Global campaign against conglomerate Nestle continues

By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Bulatlat.com

The global boycott against giant transnational food and nutrition company Nestle Corporation continues as a high profile protest is slated to take place on Saturday, May 21 in the United Kingdom.

Through alerts on Facebook and other social networking sites, organizers of the protest led by anti-milk formula group and breastfeeding advocate Baby Milk Action are inviting the international community to participate in the protest and the contest it is sponsoring.

Baby Milk Action is calling on the public to send in slogans and jingles with the theme ”Nestlé, Good Grief!”

The theme is directed against Nestle’s official slogan “Good Food, Good Life.”

Participants are asked to sign up for the virtual event and the organizers will send them a link to the film clip they are producing to expose how Nestlé allegedly pushes baby milk in violation of international marketing standards.

Endangering the health of babies

“Nestlé is the worst of the baby food companies, undermining breastfeeding and endangering babies fed on formula as it tries to increase sales,” according to a statement from Baby Milk Action. “We want people to record ‘Nestlé, Good Grief!’ jingles, or other boycott jingles, sung in a catchy a way as possible. Record your jingle on your webcam, upload it to Youtube or another file sharing site and send us the link.”

The group continues to call for a boycott against all Nestle products, and has included beauty products from the Body Shop and L’Oreal brand. The Body Shop is owned by L’Oreal , and Nestlé owns 28.8 percent o f L’Oreal).

Nestlé is targeted by the boycott as it is responsible for more violations of the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and subsequent, relevant Resolutions of the World Health Assembly than any other company.

In Europe, Nestlé is the target of a boycott over its aggressive marketing of baby milk. Groups like Baby Milk Action say that Nestle’s marketing of its milk products is stocked with exaggerations and should be stopped. The group cited the declaration of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) that marketing practices that undermine breastfeeding are potentially hazardous wherever they are pursued.

“In the developing world, World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that some 1.5 million children die each year because they are not adequately breastfed. These facts are not in dispute,” said the UNICEF.

In the meantime, the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) monitors baby food companies against marketing standards adopted by the World Health Assembly. The group said that Nestlé violates these systematically in its policies and practices. Anti-Nestle groups demand that Nestle stop promoting baby milk products by claiming that they “protect” babies, saying that it has been proven that babies fed on breastmilk substitutes are more likely to become ill and, in conditions of poverty, more likely to die.

Nestogen 1 is Nestle’s starter formula being sold in the Philippines for infants 0 to six months old. Nestle also sells NAN HA 2 which is supposed to be hypoallergenic. For toddlers, Nestle sells NAN 2 and 3and NAN HW 1 and 2. It also sells a full range of milk products aimed for the “growing up years” from three to four years old under the Nido brand.

Nestle Philippines Inc.

In the Philippines, there is also an ongoing call for a boycott against Nestle products.The Nestle Company in the Philippines has been the source of several strikes and labor union-related deaths in the last decade. Up to the present, a major labor dispute between Nestle and its workers in its Cabuyao plant remains unresolved and the matter has reached the International Labor Organization (ILO).

Acting president of the Nestle rank and file workers union United Filipro Employees (UFE) Jose Noel Alemania said they “are determined to get justice, even if our fight has caused the murder of our two union presidents, the death of our co-workers, the forced stopping of our children from school and the forfeiture of our properties.”

According to the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR), Nestle Philippines Inc. is responsible for the murder of about 30 picket leaders and union organizers since the Nestle Cabuyao factory workers and their union launched their strike on January 14, 2002. Previous to that, in 1989, the workers also launched a strike and the management allegedly sent hired goods to kill union leader, Meliton Roxas.

According to reports, former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo essentially gave Nestle Philippines immunity and looked the other way as the company violated the labor and human rights of its workers and their supporters in their strike.

In 2005, the late labor leader and Anakpawis Representative Crispin Beltran protested against Macapagal-Arroyo’s appointment of Juan B. ‘JB’ Santos as secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry saying that the man had a “spotted record as an anti-worker and anti-trade union corporate bureaucrat.”

Santos was the first Filipino president of Nestle Philippines. He was strongly suspected by labor leaders as masterminding the brutal killing of Meliton Roxas and three other workers outside the Nestle Cabuyao plant in 1987. He was also said to be behind the dismissal of 300 workers of Magnolia-Nestle in 1997; violent dispersals of the Magnolia strike; dismissal of 900 striking workers of Nestle Cabuyao in 2002; the implementation of labor only contracting, sub-contracting and various downsizing corporate schemes; and the intensification of spin-off, merger and joint venture policies that led to the dismissal of thousands of workers and abolition of various Nestle and San Miguel Corporation companies.

