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contact us: iuf@iuf.org |
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January 06, 2010
Nestlé Workers in Tunisia Continue Industrial Action After Secret Sale of Ice Cream Factory
Workers, their union and the Federation of Food and Tourism Workers of Tunisia (FGAT) are demanding to know the facts behind Nestlé's secret sale of an ice cream factory. Click here to tell Nestlé, "Be fair to your Tunisian workers!"
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In a major win in the closing weeks of 2009, unions representing more than 1,200 workers at Nestlé India’s factories in Moga, Ponda and Bicholim signed collective bargaining agreements on wages and benefits for the first time - marking a major achievement in their year-long struggle for the right to wage bargaining. The agreements also include wage scales and wage information that previously were declared ‘secret’ by management.
The Nestlé workers union in Timisoara/Romania (part of the IUF-affiliated food workers federation SINDALIMENTA) organised a rally in front of their factory on Monday 14 December "in solidarity with Nestlé workers throughout the world fighting for respect of universal labour rights including the right to negotiate wages as part of CBA negotiations".
On 17 November 2009, workers at the Nestlé ice cream factory in Carthage were informed by a bulletin board notice that their factory had been sold to a consortium of local companies active in the food industry. "In conformity with its policy of social responsibility," the notice read, "Nestlé has expended all efforts to preserve jobs, the rights of the workers concerned, and maintain the production site."
The Congress of the Hungarian Meatworkers’ Union (HDSZ), which met in
Budapest November 29, pledged full support for the struggle of the Nestlé
Indonesia Panjang workers.
What happens when a new union committee is elected and its general secretary calls for a meeting with management to discuss pressing issues? Nestlé retaliates by transferring the union general secretary with immediate effect to a lower level job.
Eko Sumaryono, president of SBNIP, the union at the Nescafé factory in Panjang in Indonesia, met fellow trade unionists from the union UNIA in the towns of Orbe and Bern on 15-16 October 2009 while in Switzerland to attend an ILO event.
From October 12-15, the ILO's Bureau for Workers' Activities organized a symposium around the theme "Celebration of the 60th anniversary of Convention No. 98. The right to organize and collective bargaining in the twenty-first century." ILO Convention 98 (Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining), adopted in 1949, is one of the ILO's Core Conventions, i.e. fundamental treaties which are regarded as binding on all ILO member states whether they have been specifically ratified or not by governments. The Convention establishes in international law the rights of workers to organize trade unions and to bargain collectively with employers through these unions. Indonesia ratified Convention 98 in 1957.
For over two-and-a-half years the SBNIP, the IUF's affiliate at the Nescafé factory in Panjang, Indonesia, has been attempting to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement which would include wages, and would include the wage scale in the agreement. Nestlé has rejected this demand, claiming that wages are a commercial secret and telling the union that it is Nestlé policy to exclude wages from collective bargaining.
Nestlé's Corporate Business Principles "respect the right of employees to form representative organisations and to join – or not to join – trade unions, provided this right is freely exercised, and establish a constructive dialogue with these unions." Should employees need some guidance on this issue management is there to help. Business is good at the Nescafé factory in Panjang, Indonesia. Three-quarters of the output is exported to developed countries. The company is hiring. New hires are given two documents when they enter employment: the employment contract, and an application to join an organization called FKBNI, created and nurtured by the company to destroy the SBNIP, the union formed by workers.
Eight months after strike action against union-busting forced Nestlé Hong Kong management to agree to union recognition and formal negotiations, the IUF-affiliated Hong Kong Nestlé Workers Union is still denied these basic
rights.
Fellesforbundet and the NNN, the IUF's Norwegian affiliates with membership in the food sector, together with the national trade union center LO, have publicly called on the Finance Ministry to conduct an evaluation to determine whether the State Pension Fund's investment in Nestlé is compatible with the Fund's ethical investment guidelines.
The Hong Kong national union center HKCTU took the struggle for union rights at Nestlé to the heart of central Hong Kong on August 27. Rallying outside the up-scale Nespresso boutique, the union members passed out leaflets describing Nestlé management's refusal to include wages in collective bargaining and absurd contention that wage scales for Nescafé workers are a "commercial secret". Banners and leaflets called on Nestlé to immediately start negotiating in good faith with the SBNIP at Panjang for a collective agreement that includes wages and the wage scale for all workers, to stop using the industrial courts to avoid genuine collective bargaining and to respect freedom of association.
When a laboratory technician at Nestlé's water bottling plant in the province of Buenos Aires decided to join the union, management decided to set an example for other laboratory technicians who might follow suit and fired him. This happened on Friday, July 31. After attempts by the union to reason with the company had failed, the workforce staged a walk-out on Monday bringing the plant to a standstill for almost 2 full days.
The Nestlé Korea Labour Union (NKLU) held a spirited rally on July 16 at the Nestlé factory in Cheongju to show solidarity with the long struggle for union rights waged by the SBNIP in Panjang, Indonesia. Union members expressed "outrage" at Nestlé Indonesia management's anti-union campaign and refusal over two years to concede that wages are to be negotiated through collective bargaining, not dictated by the company. The NKLU demands immediate negotiations and an end to Nespressure.
Following on the solidarity visit to Indonesia by the IUF-affiliated Food Industry Employees Union (FIEU) of Malaysia, the Nestlé Indonesia Panjang Workers Union SBNIP at Nestlé's Nescafé factory in Panjang continues to mobilize support for its struggle. A union delegation from Panjang travelled the 200 kilometers to Jakarta on the early morning of July 13 for rallies at the Nestlй head office.
The IUF and the Swiss union UNIA organised a joint press conference in the Swiss capital of Bern on 10 June to launch the "Stop Nespressure" campaign in Switzerland and call on Nestlй to Stop the Nespressure and respect fundamental trade union rights!
A solidarity visit to Indonesia by ten trade unionists from the IUF-affiliated Food Industry Employees Union (FIEU) in Malaysia once again exposed Nestlé Indonesia management’s refusal to respect trade union rights at its Nescafé factory in Panjang as ‘discriminatory, irrational and unfair’. The visit culminated in a protest action in front of the Nestle Panjang factory.
