As the deadline for Cadbury shareholders to accept the Kraft takeover bid looms, Unite the union is pressuring the UK government to ensure Kraft remains committed to its UK workforce
By Chris Farnell
Today Cadbury's shareholders are expected to accept a revised 12 billion pound bid from Kraft, ending the chocolate company’s 200 year history of independence - and raising fears among Cadbury workers that jobs and investment will be slashed to pay off Kraft's debts.
As the vote goes through, workers from the Cadbury plants in the UK are gathering in central London to lobby Ministers and MPs to push for urgent assistance in pinning Kraft down on guarantees for the future.
Jack Dromey, Unite's Deputy General Secretary, says that memories of Kraft's failure to stand by its promises to retain the Terry's plant in York are causing grave concern for the Cadbury workforce: "Our fear is that the Kraft takeover is not in the national interest, and in the months of this hostile takeover process we have heard nothing from Kraft to calm fears that it is in the interest of the Cadbury workforce either. Instead, the fate of manufacturing workers in Terry's of York, who found that Kraft ownership saw their plant close, weighs heavily on the minds of the Cadbury workforce. Kraft cared little for the great history of that plant or for the skills of its workforce so we must seize the opportunity now to ensure that Cadbury and its workforce do not suffer the same fate.
"Government must secure meaningful pledges from Kraft - and police them so that Kraft cannot again walk away from a UK workforce. Ministers must make it abundantly clear that closures and mass redundancies will not be accepted by the British government or the British people. Kraft needs an unmistakable message that never again can promises made be broken.
“Ministers must also learn lessons from this sorry affair,” Jack Dromey continued. “The government has said, and rightly so, that we must rebuild our manufacturing base. It is simply wrong, however, that hostile takeovers of successful British companies can happen. The German government has taken powers to defend its vital national industrial assets. The French government allows weighted voting in favour of shareholders in it for the long-term to prevent short-term plundering of companies by hedge funds or private equity. And, in Belgium and Holland, companies are allowed to have articles of association that make it more difficult for predators to take them over. If our continental cousins can do it, so too can we."
Yesterday Dromey met with Cadbury workers at their Bournville plant to reassure them that Unite will continue to fight for their future, telling them "warm words from Kraft are not enough. We do not want the memory of broken past promises by Kraft - what we want from them are solid gold guarantees for the future of this celebrated chocolate maker and its great workforce."
Edited by Ellie Duncan
Source: http://www.unitetheunion.com/