Read this article in:
13 July, 2005ICEM News Release No. 8/1999
"Meet the everyday needs of people everywhere." Few would argue with Unilever's central aim. But the food-to-toothpaste mammoth has forgotten one big human need - job security.
Unilever will present its annual results in Rotterdam tomorrow (23 Feb.). They are unlikely to be small. It currently claims to be the world's second-biggest consumer goods business and 19th-biggest manufacturer. And on the company's own figures, its operating profit has so far been "approaching 4 billion [US] dollars."
As for the workers, Unilever says it has "270,000 employees worldwide" - but for how much longer?
Immediately after the company's media event tomorrow, the Unilever European Works Council will hold its own press conference in Rotterdam [at 13.30 in the Hotel Restaurant Engels, Stationsplein 45].
There, the story will be very different. For Unilever employees, 1998 was once again a year of painful redundancies and job losses. In the 7 years between 1991 and 1997, Unilever closed 57 factories in Europe. In many of the plants that remain, jobs and pay have been cut.
The unions' press conference is being organised by their European-level industrial federations, the food and allied workers' ECF-IUF and the chemical and allied workers' EMCEF, and is supported by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC).
In a campaign backed globally by the food and allied workers' international IUF and the chemical and allied workers' ICEM, the works council is demanding:
An end to divestments and sales of companies
An end to factory closures
The use of Unilever's cash reserves for investments rather than for further downsizing and restructuring.
An ICEM/IUF cybercampaign to back these demands is online now. It includes facilities for lobbying Unilever by e-mail and fax.
Action by Unilever workers across Europe tomorrow will include leafleting, protest rallies and workplace assemblies. It is likely that short work stoppages will take place in a number of locations.