The Observer, Sunday 22 January 2012
When even successful companies such as Shell and Unilever are taking an axe to staff retirement packages, is the outlook bleak for everyone?
Unilever, the maker of everything from Pot Noodles to Dove soap, has infuriated its staff by cutting pension payouts despite being highly profitable. Shell, another household name, has followed suit with plans to cut retirement incomes.
Unilever suffered a wave of strikes which started last week and will continue for the next five days. Much of the anger among employees at its factories and research units is focused on the company’s £6bn operating profit and the pay, bonus and pension top-ups awarded to chief executive Paul Polman. He pocketed £2.8m last year, of which £1.7m was a performance-related bonus. His pension was increased by a company donation of £352,000, according to the 2011 annual report.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
