Coca-Cola unions in Pakistan coordinate national bargaining, sign collective agreements for the first time

Six Coca-Cola unions jointly negotiated their plant-level Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs) with Coca-Coca Pakistan Beverages Limited (CCBPL) through national bargaining for the first time ever.

The unions representing workers at Coca-Cola bottling plants in Karachi, Rahim Yar Khan, Lahore, Gujranwala, Multan and Faisalabad are members of the IUF-affiliated National Federation of Food, Beverages and Tobacco Workers (NFFBTW) which organized in Multan, Gujranwala and Faisalabad last year.
Under this coordinated national bargaining, four unions (Lahore, Gujranwala, Multan and Faisalabad) negotiated a CBAs for the first time ever. Previously only the unions at the Karachi and Rahim Yar Khan factories had negotiated CBAs at plant level.

Khaista Rehman, Deputy General Secretary of NFFBTW and member of the IUF Global Coca-Cola Workers’ Alliance Steeting Committee, signs the agreement at Karachi.

The unions submitted their CBA demands at plant level and at different times –  the Gujranwala union submitted its proposals in July 2010 while the Faisalabad union submitted its claims in October 2010. The Karachi, Lahore and Rahim Yar Khan unions submitted their charter of demands on 1 January 2011 and at the same time demanded joint negotiation of the CBAs at national level. CCBPL management agreed and after five months of negotiations the agreements were signed this month.

Safeer Mughal (second from left), General Secretary of the Coca-Cola Karachi Union, with the CCBPL Karachi management on signing the new CBA.