Feathers to fly as activists target Tesco bosses

Tesco bosses will endure a welter of criticism today as they face down dissident shareholders grown increasingly concerned at the food giant's sliding stock as a good corporate citizen.

With the chef turned food campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall leading the charge, Britain's biggest retailer is expected to come under fire over everything from labour relations to its record on animal welfare.

The centrepiece of proceedings will be a shareholders' vote on a special resolution funded by Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall and his supporters. Resolution 17 to be discussed at the Tesco annual general meeting at the National Motorcycle Museum in Solihull will urge the company to set higher minimum welfare standards for chickens, including measures to reduce stocking density and to create a more stimulating environment for the birds.

"Tesco have put enormous obstacles in front of the resolution," said Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall. "Making it a special resolution makes it inherently undemocratic but worse is suggesting that voting for the resolution will destabilise the company so the major shareholders have been cowed into not voting for us. But it is anyone's guess what will happen. If we get 10 per cent of the vote, that will be a good indication that there has been significant shareholder movement on this issue. The campaign will go on. I am a Tesco shareholder and I will hang on to those shares whatever happens."

The resolution was only reluctantly included after the River Cottage creator, representing 102 shareholders, teamed up with the pressure group Compassion in World Farming to raise 86,888 in order that it could be posted to all 269,000 shareholders.

However, even with such support the resolution looks unlikely to achieve the necessary 75 per cent backing, not least after Tesco last week launched a defence of its animal welfare record. In a letter distributed to all shareholders it said Mr Fearnley- Whittingstall's resolution, if adopted, would hit low-income customers and restrict choice.

Tesco will also face a call to stop selling live turtles at its stores in China from the animal charity Care for the Wild International.

There is also widespread expectation that representatives of the American union, the UFCWU, will attend to raise concerns over the treatment of employees at Tesco's US subsidiary Fresh & Easy. The plight of staff there has prompted the Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama to write to the Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy.

There was further bad publicity for the supermarket giant when the charity War on Want claimed the company was paying workers at an Indian textile supplier just 16p an hour. A Tesco spokesman said: "It's disappointing that War on Want has ... chosen to publicise unsubstantiated allegations without engaging with us."

Tesco has also been forced to defend its policy of selling produce grown in Zimbabwe. The company said that pulling out of the country would "deprive thousands of people of their only means of feeding their families".

The campaigners' agenda

*Chickens

Tesco investors are being urged to back a resolution sponsored by the chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, which urges the supermarket to provide better conditions for its poultry birds. Tesco says this would hit poorer families.

*Zimbabwe

Tesco was forced to defend its continued reliance on food imports from Zimbabwe despite mounting violence in the country from President Robert Mugabe. The supermarket says thousands of Zimbabweans depend on the company for work.

*Turtles

Campaigners want Tesco to stop selling live turtles at its stores in China. The retailer says it needs to balance the need for animal welfare against differing cultural attitudes in Asia. It says it has worked to minimise distress to the turtles sold.

*Thailand

The writer's group English PEN has written to Sir Terry Leahy to raise concerns over libel actions brought in Thailand against critics of Tesco Lotus there.

*Low wages

War on Want will claim that Tesco suppliers pay as little as 16p an hour to Bangalore workers. Tesco insists allegations are "unsubstantiated".

*Labour relations

Head of the UFCWU union, representing 1.3 million US workers, will attend AGM to raise concerns over labour relations at its Fresh & Easy subsidiary.

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