Ethical Trading Initiative AGM 2002 - Workshop 4

Events for ETI Members

RAISING THE STAKES
ETI AGM November 2002

Roundtable Workshop 4
Trade unions and companies

Chair:	David Croft, Head of Quality and Consumer Care, The Co-operative Group (CWS) Ltd
Speakers:	George Jaksch, Director Corporate Responsibility & Public Affairs, Chiquita Brian Revell, TGWU
Case Study:	Chiquita framework agreement with the IUF

Who participated

14 participants attended and amongst members, 8 companies, 2 Trade Unions and 1 NGO were represented. Staff from ETI Secretariat were also in attendance.

Key points from presentations

Presentation by George Jaksch and Brian Revell

IUF - COLSIBA - Chiquita Agreement was signed on June 14, 2001, by:

IUF - International Union of Food Workers
COLSIBA - Coordination of Latin American Banana Workers Unions Chiquita

and witnessed by Juan Somavía, ILO Director General

"We hope that this agreement will serve as a model for relations generally between international union organizations and transnational companies."
Ron Oswald, Secretary General, IUF

Chiquita's commitments

Core ILO conventions
Extend to suppliers
Collaboration for improved worker health and safety
Committee to review serious or systemic violations
Commitment to negotiate in good faith
Communicate in open, honest and straightforward manner

IUF - COLSIBA - Chiquita Agreement
The agreement facilitated a common understanding among company managers, union leaders and employees.

Benefits

Avoid public international campaigns or anti-union retaliatory tactics
Develop a common understanding of effective labor management relations
Quality of products rose
Productive, efficient and flexible work practices
Quality of work life
Social and environmental health of communities
Success and sustainability of company
Focus on continuous improvement
Health, safety and well-being of workers and communities
Dramatically different from traditional antagonistic concepts

Difficulties

Unrealistic expectations, the agreement cannot replace local efforts.
Communicating the purpose and mechanism of the agreement
Transferring the spirit to local labour relations
Suppliers - Persuasion v. Control

Successes

Meetings with suppliers in Honduras and Nicaragua
Union-management dialogue in Costa Rica
Quicker resolution of Honduras strike
Improved understanding - unions in EU political debate
Worker health and safety pilot project
Proposed joint training for managers and union leaders
Improved stakeholder relationships
IUF support for Chiquita's ETI membership
Move from confrontation to dialogue

Lessons

No successful Ethical Trading / Corporate Responsibility without trade union participation and support
A framework agreement needs to be supported by dedicated effort and good communication
The biggest challenge: Building that "Common Understanding"
Cooperation + mutual benefits = A Better Future
Framework Agreement - not easy, but the Right Decision
Fair dealing and continuous improvement

Key issues arising

Multi-nationals need to identify their own values and build them into business codes, then develop the code and then get agreement with trade unions.
Trade unions recognise that maturity is required for developing framework agreements with trade unions, an initial recognition/relationship is valuable in helping this process.
Unions are most needed where management is worst.
Any training that is supported, recognised by, and participated in by union leaders has been more successful than other training.
Involving unions is training offered to management has promoted better dialogue between management and trade unions (although it was a shock to some at the start).
The process of ensuring the framework agreement is implemented on the ground has generated a number of lessons. Chiquita discussed how union representatives might be involved in their internal audit system and have had union representatives' shadow audits. This has been an entirely positive experience. The next step will be for trade union representatives to participate more fully in the process so union leaders are being trained as auditors.
Collective voice of workers enables them to voice their concerns.
Trade union organisation provides companies with a self-sustaining opportunity for on-going monitoring through a local support network.
It can help to have a bonus scheme for managers linked to getting corporate responsibility systems going.
There is ability to influence in the long-term through contractual arrangement.

Summing up/recommendations

Understanding and complementing the role of governments, who draft laws, ratify conventions etc.
How to address this with suppliers who are used short-term and where, therefore, influence is limited (it was suggested the contract itself is a tool)
Supermarket power is enormous (particularly in relation to price); supermarkets should perhaps exercise restraint in trying to drive down prices.
Structural issues in supply-chains present challenges. How can supermarkets engage with unions when they are a long way from the point of production? (Having dialogue between the extremes of the supply chain was seen as one way of assisting this).

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