New York RWDSU Solidarity with Nestle Workers Across the Globe
RWDSU activists leafleted the Nespresso café in New York’s trendy Soho on December 2, 2010, to call attention to the anti-worker tactics of Nestle around the world. The show of global solidarity is part of a multinational effort coordinated by the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Association (IUF) to put pressure on Nestle to treat its workers fairly.
Customers and passerby were handed leaflets detailing the struggle of Nestle workers in Panjang in Indonesia who are fighting for a union contract. The workers’ efforts to join a union and negotiate a contract have been met with intimidation, harassment, and fraud by Nestle management, which has gone as far as to create a fake union by forging the signatures of their workers.
“These workers want what all workers deserve, the right to choose a union voice and negotiate collectively with their employer,” said RWDSU Organizer Sadatu Mamah-Trawill. “We are going to continue to put on the pressure, and keep asking Nestle why it is engaging in these tactics, despite claiming to respect the right of workers to unionize in their own Corporate Business Principles.”