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7 Comments - Write a Comment

  1. anybody who knows how much nestle spends for promotions/representations or free air travels including accomodations of favored doctors particularly obstetrician and pediatrician?.
    they even give lectures to clinics and hospitals here in the Phils.in guise of infant or newborn care etc.

  2. magandang araw,

    pakisuyo kung pwede ay mabigyan ako ng copy ng comment ko kagabi dahil wala pala ako naitabing kopya ko para mai post din sa aming website. pakisuyo na lang po maipadala sa thru email ko po.

    maraming salamat ulit,mabuhay ang uring manggagawa! hukbong mapagpalaya!

  3. Maraming salamat sa article. Hindi na rin nakapagtatakang kamakailan lang ay bumulaga at umalingawngaw sa iba’t-ibang larangan ng media sa local at int’l. na positibo sa salmonela ang produktong gawa ng nestle dito sa Pilipinas na “maggi noodles”. Hindi nakapagtataka, dahil sa pagiging gahaman ng nestle sa dambuhalang tubo ay binawasan at pinaigsi nila ang proseso ng paggawa ng kanilang mga produkto. Inalis na nila ang incubation period bago i-release sa market at tiyaking maayos ang quality ng produkto. Sa madaling salita, para mas lumobo pa ang tubo nagbawas ng lakas paggawa partikular ng mga QAs at ang dedetermina na lang na may problema sa kalidad ng kanilang produkto ay ang sikmura at tyan ng consumers.Sa lawak at dami ng inabot na pinsala sa consumers ng produktong positibo sa salmonela ay di na nila kayang pagtakpan pa at itago sa publiko ang pagiging iresponsable ng nestle, kaya napilitan silang diumano’y voluntary recall ng kanilang produkto gamit ang kanilang pagkontrol sa malalaking media network para palabasing bida pa sila at may malasakit sa consumers.
    Marami nang pagkakataon na may problema sa kalidad ang kanilang mga produkto tulad ng gatas na nestogen. Nakamatay sa 2 buwang sanggol sa Makati at sa iba pang lugar. Mayroon ding nestle chuckie na nagresulta ng 4 days confinement ng consumer dahil nagsuka at nag LBM. May pagkakataon din, nobyembre 2008,ginamit ng nestle ang media na diumano’y napakaraming pekeng produkto nila ang nasa market partikular sa NCR na malaking posibilidad na makasama sa consumers.Dahilan para samsamin muli nila at susunugin daw para maitago sa mamamayan ang tunay na dahilan na may problema sa kalidad ang milo,nescafe,nido,bearbrand atbpa. Lahat ng ito ay naikubli nila sa mamamayan at patuloy pa rin nilang naikukubli ang panloloko at pagsasamantala sa mamamayan.
    Sa kasalukuyan, ang culinary products nila tulad ng maggi noodles, seasoning, boullion at ibapa ay ginagawa 100% sa ilalim ng toll-manufacturing o sa ilalim ng iskemang kontraktwalisasyon. Tulad din ng milo, nido, bearbrand, nestea, nescafe kalakhan ay nirere-pack sa labas ng main factory sa ilalim ng toll-packing o isa ring mukha ng contractualization scheme.
    Kalakhan o mas marami ang bilang ng maliliit na pagawaan ang minamaniobra ng nestle para lumikha ng kanilang produkto sa ilalim ng out-sourcing,katumbas din nito ang mayoryang manggagawa ay kontraktwal,walang kaseguruhan sa trabaho,di sapat na sahod at di rin itinuturing na tao.
    Di na rin nakapagtataka na lahat ng nilikhang produkto sa labas ng main factory na mula sa iba’t-ibang iskema ng kontraktwalisasyon ay may address at nilikha din sa Nestle Phils.Cabuyao Plant na malinaw na panloloko sa mamamayan. Eksperto at bihasa sa pagsasamantala at panloloko ang nestle gamit ang mga institusyon at gobyernong kontrolado ng kapital.
    Kaya, PAGLULUKSA SA SENTINARYO NG PAGSASAMANTALA AT TERORISMO NG NESTLE SA MANGGAGAWA AT SAMBAYANANG PILIPINO! BOYCOTT NESTLE!

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