FAWU+appeal+for+consumer+boycott

Food & Allied Workers Union Media Release, 26 March 2007
=FAWU appeal for consumer boycott=

The Food and Allied Workers Union is calling upon its comrades in COSATU and its affiliates to support a consumer boycott for the strike by about 2000 members of the Food and Allied Workers’ Union [FAWU] in their noble demand for a central bargaining forum in Blue Ribbon bakeries, a subsidiary of Premier Foods.

Our members have been on a national strike since Monday, March 5, 2007 and management has since arrogantly refused to negotiate around the issue, claiming that it “does not make economic sense”. While denying our members their justifiable demand, the company continues to sponsor a competition on a certain Cape Town -based radio station giving away cash prizes every Friday for eleven weeks.

Rejecting an advisory award from the CCMA to review the National Recognition Agreement which they have unilaterally terminated in 1997, they have since stubbornly persisted to ignore our plea to restore the centralized bargaining system for the past eight years. This despite the fact that their competitors, Sasko Bakeries (Pioneer Foods) and Albany Bakeries (Tiger Foods) already have central bargaining arrangements with FAWU.

Furthermore, FAWU is appalled that a 100% black- owned and controlled company such as Premier Foods, owned by the Foundation for African Business and Consumer Services (FABCOS) which is supposed to be progressive, can continue to ill-treat its workers.

Recently the company has even made threats that members might not get their annual bonuses this year as a result of their current lawful strike action. In addition, they have tried to undermine our strike by trying to sideline the union and mislead members by informing them that they are absent from work without leave - clearly a strategy intended to confuse workers.

We are now left with no other choice but to resort to secondary strikes in the milling division of Premier as well as to mobilize our members, staff, communities and COSATU affiliates **//to engage in a//** **//Consumer Boycott on all Premier products// //such as://**

__**Iwisa and Impala maize meal, Invicta samp, Snowflake flour range and particularly Blue Ribbon bread.**__


 * //For further information please phone Media Officer, Dominique Swartz, on 021 637 9040//**

Food & Allied Workers Union, HEAD OFFICE Vuyisile Mini Centre, Cnr NY1 and NY 110, Guguletu, 7750 - PO Box 1234 Woodstock, 7915; Tel (021) 637 9040, Fax (021) 637 9190
 * E-mail: masemolak@telkomsa.net / dominique-fawu@telkomsa.net**

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