Well we have a Scrooge of the Year in in Rob Walton of Wal-Mart so it’s only fitting that we get another end of the year labor item courtesy of the International Labor Rights Forum. They recently put out a list of the worst corporations to work for if you want to join a union (PDF). I believe they’ve compiled this list in previous years and some of the same companies often get listed year after year, mainly because they’ve never improved.  The Scrooge’s in this year’s report are Dole, Hershey’s, Philippine Airlines and Wal-Mart (obviously).

I just came across the International Labor Rights Forum’s 2009 report “Working for Scrooge: Worst Companies of 2009 for the Right to Associate.” In the PDF report they highlight Dole, Kohl’s, Kraft & Nestle. You can send an email to these corporations here and you can use Twitter to tweet to them here.

Dole

As the world’s largest producer and marketer of
fresh fruit, Dole operates in over 90 countries and
manages some 45,000 employees. The company’s
most expansive project is in pineapple production,
which spans from Ecuador to the Philippines.
Unfortunately, it is no coincidence that only 2% of
pineapple workers are unionized. Due to threats
against trade unionists and the mistreatment of
workers seeking to organize, Dole has the fewest trade
unions in Latin America. The company has been
accused of ties with military violence against trade
unionists, with instances of killings and disappearances
of union leaders.

Kohl’s

Unfortunately Kohl’s focus on sustainability hasn’t
spilled over to the labor rights of its workers. Kohl’s
has been connected to a number of sweatshops over
the past two decades and yet hasn’t taken the necessary
steps to implement its code of conduct (called the
Terms of Engagement) which includes freedom of
association. To this day, Kohl’s has yet to take any
concrete action to make it’s supplier conform with
it’s code even though its own Terms of Engagement
indicate that “Kohl’s will work with the Business
Partner to remediate the violation if at all possible.”6

Kraft

Chicago-based Kraft Foods is the largest food
company in the US and the second largest in the
world (after Nestle S.A.). It has recently fired
workers for protesting health conditions at a Kraft
factory in Argentina and has expressed its support for
the coup in Honduras.

Nestle

Across the globe Nestlé, the world’s largest
food company, has hampered workers’ efforts
to act collectively even as they claim to support
their workers’ right to organize, according to
the International Union of Food, Agricultural,
Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied
Workers (IUF). Workers who have challenged the
management’s hypocrisy have faced harassment, wage
deductions and suspension. While Nestlé claims
to promise “good food, good life,” the company’s
actions around the world have resulted in serious
human rights abuses.

As Swedes started taunting Dole Foods with complaints that it is trying to limit free speech, the food manufacturer backed off from a defamation lawsuit it had filed against a Swedish filmmaker, whose documentary film “Bananas!” shows the plight of Nicaraguan workers who say they were made sterile by a pesticide used at Dole banana plantations in the 1970s. The lawsuit incited protests in the country, led by critics who claimed Dole was prohibiting freedom of speech.

Bulldog Reporter – Daily Dog | | After Free-Speech Complaints Flare Up, Dole Foods Drops Its Defamation Suit Against Filmmaker’s Movie About Banana-Worker Health Issues

It appears that Dole likes using banned pesticides and wants to stifle dissent.