Nestlé

IUF affiliated unions in Turkey and Dutch national centre FNV representatives were excluded by the Labour Ministry from a round table conference on child labour in hazelnut harvesting on July 4.

Lax regulations, loose enforcement and employer resistance to union health and safety committees inflict a ghastly toll of illness, injury and death on the job. The grisly death of a contract worker at a US Nestlé plant provides further evidence that agency workers face even greater risks due to their precarious employment status.

An agreement has been reached in Pakistan under which hundreds of casual jobs at the Nestle Kabirwala dairy plant will be converted to permanent jobs, finally resolving a long and difficult conflict. With the end of years of precarious employment hundreds of workers will not only enjoy job security for the first time, but will also be able to exercise their trade union rights.

"They told us we didn't work for Nestlé," said Ashfaq Butt, President of the Action Committee Nestlé Workers Kabirwala, who has worked for 7 years as a contract worker at the Kabirwala factory. "But now under this agreement we are recognized as working for Nestlé and can go to the factory as permanent workers for the first time."

The IUF and Nestlé welcome the settlement of the dispute at Panjang, Indonesia, around the status of 53 employees whose employment was terminated on October 5 and 6, 2011.

Nestlé, the world's largest food corporation (which just became bigger with the acquisition of Pfizer's infant nutrition division), has an advertisement for every product, a corporate social responsibility routine for every occasion, a presentation for every financial analyst and an answer to every question save one.

Workers at Nestlé Nicaragua, most of whom are women, complain that continuous pressure on the workforce is producing a continuous rise in occupational illnesses and injuries. 

Nestlé watchers on the company's mailing list may be puzzled by the fate of the message they received on April 12 entitled "Nestlé receives GRI A+ rating for Creating Shared Value report". The original article claimed that Nestlé had received an A+ rating from the Global Reporting Initiative for its 2011 'Creating Shared Value Report'." That claim is no longer made - apparently the communications folks at Nestlé were apprised that the GRI awards no ratings.

Members of New York City's Hotel and Motel Trades Council turned out in force for a spirited action at Nestlé's Nespressure boutique on Madison Avenue on Manhattan's trendy Upper East Side on March 30. Some 60 union members chanted, distributed hundreds of 'Stop Nespressure' leaflets to residents and tourists about Nestlé's violations of trade union rights in Indonesia and Pakistan.