# How does SodaStream treat its Palestinian workers when the media isn't looking?

- Link: https://www.ha-makom.co.il/post/hameha-sodastream-english
- Published: 2014-07-21T10:58:32+03:00
- Author: מנהל האתר

 

Wednesday, July 2, was especially tense. The funerals for the three [murdered Israeli teenagers](http://972mag.com/three-kidnapped-israeli-teens-found-dead-in-the-west-bank/92719/),
Gilad Shaar, Naftali Fraenkel and Eyal Yifrach had taken place the day before. Gangs
of rioters were already [roaming the streets of Jerusalem](http://972mag.com/kidnappings-leave-a-wake-of-revenge-racist-violence/93018/),
and Ramadan was entering its third day. It was 8 p.m. and the night shift workers
at the SodaStream factory in Mishor Adumim (the industrial zone of the Israeli settlement
of Ma’ale Adumim) headed to the dining room for their first meal after 16 hours 
of fasting.

Ahmed Nasar Al-Adin, a worker in the metal quality assurance department at the factory
recounts that “on the first and second day of Ramadan the food was entirely fine,”
but that on that night, when the approximately 40 shift workers arrived tired and
hungry, they discovered that instead of the five trays of food that were supposed
to be in the cafeteria, there were only “two trays, one with a little bit of schnitzel
and the other with chicken that was both appalling and insufficient for all the 
workers.”

They decided to contact the supervisor of the cafeteria, who was absent that night,
contrary to the previous days. “We spoke to him and he said that this is what there
is. Whoever wants to, will eat; whoever doesn’t, won’t eat. This is what there is.”
The workers also turned to the shift supervisor in the factory, who gave them the
same answer.

SodaStream is a successful company that is working toward obtaining a significant
portion of the global drink market and is trying to brand itself as an ethical and“
green” company. At the beginning of the year SodaStream became embroiled in a public
[scandal](http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/02/sodastream-controversy-continues-bubble-2014210133448473994.html)
when it hired the actress Scarlett Johansson to advertise its brand worldwide, a
move that led to criticism against the actress since the company’s factory is located
across the Green Line in the West Bank. In [response](http://mondoweiss.net/2012/01/activists-respond-to-sodastreams-defense-of-profiting-off-the-occupation.html)
to this criticism, the company repeatedly emphasized that its factory provides jobs
for hundreds of Palestinian workers and serves as a locus of coexistence between
the two peoples.

 The meal meant for 40 workers to break their Ramadan fast while on shift at the
SodaStream factory. (photo: SodaStream workers)

Due to Kosher restrictions, the hundreds of Palestinian workers are forbidden from
bringing in food from the outside and are therefore reliant on the food the factory
provides. “This was not the first time this has happened on the night shift,” says
Al-Adin. “We have discussed this with the management before, but there was no improvement.
There were instances of insufficient bread and vegetables, and instances of not 
enough to drink.”

This time, however, the situation was different, since during Ramadan the workers
fast all day and the management is aware of that. A few days before the holiday 
the management posted a message promising that there would be appropriate food and
that workers would be provided with a room to rest in should there be need for it.

The workers tried to reason with the shift supervisor for over an hour. The solution
suggested to them was that the workers would eat the packaged meal they get at 3
a.m., an hour before their return to the fast, which includes a box of hummus, sour
cream, tuna, and sliced cheese. “I explained to him that we have been fasting for
16 hours and it is unreasonable to expect us to only eat this packaged meal. It’s
not enough food for someone who stands and works for 12 hours,” says Al-Adin. At
this point it seems that the management lost patience. “The shift and transportation
supervisors told us that there is nothing to do at this point and that the shift
has been canceled.”

The next morning the workers on that shift received phone calls from the management
that notified them of the decision to terminate their contracts because they refused
to return to work that evening. “They also claimed we were violent. The factory 
has cameras documenting every corner. Lets see the tape. What violence are they 
talking about?” asks Al-Adin.

It seems as if the spirit of coexistence on which the SodaStream factory prides 
itself was absent among the top management of the company, which entirely ignored
its workers. “No one has addressed the workers to this point. Don’t they think we
should be heard too?” asks A., who was fired overnight.

