We all come across Nestle products almost on a daily basis. Yet, workers at a Kit Kat candy bar plant in Russia aren’t getting a fair deal.

The biggest food company in the world is taking the tiniest possible steps toward settling a conflict which began 6 months ago when the Nestlé Perm Workers Union first sought to negotiate a wage increase through the collective bargaining process. The company has finally come forward with a proposal for a modest wage increase which, however, remains below the rate of inflation over the past 6 months. This nevertheless represents some progress – due to the union’s determined struggle and the support of the international solidarity campaign.

However, Nestlé remains unwilling to fully respect the trade union’s information and communication rights, by demanding that the union chairperson accept restrictions on these rights before restoring access to electronic resources. Even more importantly, management is trying to insert language into the settlement under negotiation that would reduce industrial relations to a process of “consultations” rather than negotiations leading to mutually agreed wages and wage scales.

When you think of all the money that Nestle makes you’d think they’d be able to work with the union and negotiate something that everyone could agree with. Nestle is basically trying to weaken the power of the union. What if it were possible to apply pressure worldwide to weaken the power of Nestle?