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A three-day strike by 200 workers at Nestle Hong Kong's ice cream and chilled products factory ended in victory today, as management finally agreed to workers' demands on wages and working conditions.
Click here to read the full story on the IUF website.
DONGGUAN, Guangdong: Nescafe Co Ltd is being investigated by the municipal trade union here over alleged irregularities with the operation of its trade union, an official said Wednesday. China Daily
"We have received complaints from some of Nescafe's former employees and have approached the firm to begin an investigation," the official, who gave his name only as Li, told China Daily.
"Initial findings indicate there are some problems with the union and we are urging the firm to deal with them in accordance with the law," he said.
Under national law, the members of a trade union committee can serve only for between three and five years, after which they must stand for reelection, Li said.
"Nescafe's practice of keeping its union committees unchanged for the past 12 years is definitely improper," he said.
Former Nescafe employee Wang Jianjun reported the company to the municipal union. The 36-year-old claimed he was sacked in March, after calling for a new election for union committee members.
"Nescafe's trade union has never charged its members fees or organized any activities for them," Wang said.
"That's why I distributed leaflets and sought signatures from my co-workers calling for an election to be held for the posts of chairman and committee members," he said.
"I can't understand why they fired me just because I called for an election to ensure workers' rights and interests are protected."
Wang said he was officially dismissed for "serious misconduct".
China Daily Wednesday tried to call Zhang Junfeng, the incumbent chairman of the Nescafe trade union - who also happens to be the head of the Chinese arm of the company - but received no answer.
Nescafe Dongguan was established in 1992 and currently employs 600 people.
Workers at Nestle Samalkha protest against the refusal of management to negotiate compensation for higher food prices and declining real wages.
The struggle at Nestle Samalkha escalated yesterday with the intervention of the Moga Nestle Employees Union in the neighbouring state of Punjab. Earlier the Moga Nestle Employees Union successfully negotiated compensation (dearness allowance) for its 850 members to account for rapidly rising food prices in the first half of this year. Now the union is demanding that Nestle India extend the same benefits to the 205 members of the Nestle Employees Union Samalkha.
On 4 July the management at Nestle Samalkha suspended the union president for "misconduct" in response to union demands for dearness allowance.
Nestle Moga pmanufactures Lactogen, Cerelac, Milkmaid, Maggi Noodle, Maggi tomato ketchup and Everyday Dairy whitener. Nestle Samalkha manufactures Maggi Noodles, Yoghurt, Ceralac, and Lactogen - all of which increased sales in the first six months of 2008.
Investigative reporters at TSR, the French-language Swiss television station, have revealed how, in 2003, Nestlé infiltrated a group of private citizens in Lausanne who were working on a critical exposé of the company.
On June 12, Swiss television aired the results of an investigation which began earlier this year when the Swiss chapter of Transparency International received a call on its hotline referring to an undercover affair involving the private security firm Securitas, Nestlé, the world's biggest food company, and the activist organisation, Attac.
The Swiss television investigation revealed that, in the autumn of 2003, a Securitas agent infiltrated a group of seven Attac members in Lausanne who had just begun working on a book about Nestlé focussing on issues such as GM crops and water privatisation but also dealing with labour issues. The new member was welcomed into the working group and even into the homes of its members and enjoyed full access to the group's research, sources, and contacts in and outside Switzerland. She produced written reports for her employer and there is evidence that she met at least once with Nestlé management at the company's headquarters in Vevey. Following the publication of the book in June 2004, she left the group and literally disappeared - all attempts by the others to keep in contact with her by phone and e-mail failed. And it wasn't until a few months ago, when approached by the television journalists, that the group realised why their erstwhile member had left without a trace.
By way of justification, Nestlé issued a statement to the television company referring to the need to protect its property during the 2003 G8 summit, which took place in Evian, in France, across Lake Geneva. Nestlé continues to trot out this statement - including at the meeting of the European Works Council on June 24 - as activists and politicians and Nestlé employees demand answers. But the G8 summit took place on June 1-3, 2003, three months before the surveillance began. Furthermore, the German-language Swiss weekly, WOZ, has since revealed that Securitas was still recruiting for this undercover job in the autumn of 2003. In its June 26 issue it published fragments of an interview with a man who went through a recruitment process with Securitas at that time. He recalled that the Securitas recruiter told him that the firm had been mandated by "a big company to infiltrate an organisation in order to gather information about their activities" and that the job would involve "attending meetings of a working group of the Attac branch of the canton of Vaud, which was researching the business of big companies". The man turned down the job and never spoke of it since out of fear of reprisal.
