A group of workers at Snow Brand calls on union to check management

A group of workers of Snow Brand Milk Products Co., Ltd. are calling on the union to keep its eye on the company management, as the company is facing a crisis after a string of frauds that has betrayed consumers' trust.

In 2000, Snow Brand Milk disregarded obligations to take steps for quality control, resulting in an extensive outbreak of food poisoning. In 2001, its subsidiary, Snow Brand Food Co., deliberately mislabeled meat products in order to receive the government subsidy to compensate for BSE-related losses.

To deal with a sharp decline in its market share, Snow Brand Milk Products is expected to announce a restructuring plan that will include job cuts and plant closures.

In the 1970s, the Snow Brand Milk Products management interfered with the union and discriminated against union activists by establishing a tighter control of workers and changing the trade union into one faithful to management.

A group of workers at the Snow Brand Milk Products Atsugi Plant in Ebina City, Kanagawa Prefecture, formed the Association for a Bright Snow Brand as an independent workers' group outside the union to get their working conditions improved. Using its monthly newsletter, the association has blown the whistle on unpaid overtime work and exposed work-related accidents which the management tried to hush up.

In February, the newsletter called on the union to be a watchdog and struggle to secure jobs, quoting Kanagawa Shimbun, a local newspaper, as saying that the trade union should have done something to deal with the corporate crime.

It also demanded that the union work to create an atmosphere in which any worker who wants to claim that the company is doing something wrong can do so without fear of retaliation.

Proposals in the newsletter have been welcomed by workers.

In January, the association requested the trade union, which is affiliated with the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo), to check on what the company management is doing. The union officials answered that they want to join hands with the association in order to get over the current crisis, although they have different opinions.

The association plans to stimulate discussion among all workers as to how Snow Brand can be rehabilitated. (end)