When I saw this add the other day as a farmer I felt an instant empathy for the “workers”. I am confident you will understand why.
However where I saw the greatest parallel was Coles demands on the dairy cow. My analogy goes like this just like head honcho in the add it appears more and more Coles CEO Mr Ian McLeod and the Wesfarmers hierarchy see the cow as something that can be forced to deliver more, more, more and rewarded and valued less, less and less and turned on and off at whim essentially equating her to a machine.
Whilst I have empathy for the 24/7 man in the Nissan add I am confident he is on a big fat bonus just like Mr Coles McLeod to deliver more from less ( I hear on the grapevine Coles exec bonuses run into the billion dollar mark)
Yesterday I turned on my computer to see visits to my blog and reads of this post in particular had gone through the roof “Transparency and Integrity Coles is all we ask”
Now Coles has been inundating journalists in the past week hawking their “Don’t Blame Us” consultancy report from Freshlogic that is doing its best to tell us $1 milk is a just a fly in the cream of dairy industry crisis.
Distasteful as it maybe whether Coles like it or not they ARE part of the problem. What they don’t want to admit is they can be part of the solution. The solution however requires transparency and integrity. For a start transparency and integrity will give the farmers and the cows their dignity back and if I am not underestimating Australian consumers it will give Coles a lot of kudos.
Surely Coles consumer kudos is something to aspire to ? even if transparency and integrity are further down your list of priorities. ‘
The industry awaits your call Coles
I admire you speaking out on this particular injustice. However, as with any demanded produce, we must engage the consumer too. Coles are exploiting the goodwill of their supply chain. They’re exploiting their customer–cheap milk is nothing but a loss-leader. You’re right, they ought to be transparent and act with integrity, but they don’t. They don’t, we know why they don’t, yet they don’t seem to give a damn.