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20 June, 2011
From the International Union of Food & Agriculture (IUF) Association
Business is doing well at Unilever’s personal products factory at Doom Dooma in the Indian state of Assam. But nearly four years after management tried to destroy the union with a punishing six-week lockout, and almost one year since the IUF and Unilever formally concluded an agreement to settle the dispute under the auspices of the UK government, the workers are still waiting for their union to be recognized as their collective bargaining agent.
The workers’ mood is one of deepening frustration. How has this happened?
On July 15, 2007 a dispute over the breach of a provision in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) led to a lockout of 700 union members of the Hindustan Lever Workers’ Union. Management’s condition for ending the lockout was that the legitimate union disbands and that all workers transfer their membership to a hastily improvised construction dubbed the Hindustan Unilever Democratic Workers Union (HUSS). Workers were forced to sign forms to this effect as a condition for returning to work on September 3. Shortly after this, a CBA with the new organization was registered with the local authorities – and workers found that their union check-off was being paid to the sham union against their wishes.
On December 5, 2007, the union protested this illegal subsidy to a non-representative trade union to management – together with a petition with 372 signatures, of names and employee numbers.
In October 2007, the IUF followed a complaint about these union-busting practices with the UK National Contact Point (NCP) responsible for the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises. Nothing happened, either in Doom Dooma or at the NCP.
In June 2008, the NCP suspended the complaint because the legitimate union petitioned the Assam High Court to hold a state-supervised election to determine which organization represented the workers for collective bargaining purposes. The Court took its time. Unilever continued to illegally deduct the check-off subsidy for their own creation.
In February 2010 the High Court finally got around to issuing a decision: it had no jurisdiction to supervise an election, but there was no legal obstacle to the parties agreeing on an election procedure outside the court.
In July 2010, Unilever and the IUF agreed, under the auspices of the NCP, to do just that. The illegal dues check off would cease, the authorities would be asked to conduct an election under agreed conditions, and should the authorities refuse a procedure was agreed to hold voluntary elections under a third party.
The deductions stopped for a month – and then resumed. Only in February this year, did illegal deductions to the yellow union definitely cease. But workers cannot use the check-off to support the work of their own union – there is no check-off. And the elections exist only on a paper signed in London, with one excuse after another invoked to explain why they don’t take place.
For four long years, workers at the plant have been denied the right to support, with a contribution from their wages, the union they have repeatedly declared should represent them. By consistently refusing to implement an agreement signed by the IUF in good faith, Unilever has shown contempt for the Assam workers, for their union, for the IUF and for the UK National Contact Point. The IUF will take all necessary action in support of its members in Doom Dooma.
See the full IUF report here.