Nestle

In addition to the boycott related to Nestle's marketing of infant formula in the Global South, Nestle has also been the target of criticism for its use of cocoa beans harvested by forced child labor in West Africa. Since 2000, the chocolate industry has been under scrutiny for using cocoa beans from West Africa (especially Cote d'Ivoire) where children are forced to labor for long, punishing hours, using dangerous tools and facing frequent exposure to dangerous pesticides as they travel great distances in the grueling heat. Trafficking of children onto cocoa plantations has also been reported. Nestle, Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland have been the focus of an ongoing lawsuit in U.S. courts filed by International Rights Advocates using the Torture Victims Protection Act and the Alien Tort Claims Act.

Examples of Nestlé's Anti-Union Stance

• Interference in union elections; harassment, intimidation & dismissal of nominee for union president:

At the Nestlé Milkpak Factory in Kabirwala, Pakistan, the Nestlé Employees Union fought a 12-month battle in the courts to end management interference in union elections and stop management’s intimidation and harassment of the candidate for union president, Mr. Mohammad Hussein Bhatti. From August 2006 to June 2007 the management at the Nestlé Kabirwala factory interfered in union elections by overturning the election results and dismissed the elected union president, Mr. Bhatti, who has worked at the Kabirwala factory since 1992. In addition, management fabricated signatures in court petitions and violated a series of court orders. In violation of a Court order protecting Mr. Bhatti from dismissal, he was fired on 24 November 2006. Mr. Bhatti was reinstated by the Court and won the union election on 27 February 2007, despite being refused entry into the factory. Management continued to prevent him from entering the factory and petitioned in court for his dismissal. It was only through the ruling of the Punjab Labour Court No. 9 on 28 July 2007 that management was finally forced to respect the right to free union elections and end its harassment of the elected union president.

• Closures and mass lay-offs

When workers arrived at the Nestlé ice cream factory in Santo Domingo for the morning shift on 19 June 2008 they found their factory surrounded by security guards, police officers - and ambulances and paramedics. The workers were herded into the parking lot where they were told that the factory was being shut down with immediate effect. Then their severance cheques were handed out. That's it - the factory was closed!

• Illegal mass dismissal of union officers; false promotion of union members to non-union positions

On 16 February 2007 Nestlé Philippines declared a mass redundancy of sales force workers, targeting union officers and shop stewards in the Union of Nestlé Employees (UNE- Makati) and the Union of Nestlé Philippines Employees Sales and Offices (UNPESO), both members of the Council of Filipino Nestlé Unions (CFNU). Management set February 23 as the deadline for agreeing to the redundancy package - only 5 days after the shock announcement. To pressure union officers and members into accepting redundancy, management declared that anyone who signs within five days of the announcement would get 2.5%, while anyone after the deadline would get the standard 1.5% package. Management did not give formal notice to the workers according to the Labor Code before the implementation of the redundancy, which requires one month notice. Automatically all the workers on the list of proposed redundancies were not authorized to go inside the premises of the company effective February 16, 2006 - the same day that the redundancy notices were issued. In the Union of Nestlé Philippines Employees Sales and Offices (UNPESO) redundancy notices were given to 13 union members and 8 union officers - including the union president. In the Union of Nestlé Employees (Makati), redundancy notices were issued to 9 union members, 5 union officers, as well as 2 union Board Members and 2 Shop Stewards. Earlier in the year manage transferred more than 50 members of UNE to so-called "specialist" positions that involved no change in their work, but excluded them from union membership.

• Violating the right to collective bargaining

For a year management at Nestlé Russia's chocolate factory in Perm refused to negotiate a wage increase through the collective bargaining process. Workers' purchasing power has been drastically eroded through the rampant inflation of basic necessities, and it is widespread practice for workers at the plant to sell blood in order to supplement their income. In response to union requests for wage negotiations, plant management and Nestlé Russia Human Resources management have repeatedly contended that it is company policy to exclude wages from any form of collective bargaining.

