[APWSLMembers 499] Behind Nestlé ad blitz

[KMU International Department]

Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan
PAMANTIK-KMU
 
Letter to the Editor
28 February 2007
 
Behind Nestlé ad blitz
 
Media such as print, radio, and television continues to be bombarded 
by Nestlé commercial advertisements, featuring big names in Philippine 
show business.  Vilma Santos, Cesar Montano, Tweety de Leon, Margie 
Barretto, Ruffa Gutierrez, Ai-Ai delas Alas, and Kris Aquino are only 
some of the highly-paid personalities promoting the values-oriented 
"Choose Wellness, Choose Nestlé" commercial aphorism.
 
What the public does not know (or what might have been kept from their 
knowledge), the Swiss-owned multinational company covers up its most 
atrocious acts against its workers and scoffs at the Supreme Court (SC) 
decision by way of conditioning the public with the hypocritical "choose 
wellness" ad.  Nestlé promotes a culture of deception while denying 
justice to its workers for more than five years now.  
 
The Nestlé Cabuyao workers in Laguna, Philippines went to strike on 
January 14, 2002 when the company used as pre-condition in the 
collective bargaining negotiations the non-inclusion of the workers’ 
Retirement Benefits.  Despite the sacrifices perceived by the workers, 
the legitimate strike is backed by the 1991 SC decision affirming the 
NLRC (National Labor Relations Commission) decision that the 
Retirement Benefits is a legitimate collective bargaining agreement 
(CBA) issue. 
 
Unfortunately, the workers’ picketline which was supposed to barricade 
the company gates was often destroyed by the management’s brutal 
rampage.  Company guards, goons, police and military are garrisoned 
within and outside the gates. 
 
The campaign “There’s Blood in Your Coffee, Boycott Nestlé” was 
launched by the workers as one of the leverages to air their legitimate 
grievance to the public and compel the Nestlé management to settle the 
labour dispute.  It also aimed to counter the vast influence of Nestlé in 
media as well as its monopoly in the Philippine market. 
 
At the start, the campaign hardly affects the company’s market 
reputation.  However, the campaign caught popular attention and 
gained wide support in the local, as well as the international community, 
when two Nestlé unionists were murdered consecutively in September 
2005.  Luciano Enrique Romero Molina, a Sinaltrainal leader and Nestlé 
worker who was among the many workers tagged by Nestlé as persona 
non grata, was murdered on September 11 in Colombia. Diosdado 
Fortuna, Nestlé Cabuyao union president and chairman of Pagkakaisa 
ng Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan-Kilusang Mayo Uno (Solidarity 
of Workers in Southern Tagalog-May First Movement), was murdered 
while on his way home from the picketline on September 22.
 
Many believe that the murder of the two Nestlé workers is not 
coincidental.  The murder of Nestlé Cabuyao union president Meliton 
Roxas in front of the company gates during their strike in 1989 is another 
case to prove Nestlé’s blood debts to its workers.
 
The SC ruled on the labour dispute in Nestlé Cabuyao on August 22, 
2006, reaffirming its 1991 decision; hence, directs the Nestlé 
management and union to go back to the negotiating table to pursue the 
CBA negotiations.  
 
The Nestlé management persistently snubs the highest court of the land. 
 In fact, in its statement in a news article, Nestlé claimed that the workers 
who tried to barricade the company gates on January 14 are no longer 
Nestlé workers (Niña Catherine Calleja, “Workers at multinational food 
firm barricade factory”, Philippine Daily Inquirer 17 January 2007: A15). 
Such a statement diverts the real issue and is a blatant disrespect to the 
latest SC decision.
 
The ads blitzkrieg came in time and attuned to complement the news 
statement after January 14.
 
As Nestlé lavishly spends millions in ads, we have to scrutinize well 
enough their many purposes, aside from the endorsement of products 
and conquering the market.  After probably knowing the real score, we 
don’t have to choose wellness if it’s Nestlé.  Do we?
 
Marlon Torres
Public Information Officer