IUF Fights Multi-National Union Busting

December 1, 2015

According to the International Union of Food Workers (IUF), union busting by multinational companies is violating the rights of courageous workers overseas.

In West Bengal, India, workers at three warehouses, which are contracted exclusively to the PepsiCo, were fired for defending their rights as workers. The 162 workers were harassed before being let go for forming a union. The beverage giant then offered to secure re-employment, if they agree to never join a union. Supported by the IUF, some of the workers formed an Action Committee to fight for their rights. Together they are demanding the workers be offered jobs at warehouses or in PepsiCo’s own operations, with full back pay and guarantees that their rights are protected.

Phillips Seafood, which runs a chain of seafood restaurants in the US, is being blasted for brutal treatment of workers in Lampung, Indonesia, where it processes crabmeat. Sixty percent of the mostly female workforce has no permanent jobs and are kept on “standby.” When a IUF-affiliated union attempted to begin negotiations for permanent contracts for long-term employees, 205 workers were terminated by text. Jobs were then outsourced to illegal “mini plants” operated from private homes in the forest. Workers at these plants suffer constant cuts. They have no insurance for work-related injuries, so they mut continue to work with open cuts or be out of work until healed.

To show support for these workers log on to the IUF website: http://www.iuf.org.