17 November, 2008
A small group of warehouse workers in Auckland, New Zealand, members of ICEM affiliate National Distribution Union (NDU) are waging a fierce battle to get a first labour agreement. They are paid up to 30% less than distribution workers in nearby facilities and have faced indignities from managers, including a boss’s ludicrous claim that benefit levels were adequate since workers receive discounts on L’Oreal products.
Following two short strikes in late October by the 11 workers, the ICEM took up their cause. The Global Union Federation contacted European unions that represent workers of the cosmetics company, and asked them to lodge complaints with the French-based company.
The New Zealand dispute came within weeks of ICEM involvement in a meeting in Brussels with French, Belgian, German, Spanish, and Italian trade unions on L’Oreal. That meeting held serious discussions on the company’s social conditions inside Europe, particularly as it relates to the company’s European Works Council.
Participating unions are now keen to watch the developments in the New Zealand dispute.
The NDU organised workers at the new warehouse earlier this year, but L’Oreal quickly engaged outside counsel to repel any notion of a first collective agreement. In bargaining on 5 November, the company took NDU’s proposal for pay equity with other distribution workers under advisement, but said managers were unsure if they even wanted a collective agreement.
In a strongly worded letter to L’Oreal senior management in Clichy, France, General Secretary Manfred Warda reminded the company that its stance with the NDU violates ILO Convention 98, the Right to Organise and Bargain Collective, a standard in which both governments of France and New Zealand have ratified.
ICEM Gen. Sec. Manfred Warda
And the ICEM also reminded the company of the recent Brussels meeting. “The focus of this meeting was to seek ways to strengthen social dialogue between L’Oreal and trade unions on the basis of mutual recognition and respect,” wrote Warda. “For the ICEM, this means on a global level.
“Your New Zealand management’s attitude toward labour relations runs completely contrary to this. The ICEM has every intention to escalate the New Zealand dispute to our affiliated trade unions at L’Oreal worldwide unless a resolve to the Auckland situation is reached very soon.”
At the New Zealand warehouse, L’Oreal uses some 20 agency workers. But during the two work stoppages, they were unable to perform any functions due to lack of supervision and lack of knowledge of the distribution centre’s computer and logging system.