of the AMWU and a worker at Streets Ice Cream (which is owned by Unilever) asked, "How can anyone live on such low wages? How can anyone raise a family? These problems in Pakistan show how terrible outsourcing and casualisation actually is.

Mark Lennon, Secretary of Unions NSW, stated "Unilever is on notice. Australian unions will not tolerate blatant disregard for basic human and industrial rights, either here or in Pakistan." Speaking of the conditions of workers at Lipton in Pakistan, Mark Lennon noted, "this is a basic issue of dignity at work and we will stand with our Pakistani brothers and sisters to ensure they get justice."

Unions NSW, which has more than 65 union affiliates, representing over 800,000 workers and their families, intends to continue the campaign and has pledged to have mass meetings of Unilever workers at Unilever factories in the state of New South Wales.

Unilever's best-selling tea in the UK is PG Tips. PG Tips' famous monkey has joined the Casual-T campaign - his latest video explains how you can support the Lipton workers in Khanewal, Pakistan.

The All-Russian Confederation of Labour (VKT) showed solidarity with the Casual-T campaign when demonstrated outside Unilever's Moscow office. This was the fourth union solidarity action in Russia - VKT and the IUF-affiliated Agro-Industrial Workers' Union previously picketed Unilever-sponsored events and company offices. "We are here to tell Unilever that we are shocked by the violence against workers in Khanewal. Russian unions will continue to act against unfair labour practices untill Unilever meets the fair demands of the Pakistan Lipton workers", said VKT President Boris Kravchenko.

More than 70 activists from the Philippines Alliance of Progressive Labour, including leaders of the IUF-affiliated NUWHRAIN, demonstrated their solidarity with the struggle against disposable jobs at Unilever's Pakistan tea operations at Unilever headquarters in Manila on September 15. A protest program was held right on front of the gate where security guards and company officials met with the protesters. A company representative received the APL press statement.

The program included a symbolic "die-in" the scorching heat, with media reporters and photographers covering the action. NUWHRAIN's Edwin Bustillos, who is also APL deputy secretary general, said that the APL picket signified Filipino workers’ solidarity with the struggle of the Lipton/Brooke Bond tea workers in Pakistan as well as their resolve to fight casualization at home and around the world.

Faced with the possibility of losing the highly lucrative labour supply contracts that have underpinned the disposable jobs regime at Unilever Pakistan’s Lipton tea factory for two decades, contractors are colluding with factory management to instigate violent attacks on the workers campaigning for the right to direct, permanent jobs. The provocations follow on the public call by the UK National Contact Point of the OECD for government-mediated talks to reach a negotiated resolution to the IUF's complaint to the OECD that Unilever's massive use of casual labour at Khanewal violates the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.

Read more.

Read more.

Read more.