Cadbury can have great future - but government must police Kraft
pledges
1st February 2010
With Kraft about to seize ownership of Cadbury, Unite the union
is urging the government to act to ensure that pledges to the
workforce from the new owners are more than `warm words'.
Tomorrow, Tuesday February 2nd, Cadbury's shareholders are expected
to accept a revised £12 billion bid from Kraft, ending a 200-year
history of independence - and raising fears that jobs and
investment will be slashed to meet Kraft's burgeoning debt.
As the vote goes through, workers from the Cadbury plants in the
UK will gather in central London to lobby Ministers and MPs to push
for urgent assistance in pinning Kraft down on guarantees for the
future.
According to Jack Dromey, Unite's deputy general secretary, who
will speak at Tuesday's event in parliament, 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."
Today (Monday) Jack 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."
On Tuesday, Cadbury workers will travel from Bournville to meet
with MPs and ministers. The lobby will be addressed by Jack
Dromey and Jennie Formby, Unite's national officer for food and
drink. Workers will gather in Westminster from midday on
Tuesday.
ENDS
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