News

UK affiliate GMB leafleted the 10th anniversary Summit of European private equity and venture capital, held in Frankfurt’s Congress Centre on February 26.



The union is protesting at job losses and union recognition involving private equity buyouts at frozen food operation Birds Eye, the Automobile Association and National Car Park (where GMB members have staged five days of strikes to demand union rights from the 3i owned company).



Banners included “Plague of locusts” and “Slam the door as you leave the EU” and among the demonstrators were workers sacked in the last six months following buyouts and two suspended 3i strikers.



The union is pressing the UK government to end tax concessions to private equity buyouts.

Unilever sold off Birds Eye to Europe’s largest private equity fund Permira. In spite of assurances of job security for at least three years the company is dismissing workers after just six months of ownership.



When Permira took over the AA it cut 3,500 jobs and the remaining workforce bullied into working overtime.

3i is thought to be in the process of selling on NCP on to Australia’s Macquarie Bank, in a deal that would produce a profit of 45% (£245m) in just 18 months.



The Frankfurt protest attracted media interest and the GMB told journalists that the private equity industry “is no more than a vehicle for the elite at the top of the savings management industry to cream off vast sums of money for their own aggrandisement away from the gaze of the public”*.