6/1/2012 1:22:00 AM
NEWS BRIEFS
Unions Say They’ll Sue Stanley Black & Decker Over UK Factory Closure
Unions plan to sue bosses of Tucker Fasteners over a “transatlantic charade” that will shutter the UK factory and eliminated 220 jobs, the Birmingham Mail reports.
In March executives at Stanley Black & Decker announced that the Tucker Fasteners site will be closed in early 2013. The U.S. corporation said jobs would be relocated to Germany and the U.S.
Company executives rejected union plans to save about 70 jobs at a rivet factory in England.
“As presented, the counter-proposal does not meet the long-term strategy and financial needs of the corporation,” the company said in a statement to the union’s negotiating committee.
The plant closure was first announced in December. Stanley Black and Decker said manufacturing levels at the factory had been almost halved in the past decade, hurt by increased competition from rivals in Asia.
But union officials said an internal company document showed the parent company had earmarked the factory for closure a year earlier, according to the Mail.
“We feel we have been subjected to a transatlantic charade,” stated Unite regional official John Walsh.
“They sat on the plans for 12 months while they made changes to the German and American plants. We were just used as a pawn in a global charade.” ©2012 GlobalFastenerNews.com
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