Solidarity Leads to Wage Settlement at Unilever India

Posted to the IUF website 12-Sep-2003

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As the All India Council of Unilever Unions (AICUU) makes final preparations for its 3rd Delegates Conference to be held in Goa on 17-18 September, Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) signed an important agreement with AICUU constituent All India Brooke Bond Employees Federation (AIBBEF).

On 8 September HLL signed an agreement with the AIBBEF in which it agreed to recognize the national wage settlements and recognition agreements that the union had previously reached with the management of the former Brooke Bond company. Abandoning its effort to decentralize bargaining with the former Brooke Bond units to the individual factory level, HLL agreed to a national wage settlement that increases monthly salaries by between 2500 and 3200 rupees. The settlement is retroactive to 1 January 2002.

AIBBEF President P. Rama Rao reasserted the Federation's continuing solidarity support for the struggle of the Hindustan Lever Employees Union (HLEU - also part of the AICUU) against the lock-out by HLL at the Garden Reach factory in Kolkatta (Calcutta. He also expressed his gratitude for the solidarity support extended by the HLEU and the IUF and its affiliates, many of whom sent protest messages to Unilever in response to the IUFs appeal for support for the Garden Reach and Brooke Bond workers.

HLL's lock-out of workers at the Garden Reach Factory, which began on 21 March, has not yet been lifted. Negotiations mediated by the West Bengal government resumed on 8 September and are currently ongoing. The AICUU Delegates' Conference on 17-18 September in Goa will be recommending further actions if the dispute is not satisfactorily resolved beforehand.