UK: Cadbury union attacks Kraft over jobs

Union officials representing Cadbury workers in the UK have today (30 November) publicly hit out at Kraft Foods after meeting the US food giant last week to gain assurances over jobs.

The Unite union has said Kraft's insistence that the company does not yet have enough information on Cadbury's business to make any pledges on jobs is "unacceptable".

In a letter to Kraft chairman and CEO Irene Rosenfeld, Unite pushed the company to be more "explicit" about its plans for Cadbury's Somerdale site, which the UK confectioner is looking to close next year.

When Kraft first went public with its interest back in September, the Toblerone maker said it hoped to keep the Cadbury site in Somerdale open.

"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," Formby wrote.

"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."

Formby's letter continued: "I have to say that I can not accept this; you clearly have enough information to persuade you to make a bid worth GBP10bn 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."

Speaking to just-food on Wednesday (25 November) after the meeting, Jennie Formby, Unite's national officer for the food industry, had then said that the union had held "constructive" talks with Kraft.

Formby had said Kraft had been "clearer" on its "intention" to have a manufacturing site at Somerdale, although she claimed the US group had not said it would definitely reverse Cadbury's decision.

However, the letter to Rosenfeld represents an apparent hardening in tone. "Our major concern is to understand how you would achieve the quoted savings of US$625m (which some analysts believe will need to rise to as much as GBP1.5bn) without significant restructuring involving the loss of jobs and sites," Formby wrote.

"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."