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In stark
contrast to its “Choose
Wellness, Choose Nestlé”
slogan boldly displayed in
its web portal, Nestlé
recently broke off direct
dealings with the National
Sole Union of Workers of
Nestlé Peru S.A. (SUNTRANEP),
refusing, among other
things, to grant any wage
increase during the whole of
2010, and attempting to take
away social benefits already
gained by workers.
Alexander Caballero,
general secretary of the
National Sole Union of
Workers of Nestlé Peru S.A.
(SUNTRANEP), notes that
Nestlé
has hindered negotiations
from the start by taking 38
days to respond to the
union’s list of demands,
when article 57 of the Labor
Collective Relations Act
stipulates that negotiations
must begin within 10 days of
presentation of a list of
demands.
“We had submitted the list
of demands on Nov. 30, 2009,
and management returned it
on Jan. 6. We reported this
to the Ministry of Labor,
and it ordered the company
to immediately resume
discussion of the list of
demands,”
Caballero
said.
SUNTRANEP’s
demands include a wage
increase, the implementation
of a dependency allowance
and the leveling of workers’
wages, as Caballero notes,
“there are significant wage
differences between workers
hired in 2000 by
Nestlé
and those hired in 2001, in
2007, or in 2009.”
“Many workers with the same
number of years in the
company and performing the
same tasks in the same
category but are placed in
different wage levels,” he
explained.
The company is asking the
union to sign a Bargaining
Agreement with a three-year
term and zero wage increase
for the year 2010,
“offering a one-time-only
‘bonus’ of less than 250
dollars for this year,
and monthly wage increases
of 25 dollars, in average,
for 2011 and 2012,” he
added.
According to
Caballero,
the company also seeks to
eliminate sports activities
(clause 37), which are
usually held in the month of
March with the participation
mostly of “our members, but
with non-members invited to
participate as well. It also
wants to take away school
prizes, which are a benefit
that applies even to
high-ranking officers of the
company,” he said.
On March 31, the members of
the Bargaining Committee
representing the workers
were convened by management
to a new meeting to discuss
the list of demands. At that
meeting the workers
presented two proposals, to
which
Nestlé
merely responded by
suspending direct dealings,”
Caballero
said.
Among the reasons given by
the transnational
corporation to deny a wage
increase for the current
year is the fact that
inflation last year was 0.25
percent.
What management forgot to
take into consideration in
the negotiation is that
in 2009 Nestlé, the world’s
largest food group, reported
a net profit of 10.4 billion
CHF (some 10 billion US
dollars)
exceeding forecasts, with a
4.1 percent rise in
underlying sales for last
year, ahead of rivals
Unilever
and
Danone.
For 2010,
Nestlé
projects greater growth in
its core food and beverage
business, as it is focusing
on these products, following
its sale of the Alcon
ophthalmology business.
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