Unite union fights Cadbury takeover

Tuesday, 2 February 2010 12:00 AM

By Alex Stevenson

Workers from Cadbury's plants are lobbying their MPs in Westminster as the chocolate-maker's takeover by US firm Kraft is finalised.

Shareholders are expected to accept the £12 billion revised bid from Kraft later today, ending 200 years of independence for the British firm.

The Unite union is worried that Kraft will not protect British jobs or investment in the UK following the takeover. It wants British politicians to help secure guarantees from Kraft on these issues.

"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," Unite's deputy general secretary Jack Dromey said.

"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."

The union fears that Cadbury workers will suffer the same fate as those at Terry's of York, who saw their plant close after it was bought by Kraft.

It is also frustrated that the government does not act to protect British firms' interests in the same way as Germany and France's governments do.

Mr Dromey added: "If our continental cousins can do it, so too can we."

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• economy
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• employment
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• industry
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• uk competitiveness