Update: Unilever Offers Shorter Worker Safeguards Outside Europe in McCormick Deal

05:36 AM EDT, 09/18/2026 (MT Newswires) -- (Updates with Unilever's response in the fifth paragraph.) Unilever (UL) plans to give shorter salary protections to non-European employees joining McCormick (MKC) after combining their food divisions, the IUF said Wednesday. The company set a two-year compensation safeguard for European workers, but capped coverage at one year for non-European staff, the union said. The company refused to change terms, telling regional unions to negotiate coverage locally, and the labor organization plans to take action to secure equal two-year guarantees for all affected global staff, the IUF said. The group urged McCormick to apply nondiscriminatory workplace standards across the merged operations after the transaction closes in mid-2027, it added. "We continue to engage constructively with our works councils and other employee representatives and have made good progress," a Unilever spokesperson said in a statement e-mailed to MT Newswires Friday. "Our focus remains on supporting our people and engaging them with care and transparency throughout the separation process." McCormick didn't immediately respond to MT Newswires' request for comment.