Joining Up The Supply Chain
In March 2009 two ends of the supply chain met when Adwoa Sakyi, Head of Industrial Relations at the General Agricultural Workers’ Union in Ghana (GAWU) visited the Cadbury’s UK processing plant in Chirk, North Wales.
Adwoa was in the UK courtesy of the Nick Burdon and Denis Blockley Fund ( www.nickanddenis.org.uk ) which specialises in bringing over trade union activists from developing countries so they can meet up with their sister trade unions in the UK. During her visit she was able to meet with a range of senior officials and lay activists in Unite as well as other unions.
She made invaluable links with officials responsible for the sectors with which she has most to do: agriculture and food. Members of GAWU work on plantations and farms harvesting the palm oil, pineapples, bananas and cocoa beans which are used in manufacturing food and chemicals in Europe.
The opportunity to meet with Unite members in Burton’s Foods on Merseyside and Cadbury’s in Chirk was a highlight for Adwoa: this is the first time I have seen what happens to the palm oil an cocoa beans once they arrive in Europe. It has been really great to meet with the people who process our raw materials and to learn about their working conditions.”
Although shop stewards in Chirk were clearly keen to learn all about conditions and pay for labourers on the farms and plantations in Ghana, Adwoa also learnt about the impact of the global financial crisis on workers in the UK: “I had never realised that globalisation has an impact on the Global North as well as the South. This gives us even more reason to work together.
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