Stop state repression and harassment of union leaders and members

Withdraw all 28 false, baseless and fabricated criminal cases including terrorism charges against union leaders and members

Stop  gross violations of labour rights, laws and mutually signed agreements by Nestle management Pakistan

The violations of labour laws,labour rights, union busting and mutually signed agreements on the part of the Nestle management Kabir Wala Pakistan is going on unabated.The Nestle management is using the local police to repress the protesting workers. The local police is acting as a private militia of the Nestle management and doing whatever possible to silence the workers. The local police so far registered 28 false, fabricated and baseless cases against union leadership and active members to please the nestle management. The police also registered the criminal cases under the anti terrorism laws.

The president of the union Muhammad Hussain Bhatti is already behind the bar for more than one month.He was sacked by the factory management from his job and he is unemployed for more than 4 months. He is the president of the union since 2007 and involved in struggle to secure and protect the rights of the workers. His only crime is that he refused to become a pocket union and bow down in front of the management and continued his struggle.The management is trying to smash the union for more than 10 years and using every dirty tactics including the local police to bust the union. The management using one excuse after the other to deny the workers and the union the right of collective bargaining.

The management of the Kabirwala factory in Khanewal, Pakistan is using every mean possible to smash the trade union in the factory and to continue the flouting of existing labour laws in the country.The Nestle Employees union Kabir Wala factory is working as CBA union since 1996. The factory management has so far got registered 24 criminal cases against the union leaders and members. The management has forcibly stopped the entry of the 800 low paid contract workers in the factory since September 2015. These low paid poor workers and their families facing hunger and starvation because of forced sackings.

The Nestle management signed an agreement with the union in 2012 in which it was agreed that the management will regularise the services of 588 contract workers and they will get all the benefits under the labour laws. Now the management is violating the agreement and trying to replace the contract labour in violation of this agreement.

The factory management even used the local goons and criminal group to attack the workers inside the factory in September 11, 2015, in which 05 workers got serious injuries. The management of Nestle factory used this incident as an excuse to target the union leadership and members and registered many fabricated and false cases against the protesting workers. We have failed to understand that why a multinational like Nestle is using such a dirty tactics against the union and workers.

Nestle Global claims that it respect the human rights and human values but why then Nestle Pakistan is involved in such gross violations of basic democratic and labour rights and using the local police to repress and silence the union and the workers. The Nestle Pakistan management is involved in serious violations of labour and democratic rights. It is not a crime to form a union and to involve in lawful and peaceful union activities in accordance with Pakistani laws and International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions and practices.

We appeal to the international labour movement, union activists, left organisations, Socialists and social movements to show their solidarity with Nestle Pakistan workers and arrested leaders. The arrested union leaders can get life imprisonment under anti terrorism laws. The solidarity action can save the the union, leaders and members from imprisonment, repression and sackings.