Anatoly, a Russian union leader unduly dismissed from the Timashevsk plant, the RSI sufferers from Araras, Brazil and sacked employees from Ilopango, El Salvador, have something in common: They are globalized workers, under Nestlé’s peculiar Labor Relations standards: use & dispose of people.

Nestlé is the world’s largest company in the food sector. It is established in more than 80 countries, it has around 500 factories and employs over 200,000 people. Its huge profits come, among other sources, from its worldwide sales, from its pricing capacity as a large consumer of agricultural raw materials, from the application of production systems which, despite written regulations and adorned statements of good conduct & business ethics, are based upon the over-exploitation of their male and female workers.

In most of Nestlé's plants, the presence of human beings is the fastidious element to put up with to feed the machines, which produce with no complaints, no trade unions, and no labor justice. Different from human beings, machines let themselves be replaced, discontinued, disposed of, with no opposition whatsoever. People, on the other hand, are often a lingering pain in the neck.

The recent case at the Timashevsk plant in Russia should be regarded as an example. Anatoly Shulga has worked in that factory for many years, he knows the plant like the palm of his hand, the reason why his fellow workers appointed him as head of the Health and Safety Commission, and as president of their trade union as well. His duty is driving a forklift truck. Among other risk factors for male and female workers, for some time Anatoly had been reporting to the company that the improvised loading system used to replace batteries, instead of professionally suitable equipment, was extremely unsafe. Two Engineers at the company had added their voice to Anatoly’s demand, requesting that the risk should be eliminated. But Nestlé at Timashevsk maintained their position that such equipment was too expensive. The price of this negative response was paid, of course, by an operator, who injured his finger badly on 1 February, 2004. He was trying to connect a battery being placed by Anatoly with an electric loader; he was forced to use the equipment with no previous training. The injured worker was not wearing protective gloves and had been on duty for twelve hours. It was obvious that the responsibility for the accident fell on the inadequate equipment, but the company saw a good opportunity: they hold Anatoly responsible and fired him straight off.

The trade union claimed that Anatoly, as an elected president of the union, could not be dismissed without their consent, but their protests were ineffective.

The underlying fact of this dismissal, fellow workers say, is that heavy negotiation is going on at present to renew the collective bargaining, and Anatoly is a key person in the group of workers participating at the negotiations concerning the union involvement in health and safety issues.

“Anatoly –his fellow workers say– is not being dismissed for a minor labor accident, but because, as trade union leader and member of the Safety Committee, he has struggled to improve labor conditions, including health and safety standards which have caused injuries to workers."

But the Timashevsk subsidiary is no exception. Nestlé at Araras, state of São Paulo in Brazil, keeps a production policy which bears similarities to a human massacre. Dozens of male and female workers, maybe hundreds, suffer from Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSI), an occupational disease caused by the excess of speed and intensity of movements in the production line, as well as the pace posed by a drastic reduction of personnel together with an increase in productivity. RSIs are very painful and prevent the affected individual from performing daily activities such as comb his/her hair or doing the dishes, and when chronically established they are irreversible. SRI sufferers become victims for the rest of their lives. Nestlé’s policy has been the systematic dismissal of affected male and female workers. Recently, an Association of SRI Sufferers has been formed in Araras, with the result that injured people have started to go to Court and claim damages.

These male and female workers at Nestlé in Araras, and probably many of those still working there, suffer from permanent pain but they remain silent to keep their jobs. They may have wondered if Brazilian President Luis Inacio “Lula” da Silva was acquainted with this policy so detrimental for workers when he came to Araras last week to open a new sector of the Nestlé plant and shook hands with hundreds of male and female workers, many of them certainly affected by SRI. On that occasion, Lula stated that he shall always be there for Nestlé, as it was the first company to give a positive answer to his request to support Zero Hunger Plan. “Nestlé –ended Lula– represents all the goodness I wish for Brazil.”

Anatoly and the RSI victims, and certainly many others like them who face Nestlé’s anti-union and despotic practices, hope and struggle for a change.

The IUF Moscow office is supporting the demands of Nestlé local union in favor of the reinstatement of Anatoly Shulga. IUF General Secretariat made an official request at the Nestlé headquarters in Vevey to support his reincorporation and to rectify safety risks at the plant.

The IUF Latin America Regional Office (Rel-UITA) has sent a letter to the Nestlé Human Resources Director Paul Broeckx, where they pointed out that the transnational in Timashesk “stubbornly tries to show the virtues of real capitalism to Russian workers.” And they added that “Without any doubt, Timashesk management shall keep their pressure to avoid that neither the union nor their health committee would damage the image of the company you represent. Despite the continuous injuries suffered by workers, this should not damage your publicity regarding the goodness of working for Nestlé and the advantages of globalization, according to Peter Brabeck-Letmathe’s words: '... if I can turn each one of the 255,000 Nestlé employees in ambassadors of globalization, then that shall be a great step forward.’

Meanwhile in this region, Mr. Broeckx, we shall keep our position of unveiling the real face of Nestlé. We shall remain on the side of men and women sufferers of repetitive strain injuries in your Araras plant and former São Luiz factory in Brazil. We shall commit to memory the first anniversary of plant Ilopango closure in El Salvador, where 97 workers were sacked overnight with no previous notice. We shall add this pearl of Timashevsk to this string of violence and disdain pearls of this necklace.”

Carlos Amorín

© Rel-UITA

April 12, 2004