Unite: We MUST stop Melrose and save GKN

The hostile takeover bid for the engineering giant GKN by Melrose, a UK-based turnaround company, is causing anxiety and anger in the GKN boardroom and among their workforce.

Meanwhile, the government is considering an intervention and a minister is expected to appear before the BEIS Parliamentary Select Committee later this week to explain the government’s position.

Unite the Union represents the GKN workforce. It says Melrose must be stopped in its unwanted bid in order to protect a great British engineering company and, in light of GKN’s defence contracts, to protect national security.

Unite says Business Secretary Greg Clark must ‘come off the fence’ and decide in favour of preserving GKN. Otherwise, the union claims, the company will be broken up and its profitable elements sold to the highest bidder, ending forever a company whose legacy stretches back to Napoleonic times.

Their Assistant General Secretary, Tony Burke, discusses the controversial takeover bid with The Manufacturer’s Editorial Director, Nick Peters.