Hul Case
1
Unilever and the trade union challenge
Lipton Tea and Ice Tea, Dove personal care products, Axe, Knorr soups and condiments: even without necessarily being aware of it, nearly everyone knows Unilever’s products from personal experience.
The company is second to none in worldwide coverage and volume of consumer goods production.
Most products fabricated by this food conglomerate are disposable, designed for short term convenience rather than durability. But as well as disposable products and increasing profits,
Unilever’s other specialty is disposable jobs. Within the last decade, Unilever has reduced its workforce significantly, a process that also involves increased job insecurity and incidences of denial of core labour rights. This is all the more remarkable as Unilever prides itself explicitly on its high standards of corporate social responsibility. These developments form the background against which
FNV Bondgenoten aims to continue its efforts to focus on Unilever by scrutinising the company’s casualisation and labour relation policies and practices and the negative social impacts thereof.
The following introduction and case studies aim to provide a coherent insight into the mechanisms behind, and impacts on, labour conditions and relations as well as the different forms of flexible work practices (e.g. outsourcing, subcontracting, casualisation, etc.) at Unilever and its suppliers, and its effect on trade union freedom.
This is a FNV Bondgenoten/FNV Company Monitor report. Research and writing for this report was done by SOMO (Stichting Onderzoek Multinationale Ondernemingen) in 2009 - 2010, in cooperation with LIW (Landelijke India Werkgroep) and local research organizations and journalists in the case study countries.
This report is published in light of a campaign on trade union freedom. See also: http://tradeunionfreedom.fnvcompanymonitor.nl FNV Company Monitor
August 20102
Contents
The quest for focus and
Unilever and the trade union challenge
Lipton Tea and Ice Tea, Dove personal care products, Axe, Knorr soups and condiments: even without necessarily being aware of it, nearly everyone knows Unilever’s products from personal experience.
The company is second to none in worldwide coverage and volume of consumer goods production.
Most products fabricated by this food conglomerate are disposable, designed for short term convenience rather than durability. But as well as disposable products and increasing profits,
Unilever’s other specialty is disposable jobs. Within the last decade, Unilever has reduced its workforce significantly, a process that also involves increased job insecurity and incidences of denial of core labour rights. This is all the more remarkable as Unilever prides itself explicitly on its high standards of corporate social responsibility. These developments form the background against which
FNV Bondgenoten aims to continue its efforts to focus on Unilever by scrutinising the company’s casualisation and labour relation policies and practices and the negative social impacts thereof.
The following introduction and case studies aim to provide a coherent insight into the mechanisms behind, and impacts on, labour conditions and relations as well as the different forms of flexible work practices (e.g. outsourcing, subcontracting, casualisation, etc.) at Unilever and its suppliers, and its effect on trade union freedom.
This is a FNV Bondgenoten/FNV Company Monitor report. Research and writing for this report was done by SOMO (Stichting Onderzoek Multinationale Ondernemingen) in 2009 - 2010, in cooperation with LIW (Landelijke India Werkgroep) and local research organizations and journalists in the case study countries.
This report is published in light of a campaign on trade union freedom. See also: http://tradeunionfreedom.fnvcompanymonitor.nl FNV Company Monitor
August 20102
Contents
The quest for focus and