CROSS-BORDER SOCIAL DIALOGUE AND AGREEMENTS: An ...

Cross-border social dialogue and agreements
In May 1972, in Geneva, the IUF held its first World Conference
of Nestlé Workers, which established a Nestlé Permanent Council. The
tasks of the council were to: (a) contact the management of Nestlé Alimentana
SA on international questions or at the request of affiliates; (b)
call future conferences focusing on Nestlé; and (c) follow up on the decisions
of the conference.
The conference adopted a statement that formulated demands on
job security and wages policy, but also on respect of union rights and on
union participation in management policy decisions. The statement also
included a political demand: it invited Nestlé to “contribute to the development
of underdeveloped countries”, in particular by the following
measures:
• ensure the equitable distribution of its subsidiaries’ revenues,
whether in the form of wages or taxes;
• bring the prices of Nestlé products to a level where all consumers
will be able to purchase them;
• bring its influence to bear to guarantee fair prices for the primary
commodities which it processes;
• follow a policy of processing primary commodities where these
originate, without thereby creating employment problems in its
subsidiaries located in industrialized countries.
Finally, the participating unions agreed to “increase, through the
IUF secretariat, the exchange of information and experiences concerning
their relations with Nestlé, thereby laying the groundwork for more effective
cooperation at the level of the company” and to “mutually support
their demands and their struggles”.
It was also decided that the IUF secretariat would publish a Nestlé
bulletin; such a bulletin did appear on an approximately monthly basis
until most IUF periodical publications were replaced by a web site in the
late 1990s.
In June 1972, a delegation of the IUF Permanent Council met
Nestlé management at company headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland to
discuss the conclusions of the World Conference, after having agreed that
these talks could not become a substitute for management/labour relations
at the national level.
The management representatives assured the IUF delegation that
the company considered good relations with the unions of utmost impor-
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