Earlier this year, UFCW Local 400 representative Robert Brown traveled to Rotterdam, Netherlands, to participate in the signing of a historic Memorandum of Understanding between Lipton Teas and Infusions and the IUF global labor federation.
The Memorandum of Understanding language, which was recently released, states that the company recognizes its employees’ labor rights around the world—including UFCW Local 400 members working at the Lipton plant in Suffolk, Va., who joined our union family in 2016. The Lipton plant in Suffolk has more than 200 workers and has operated for more than 60 years, where it produces nearly all of the Lipton tea sold in North America.
For many years, Lipton Teas and Infusions was owned by Unilever. In 2020, Lipton was spun off into a separate entity, ekaterra. In 2022, ekaterra was purchased by CVC Capital Partners, a private equity firm. The Memorandum of Understanding committed Lipton’s new ownership to high labor standards.
The Memorandum of Understanding states:
LIPTON Teas and Infusions is committed to ensuring that throughout LIPTON Teas and Infusions’ worldwide operations workers can freely exercise their internationally recognized workers’ rights and in particular their rights to union membership and collective bargaining without fear of retaliation, repression, or any other form of discrimination.
“This is an important step forward with the new company,” Brown said. “It provides new protections moving forward and creates a framework for a productive relationship that will benefit our members.”
Last October, UFCW Local 400 members working at Lipton ratified a strong new contract providing an unprecedented 18 percent wage increase and new benefits.
“This was one of the best contracts our members have gotten since they organized the plant in 2016,” Brown said. “That was with the current management and serves as another indication that our members’ rights and well-being will be protected in the years to come. Of course, their union will make sure of that, as well.”
The UFCW is an affiliate of the IUF, “the food, farm, hotels and more global union.” In addition to Brown, union representatives participating in the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding included leaders from the IUF, Pakistan Food Workers Federation, and Tanzania Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union.