Unions Rally in Jakarta, Call on Nestlé to Respect Rights and Negotiate Now!

Unions Rally in Jakarta, Call on Nestlé to Respect Rights and Negotiate Now!
Posted to the IUF website 15-Jul-2009

Following on the solidarity visit to Indonesia by the IUF-affiliated Food Industry Employees Union (FIEU) of Malaysia, the Nestlé Indonesia Panjang Workers Union SBNIP at Nestlé's Nescafé factory in Panjang continues to mobilize support for its struggle. A union delegation from Panjang travelled the 200 kilometers to Jakarta on the early morning of July 13 for rallies at the Nestlé head office and at the Department of Labour and Manpower (Labour Ministry).

At the Ministry of Labour in Jakarta, the SBNIP delegation submitted a letter and demanded support for wage negotiations. During their meeting with Ministry officials, they were told that ‘workers have the right to negotiate wages’.

Over 100 Jakarta union members from at least 7 organizations, including the IUF-affiliated HRCT federation FSPM joined them for the action.

SBNIP President Eko Sumaryono told he press "For two years, we have requested and then campaigned for the right to negotiate wages and outsourcing and to include them in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Management refuses to accept that this is our right, and insists that management alone sets wages.

"At Nestle Panjang, packaging and technical workforce are outsourced. According to Indonesian law (UU13/2003), workers related to production are not to be outsourced. We will continue our struggle and we will bring this campaign to the attention of the world until Nestle Indonesia negotiates in good faith with SBNIP "

Nestlé Indonesia - with the support of corporate management in Vevey - persists in asserting that wages are a "commercial secret" and not part of the collective bargaining process, despite an IUF submission to the OECD in the company's home country of Switzerland. The OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises require overseas subsidiaries of transnational companies to adhere to international labour and human rights standards - of which the right of workers to colletivcely bargain their wages of course forms part.