The Struggle for Justice of Nestle Workers in the Philippines

[The following summary of the Nestlé Cabuyao workers‘ strike is an edited composite of extracts of statements issued by the Union of Filipro Employees, an
affiliate of Drug, Food and Allied Workers Unions-Kilusang Mayo Uno (UFE-DFA-KMU); by Noel Alemania, the union’s Acting President; by Marlon Torres,
Public Information Officer, Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan-Kilusang Mayo Uno (PAMANTIK-KMU); and of articles in Bulatlat written by
Dennis Espada and Alexander Martin Remollino. It was prepared for the UFE by Paul Germanotta.]
June 2009
More than seven years have now passed since the more than 600 employees at the Cabuyao factory of Nestlé
Philippines, Inc. went on strike to enforce their right to negotiate their retirement benefits. The Supreme
Court’s repeated rulings in their favor on this issue have failed to render justice, as the Swiss multinational
food company continues to defy the court’s decisions.

The Cabuyao factory workers and their union launched their strike on January 14, 2002, forced into it by
Nestlé management and its deliberately provocative position demanding the exclusion of the issue of
retirement benefits from the CBA negotiations as a matter subject to unilateral determination by
management.
This position blatantly defied a ruling of the Supreme Court handed down in February 1991 (and later upheld
on appeal), in which the court concluded: “The Court agrees with the NLRC’s [National Labor Relations
Commission] findings that the Retirement Plan was a collective bargaining issue from the start …”
Several days after the strike vote on November 22, 2001, Patricia A. Santo Tomas, then-Secretary of the
Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE), granted the company’s petition for a notorious „assumption
of jurisdiction“ order, arbitrarily placing the dispute into the hands of the state and its apparatus of repression.
On January 16, 2002, Sto. Tomas issued a Return to Work Order; on January 18, 2002, Sto. Tomas issued a
Police Deputation Order, ordering the Philippine National Police (PNP) to send in their units; and on January
28, 2002, 1,000 PNP, 400 police and 300 Blue Guards violently dispersed the picket line set up by the
striking workers at the factory gate.
During a trip to Switzerland to the ILO Conference in June 2001, Sto. Tomas enjoyed limousine services that
billed a total of 9,000 Swiss Francs or P316,000, courtesy of Nestle-Philippines, Inc. Documents uncovered
by the UFE reveal that Nestlé paid for her chauffeur services and the Mercedes Benz for a shopping trip to
Milan, Italy from Geneva from June 15 to 16, 2001.
The protracted labor-management conflict (see photos) has been marked by a militarization of the factory and
the violent dispersal of the workers’ picket lines and protests at the factory gate and elsewhere by the police
and military, measures the company has encouraged and been fully complicit with.
This repression has directly or indirectly resulted in 28 strike-related deaths, including union leader Diosdado
„Ka Fort“ Fortuna, who was assassinated on his way home from a picket line on September 22, 2005. His
predecessor, Union president Meliton Roxas, was assassinated in front of the picket line on January 20, 1989,
during the workers‘ previous strike involving the same issue.
To date, not a single perpetrator have been apprehended for these murders, in spite of strong indications that
UNION OF FILIPRO
EMPLOYEES (UFE-DFA-KMU)
Km. 44, Niugan, Cabuyao, Laguna
REGISTRATION NO. 1194-MM-IP-20 CP # : (0919) 212 7535
: (0928) 215 3979
: (0918) 564 1549
Emai l : ufe_mailbox@yahoo.com
Website : www.blood-in-your-coffee.blogspot.com
an Affiliate of:
Drug, Food & Allied
Workers’ Federation
(DFA-KMU)
they were the handiwork of either the police, military or their agents.
The Supreme Court again ruled on the labor dispute on August 22, 2006, reaffirming the validity of its 1991
decision. It now explicitly ordered Nestlé management to return to the negotiating table (and by necessary
implication to call back its workers) to resume CBA negotiations with the union, including the issue of
retirement benefits.
To date, the company has deliberately and contemptibly flouted the court’s orders, just as the government has
deliberately and contemptibly failed to enforce them.
In a recent statement, the UFE laid out in compelling terms the basis of the courage and heroism of the
Cabuyao workers, who persevere in the face of overwhelming forces that capital and its state allies have
mobilized against them:
„It is clear that the power of the killer Nestlé to repress and weaken our determination extends far and wide.
Nestlé uses all state instruments such as the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE), the MTCCabuyao
(Municipal Trial Court) and RTC-Binan (Regional Trial Court), the Philippine National Police
(PNP), the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), and the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the
Philippines (ISAFP), with the blessings of a Philippine president who continuously clings to power …
Pres. Arroyo is betraying the people instead of defending the workers who have moral and just basis in their
struggles. The Arroyo government likens the workers to criminals, drug lords, gambling lords and terrorists.
It is like a rabid dog in kowtowing to the dictates of imperialist globalization and giant monopoly capitalists.
Not contented, Arroyo further strengthened its iron hand rule by implementing the Calibrated Preemptive
Response (CPR) on Sept. 21, 2005 to further repress the rights of the people.
