Nestle and Pepsi face pressure from European employees over Russia

NEW YORK/LONDON: Oreo-maker Mondelez, Nestle and PepsiCo face staff defections in Ukraine and pushback from workers in eastern Europe angered by the companies' decisions to maintain some business in Russia, according to internal corporate communications reviewed by Reuters and interviews with six workers.

The emerging employee activism comes on top of Ukraine's repeated appeals to Western companies to go beyond current sanctions and cut all commercial ties with Russia, with the mayor of Kviv calling such payments to Moscow "bloody money".

To be sure, the employees speaking out, or resigning, over the companies' response to Russia's invasion are mainly based in Ukraine, Poland or Eastern Europe and are a small fraction of the hundreds of thousands of workers the food makers employ.

An internal memo seen by Reuters shows Nestle has seen an unspecified number of Ukraine employees quit and others bullied on social media for remaining with a company doing business with Russia.

Roughly 130 employees at Mondelez in the Baltics region encompassing Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia sent a petition in March to CEO Dirk Van de Put to stop all business in Russia, an action not previously reported.

One Ukraine employee of Mondelez interviewed by Reuters expressed shock and dismay that their company was still promoting "The Batman" Oreo cookies in Russia and offering chances to win up to 500,000 roubles ($6,000) on an Oreo website.