Help get 38 Degrees members voices inside Unilever HQ

38 Degrees staff members, David Babbs and Laura Townshend have an important meeting in a couple of hours with UK company Unilever – and they need your help to make sure it has an impact.

38 Degrees members have been piling on the pressure for Unilever to fix the mess left by their factory’s deadly mercury spill in India. [1] Unilever’s mercury spill has ruined lives and poisoned the local environment – it’s their responsibility to put it right. [2]

One of Unilever’s bosses has agreed to meet us at 2pm to hear our concerns. We need to use this meeting to prove there are thousands of us who won’t give up until Unilever do the right thing. Can you help build the pressure, by adding a message for David and Laura to give to Unilever?

There are some tips on the page to help you, it should only take 30 seconds.The meeting is at 2pm today – so please can you add a quick message now?

More than 45 Unilever employees died after the toxic mercury leak at their factory. At least 18 babies born to parents who had worked in the factory have also died. [3] 38 Degrees members are demanding Unilever – a British company – clean up their mess and pay compensation to the victims.

Unilever have only agreed to meet me because 38 Degrees members, lots of us Unilever customers, have shown that we expect better from this UK company. So when David and Laura sit down to meet them, they need to be carrying the voices of thousands of their customers in with them.

You can help by adding a quick message now. Imagine the impact as the bosses walk into the room and I present them with piles of paper full of messages from their customers demanding that Unilever does the right thing.

Household names, like Dove soap, Marmite, Persil and Flora, are all part of Unilever’s empire. [4] And since 38 Degrees members started filling the Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and email inboxes of these brands with our messages, Unilever have been squirming under the pressure.

It’s a good sign that Unilever have agreed to this meeting. It shows they are feeling the pressure. And it proves that when enough of us come together and speak up as concerned customers, we challenge huge global companies and speak up for justice.

Unilever will be desperate for our noise to die down, so let’s show them that there’s only one thing they can do to make that happen: clean up their mess and compensate their workers.

38 Degrees members aren’t alone. Campaigners across India, including thousands of members of Jhatkaa (a group like 38 Degrees based in India), are sounding the alarm and demanding Unilever clean up their mess. Can you add your voice too?
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/unilever-messages

NOTES
[1] 38 Degrees blog: Unilever update: Our pressure is working:
https://home.38degrees.org.uk/2015/08/08/unilever-update-our-pressure-is-working/
[2] Jhatkaa: Unilever – take responsibility for Kodaikanal mercury poisoning:
https://www.jhatkaa.org/unilever/
[3] Kodai Mercury: Factsheet Response to The Claims Made By Hindustan Unilever:
http://kodaimercury.org/factsheet-response-to-the-claims-made-by-hul-on-their-website/
The New Indian Express: Kodai Mercury Dump ‘Burns’ in UK:
http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/Kodai-Mercury-Dump-Burns-in-UK/2015/05/04/article2796408.ece
Deccan Herald: Closed Kodaikanal factory still source of Mercury pollution:
http://archive.deccanherald.com/Deccanherald/jan172004/n9.asp
Environmental Pollution: Studies of mercury pollution in a lake due to a thermometer factory situated in a tourist resort: Kodaikkanal, India
http://www.sipcotcuddalore.com/Kodaikanal/DAE%20Study%20Karunasagar.pdf
[4] Unilever: View our brands:
http://www.unilever.co.uk/brands-in-action/view-brands.aspx