A bitter dispute between Unilever, the makers of Streets ice-cream and myriad other food brands, is coming to a head on social media. Followers of the esteemed Paddle Pop lion and fans of Streets’ other ice creams are taking to social media to protest at plans to cut worker salaries almost in half. And the company is reacting angrily with a strong social media policy.
According to a report at the Huffington Post the comany plans to re-jig the workforce by manipulating shifts and changing other conditions. The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union says the impact will be to make some pay packets up to 46% lighter.
With the battle now becoming a very public airing of grievances and protests over social media, Unilever has published a new social media policy. Naturally, they fell into the unions’ hands and everything has been made public.
Here is the actual memo that Streets Ice Cream has put out to workers banning them from using emojis and talking to friends and family pic.twitter.com/oZqDWXEZyn
— The AMWU (@theamwu) September 24, 2017
Streets’ social media pages have since been bombarded with angry messages from employees, union members and the general public. Indeed, trolling social media has become an official strategy of the AMWU:
Goodnight and remember to troll the @MagnumIceCream Facebook page regularly ? #qanda pic.twitter.com/l7IY4VBrq7
— The AMWU (@theamwu) August 21, 2017
The user comments on a recent Facebook video for Magnum ice cream is practically wall-to-wall criticism about unfair pay cuts, prompting Streets to update the post with a statement about its factory’s enterprise agreement.
How this will all play out is anyone’s guess. But it’s a fair bet the next management meeting at Unilever will have a few pissed off managers sitting around, shaking their fists at a screen as they curse social media.
The ability for workers to air grievances so that “challenging” changes to work conditions can be made public is a great weapon for workers.
[Via Huffington Post]
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