More Unions to Fight BAT Takeover: Labor...

More Unions to Fight BAT Takeover: Labor leaders condemned the multibillion-dollar hostile takeover bid for Britain’s BAT Industries PLC and its U.S. affiliates, pledging to enlist public opinion plus state and federal lawmakers in their fight. An investment group headed by Anglo-French financier Sir James Goldsmith, British merchant banker Jacob Rothschild and Austrian investor Kerry Packer made an offer for BAT in July that it valued at about $21.6 billion. “Such a takeover would jeopardize the livelihoods of 55,000 American workers, including nearly 6,000 union members,” said John DeConcini, international president of the Bakery, Confectionery and Tobacco Workers International Union. The group has said it intends to sell the non-tobacco businesses of BAT, the world’s largest tobacco company. BAT also has significant interests in financial services, retailing and the Farmers Insurance Group.