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Issue Number 23, November 2003
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Kapatiran Issue
No. 23, November 2003
NESTLE
WORKERS’ EPIC STRUGGLE
- Murray Horton
Swiss-based Nestle is one of the very biggest of the food
transnational corporations in the world, with factories
in dozens of countries (including New Zealand). In the
Philippines, its name has become synonymous with
exploitation and anti-worker brutality. Since January
2002, approximately 600 regular workers have been on
strike, after seven months of talks for a new Collective
Bargaining Agreement (CBA) proved futile. The central
issue in the dispute was the management’s refusal to
include its retirement package for workers in the CBA.
Nestle’s argument is that the package is a
unilateral grant, and should solely be at the
company’s discretion. The union refutes this, saying
that it has long been a part of the CBA and cites court
decisions (including the Supreme Court, in 1991)
upholding this. Exclusion of the retirement package
reduces the workers CBA benefits by millions of pesos.
Not to mention the fact that Nestle illegally invested
the workers’ retirement funds in other businesses
(including a personal investment company of senior Nestle
Philippines managers). It’s not as if Nestle
can’t afford to pay out the retirement package - in
the three years prior to the strike, it made profits
totalling 8.76 billion pesos.
Within two days of the workers striking, Nestle got the
Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to declare the
strike illegal and order them back to work. Since then,
the company has used contractual workers (from employment
agencies) to replace the strikers. Although Nestle boasts
of a full return to production, in fact it has only
achieved a 30% daily production output. And the company
was determined to use the full machinery of State and
corporate repression available to transnational
corporations (TNCs) in the Philippines. The Nestle plant
at Cabuyao, Laguna (southern Luzon) was virtually turned
into a military camp, with at least 200 security guards
on the gates and a number of military personnel inside
the factory. The gates were blocked by big containers and
barbed wire.
In June 2002, a large contingent of cops, military and
security guards violently dispersed strikers attempting
to rebuild their picket lines at the gates. Batons,
teargas and water cannons were used; at least ten
strikers and supporters were injured. Nestle’s
security forces have terrorised the surrounding
communities, which have been providing support to the
strikers.
The Nestle workers’ struggle remained a cause
celebre throughout 2002. Their union belongs to the
Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), or May First Movement, with whom
PSNA has had a working relationship dating back to the
1980s. In September 2002 we hosted Emilia Dapulang,
KMU’s National Vice Chairperson, on a New Zealand
speaking tour. She brought material on the strike and a
highlight of her visit was to meet workers and union
activists at Nestle’s New Zealand factory in
Auckland.
Systematic Brutality By Nestle’s Thugs
By 2003, this strike had become one of the epics of
Philippine workers’ struggles and showed no signs of
abating. In February 2003, the Court of Appeal upheld the
union’s case that the retirement package is a
mandatory Collective Bargaining Agreement matter and that
both parties should return to CBA negotiations. Nestle,
however, refused to negotiate and the striking workers
showed no sign of going away. It flared up again, in June
2003, when the strikers tried to retake the gates and
re-establish their picket lines there. There was another
violent dispersal, this time injuring 50 workers. They
were attacked by several hundred cops, military and
company goons (the latter used truncheons spiked with
hacksaw blades, causing particularly nasty head wounds).
The workers were both pelted with rocks and attacked with
water cannons. For its part, Nestle took a hard line,
saying that the incident was “perpetrated and
participated by persons no longer connected with the
company and total strangers who have no ties with Nestle
Philippines Inc.” (KMU Nestle Update,
5/7/03). Meaning, presumably, that the picketers are
nothing to do with Nestle and therefore anything that
happens to them is likewise nothing to do with Nestle.
Furthermore, the company said that, “no employee nor
groups of employees of the Company is/are presently
engaged in any labor dispute with Nestle Philippines
Inc.” (ibid.).
Not A “Good Life” For Nestle Workers
Filipinos have a genius for catchy acronyms. So, for this
struggle, the unions came up with SARS (Severe
Anti-Rights Syndrome). And they called for their
international supporters to boycott Nestle’s global
range of products. One union leader said: “We have
been experiencing all forms of harassment, from grave
threats to physical beatings since day one of our strike.
We will not stop until legitimate cause triumphs. We
demand to be reinstated to work” (KMU News
Release, 24/6/03, “Strikers And Hired Goons
Clash In Nestle Plant”). Another union leader said:
“We strongly condemn the violent attacks of Nestle
against the legitimate struggle of its workers. This
company should at least be ashamed, as the workers gave
at least 20 years of their lives to bring their company
to where it is now. But instead of giving the workers
what is due them, Nestle continuously denies the workers
justice and blatantly uses the Philippine National Police
and military against us” (another KMU News
Release, also 24/6/03, “’Good Food, Good
Life’ giant hurts 50 in strike dispersal”).
At the time of writing (October 2003), the strike is
still going. Every Monday the union holds pickets and
other activities at the company’s site. And it is
hurting Nestle. In September 2003, it was reported that
480 tons of infant milk exported to Thailand was recalled
due to contamination by metal filings. The milk
processing department was temporarily shut down, from
September, because the contractual workers and the small
number of regular workers seconded from other Nestle
divisions lack the necessary expertise. Hence, the
production of unsafe and low quality infant milks.
“Good Food, Good Life”. That’s a catchy
advertising slogan. Pity that it doesn’t bear the
slightest resemblance to the reality of Nestle
Philippines. A good life for its workers seems to be only
a distant dream and one which this giant TNC seems
determined to keep that way. Life is not very good when
you’ve been deprived of your livelihood for nearly
two years and your employer’s goons will go to any
lengths, including bashing your head in, to keep you
away. PSNA offers our full support to the Nestle workers
in their struggle and encourages all New Zealand
supporters of Filipino workers to do likewise.
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