The United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Tribe Mediterranean Foods, a subsidiary of Nestle SA, for 18 alleged violations of workplace safety standards following the death of a contract worker at its Taunton, Mass., production plant. The worker, who was pulled into the machine he was cleaning and sterilizing and crushed to death, had received no training in hazardous energy control involving shutting off the machine and its power supply before performing any work. Other contract workers performing the cleaning had likewise received no training.

Workers employed by Nestle Purina in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil have had enough of inferior wages and conditions. The food trade unions of Sao Paulo (FETIASP) are in the midst of a round of collective bargaining with employers.

On February 25 the Nestle Ponda and Nestle Bicholim unions in Goa, India, held protest actions against trade union rights violations at Nestle Waters in Russia.

The unions, members of the IUF-affiliated Federation of All India Nestle Employees, condemned union-busting at Nestle Domodedovo and demanded the reinstatement of the union vice-chair Sergei Strykov.

Nestlé's recently published Annual Report for 2011, introduced by the familiar 'Fellow Shareholder' letter, seeks to engage readers (who in any event will skip the hype and head for the hard figures) by alerting them up front to a 'New Reality'. For workers, however, the New Reality looks like more of the same, with rights under attack to generate cash for the investor payout.