Pinay Nestle CFO told: help resolve 10-year strike

Labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno called on the Filipina who was appointed chief financial officer of multinational giant Nestle SA to help resolve the 10-year workers’ strike in the country in favor of her compatriots.

KMU called on Wan Ling Martello – a Filipina-Chinese who was born in the Philippines, graduated from the University of the Philippines, and is now Nestle’s highest-ranking female executive – to push the local management of Nestle to resume negotiations for a collective bargaining agreement.

In a ruling last 2008, the Supreme Court ordered Nestle to resume the negotiations, affirming its 1991 ruling that retirement benefits should be included in CBA negotiations.

Workers launched the strike when Nestle refused to implement the SC’s 1991 ruling. Until now, Nestle has defied the SC’s 2008 decision.

“We hope Ms. Wan Ling Martello is not only a Filipina by accident but someone who has love and compassion for her fellow Filipinos. As Nestle SA’s CFO, she sure can do something to help resolve 10-year old strike in the country,” said Elmer “Bong” Labog, KMU chairperson.

“Nestle’s actions have caused so much suffering for its workers. Justice has been denied from the Nestle workers for so long,” he added.

KMU said that due to the layoffs which Nestle implemented in reaction to the strike, most of the workers’ children stopped schooling while 78% of the workers’ houses were forfeited.

Forty-eight workers have died since the strike was launched, while Diosdado “Ka Fort” Fortuna was assassinated in the course of the fight in 2006. Fortuna is the second president of the Nestle workers’ union to be gunned down.

“Despite the repression and suffering that came their way, Nestle workers continue to struggle for what is just. They deserve the support of everyone, including Ms. Martello,” Labog said.

“We hope Ms. Martello will do something for her fellow Filipinos whom Nestle depended on for its wealth. We hope she acts soon,” he added.