Swansea Council leader makes personal plea for U-turn on Unilever factory closure
SWANSEA Council has urged Unilever to rethink plans to close its factory in the city with the loss of 225 jobs.
The household goods giant wants to close the former Alberto Culver site on Swansea Enterprise Park by the end of next year and invest £40 million in Port Sunlight in Merseyside.
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Swansea Council leader David Phillips
Welsh Government Business Minister and Gower AM Edwina Hart has already pledged to try to ensure "the best outcome" for workers, and now the leader of Swansea Council David Phillips has written to the company urging it to keep the site open.
He said its plans to close the factory had come as a surprise given his understanding that the plant had remained profitable during the global recession.
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In his letter Mr Phillips said: "The previous acquisition of Alberto by Unilever was met locally with an expectation of even further success for the plant and renewed sustainability of local jobs, given Unilever's multinational presence and strength of its global brand.
"I can only, therefore, assume that the proposal for closure is based on a need for corporate restructuring and cost reduction across the organisation, rather than productivity of the Swansea plant and its loyal workforce.
"As such we would wish and urge you to retain the company in the area as it is an important component of the city's manufacturing capability and has had public sector support previously to develop the business and safeguard employment."
The letter offered the council's support in trying to avoid the planned axing of the factory and the loss of skilled jobs, saying the authority would welcome discussions with the firm to explore alternatives to closure.
Mr Phillips also praised the hard work of the staff and their contribution to the company's success, and said he hoped that recognition of their efforts would "guide the company in its deliberations and actions over the coming months".
Last year Unilever bought the Alberto Culver company — including the Swansea site, which makes VO5 hair products — for some $3.7billion.
Unilever makes a wide range of famous brands from Pot Noodle — which is made in Crumlin near Caerphilly — to Lynx deodorant, Persil, Cornetto and PG Tips.
jason.evans@swwmedia.co.uk
Comments
by Nye_Zwerk
Monday, July 02 2012, 9:52PM
“siarad2
Are you writing about the link that's part of Weslangdon's 12:03pm post?
Weslangdon's link is to the Unilever webpage on the subject of 'Corporate Responsibility'.”
by siarad2
Monday, July 02 2012, 9:30PM
“It apparently links to a Chinese site taobao.com
Not overridden to see where it goes or tried taobao as I don't speak Chinese
Worried as it just started a week ago.”
by PJL1967
Monday, July 02 2012, 3:38PM
“siarad2, you said the same about a link I provided a few days ago on another story. Maybe your anti-virus program is over sensitive (Norton?) or perhaps you are being redirected to phishing sites because you have a virus on your PC. I'm using Avast and I'm not getting any such warnings when clicking on these links and it doesn't look like others are either.”
by Nye_Zwerk
Monday, July 02 2012, 2:15PM
“siarad2
Tinyurl is an alogorthymn (or process) that converts a full Uniform Resource Locator link into a shorthand version.
Tinyurl is not a phishing site. However, there is a possibility that a phishing site full URL could be converted using the Tinyurl application.
The following is a Wikipedia link to the subject of TinyURL. I have provided the full URL but, the EP will convert it.
http://tinyurl.com/dmsfm
My personal view is that I prefer to see the full link and I wish that the EP would stop using the TinyURL program.
There have been a number of occasions when a commenter has posted a link to a bunch of cranks but, because the EP has converted the full URL into a TinyURL name, there is no way of telling in advance.”
by weslangdon
Monday, July 02 2012, 1:54PM
“The purpose of a boycott is to make the company think again, to decide if the closure is worth the negative publiicity.Its not intended to destroy other jobs, merely question the companys idea of corporate responsibility and contrast this idea with what is happening in Swansea and of course the companys 6.4 billion Euro in profits for 2011.”
by siarad2
Monday, July 02 2012, 1:35PM
“Recently my PC has warned tinyurl is a phishing site.
This page is identified as a malicious website by taobao
Seems to be a Chinese shopping site like eBay”
by toptexter
Monday, July 02 2012, 1:28PM
“if i boycott pot noodle, does that mean the crumlin workers suffer?”
by weslangdon
Monday, July 02 2012, 12:03PM
“Ok but publicise the boycott and it can spread throughout Wales and no multi national likes bad publicity.
For example Unilever has a "corporate responsibility arm"
http://tinyurl.com/8yym3bg
this is linked to Facebook and Twitter both easy methods of spreading the bad news of a Wales -wide boycott!”
by Petert53
Monday, July 02 2012, 10:50AM
“weslangdon
A nice thought, but as you point out, this is a multinational company and any boycott by Swansea residents would be a drop in the ocean - I doubt the effect of such a boycott would even register on their sales figures.
But not to worry, Edwina Hart has a plan that will ensure "the best outcome" for workers" i.e retain their jobs. Now if only we knew what this plan was”
by weslangdon
Monday, July 02 2012, 10:36AM
“Alternatively, launch a campaign to BOYCOTT this company's many and varied products!
Some of which include, Ben and Jerry's and Walls ice-cream, Hellmann's mayonnaise, Dove skin care, Knorr and Ragu sauces, Lipton's teas, PG Tips, Flora margarine, plus various hair care products like Tresemme. VO5, Sunsilk, Lux, Surf, Radox, sprays like Sure, and Lynx. Soap like Lux and to clean it all away Domestos. An organised BOYCOTT could have a major effect on this multinationals sales in Swansea.”