Activists and trade unionists in Switzerland, and in Germany and France, where this affair has received media attention, are asking themselves how far Nestlé has gone and will go to monitor, contain and control critical voices. Attac Switzerland has initiated civil action against Nestlé and Securitas for invasion of privacy and violation of the data protection act as well as filed criminal charges. Members of parliament have brought motions at cantonal and federal level. Nestlé's actions constitute a gross violation of freedom of expression and of basic democratic rights and prove yet again the authoritarian approach to criticism and an inability to face up to wrongdoing which is part of the fabric of the company.
"We have to be careful that they do not get too much influence"
This remark was made by former Nestlé CEO Helmut Maucher in an article he wrote in December 1997 for the Financial Times. He was referring to NGOs. As newly-elected head of the International Chamber of Commerce, he was voicing his concern over the ability of environmental and human rights NGOs to be heard within the UN system and advocated more influence and visibility for business, arguing that "business is not just another pressure group but a resource that will help them [governments] set the right rules". Maucher was no longer Nestlé CEO at the time (while retaining his seat on the board of directors) but continued shaping company policy for several years into Peter Brabeck's reign. While working behind the scenes and under cover to ensure that civil society organisations - including trade unions - "do not get too much influence", Nestlé has managed to achieve the kind of visibility and role of authority that the authoritarian Maucher envisaged as the company's entitlement. Witness how easy it is for Nestlé to air its views - trite and patently manipulative though they may be - on GMOs, water and biofuels in the media. Under these circumstances it could not have been easy for the Swiss television journalists to carry out their investigation and broadcast the results - in Nestlé's own back yard.
To view the 36-minute television programme in French, click here.
Click here for the Italian-dubbed version.
For a summary broadcast by German-language Swiss television, click here.
Production at the Nestle factory in Samalkha, in the state of Haryana in North India, was stopped on July 4-5 when 205 union members went on strike to protest the unfair suspension of their union president.
The suspension of Brother Bijender Singh Gahlan, President of Nestle Employees Union Samalkha, was in direct response to the union’s demands for wage adjustments to account for high food rice inflation and higher living costs. Despite rapidly escalating food prices and the introduction of additional compensation at the Nestle factory in Moga, in the neighbouring state of Punjab, the Samalkha workers’ wages were unchanged for the past 6 months. When management refused to negotiate with the union over wage adjustments and dearness allowance (to take into account rapidly rising food prices), the union launched a series of protests on 27 May, wearing black arm bands to work and boycotting voluntary workplace meetings and social functions.
Despite the union’s call for negotiations the management refused any meeting to discuss the impact of inflation on wages, and instead suspended Brother Bijender Singh. On hearing the news of his suspension, the 205 union members downed tools immediately and the following day entered the factory premises but refused to start production.
Incredibly, on the same day Brother Bijender Singh was suspended, Nestle India announced that it would raise prices by up to 15%. The General Manager of Nestle India’s dairy division, Mayank Trivedi, was quoted in the press as saying, “We may increase prices by between 5% and 15% for different products because of escalation in raw material costs and inflation, etc, depending on the situation.” These price rises would also apply to the products at the Samalkha factory, which include Maggi Noodles, Yoghurt, Ceralac, and Lactogen.
So while the company acknowledges the seriousness of inflation and rising costs of basic commodities (that will be passed on to consumers), the management at Samalkha refuses to hold discussions with the union over the very same issue.
After the strike action the management met with the union on July 8, but made any further negotiations conditional on Brother Bijender Singh issuing a written apology to management. The union has refused and will continue its protest actions.
At the Nestle factory in Moga, Punjab state, the Moga Nestle Employees Union declared its solidarity with the Samalkha union by boycotting the canteen and other company facilities. A letter from the Moga union will also be submitted to management today (July 9), demanding that the management negotiate in good faith with the Samalkha union.
