As the Dominican people struggle to overcome the terrible aftermath of the devastating Tropical Storm Noel, the transnational corporation Nestlé, insensible to the social tragedy the country is suffering, fires eleven workers from its Santo Domingo ice cream plant and announces that this is only the beginning of more extensive employee cutbacks

 

 

Amidst remarkable displays of solidarity and compassion from the Dominican people, helping their fellow citizens to repair the physical and emotional damages wrecked by Noel, Nestlé, the world’s largest food transnational corporation, has decided to contemplate its own navel, or rather, its own pocket. Sirel spoke with Flaudio Tapia, general secretary of the Nestlé Ice Cream Workers’ Union (SINTRANESTLED), who denounced that “Nestlé has just tricked us, pressuring us to meet three month’s worth of ice cream production in a single super intense week of work, only to turn around and tell us that it’s firing eleven workers because there’s no work left to do.”

Plant manager Peter Flook summoned the Union yesterday to an urgent and surprise meeting, and as this was going on in one sector of the plant, in another, Human Resources was laying off the workers, so that union leaders learned of the layoffs after the fact. “The company acted in a sneaky way, causing indignation among the workers. Moreover, the eleven workers that were fired are all Noel storm victims, and the company is fully aware of that, but it is still putting them out of work. One of these workers’ wife is pregnant and due next week,” Flaudio said.

The Union is organizing a picket line in front of the plant, with signs protesting against the layoffs and the company’s foul play. “This not only breaches the Collective Bargaining Agreement, it also violates the human rights of these workers, who lost everything with Noel and were left with only the clothes on their backs,” Flaudio stressed. In addition, he said that Nestlé plans to replace the fired workers, who have seniority in the company, hiring temporary workers in their place, that is, seasonal workers that it can fire and rehire as it pleases. “We are willing to take this struggle to the very end, until our fellow workers are given their jobs back,” Flaudio concluded.

Sirel also spoke with Bernabel Matos, Rel-UITA Education secretary for the Caribbean. Bernabel recalled that “The country is still practically all under water, and Noel has wrecked many agricultural establishments. Nestlé, therefore, has suffered significantly due to a shortage of raw materials. The ice cream plant, moreover, is located very close to a stream that overflowed, and this has caused some harm to the factory. The power failure that affects the entire country also entails certain restrictions. However, Nestlé must understand that it has a social responsibility to the Dominican people. It is important to remember that many other companies have suffered extensive damage, some being hit even worse than Nestlé, but none has decided to fire any workers. This is the only case of its kind. Management summoned the Union’s governing committee to a meeting, not with the aim of analyzing the situation, however, but rather to directly communicate its decision to cut back on personnel, starting with these eleven layoffs. This means that Nestlé intends to leave people out on the street, and the ice cream plant is just the beginning. It’s painful to discover that this transnational corporation -the world’s largest in the food industry- is totally indifferent to the fate of the Dominican people, and is only concerned with increasing its profits.”

Bernabel also pointed out that SINTRANESTLED representatives attended the meeting accompanied by Ramón Castillo, general secretary of the Nestlé San Cristóbal Union, but the company refused to let him into the plant, under false arguments, maintaining that it was an “internal meeting.”

The National Federation of Food, Hotel, Beverages and Tobacco Industry Workers (FENTIAHBETA) is planning to meet on Saturday 17 at the Nestlé ice cream plant to assess the overall situation and adopt appropriate measures, but SINTRANESTLED is expected to implement strong onsite mobilizations starting tomorrow.

In Bernabel’s opinion, “Nestlé emerges as a second tropical storm, striking down mercilessly on the Dominican people, throwing workers out on the streets. In this situation, nobody is willing to stand back and allow this company to come here and do whatever it pleases; we will appeal to anyone we can -even going as high as the President of the Republic- to get them to intercede in this matter and prevent Nestlé from further striking our devastated people.”