Pretty disgusting, huh!

More background on Nestle and call to action
 http://redpepper.blogs.com/news/2005/10/fairtrade_nestl.html

Dear Fairtrade Supporters



Today, a new product certified with the FAIRTRADE Mark is being announced – NESCAFE Partners’ Blend. This product has met our agreed international Fairtrade standards, including the payment of agreed Fairtrade prices and social premiums and commitments to long-term relationships with democratic organisations of small farmers. You can read the full press release at  http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/news_press_releases.htm



The coffee comes from four small co-operatives in El Salvador, whose members are benefiting from Fairtrade for the first time, as well as from the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union in Ethiopia, a long-standing Fairtrade partner whose general manager, Tadesse Meskela, visited the UK earlier this year. You can also find more details of all these groups on our website.



We recognise that many longstanding Fairtrade supporters may have concerns about this development. We believe that by launching its first Fairtrade certified product, Nestlé has taken an important step in the right direction. It marks a turning point for all those who have been lobbying the major coffee roasters to engage with Fairtrade. The Foundation will be working hard to build on initial commitments. Meanwhile, we have posted questions and answers of many of the issues being raised on our website at the link above. We hope you will find these useful, but if you have further questions for the Foundation, please do get in touch.



Thank you for your ongoing support of Fairtrade, and we look forward to seeing many of you at our campaign days on 8 and 15 October.



Best wishes



Barbara Crowther

Head of Communications

The Fairtrade Foundation







hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm; (mutters vaguely about middle class guilt appeasement and consumer democracy not really working all that well........ oh balls..... I don't even drink coffee!! )

Nestlé Philippines Union Leader Murdered

The IUF (International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations)has called on the government of the Philippines to undertake a full investigation into the murder of a trade union leader at the Nestlé factory in Cabuyao, Laguna, the largest Nestlé plant in the Philippines.

Unidentified gunmen shot Diosdado Fortuna on September 22 while he was on his way home from the factory picket line. The union has been on strike since January 2002 in a dispute over bringing retirement benefits within the collective bargaining process, which Nestlé management rejects.

The government of the Philippines must act now to investigate this crime and bring the perpetrators to justice. Failure to do so would encourage further physical attacks against workers and their unions in a country where anti-union violence is not an uncommon occurrence. You can add to pressure on the government by sending the message below to the Secretary of Labor.

 http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=58

To Hon. Patricia Sto. Tomas
Labor Secretary
Department of Labor and Employment

Dear Labor Secretary,

I am shocked and outraged at the murder of Diosdado Fortuna, a trade union leader at the Nestlé factory in Cabuyao, Laguna, who was shot by unidentified gunmen on September 22 while he was on his way home from the factory picket line.

The government of the Philippines must act now to investigate this crime and bring the perpetrators to justice. Failure to do so would encourage further physical attacks against workers and their unions

I also note that management of the plant still refuses to discuss pension schemes within the framework of the collective bargaining process, despite rulings of the National Labor Relations Commission, the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of the Philippines that unions have a right to negotiate retirement benefits for inclusion in a collective bargaining agreement. It is therefore urgent that you use your good offices to bring about a negotiated settlement to this long-running dispute.

Sincerely

Solidarity