The Tracing Paper

Inside a Fresh and Easy Store (photo Fresh and Easy)

The Guardian reports that Barack Obama has written to Sir Terry Leahy, Chief Executive of Tesco, to urge him to engage with the US trade union representing workers at Tesco’s new US venture, Fresh and Easy.

Without union engagement, the union claims that Fresh and Easy’s workers are stuck with no written contract of employment and working conditions that compare unfavourably with Tesco’s employees in Britain.

“Talk to us!”

The possible future US president’s intervention is a success for the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, which has been campaigning to encourage Tesco to talk to them. Despite Tesco’s strong relationship and partnership with USDAW, the British union representing 85,000 of its workers, they’ve so far reportedly refused all invitations to engage with UFCW.

Global standards or double standards?

Tesco assert that their workers are free to join the union and that they’ve “engaged with community leaders”, but it’s a far cry from their partnership with USDAW in Britain. Elsewhere, the trades union movement has raised questions about labour relations in some of Tesco’s other oversees operations, such as Tesco Lotus in Thailand.

UFCW has dubbed Tesco the “Wal-Mart of Britain”. It’s a confusing turn of phrase, as another British supermarket, Asda, is actually owned by Wal-Mart. And while Wal-Mart’s attitude towards unions is notoriously uncooperative (except in China), Asda, like Tesco, has a rather good relationship with British unions.

The different approaches taken by companies around the globe demonstrate the importance of labour laws and established workers’ rights. Britain is no longer a cushy environment for trades unions and their workers, but it’s a lot more comfortable than America and other countries.

Easy facts?

UFCW has teemed up with “grocery workers, food industry professionals” to create freshandeasyfacts.com, also known as freshandqueasy.com, to publicise their campaign against Tesco. Don’t bother trying these links to the Fresh and Easy Facts homepage from the UK. It’s blocked to UK-based browsers, presumably for legal reasons. Continue Reading »

Absence

Still from Our Daily Bread - spraying sunflowers

Loyal visitors to the Tracing Paper will have noticed a distinct lack of activity over most of the last year. I’m ashamed that I only just avoided a clear six month hiatus with a (very) brief post about the superb documentary on the modern food industry, Our Daily Bread. My only excuse is that this blog has had a lot of competition for my attention - not just a growing family but moving house and changes in my working life too.

Return

As I start to dip a toe back into the water of blog, it’s hard to know where to start. The last year has proved an especially long time in food, with the development of a global food crisis that was almost unforeseen a year ago. Continue Reading »