Image from Pedestrian TV
By Situation Theatre 24/6/2020
But good on them for maybe changing the names of a couple of their lollies.
Nestlé is notorious for its aggressive marketing of infant formula which has been connected to the malnourishment of children in the Global South. It was subject to an international boycott in the 70s and 80s as a result, but still as late as 2012, they massively expanded by buying Pfizer’s infant formula business for more than $11 billion.
Nestlé is also infamous for a long history of water controversies, including undermining the development of reliable public water supplies in poor countries, providing impure water, over-extracting from local water supplies against huge community opposition, and facing class actions for false advertising.
Nestlé’s use of palm oil is connected to rainforest destruction in Indonesia and climate breakdown.
Nestlé has been an important target of the International Union of Food workers (IUF) for a history of union-busting and exploitative labour practices. The International Labor Rights Forum called Nestlé one of the “five worst companies for the right to associate” because of abuses in countries like the Philippines, Colombia, Peru, Russia and Pakistan. In 2006, Nestlé agreed to pay $4 million in back pay and $400,000 in penalties to employees at its bottled water operation in New Jersey who had been denied overtime pay. In the same year, the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) sued Nestlé for complicity in the torture and murder of a Colombian trade union leader by paramilitary forces with which it allegedly had a long-standing relationship.
Nestlé was also sued by ILRF for alleged abuse and forced labor of child workers in the West African cocoa supply chain. A 2012 report by the Fair Labor Association found serious violations of Nestlé’s own child labor policies among suppliers.
Asked if their support for any of these practices was changing, a Nestlé representative said “No no, just the lollie names, and only if these protests keep trending.”