Lever Brothers back from the past to plead with Unilever: Don't
shame our name! Unite lobbies shareholders over pensions snatch
9 January 2012
Unilever London headquarters, 100 Victoria Embankment,
EC4Y 0DY
From 12.00 noon
Global giant Unilever will come face to face with its past
tomorrow, Tuesday, when company founder, Lord Leverhulme, joins a
workers' protest outside the corporation's UK HQ.
Lord Leverhulme will be calling on the company not to stray from
its corporate social responsibility pledges and to stop taking
risks with the company's reputation.
The demonstration, which will see workers from across Unilever
plants head to London, including from the historic Port Sunlight
plant in Merseyside, is part of the continued fight by the
workforce to save their final salary pension scheme from the
axe.
Unilever plans to ditch the scheme, even though it is extremely
well funded, and replace it with an inferior career average scheme
which could see some workers lose up to 40 per cent of their
retirement savings.
The "brothers" will be reminding Unilever of its historic
principles and Lord Leverhulme's fight to win pensions for workers
in the last century - warning that the planned pensions snatch
shames this legacy.
The action follows on from confirmation at the weekend that
workers will take further strike action across the company's twelve
UK sites later this month, hitting production of leading brands
including Marmite, Flora, Hellman's mayonnaise and Dove. The
workers are furious that Unilever punished them for taking strike
action last month - the first ever by UK Unilever workers - by
cancelling planned Christmas celebrations, and is now refusing to
meet with the union at mediators ACAS to consider a way through the
dispute.
Unite has also written to leading Unilever shareholders today,
warning them that the reputational damage to the company could be
considerable, urging them to use their influence to ensure the
company thinks again.
Speaking ahead of the demonstration, Unite general secretary Len
McCluskey says: "People are fed up to the back teeth of big
businesses growing fatter and bigger still, not on hard graft or
enterprise, but by hitting the savings plans of their
workforce. The Unilever workers are standing up for
themselves and they have right, and their unions, on their
side.
"This is yet another black mark against the behaviour of FTSE
companies. Here we have the 18th richest company in the world
dipping into the pension plans of workers in Cheshire, Purfleet and
in towns across the UK.
"Given that the pensions scheme is funded and healthy,
Unilever's raid on the workers' pensions is nothing other than
bare-faced greed. Why else is the company refusing to talk to
us? It must surely be because it is ashamed about the base
nature of this snatch. We sincerely hope that the
shareholders can talk some sense into this company and at least get
them to meet us at ACAS."
Such is Unilever's reach around the globe, one of their products
is sold every six seconds. In the letter to shareholders, Len
McCluskey writes: "The unions are interested in a constructive
solution to this conflict and first, it is important to understand
that the pension fund is well funded.
“The joint trade unions put forward alternatives that would not
only have saved the pension scheme money but also limited risk and
provided a clearer understanding of what liabilities are likely to
be in the future. These are the same goals that the company’s
management advised us had motivated their proposed changes.
However, management rejected the unions’ proposals and chose to end
talks on the basis that our members were not prepared to accept the
closure of the scheme.
"Management’s current proposals would have a significant impact
on workers. The vast majority of workers – many with decades of
employment with the company – would lose at least 20% of their
expected pension and some as much as 40%.
"This contrasts very starkly with the earnings of the CEO and
senior executives. You will no doubt recall the report from
PIRC (Pension Investor Research Consultancy) circulated to all
investors before Unilever’s 2011 AGM. This showed that in
2010, Paul Polman’s total remuneration was 54,236,511 euros, a
massive 673% increase on the previous year which itself represented
an 87% increase on 2008. The report goes on to say that the average
Unilever senior executive is the highest paid of all comparable
executives in the FTSE 100 Consumer Goods with Mr Polman ranking
the second highest paid in that index.
"Unilever management actions are in stark contrast with the
company’s corporate social responsibility statements. In autumn of
2010, Unilever announced that it will focus on a sustainable
business strategy, the “sustainable living plan.” A company’s
social performance is a key component of sustainability. Throwing
workers’ retirement security into jeopardy and attacking them when
they exercise their basic rights does not create a motivated
workforce.
"The company has travelled far in the wrong direction since Lord
Leverhulme campaigned in Parliament for workers’ pensions and
helped to establish the importance of a strong company pension
scheme for his own workers. The trade unions will continue to
defend what we believe is a better alternative to management’s
proposal. Our suggestions will not only protect the retirement
security of Unilever’s workers but also the long-term
sustainability of the company.
"We are, however, worried that the company wants to escalate
this conflict, the first ever national strike in the Unilever’s
history. I would therefore urge you to use whatever influence you
may have to encourage senior management to move away from their
current harsh stance and to sit down and talk to the
representatives of their workforce.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact Karen Viquerat, Unite
communications officer on 07768 931 316 or Jennie Formby on 07702
206 436.