A notice to the workers contains claims Al-Adin** **is referring to. “They hung 
a notice on the message board,” recounts A., another factory worker. “The night 
shift workers who came to eat were disappointed by the variety of food served…  
and decided on their own that they are unwilling to return to work until other food
was served to them,” claimed the notice. “Despite attempts to explain to them that
the food is of sufficient quality… the workers decided they are unwilling to return
to work and they wish to go home immediately…  it is worth noting that the atmosphere
around this entire event was heated and contained hints of violence.”

 The letter from SodaStream management sent to the employees who were fired overnight(
photo: SodaStream workers)

“On the contrary, we told them we do not want to go home,” says Al-Adin, “that in
fact we want to return to work. But they sent us home. They told us that the managers
would meet tomorrow and would solve this, and that we should sign out and go.”

“We see this incident as very grave… something we cannot allow to become routine
and, therefore, all the workers involved have been fired immediately without the
usual severance payment,” the management wrote in its notice to the workers. Al-
Adin confirms the statement: “The manager who called the fired workers said that
the management decided not to have a hearing because of the severity of their act.”
What is the basis for the company’s claim that the workers did not want to return
to work? “It’s what the night managers said.”

One might guess that even if the actual implementation of “coexistence” is not truly
at the top of the list of priorities at SodaStream, their advertising themselves
as such is likely not bad for business. In May the company published its forecast
for the rest of the year, predicting a 15% increase for 2014, compared with income
of $562.7 million in 2013; and a forecast of a 3% increase in profit in 2014, compared
with profit of $42 million in 2013.

The factory in Ma’ale Adumim employs about 1,100 people. It seems that there are
good reasons why more than 800 of them, the majority of the production line in the
different departments, are Palestinian. Whoever wants to work at the factory, which
functions 24 hours a day, seven days a week, is required to work 12-hour shifts,
including Friday and Saturday. The average worker labors 220-250 hours per month.
An assembly line worker averages 23 shekels an hour.** **Al-Adin, who worked as 
a quality control technician in the metal department, has a degree in materials 
science. His wage was 27 shekels an hour.

Several of the workers were relatively new, having been employed for about 10 months.“
I worked at the factory for two years and two months but there are also those who
worked for 4-5 years and we were fired just like that, with a phone call. They told
us not to return, and that we could pick up our termination notice on Sunday,” says
Al-Adin.

But the humiliation did not stop there. “When we came to take the termination notices
they blocked us from entering the factory, and whoever did get in, finally, was 
accompanied by guards. We, the ones who did not enter, they broke into our lockers,
without any one of us around. This is our privacy here, and they brought our stuff
outside.”

 SodaStream employees who were fired overnight wait outside the premises to collect
their letters of dismissal and personal belongings. (photo: SodaStream workers)

In a truly bizarre coincidence, on Friday, two days after these aggressive terminations,
the Israeli news website _NRG_ published a special [column (Hebrew)](http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART2/592/801.html)
entitled “Coexistence: This is How to Make Peace.” The author, who spent time in
the company’s “special” cafeteria was impressed that “… one of the only places in
Israel in which coexistence, tolerance, and hope, even in these times, is preserved,
is in SodaStream’s factory in Ma’ale Adumim.” The company’s profits, its treatment
of its workers, and its aggressive terminations somehow went unmentioned.

The Workers Advice Center WAC-MAAN, which represents the fired workers, stated that“
If SodaStream does not comply with our demand to return the workers to the factory
immediately, MAAN will act in the legal and public arenas to guarantee their rights.”

SodaStream has responded: “The entire termination process was done legally, there
was a hearing, and the workers were not deprived of compensation payments. SodaStream
treats all its workers with respect, and therefore a special hot meal to break the
fast was provided for its Muslim workers. Nevertheless, the workers chose – without
relation to the quality of the food or to the quantity of the food – to not enter
the cafeteria at all, and afterwards they stopped work on the assembly lines. SodaStream
cannot accept a situation in which workers who don’t think the food is appropriate
stop work on the assembly lines and manifestly ignore the orders of supervisors.”

* The article was translated in cooperation with [972Magazine](http://972mag.com/when-the-media-isnt-looking-how-sodastream-really-treats-its-workers/94215/).

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