ITF Unions in Maersk
Fall in popularity for Maersk
16 June 2008
Dismissals at Maersk Line damage the company’s reputation in Denmark.
For many years AP Moller-Maersk has been considered one of the most popular and well-regarded companies in its home country, Denmark.
But a new analysis in the newspaper Børsen shows that Maersk has fallen from second place to 10th in the 2008 list of Danish companies’ reputations.
CEO Nils Smedegaard Andersen is not surprised. He links the decreasing popularity to the dismissals of 3,000 employees at Maersk Line.
He tells Børsen: “Of course we would like a good reputation, and I am sure we will achieve it. But when one begins a cost-cutting process with a great deal of openness, it is bound to give some negative publicity. We just have to face that. You cannot expect praise for dismissing people.”
Previous annual surveys have ranked Maersk’s reputation for company ethics, management and presentation at number one or two.
Ron Carver, Deputy Director of the Teamsters Port Division, says he suspects the fall in popularity might also be the result of the drumbeat of negative news from the labour movement's aggressive accounting of Maersk's actions over the past five years, culminating with the creation of the Maersk Union Network.
|
