French, German Unions Resist Aventis, Sanofi Chemical Merger

German and French unions are teaming up to block the hostile takeover of German-French pharmaceutical Aventis by French rival Sanofi-Synthelabo. Hubertus Schmoldt, president of German IGBCE and Patrick Pierron, general secretary of the French union FCE-CFDT, oppose the hostile takeover. They fear massive job cuts in both countries will result, and jointly expressed disdain over how the takeover was set up. “A hostile takeover such as this is counter-production to the stock market. There are hardly any winners with such actions, but certainly plenty of losers,” the two unions said.