Sign workers agreement or else, Atwoli tells Unilever Tea

Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU) Secretary-General Francis Atwoli has given the management of the Unilever Tea Company a 48-hour ultimatum to sign an agreement with the striking tea pluckers on a return to work formulae or he will lobby for boycott of Unilever products globally.

Speaking at Kericho green stadium when he addressed the at least 20,000 workers, Atwoli who was accompanied by senior Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union (KPAWU) leaders and governor Paul Chepkwony among others, pointed out that Article 41 of the constitution states that every worker has a right to a Collective Bargain Agreement (CBA).

Atwoli said despite the constitutional provision, multinational tea companies have proved that they have no respect for anyone or the courts.

“Unilever management should therefore reach to us before the end of the week so that we make instruct the workers to return to work on Monday,” he said.

He at the same time said if the company would fail to respect the workers and award them the pay increase and other rights awarded by the courts he would move a motion at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) for the international community to boycott Unilever products in November.

Chepkwony said his administration would politically and legally support the workers and asked Unilever Managing director Duncan Stickler to obey the court orders.

“Some leaders in the previous government in cohorts with tea companies schemed to introduce tea plucking machines. But the time has come to reverse the retrogressive trade practice. The machines have lowered the quality of tea. County governments through county assemblies must ban the use of tea plucking scissors and other tea plucking machines,” he said.

He told Unilever, James Finlay, George Williamson, Sotik Tea, Highlands among other tea companies who would reject the ban of the tea plucking machines to cancel their leaseholds and surrender the land to county governments.

He at the same time demanded the immediate release of Bomet County KPAWU branch secretary, Jared Momanyi, and six other unionists who were arrested for allegedly leading the striking workers to destroy a tea plantation at Finlays Tea Company.