PepsiCo management at the company’s Frito-Lay plant in Lahore, Pakistan has responded to the formation and official registration of a trade union with 650 members by harassing and transferring union officers and seeking to violate the union’s collective bargaining rights by creating a bogus union.
Since the PepsiCo Workers’ Union was registered and officially granted collective bargaining rights, union officers have been targeted for disciplinary procedures on false charges and the union president has been transferred out of the plant to prevent contact with members. The company has registered a fake national union claiming to represent workers at two different sites in order to undercut the Lahore workers’ demand for a negotiated collective agreement. Union members are being denied overtime and pressured to leave the union.
Workers initially formed a union in response to the massive abuse of precarious employment through labour contractors, which denies permanent employment to workers who have worked for years at the plant.
A large number of workers, including women workers, have been holding protest actions at the factory gate, demanding the company cease its attack on rights and negotiate in good faith. You can support their struggle - USE THE FORM TO SEND NOW A MESSAGE TO PEPSICO [1], telling the company to respect trade union rights at the Lahore plant and its ongoing complicity in violations of the rights of workers who were unfairly dismissed and then denied reemployment for defending their rights at a warehouse in West Bengal India contracted exclusively to PepsiCo.
Here is the message you will be sending:
To Ms Indra Nooyi, Chief Executive Officer, PepsiCo Inc.
Cc Ms Carolyn Fisher, Vice President of Global Labor Relations, PepsiCo Inc.
Dear Ms Nooyi,
I am deeply concerned that PepsiCo management in Lahore, Pakistan has responded to the legal recognition of the PepsiCo Workers’ Union with full collective bargaining rights by violating the rights of the union and its members. Union officers have been transferred out of the plant and face disciplinary proceedings on false charges. Management has responded to the union’s lawful and legitimate collective bargaining demands by promoting a bogus national union claiming to represent workers at the PepsiCo concentrate factory as well as the Lahore plant in order to undercut the Lahore PepsiCo Workers’ Union’s right to negotiate a collective agreement.
I call on you to immediately cease these violations of basic rights, reinstate the union president to his position at the Lahore plant, drop all disciplinary proceedings and other forms of harassment against union officers and members and negotiate in good faith with the legally recognized union. PepsiCo should also act to end ongoing complicity in violations of the rights of unfairly dismissed workers at the RKFL warehouse in West Bengal by using its influence with the warehouse provider to ensure that RKFL reinstates the 28 dismissed workers defended by the IUF, with stable employment and guarantees that their rights to union membership and collective bargaining are fully respected.
Yours sincerely,