'If they dump foreign milk here, what will we do?' Unions fume over Clover takeover

[Jopie Fourie]

Unions are fuming over the Competition Tribunal's decision to approve the buyout of South Africa's largest dairy company, Clover, by Milco SA – with the Congress of South African Trade Unions saying it would consider legal steps.

Milco, which has Tel Aviv-based Central Bottling Company as majority shareholder, offered to buy 100% of Clover in February this year at R25 a share, valuing the company at R4.8bn. The Competition Tribunal announced on Wednesday that it had given the deal the go-ahead, subject to conditions relating to employment, local procurement and information sharing.

Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla told Fin24 that the Competition Tribunal should have rejected the proposed takeover, purely based on its impact on jobs. The Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU), meanwhile, has raised concerns about the impact on local suppliers.

Jobs

A total of 516 employees were initially set to be retrenched ahead of the takeover as a result of the completion of Clover's so-called Project Sencillo, a project aimed at ensuring its assets, including factories, production lines and vehicles, were better utilised.

Clover has previously told Fin24 Project Sencillo was unrelated to the transaction. It also said it had managed to reduce net job losses to a maximum of 277 positions, partly because Milco undertook to create 550 new permanent jobs over a period of five years through the expansion of Clover's Masakhane Project.

'If they dump foreign milk here, what will we do?' Unions fume over Clover takeover | Fin24

Unions are fuming over the Competition Tribunal's decision to approve the buyout of South Africa's largest dairy company, Clover, by Milco SA – with Cosatu saying it would consider legal steps.

www.fin24.com

 

[grok]

Drink it?

 

[Aghori]

Not good news. I hope the quality of their milk doesn't get crap. It's the only decent milk left in ZA.

 

[rietrot]

Who cares what the communist think? Let them have their own cows and their own milk. They don't have to buy from clover. Clover products are overpriced shît in anyway.

 

[rietrot]

Clover is publicly traded, and obviously South Africans don't care much for owning it, we have had our chance.

 

[Temujin]

And once ewc happens, they will be demanding begging foreign milk gets dumped here

 

[borro]

Burn stuff?

 

[konfab]

What will we do? Well the country would have cheaper milk...

These commie types are unsurprisingly retarded about economics and logic:
Sell your product cheaper than your competitors: "well you are being a greedy capitalist because you are undercutting your competition".
Sell your product for the same as your competitors: "well you are being a greedy capitalist because you are not giving your customers a fair choice".
Sell your product for more than your competitors: "well you are being a greedy capitalist because you are robbing your customers".

How about they take some of those union fees and build a university for their member's children instead of being reliant on government monopolies?

 

[thestaggy]

Probably go on one of their infamous looting rampages.

 

[ForceFate]

The issue might have something to do with ownership and not "foreign milk". We already consume foreign fruit, spirits, beer and possibly milk.

 

[SaiyanZ]

Unions have done irreparable damage to this country and will continue to do so. Who knows how many deals with companies restructuring for efficiency or improving technology have been stopped because the unions say "No, "Thabo needs a job to stack cartons on a shelve so you can't move forward like the rest of the world and get a machine to do it".

We are all the worse off for it as we will fall further and further behind the rest of the world with tech because too people need jobs here who are not capable of more than manual labour. Our goods prices will also keep increasing because salaries have to keep increasing and will still be the major cost of production if we don't embrace technology. So goods made here will become more and more expensive than imports so either the consumer or the producer is doomed.

Yeah, now that I've thought about it, SA is well and truly screwed with these unions constantly holding back progress.


What you will also find more and more in SA is new companies coming through which fully embrace tech with few staff whilst the older companies are stuck with lots of staff and are held ransom to the unions. Those older companies will have to close doors as they won't be able to compete. Employees at these old companies are doomed because unions have always been stopping them from becoming more efficient, even in small steps. So instead of the current group of companies slowing growing and advancing with the times, you suddenly get new ones who do things 5x more efficiently.

 

[Mephisto_Helix]

Israeli owned probably at the heart of the grumbles ….

 

[ToxicBunny]

Israeli owned probably at the heart of the grumbles ….

Israeli is some aspect of it, as well as it being foreign...

 

[John Tempus]

Man all the union outrage over every little thing must be a profitable industry.

I am waiting for them to launch a strike because someone didn't complain about some bs.

 

[Solarion]

Where was all the crying when Clover sold their entire Ice Cream division and substantially dismantled entire factory plants and shrunk/sold off huge swathes of property countrywide and this was not too long ago. All crickets back then.

Makes me think there is something more going on here than simple loss of jobs. The Unions want something this time. What it is who knows but somebody knows.

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

Not good news. I hope the quality of their milk doesn't get crap. It's the only decent milk left in ZA.

Tnuva is one of the worst companies to do business with
had a few years ago one well known scandal with silicone in milk.

Tnuva fined NIS 55m for silicone in milk

Tnuva Will Compensate Customers to the Tune of NIS 55 Million for Adding Silicone to Its Ultra-high-temperature Milk Between January 1994 and September 1995, Th

www.haaretz.com

 

[Aghori]

Tnuva is one of the worst companies to do business with
had a few years ago one well known scandal with silicone in milk.

Tnuva fined NIS 55m for silicone in milk

Tnuva Will Compensate Customers to the Tune of NIS 55 Million for Adding Silicone to Its Ultra-high-temperature Milk Between January 1994 and September 1995, Th

www.haaretz.com

Are they the guys who own Clover?

 

[Bigjay84]

The unions will not be happy until everyone is unemployed and there is no business left .
You would think that they would be kissing the behind of anyone wanting to invest in this labour hellhole

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

Are they the guys who own Clover?

I believe so.

 

[NarrowBandFtw]

same bullshyte came from their blowholes when Parmalat entered our market and hoovered up quite a few dairy brands ... only for them to beg the guavamint to prevent Parmalat's collapse later

always the same tripe, just geef geef geef, me me me, what is good for the country as a whole can go fek itself amirite?