Nestle Kills Workers!!! YOUR STRUGGLE IS OUR STRUGGLE MARCH 06, 2009

06 March 2009

THERES BLOOD IN YOUR COFFEE: New Zealanders Demand Justice

for Nestlé Philippines Workers, Dismissal of False Charges against Union Lawyer

A New Zealand-based group of trade union and human rights advocates will hold a protest action today 6th March, 2pm at the Nestle Head office Nestlé Head Office, 1 Broadway, Newmarket to make New Zealanders aware of Filipino workers cry There's Blood in Your Coffee, Nestlé Kills Workers."

Luke Coxon, Spokesperson of Auckland Philippines Solidarity (APS), explains, Nestlé workers in the Philippines under the United Filipino Employees-Drug Food and Allied Industries -Kilusang Mayo Uno (UFE-DFA-KMU) have been on strike since January 14, 2002 for their right to retirement benefits. To this day, Nestlé refuses to include the workers retirement benefits in the collective bargaining negotiation despite a Supreme Court ruling ordering them to negotiate. The strike has both directly and indirectly resulted in the deaths of 23 union members, including union president Diosdado Fortuna, who was assassinated on his way home from the picket line on September 22, 2005, his predecessor Meliton Roxas was also murdered and the current leadership continue to live in fear of their lives.

We salute the perseverance of Nestlé workers and we support their demands for justice. Even though their struggle has been long and difficult, their determination in fighting for what is right and just, is an inspiration to workers in New Zealand and everywhere. Today we also support protests in the Philippines demanding dismissal of another false murder charge against Nestlé union lawyer Remigio Saladero and others, APS stated.

Three months ago Nestlé union lawyer Saladero was unjustly imprisoned on fabricated charges of multiple murder and attempted murder. He and other activists are facing a new trumped-up murder charge barely a week after the court ordered their release on 6th February 2009.

Nestlé was cited in Human Rights Day 2008 as the Worst Company for Union Organizing by the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) which noted its gross violations of workers rights in the Philippines, Colombia, Peru, Russia and Pakistan. Despite the 1991 and 2006 rulings of the Supreme Court of the Philippines ordering management to include the retirement benefits in collective bargaining agreement, Nestlé deliberately ignored the court's orders.

Today marks one year of the brutal dispersal of Nestlé workers by elements of the Manila Police District (MPD) in front of the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) main office in Intramuros, Manila. Nestlé workers and supporters in the Philippines are going to have a protest action in front of Nestlé Cabuyao Plant to condemn business giant, brutal police, inutile labor department and all agencies of the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo regime that denied justice to hundreds of Nestlé workers and their families. To date, not a single perpetrator has been apprehended for the assassinations, in spite of strong indications that they were the handiwork of the police, military or their agents. #

Reference:

Luke Coxon

Spokesperson, Auckland Philippines Solidarity (APS)

email: philippinessolidarity@gmail.com

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• There's
• Blood
• In
• Your
• coffee...
• Nestle
• Kills
• Workers
• ad
• milks
• chocolate
• cosmetics
• commercial
• drinks
• fitness
• icecream
• quik

[jubei17]

I really like Nestle Hot Chocolate. I don't drink coffee, and I don't think I would now that I know there's human hemoglobin in it. That doesn't sound sanitary. And the soundtrack to this vid SUX!!! Lady Gaga or something like that would definitely get the people moving. Well, not the dead ones.