Workers for Vitasoy in Hong Kong and Australia are jointly fighting for their wages and conditions. The Hong Kong Vitasoy Employees Union escalated its campaign for union recognition and collective bargaining rights after management refused for 11 months to respond to repeated requests by the union to hold meetings and engage in wage bargaining. The union, an affiliate of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, criticised the Hong Kong-based transnational company’s discriminatory approach to workers’ rights.
While denying union rights to workers in its Hong Kong plant, Vitasoy recognizes the union at its Australian operations in Wodonga, and negotiates collective agreements. The workers at Vitasoy’s factory in Wodonga, represented by the IUF-affiliated National Union of Workers, were so angered by this situation they not only declared their full support for the struggle for union recognition in Hong Kong, but voted unanimously to include a clause in their collective agreement – currently under negotiation – extending coverage to the Vitasoy workers in Hong Kong! This important act of international solidarity is based on a straightforward argument by Vitasoy workers in Australia: As long as the company continues to deny Hong Kong workers’ their right to union recognition the only option left to them is to secure these rights through the Australian agreement. Read more on the IUF website and on the NUW website.
Workers for Vitasoy in Hong Kong and Australia are jointly fighting for their wages and conditions. The Hong Kong Vitasoy Employees Union escalated its campaign for union recognition and collective bargaining rights after management refused for 11 months to respond to repeated requests by the union to hold meetings and engage in wage bargaining. The union, an affiliate of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, criticised the Hong Kong-based transnational company’s discriminatory approach to workers’ rights.
While denying union rights to workers in its Hong Kong plant, Vitasoy recognizes the union at its Australian operations in Wodonga, and negotiates collective agreements. The workers at Vitasoy’s factory in Wodonga, represented by the IUF-affiliated National Union of Workers, were so angered by this situation they not only declared their full support for the struggle for union recognition in Hong Kong, but voted unanimously to include a clause in their collective agreement – currently under negotiation – extending coverage to the Vitasoy workers in Hong Kong! This important act of international solidarity is based on a straightforward argument by Vitasoy workers in Australia: As long as the company continues to deny Hong Kong workers’ their right to union recognition the only option left to them is to secure these rights through the Australian agreement. Read more on the IUF website and on the NUW website.
