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Demonstration/Solidarity Action - Unilever Action Day - 4 December 2007
Friday, December 07, 2007, 11:17 Hrs
On 4 December, the "European Action Day", organized by EMCEF, EFFAT and the Unilever EWC, took place in Rotterdam. Activities included an international press conference, a workers conference followed by a march to the Unilever headquarters, and a demonstration at the headquarters, which culminated with the submission of an official document with written demands (see attachments) to the Unilever management. Approximately 700 workers and trade union delegates from 16 European countries took part in this action day, demonstrating solidarity between the workers and the trade union federations in Europe.
 Background: The Unilever management announced in a press conference on 2 August 2007 restructuring measures that would include 20,000 job cuts worldwide, with approximately 10,000 to 12,000 in Europe (i.e. every third workplace). This happened without prior notice to the EWC. Furthermore, the Unilever management started implementing their plans, with the foreseen closure of 3 plants and the dismissal of approximately 470 workers in the Netherlands. This will be followed by other closure measures and job cuts all over Europe. The fact that the implementation of those restructuring measures started without any information to the EWC nor consultation of the EWC, has been completely ignored by the management. The EWC and the workers of Unilever are still not fully informed of what is going to happen.
During the press conference, Harald Wiedenhofer, General Secretary of EFFAT, pointed out that a lot of solidarity actions are taking place and that this “European Action Day” will be the beginning of many more solidarity actions all over Europe if the Unilever management keeps on the same course. Peter Kerckhofs, Political Secretary at EMCEF, stressed the fact that the right of information and consultation given by the EWC directive has to be abided by and that European lawmakers have to see to it that workers rights are defended/respected.
The Unilever case is not over…
Leaflet [DE], [EN], [ES], [FR], [IT], [NL]
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