Dairy Workers

Members of IUF affiliates UWU and AMWU at Lactalis in Bendigo, Australia have been on strike since November 5 in a fight for better pay and a future for the dairy factory in their community.

French based Lactalis, soon to overtake Nestlé as the world's largest dairy company, has regularly threatened to close the factory in response to demands for wage parity with other Lactalis workers in Australia.

At the beginning of September this year, Milcobel, Belgium's largest dairy cooperative, announced it would close its factory in Schoten with the loss of 167 jobs. Members of IUF affiliates Horval-FGTB and ACV-CSC went on strike and milk could not be processed.

Kraft Heinz has announced a new $2 billion (USD) five year `cost savings' program with $1.2 billion of the savings expected to come from procurement and $800 million to come from manufacturing. Kraft Heinz has also announced the $3.2 billion sale (subject to regulatory approval) of portions of its cheese business to French dairy giant Groupe Lactalis as Kraft Heinz seeks to simplify its product portfolio and pay down debt.

Workers at the Lactalis owned Neuburger Milchwerke dairy factory in Bavaria held a warning strike on July 6 after the company refused to set dates to enter into collective bargaining. The 108 employees who were on duty stopped work for four and a half hours and promised that all 250 members of the IUF affiliated NGG would be involved in strikes the following week if the company continues to avoid collective bargaining.

Dairy emissions increased 11% in the 2 years following the 2015 Paris Climate agreement, according to a report by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP).

The IATP calls for a dismantling of the subsidies to big dairy which encourage overproduction, pollution and environmental degradation. New trade and agriculture policies are needed to reduce emissions, rebuild soils, encourage agroecology and biodiversity and reinvigorate rural communities.

The food company Danone plans to close its plant in Rosenheim in 2021. Danone Rosenheim workers are dissatisfied with the management's offer - and made their demands clear by organizing a "warning strike" on June 3, 2020.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Danone has announced important measures and significant benefits provided to all employees world-wide in a letter from the Executive Committee of Danone on March 24, 2020. The IUF has been assured by Danone that all employees world-wide have received a copy of this letter.

The IUF and Danone have jointly produced a poster setting out IUF/Danone agreements guaranteeing access for Danone workers to fundamental rights. The poster summarizes essential elements of each of the agreements.

Twenty three dairy workers representing local unions affiliated to the FSBMM met on October 6 in Pasuran, East Java.

Participants agreed that the workers' rights in the IUF Dairy Division Charter should be applied in their workplaces.

Canadian Dairy Processor Saputo has made a cash offer of $1.25 billion for Dairy Crest, the UK company which processes and markets cheese, butter, spreads and oils under brands such as Clover and Cathedral cheese. It employs 1,100 workers in 7 locations in the UK.

The IUF Dairy Division has an established alliance of unions with members employed by Saputo to which  UK affiliates Unite the Union and USDAW will now be invited to join. 

The IUF-affiliated Food and Services Union (ACV-CSC) successfully negotiated a local agreement with Danone Dairy Belgium on the basis of the IUF-Danone Agreement on Sustainable Employment and Access to Rights. The local agreement provides Danone Rotselaar dairy plant workers with a concrete list of functions which can and cannot be done by agency workers, particularly for safety reasons.