|
What is happening with
Nestle? The question comes
from verifying that this
Swiss TNC is determined not
to let one day go by without
a new war front against
workers, irrespective of
whether their country is the
Dominican Republic, Peru or
Indonesia. Now the turn of
Spain has come, concretely
the turn of Asturias.
Asturias: history,
gastronomy and Nestlé
The Principality
of Asturias is an
autonomous community, named
after the heir of the
Spanish crown, which title
is Prince of
Asturias. Its capital
city is Oviedo, but our
story takes place in
Gijón, Asturia’s
largest city with 275,000
inhabitants.
As a part of Gijón’s
modern history, a
revolutionary uprising in
1934 is to be remembered,
which was meant to prevent
access to government of the
Spanish Confederation of the
Autonomous Right (Spanish
acronym: CEDA,
Confederación Española de
Derechas Autónomas). Also
that during the civil war,
by being split off in two
antagonistic areas, the
region witnessed fourteen
months of fierce
confrontation. On the
Republican side, miners made
their cry famous: “Viva
Asturias y la dinamita”
(long live to Asturias and
dynamite)
Cider (a low alcohol content
beverage made from apple
juice) is the typical
beverage of Asturias and
fabada is the
traditional dish. This is a
stew made with white beans (fabes
in Asturian language), pork
and blood sausages, and pork
meat. The Litoral
factory began in the 30s,
last century, as a family
business producing canned
fish, then, in the early
50s, the production of
Asturian fabada was
launched. In 1966, this
factory was bought by
Carnation, a US company, and
in 1985 it became a part of
Nestlé. Ten years later, the
brand Litoral became
the market leader, driven by
advertising campaigns
focused on the “fabada
grandma”.
Located in the Tremañes
neighborhood of Gijón,
the factory employs 95
workers and produces near 20
million cans a year. In
March this year, Litoral
was one of the brands in a
long list of products that
Greenpeace cannot guarantee
to be GMO-free.
Nestlé style to reward work
Olga García,
Inés García
and María Antonia
Marín, 56, 57 and 56
years old, had worked for
Litoral for 37, 36 and
31 years respectively. The
three of them had indefinite
employment contracts and
immaculate service records.
On 24 February they were
offered a friendly dismissal,
which severage package would
be managed through a banking
entity (the Caixa), which
would monthly deliver the
amount of money considered
appropriate for their needs.
The proposal seemed
insufficient (they would
loss more than 20 percent of
their salaries) and they did
not accept it.
For this reason, they were
fired with a severance
package of 20 days per year
of service, with a maximum
of 12 years.
The Works Council of
Litoral began to
mobilize workers both to
defend these three dismissed
workers and to defend jobs
because they are sure that
Nestle will go for
more. Workers report that
Nestlé's intention is to
outsource jobs at lower
salaries and without the
labor rights of the
dismissed workers. Nothing
different from the facts in
these parts of the world.
The above is not the only
coincidence with Nestlé
way to apply their Corporate
Standards regardless of the
country in question. The
dismissed workers
–wearing
typical clothes (skirt,
apron, scarf and wooden
clogs) like the “fabada
grandma” of the
advertisements–
demonstrated in the streets
of Gijón, opposite
the factory and opposite the
home of Litoral’s
general manager. They also
travelled 850 km to
Barcelona (more than 100
co-workers said goodbye at
the train station), where
they protested at Nestle
headquarters for Spain
and Portugal, located
at Explugues de Llobregat.
They are already known as
the “grandmas of Litoral”
and, since they are
stubborn, they stated their
determination to go all the
way to the global
headquarters of Nestle
at the peaceful Swiss
city of Vevey.
As it is customary for this
type of conflicts, in this
case there was also a Nestlé
communication to all its
employees in Spain,
addressed, as usual in other
countries, "To all
contributors". The
“grandmas” replied with
another communication where
they state:
“We will keep informing and
defending our dignity
because we are not
disposable items”.
Finally, we suggest readers
to visit the
link to see the
"grandmas", and witness that
their arguments and
indignation are the same as
those of many men and women
who work for Nestle
around the world. The time
to say this is enough
appears to have come.
| 
