UNION leaders pledged to fight any compulsory job cuts as a result of Banco Santander's acquisition of Alliance & Leicester, which was completed today.
The Communication Workers Union stressed the importance of job security for Alliance & Leicester staff, saying it was "a takeover, not a walkover".
The £1.26bn takeover of A&L preceded Santander's recent £612m acquisition of buy-to-let lender Brad
ford & Bingley's network of 197 branches and £20bn of customer deposits. The combined group, which also owns Abbey, has 1,286 branches in the UK.
Deputy general secretary Andy Kerr said: "The CWU will be working tirelessly to maximise job security for our members and we will strongly oppose any compulsory redundancies.
"We are gravely concerned about job losses, especially given the credit crunch and Santander's recent acquisition of parts of Bradford & Bingley which overlap with existing A&L operations.
"Santander has already proposed generous bonuses for senior executives who remain with the business and we will be pushing for fair treatment for all A&L employees.
"Alliance & Leicester plays an integral part in local economies across the country and we will be working hard to gain assurances from the company that individual regions will not lose out as a result of this takeover."
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