BOYCOTT OF NESTLE PRODUCTS

WHEREAS, Nestle has engaged in massive campaigns to increase infant formula sales to Third World countries so that they can recoup profits lost as a result of the declining birthrate in the U.S. and Europe; and

WHEREAS, Nestle engages in blatantly deceptive advertising practices, including the use of "milk nurses," women who may or may not actually be nurses dressed as nurses and who give free formula samples and convince mothers that breastfeeding is "primitive" and "unhealthy;" and

WHEREAS, it is not uncommon for adequate formula supplies to cost half of a family's income, so that parents try to stretch the formula with water, often unsterilized and from contaminated supplies; and

WHEREAS, the result is often starvation, malnutrition, and death for perhaps ten million Third World babies; and

WHEREAS, the Infant Formula Action Coalition (INFACT), a project of the Newman Center, comprised of nutritionists, educators, church representatives, and others, is sponsoring a boycott of all Nestle products until Nestle STOPS: 1) using "milk nurses," 2) distributing free supplies of formula to hospitals, clinics, and homes of newborn babies, 3) promoting formula to the health professions through health in­stitutions, and 4) promoting and advertising artificial infant formula directly to consumers, as recommended by the World Health Organization:

RESOLVED, that the American Federation of Teachers encourage its members not to purchase Taster's Choice and Nescafe coffees, Nestea, Quik, Crunch, Souptime or any Libby's, Stouffer's, Crosse and Blackwell, Maggi, Deer Park Mountain Spring Water, Swiss Knight cheese, or L'Oreal cosmetics; and

RESOLVED, that the full list and a boycott explanation be published in the American Teacher; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT notify the Nestle Company and INFACT of the adoption of this resolution; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT write to U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young asking for further investigation of infant formula sales practices that might lead to new regulation; and

RESOLVED, that the American Federation of Teachers go on record in support of a Nestle boycott and that the national organization encourage all its affiliates to take similar action.