International Support for Unite's Tesco Campaign Steps Up

Posted to the IUF website 06-Mar-2009

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Coordinated by the IUF, unions in countries outside the UK where Tesco has stores have been monitoring their local stores to see where Tesco gets its meat from. In Thailand, Jasper Goss from the IUF's Asia/Pacific office visited stores in Bangkok to check out the meat supply chain. "We are looking at this and at working conditions in the meat suppliers, in particular on health and safety compliance" he commented. Similar monitoring has already been undertaken in Korea, Hungary and Turkey and will soon be done in Japan and Malaysia. French unions have also agreed to join the campaign.



Other unions have taken more direct action and have demonstrated outside Tesco stores in solidarity with UK workers. Demos have been held recently in Hong Kong where the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Union and the Catering and Hotel Industries Employees General Union submitted a protest letter to the Tesco distribution centre in Hong Kong. The biggest demo to date has been in Korea where members of KWTU, KFSU: HQ, Pizza Hut Union, Renaissance Labor Union, SaveZone Labor Union, Hilton Hotel Union, Homeplus Tesco Labor Union, Organizers of Korean Federation of Construction Industry Trade Unions (KFCITU), Korean Public Service Workers� Union, Korean Transport Workers� Union and organizers from Korean Chemical & Textile Workers� Federation and Korean Solidarity against Precarious Work all braved pouring rain to join the protest.