Recycling disposable jobs: Kraft Finland workers dismissed, then offered ‘zero-contracts’

Kraft unions around the world have condemned the brutal suppression of permanent employment for long-serving employees at the company’s biscuit factory in Vantaa, Finland, where 24 permanent workers have been handed dismissal notices, of which 19 have been told they can return to employment… on a call-in basis with no guaranteed hours.

Meeting in Åkersberga, Sweden from May 10 to 11, trade union representatives from Africa, Europe, Latin America and North America denounced the planned elimination of permanent employment contracts and the cynical “offer” to the workers losing their jobs to return to work on as precarious, “zero-contract” employees. Of the 24 dismissed, 21 are members of the IUF-affiliated Foodworkers Union SEL; two-thirds of them are women; many have long years of service to the company, in one case as much as 35 years.