Nestle union president Diosdado ‚Ka Fort‘ Fortuna was the first victim of CPR. On Sept. 22, 2005, a day after
Pres. Arroyo declared CPR, two motorcycle-riding assassins shot and killed Ka Fort, with two .45 caliber
bullets exploding his chest. The heinous murder was clearly a grand plan of the collusion between Nestlé-
Arroyo-PNP-AFP/ISAFP to repress and pacify the determination of the workers to win against the massacre
of their jobs and get the justice that they rightfully deserve.“
The surveillance, harassment, and other forms of violence perpetrated against the Nestlé Cabuyao workers
has not ceased. At a protest held at DoLE on December 4, 2008, strikers identified, arrested and turned over
to police two intelligence operatives, who had followed and threatened them from Cabuyao, Laguna to
Intramuros, Manila. [Watch the video about this incident.]
One week later, on December 10, 2008, a picket staged by the strikers at the factory gate was violently
dispersed with water cannons by the police, who then proceeded to arrest and detain Noel Alemania, Acting
President of the UFE, who was leading the protest.
In speaking about the ongoing conflict, Alemania affirms that the Cabuyao workers „are determined to get
justice, even if our fight has caused the murder of our two union presidents, the death of 26 of our coworkers,
the forced stopping of our children from school and the forfeiture of our properties.“
The striking Nestlé workers employed at the Cabuyao factory in Laguna are determined to hold and
ultimately regain – and transcend – their ground at all costs. They say that, assuming the company fails to
change its own behavior, the best immediate step the government can take in this conflict to legitimize its
illegitimate claim to be a genuine, socially accountable popular democracy is to enforce the Supreme Court
rulings ordering Nestlé management to call back and re-hire its workers and return to the bargaining table.
Visit the strike/boycott website.
OUR APPEAL FOR SUPPORT
We are echoing the appeal and strongly encouraging you to actively support the struggle of Nestle and all
the Filipino workers who are victims of the rampant trade union repression in the Philippines. Your
solidarity to the struggle could be expressed through supporting and doing any of the following:
1. Email or fax barrage protest letters through the Nestle Philippines, Nestle Switzerland, Philippine
Government, Philippine Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE), Supreme Court, Commission
on Human Rights (CHR) and the Philippine National Police. Strongly urge the Nestle management to
adhere to the courts’ decisions and ruling that Nestle face the Union in the negotiating table. Call on
the Supreme Court and the DoLE to order Nestle to submit to the Philippine Highest Court’s decision
and immediately settle the labor conflict. Call on the CHR to do an impartial investigation of trade
union violations and the killings in Nestle.
2. Send Solidarity Messages to the Nestle Workers’ Union.
3. Hold picket, rallies and other protest actions at Nestle offices in your respective countries.
4. Actively campaign for the boycott of all Nestle products
5. Raise material and financial support to the workers. The long-running labor conflict had depleted the
resources of the workers. The Nestle workers would most welcome material support to sustain their picketline
and the campaign against Nestle’s labor repression.
6. Other pertinent actions you may deem necessary that can help to immediately settle the labor
conflict is highly encouraged.
7. Kindly sign in to the online petition http://pinas-first.com/phpPETITION/ and campaign for massive
invitation of signing in to our friends and networks.
Following are the addresses where you can send the protest letters:
Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
President
Republic of the Philippines
Malacanang Palace
JP Laurel Street, San Miguel
Manila 1005
PHILIPPINES
Fax: +63 2 736 1010
Tel: +63 2 735 6201 / 564 1451 to 80
E-mail: corres@op.gov.ph
Ms. Leila De Lima
Commissioner
Commission on Human Rights
SAAC Bldg., Commonwealth Avenue
U.P. Complex, Diliman
Quezon City
PHILIPPINES
Fax: +63 2 929 0102
Tel: +63 2 928 5655 / 926 6188
E-mail: chr.delima@yahoo.com
mtm_rodulfo@yahoo.com
Hon.Marianito Roque
Philippine Labor Secretary
Department of Labor and Employment
7th floor, DOLE Building
Muralla St., Intramuros, Manila,
Philippines
Fax: +63 2 527-2121 / 527-2131 / 527-5523
E-mail: osec@dole.gov.ph
Deputy Director General Jesus A. Verzosa
Chief, Philippine National Police (PNP)
Camp General Rafael Crame
Quezon City
PHILIPPINES
Fax: +63 2724 8763
Tel: +63 2 726 4361/4366/8763
E-mail: bluetree73@gmail.com
Mr. Nandu Nandkishore
CEO/President
Nestle Center, 31 Plaza Drive
Rockwell Center, Makati City , Philippines
Fax No. (632) 8906681
Mr. Peter Brabeck
Chief Executive Officer
Nestle Vevey, Switzerland
Email: Peter.Brabeck.Letmathe@nestle.com
Likewise, Solidarity Messages may be sent to:
Mr. Jose Noel Alemania
Union Acting President
Email: ufe_mailbox@yahoo.com
http://www.blood-in-your-coffee.blogspot.com
Please inform us of your planned solidarity action/s.
Kindly furnish us a copy of your letter thru our e-mail
Onwards with the struggle!
Long live the Filipino Nestle workers!
Long live the working class!
Long live International Solidarity!