‘Not going down without a fight’

Even in the face of last week’s defeat as Melrose’s takeover of GKN was approved by shareholders, Unite GKN members aren’t giving up.

Last Thursday (March 29) investors approved the takeover by the slimmest of margins  – just 50.1 per cent of GKN investors had to vote in favour of the deal for it to go through, and in the end investors owning 52.4 per cent of GKN shares approved the takeover.

Unite deputy convenor Tim Richards, who works at the GKN Filton site in Bristol, expressed disappointment at the news when he and his colleagues first learned of shareholders’ decision.

“We were shocked really that the takeover went through,” he told UNITElive. “There’s really no other way to describe it. And we were shocked that Melrose was allowed to know what was going on throughout the whole process while GKN weren’t allowed to know.”

Richards explained that on the Thursday morning before the shareholder vote deadline at noon, Melrose reportedly knew they were losing the vote and were allowed to contact shareholders to put pressure on them to sell their shares so the vote would swing in Melrose’s favour.

“The way the whole process was handled was inherently unfair,” Richards said.

Uncertainty

Now GKN workers face worrying uncertainty.

“The big worries now are job security and questions of whether the work will stay in this country. There are other issues such as the free shares which were guaranteed to us due to a change in the pension scheme and which should have been given last week – on the day, oddly enough of the takeover – that’s all up in the air too.”

GKN reps from across the country met today (April 4) to discuss the union’s next steps. Unite has still not ruled out a possible government intervention on the grounds of national security.

As Bloomberg highlighted on Sunday (April 1), the decision is still very much in the hands of business secretary Greg Clark, who will seek advice from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and other security agencies to determine if the takeover poses a security threat.

After the takeover vote, Clark noted the government has a “statutory responsibility to consider whether the merger in its proposed final form gives rise to public interest concerns in the areas of media plurality, financial stability and national security.

“This assessment will be made by the appropriate authorities and the conclusion set out in due course.”

Plan B

Richards told UNITElive that the next step GKN reps have planned after today’s meeting is to meet with the business secretary again to press their case and pile on the pressure for a government intervention. But, he added, they also have a plan B.

“At the end of the day if government can’t, or more accurately if it won’t step in – it took Clark 54 days to very weakly intervene in the last minute after all – going forward we’re going to have to talk to Melrose and see what their thoughts are on the future.”

And while Unite and GKN reps are more than willing to talk constructively with Melrose, it is the firm’s business model that worries Richards most.

“No matter what age you are – young or old; obviously I’m old – I still worry about the future,” he said. “I still have friends at GKN who are in their 30s; there are apprentices there who have worked under me. I want them to still be there in 20 years’ time.

“Melrose just thinks five years ahead – that’s it,” he noted. “Their motto is ‘to improve and sell’. They haven’t given any indication that they will operate any differently with GKN.”

Unite and Melrose haven’t had official discussions yet — they will likely have to wait until the takeover is unconditional on April 19, or until a possible government intervention further extends the ‘cooling off period’.

Either way, Unite and its members aren’t going down without a fight.

“The battle for jobs and a sustainable future for GKN is far from over,” said Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner. “We at Unite are committed to continuing to pressure the government to intervene and we will likewise be holding Melrose’s feet to the fire over concessions it has made in recent days and will seek concrete guarantees on job security, investment and future work in the UK.”