Unilever workers take fight to be heard to 'rich people's
Glastonbury' - Protest to defend pensions at Davos 2012
25 January 2012
Workers from Port Sunlight in Cheshire will be puncturing
corporate power's party bubble when they turn up at the World
Economic Forum in Davos to protest against their employer's grab on
the their pensions.
The Davos event - fast becoming known as `Glastonbury festival
for the rich' - will see Unilever workers travel from the North
West to deliver a strident message to the rich and powerful: Why
won’t Unilever talk to us?
Unilever is planning changes that will see the UK workforce
between 20 and 40 per cent worse off following the decision by the
company which sells a product every six seconds to cut their
pensions. Thousands of workers across the global's twelve UK sites
have been on strike since December last year in protest at the
plans.
The workers are hoping to deliver a “Wish You Were Here”
postcard to Unilever's chief executive Paul Polman in a bid to get
the company to talk to them. Despite repeated appeals and the
offer of talks at the conciliation service, ACAS, Unilever has
steadfastly refused to meet with the workers' unions to talk about
a fairer settlement.
Paul Polman is one of the co-chairs of this year's WEF, the
theme of which is “The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models” –
how we shape our future promoting growth, leadership,
sustainability, and society and technology. And yet Unilever’s
leader Polman risks losing the respect and trust of his workers by
breaking his pension promise and freezing them out of
negotiations.
Ahead of the protest, Jennie Formby, Unite's national officer,
said: "It is frankly ridiculous that we have to go to these lengths
to get a hearing for the workers, but we are determined that they
will be heard.
"Mr Polman may feel that he is safe from protest among the
global elite in a swanky ski resort where police outnumber the
residents, but our members are going to tell him different.
They will fight through snow, the biting cold and the heavy-handed
policing because they intend to tell as many people as possible
that a man who earns 285 times more than his workers is planning to
rob them of thousands in their retirement.
"All these workers want is a fair hearing and their pensions
promises to be honoured by one of the wealthiest companies on the
planet.
"The Unilever workers will be carrying a message to the rich as
they party at Davos on behalf of workers everywhere: your days of
greed are up."
The Unilever strike has hit production of famous brands such as
Marmite, Flora, Persil and PG Tips – Lipton Tea in Europe.
The six workers heading to Davos will be detailing their attempts
to get a hearing via Twitter (#WEF #Davos #Unilever).
ENDS
For further information please contact Karen Viquerat on 07768
931 316 or Jennie Formby on 07702206436.
Notes to Editors
Workers will be protesting on Friday, 27 January, 2012 between
2.00 pm and 4.00 pm in Bubenbrunnen Platz, Davos.
