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Nestlé spying case still in court

Campaigners in Switzerland are pursuing Nestlé through the courts in a civil case after it was revealed by Swiss Television that Nestlé had hired Securitas to infiltrate Attac Switzerland, which was producing a book on Nestlé business practices.

The spy, who was run by a former MI6 officer working for Nestlé, gained access to the editorial board and private emails and documents, including from baby milk campaigners and from Colombian trade unionists whose colleagues had been murdered by paramilitaries after organising at Nestlé factories.

A book analysing the scandal was published in October.

This is available in French at: suisse.attac.org/Un-livre-sur-le-Nestlegate-en

Nescafé promotion

 In August Nestlé launched a £43 m Nescafé promotion in the UK. Nescafé is its flagship product and the principal target of the UK boycott, although Baby Milk Action encourages supporters to boycott all products from which Nestlé profits. Nestlé is by far the most boycotted company in the UK according to independent surveys.

You can order credit-card sized cards, Nescafé - No thanks cards and Give Nescafé the boot leaflets from Baby Milk Action.

Peter feels the pinch

Peter Brabeck, Nestlé’s Chair, has indicated that the company may leave its homebase Switzerland if the federal government imposes a cap on executives’ salaries. Although his annual salary is officially only about US$5million, at the AGM in April we learned that, with his shareholdings, Brabeck probably earns more like $16m.

Nestle warns of possible exit from Switzerland (AFP) 13 September 2009

Nestlé and Cadbury

There has been speculation that Nestlé may try a hostile takeover of the Cadbury confectionery company. When Nestlé moved Rowntree brands overseas after its hostile takeover it cut the workforce.

In 2008 the Amicus trade union said:

“Management have made clear that unless our remaining members accept significant cuts they face the same fate as their colleagues who have already lost their jobs. We are making clear to the company that although we will work with them to ensure the plant is viable and, if necessary, cost savings are made, eroding hard won and hard fought for pay and conditions and threatening employees with the sack is not an acceptable way to operate.”

Update February 2010: Cadbury was taken over by Kraft.

Nestlé and Zimbabwe farmers 

Nestlé was criticised in September for buying milk from confiscated farms in Zimbabwe being run by the wife of President Mugabe. Swiss regulations forbid dealing with members of the regime. Nestlé argued that no Swiss person was involved in the deal and suggested Nestlé Zimbabwe needed the supplies to keep operating and would otherwise have to pull out of the country.

We recall that in 1998 when Zimbabwe was planning to introduce laws for the marketing of infant formula, Nestlé also threatened to pull out, stating: “This would result in job losses for about 200 people and an extremely negative economic impact on local farmers who supply us with milk, wheat, maize and sugar.” The Government went ahead, judging that Nestlé was in Zimbabwe for the good of its profits not Zimbabwe’s farmers.

Nestlé has since stopped buying milk from the Grace Mugabe farms, but that hasn’t forced it to leave the country. Now its line is it was only buying the milk because the Dairy Board couldn’t and it didn’t want it to go to waste.

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