The signing of the national Collective Bargaining Agreement between Nestlé Malaysia and the Food Industry Employees Union, covering union members in all seven Nestlé worksites in the country, was deadlocked for more than two and a half years because of management’s refusal to bargain in good faith. The deadlock ended when the Industrial Court ruled on 23 July 2007 that Nestlé Malaysia management has “no case” and wage increases backdated to 31 December 2004 were awarded by the court.

• Poverty wages and extreme working hours

Collective agreement negotiations at Nestlé Fiji remain deadlocked after more than two years as management refuses to make any serious offers in response to union proposals made back in 14 November 2005. These claims include paid union leave (an established trade union right), a reduction in working hours to a 40-week and a living wage above the poverty line. The majority of the plant's 200 workers earn less than 2.75 Fiji dollars (FJD), or USD 1.59 hourly. The official poverty line is estimated at FJD 3.50 or a net weekly take home pay of FJD 143. In September 2006, Nestlé Fiji made an offer of an increase of just FJD 0.72 per day, less than the cost of a loaf of bread (FJD 0.85). That was the first and last offer made by the company. Faced with the tremendous pressure of deadlocked negotiations for two years and subtle threats regarding the viability of the Fiji plant if wages are raised, the union, represented by Fiji Sugar General Workers Union, demonstrated its good faith in bargaining by revising its demands. Yet Nestlé management rejected the union's revised demands and no agreement has been reached.

A three-day strike by 200 workers at Nestle Hong Kong's ice cream and chilled products factory in July 2008 exposed the appalling working conditions in the world's largest food manufacturing company. This includes 17-hour workdays, wage increases over the past 12 years amounting to just one percent, and the systematic denial of permanent employment for casual workers despite working at the factory for more than 10 years. For more than a decade a third of the workforce at Nestle Hong Kong have been employed under precarious employment practices that deliberately bypass the legal requirement that a worker be made permanent after employment of more than 12 months. Casual workers were placed on revolving 12 month contracts, and to prevent them from achieving permanent employment status under the law Nestle Hong Kong management imposed a 14-day break between each contract. As a result workers were robbed of any employment security and were deliberately denied the rights, protection and benefits enjoyed by permanent workers under the law.

If Nestle followed 1991 Supreme Court ruling on inclusion of retirement benefits in collective bargaining, then "Brother Forte may not have been murdered" - the Council of Filipino Nestle Unions (CFNU):

In a recent meeting with Reme Montavon, consultant to Nestle CEO and President, Brabeck, the Council of Filipino Nestle Unions (CFNU) reiterated their position concerning the killing of Brother Diosdado Fortuna who was shot by unidentified gunmen on 22 September 2005 while he was on his way home from the factory picket line. In a meeting with Montavon in January 2006, Brother Billy Barsumo, President of the CFNU, expressed "support for our Cabuyao brothers”, telling Montavon that negotiations on the Non Contributory Retirement Plan should be included in collective bargaining. Brother Barsumo also challenged company claims that Nestle unions in the Philippines agreed to discuss Non Contributory Retirement Plan issues outside CBA negotiations. Such an agreement was based on the ‘ground rules' for negotiating only one CBA cycle, and so it is legitimate for the issue to be raised again in CBA negotiations. More importantly, the ground rules for CBA negotiations can "in no way it can supercede a Supreme Court Decision."

The President of UNPESO, a member of the IUF-affiliated Council of Filipino Nestle Unions (CFNU), also challenged Montavon on this point. When asked by Montavon whether the union believes Nestle ordered the killing of Forte, Brother Jose Maria Dela Fuente responded: "… if the NCRP [Non Contributory Retirement Plan] was only given utmost importance and consideration, maybe he would not have been murdered.”

The KMU-affiliated union has been on strike since January 2002 in a dispute over bringing retirement benefits within the collective bargaining process, which Nestlé management rejects. In 1991 the Supreme Court upheld a 1989 ruling by the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC) of the Department of Labor of Employment (DOLE) mandating retirement benefits as valid issues to be dealt with in collective bargaining negotiations. The ruling was made in reference to the earlier 1987 strike at Nestle Cabuyao.