@conscious.app: Unilever tried to shut down this French tea factory, so the workers fought back for 1,336 days and took it over. In 2010, Unilever, the British giant behind Dove and Hellmann's, announced it would close its Fralib tea factory near Marseille, which made Lipton and Éléphant tea. It planned to cut all 182 jobs and move production to Poland and Belgium. Backed by the CGT, one of France's largest unions, the workers occupied the factory and sued. Judges struck down three of Unilever's layoff plans, and Marseille's metro-area government bought the buildings. In May 2014, after 1,336 days, Unilever settled for over €19 million: €7 million in machines sold for a symbolic €1, back pay, and €2.85 million to launch Scop-Ti, a tea company the workers own, one vote each. Unilever kept the Éléphant brand, so the workers named theirs 1336. By 2024, Scop-Ti's 34 worker-owners were making 120,000 boxes a week. Unilever had switched the factory to synthetic flavorings in 2003. Scop-Ti went back to natural ones only, and every box is packed at its factory near Marseille. It helped revive linden picking in Provence, a herbal tea crop that imports from China and Latin America had crushed, and helped raise what growers are paid. In September 2026, it launched a public fundraiser to cover a cash shortfall. Find ethical alternatives to Big Food on the Conscious Spend app.

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Thursday 29 October 2026 23:45:04 GMT