Unite fears Kraft will pay for Cadbury bid with workers' jobs
30 November 2009
Unite, the leading union in the food industry, says it is
growing increasingly concerned that US-based transnational Kraft
will pay for its bid for Cadbury with massive job losses in the UK
and Ireland.
The concerns are set out in a letter to Kraft's chief executive,
Irene Rosenfeld, and follow a recent meeting between the union and
the company where Kraft failed to give any guarantees in relation
to the chocolate makers' workforce.
With analysts predicting that Kraft will be seeking to generate
up to $1 billion in savings through mass redundancies and
restructuring, Unite says Kraft must give commitments on a set of
minimum employment protections, including no compulsory
redundancies and protections for the workers' terms and
pensions. The union is also pushing Kraft to be more explicit
about its intentions towards the Somerdale site, which is set to
close early in 2010, as it fears that the absence of clarity is
allowing mis-placed hopes to build that Kraft's takeover would save
jobs at the site.
The union also makes it clear in the letter that it cannot
accept Kraft's explanation that a lack of information about Cadbury
is behind its reluctance to be more explicit about its plans.
Writing to Irene Rosenfled, Jennie Formby, the union's national
officer for the food sector, says: "Cadbury is a successful,
profitable company that provides high quality jobs for over 6,000
employees in the UK and Ireland, and to date nothing has been said
by Kraft to allay the concerns that we have about the potential
threat to jobs and conditions should a takeover bid be
successful.
"While Kraft representatives expressed a willingness to engage
in discussion and to try to allay the fears of our members in
Cadbury, they stated that they were unable to give any guarantees
either about jobs or conditions, or about the future of Somerdale,
as Kraft is unable to get sufficient information from Cadbury as a
result of the status of the bid as hostile.
"I have to say that I can not accept this; you clearly have
enough information to persuade you to make a bid worth £10 billion
and, as we pointed out in the meeting, in the context of the
overall bid the assurances we are seeking are not a major
commitment on the part of Kraft.
"Our major concern is to understand how you would achieve the
quoted savings of $625million (which some analysts believe will
need to rise to as much as £1.5billion) without significant
restructuring involving the loss of jobs and sites.
"While your representatives said they had a commitment to
maintain manufacturing in the UK, they were unable to give us any
reassurance over Ireland – or indeed for Kraft members in Europe –
and regarding Somerdale could only say that they have an ‘intention
to maintain a manufacturing facility’ in Somerdale with no stated
intention to preserve any jobs for the existing workforce."
Unite says it also wants Kraft to be much clearer in terms of
its plans to invest in all sites in the UK and Ireland, and for
details of the business plans for the combined company as a
whole.
The union says it will continue to engage in discussion with
Kraft and any other company who may mount a bid, and is shortly to
launch its Keep Cadbury Independent campaign to win security in any
takeover for workers in the UK and Ireland.
ENDS
For further information, please contact Pauline Doyle on 07976
832 861
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