Precarious work expands at Mondelez Pakistan but management refuses negotiation on status of ‘outsiders’

The union at Mondelez Pakistan’s Cadbury factory continues its mobilization in support of demands for collective bargaining negotiations on the status of the growing number of casual workers by holding two protests a week. Management adamantly refuses to address the abusive status of these workers, which it calls “outsiders”, through negotiation and bargaining.

The factory has installed new equipment to increase productive capacity, but the number of permanent workers remains at 50. There are now 525 contract workers with no job security and inferior wages and conditions, over 200 of them in core manufacturing jobs.

On November 7 the union combined its general body meeting with a protest outside the factory gates, where Khaista Rehman, deputy general secretary of the IUF-affiliated food workers’ federation, assured the members of the federations’ continuous support and readiness to organize another round of nationwide protest actions.