Richa Naidu and Jessica DiNapoli

NEW YORK/LONDON – Oreo-maker Mondelez, Nestle and PepsiCo (NASDAQ) are facing staff defections from Ukraine. They also face pushback by workers in Eastern Europe who were angered at the decision of these companies to keep some Russian business. According to internal communications that were reviewed and interviewed six employees.

In addition to Ukraine’s constant appeals to Western businesses to remove current sanctions and to cut all commercial ties to Russia, the new activism by employees comes after Kviv’s mayor called payments to Moscow “bloody”

As you can see, most of those protesting or quitting over Russia’s response are located in Ukraine, Poland, and Eastern Europe. They are only a tiny fraction of hundreds of thousands of people employed by food manufacturers.

Reuters has obtained an internal memo that shows Nestle saw a certain number of Ukrainian employees leave and other bullying on social media because they were still working for a Russian company.

In March, roughly 130 Mondelez employees from the Baltics region, including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Latvia sent Dirk Van de Put an email asking for an end to all business in Russia. It was an unusual action.

Mondelez employees from Ukraine were interviewed by Reuters and expressed surprise and disappointment that the company continued to promote “The Batman” Oreo cookies and offered chances to win up 500,000 roubles ($6,000). https://oreo.ru

The website showed cinema tickets and hats being awarded as recently as Wednesday https://oreo.ru/Home/WinnersList to winners whose phone numbers start with the Russian country code.

Another website promoting Milka chocolates https://promo.milka.ru offered Russian residents up to 20% cash back on purchases and prizes in a promotion that started March 15, three weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine.

One week prior to its scheduled release, “The Batman” was pulled from Russia.

Warner Bros Discovery Inc (NASDAQ:) Inc is the owner of the film studio that produced “The Batman”. However, it did not communicate the news to Mondelez and had no control over the fate of “The Batman-branded products on shelves,” a source familiar with the matter stated.

Mondelez didn’t respond to specific questions regarding the Milka promotion or “The Batman Oreos” but stated that it does not air advertising in Russia. According to the company, it will suspend all advertising media expenditures March 9.

Consumer goods companies, including Unilever (NYSE:) and P&G, have said they are continuing business in Russia because some of their items are necessities, like diapers or milk, that everyday Russians need. They are also supporting the humanitarian efforts in Ukraine.

Nestle, Mondelez and PepsiCo, the three largest packaged food companies in the world by market capitalization have yet to disclose which brands they are selling in Russia or what their essential products are.

According to screenshots from an internal posting on social media shared by an employee with Reuters, the Mondelez petition stated that workers opposed Russia’s company’s decision. He was not allowed to address the media so he declined to name him.

The screenshots show that the employee petition says, “Each Russian Ruble paid to state budget in form of taxes, salaries (helps) the) aggressor supply his army, and kills even more Ukrainian people, including children, women and elderly,” according to the screenshots.

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation” that it says is not designed to occupy territory and denies targeting civilians.

Vinzenz Gruber, President of Mondelez Europe, responded to the posting. He stated that his culture (“at Mondelez”) includes all who share our values and call for peace,” as shown in the screenshot.

Gruber stated, “We stand with our colleagues, and not their governments/country decision,”

Mondelez, based in Chicago said that “We are grateful to our employees for speaking out and sharing their voices on this heartbreakingly and senseless war.” “We heard many different voices from colleagues across the globe and our leaders have been in open dialogue with each other as we run day-to-day operations.”

‘MENTALLY BROKEN’

Apart from 19 messages on corporate message boards, one PepsiCo worker, two Mondelez workers, and three Nestle employees each told Reuters they wanted to see their employers stand stronger against Russia.

Patrycja Stas (44) a Pepsi Warsaw manager, told me that “our grandparents shared terrible stories” regarding Russian actions in Poland in World War Two. It is very depressing to see that the exact same story is happening in Ukraine.

Stas said she was leaving her job due to reasons other than war, but that Pepsi’s continued business in Russia proved she had made the right choice.

Pepsi stopped selling soda in Russia. However, the company continues to market what it refers to as “daily essentials,” such as snacks and milk products. Pepsi did not respond to our request for comment.

Marco Settembri was the head of Nestle’s European Business. He stated in an internal email that he was “saddened” to read that workers were resigning and that he was also “deeply worried” to see employees be bullied or threatened on social media. It was addressed to Nestle’s Lviv-based business services centre in Ukraine.

Nestle employed approximately 5,800 people in Ukraine during the War, however, some of them have left now, said a Nestle spokesperson.

Sofia Vashchenko was a Nestle web content manager in Lviv, Ukraine for almost eight years. She quit this month after posting on LinkedIn about how her 20-strong team were “mentally broken”. This statement came in response to an inquiry about Nestle’s Russian operations in Russia.

In an interview last week, she stated that “people who are in the middle a conflict with the Russian military do not want to hear this.”

Nestle stopped its Russian advertising and capital investment initially. This angered both Nestle’s employees as well as officials from Ukraine over the sale of KitKat bars in Moscow.

Nestle Chief Executive Mark Schneider was sent an open letter by Lviv-based workers. This message, as seen by Reuters’ March, stated “our people feel trampled” by Nestle’s ongoing operations in Russia.

Nestle later announced that it would stop selling a large range of brands from Russia in the middle of November, including Nesquik chocolate bars and KitKat chocolate bar.

Nestle still sells essentials in Russia, like baby food. However, it said that the company was giving its profits to charities. Reuters interviewed three workers who wanted more transparency on what essential items they consider.

Nestle spokeswoman said that they have focused their attention on safety and security for our Ukrainian colleagues, and are doing everything possible to support them, as well as offering jobs at other Nestle-operating companies.

Nestle responded to a query about Ukrainian workers refusing to talk to Russian colleagues. Nestle said that they “immediately organised for all Nestle Russia activities to be handled directly out of Russia,” a move which separated them from their counterparts in Ukraine.

“Ofcourse I do not want to be a part of the Russian people. Mariana Lviv, an Lviv-based Nestle employee said that it was not clear who is in the right with the conflict. Her last name is to remain anonymous as she’s not permitted to discuss the matter with media.

“In (my group), we have stopped working in Russia and don’t want to do so again.”

($1 = 82.8750 roubles)