Nestlé, the world's largest food corporation (which just became bigger with the acquisition of Pfizer's infant nutrition division), has an advertisement for every product, a corporate social responsibility routine for every occasion, a presentation for every financial analyst and an answer to every question save one.

The IUF has called on the United Nations' Global Compact to hold the transnational Accor hotel group accountable for repeated violations of fundamental rights under the Global Compact integrity measures. The request for firm action by the Global Compact was issued on the same day, May 4, as a former Accor human resources director provided details under cross-examination at a Labour Board hearing of the company's anti-union operation at a Novotel in Ottawa, Canada.

Workers at Nestlé Nicaragua, most of whom are women, complain that continuous pressure on the workforce is producing a continuous rise in occupational illnesses and injuries. 

Nestlé watchers on the company's mailing list may be puzzled by the fate of the message they received on April 12 entitled "Nestlé receives GRI A+ rating for Creating Shared Value report". The original article claimed that Nestlé had received an A+ rating from the Global Reporting Initiative for its 2011 'Creating Shared Value Report'." That claim is no longer made - apparently the communications folks at Nestlé were apprised that the GRI awards no ratings.

Nine union officers and a member of the Pearl Continental Hotel Employees Union Lahore face fabricated criminal charges (which at one point included "terrorism") following the union's victory in a representation election in February.

Today, those who contest government policies which promote unemployment, inequality and the destruction of public services, are insistently and consistently told that these measures are necessary because 'the market' demands it. Politicians from left to right abdicate their public responsibilities with the excuse that they are only doing what the market wants. This of course conceals the truth that markets are thoroughly political constructions.

Unions representing poultry processing workers in the United States have spoken out strongly against a proposed new rule being promoted by the industry to replace government inspectors with industry “self-inspection” and permit significant speedup of the already dangerously fast line speeds at which chickens are processed.

European Union foreign ministers voted to suspend sanctions against Burma - ostensibly for one year - on April 23. While the foreign ministers were meeting, parliamentary representatives of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party of Aung San Suu Kyi, refused to take their newly won seats in parliament. NLD MPs are, understandably, refusing to swear an oath to "safeguard" a constitution which institutionalizes military rule.