Linde Staff Rally Against Planned Praxair Merger
April 27 2017 - 12:59PM
Dow Jones News
By Friedrich Geiger
BERLIN--Thousands of Linde AG employees rallied Thursday to
protest against the gas maker's planned merger with U.S. competitor
Praxair Inc. and possible job cuts, a labor union said.
About 2,500 staff in total joined rallies at more than 30 sites,
including 1,200 staff who protested at the group's headquarters in
Munich, according to IG BCE. The labor union said it feared that
thousands of jobs could be cut and workers' impact on management
decisions could be weakened if Linde finalized the merger.
Linde and Praxair said in December they intended to merge into a
company with revenues of about $30 billion. The companies haven't
disclosed the details of the planned transaction yet and it hasn't
been approved by Linde's supervisory board.
Linde said in a statement on the protests that the planned
merger would increase job security in the long run because the
company would become more competitive.
"The entitlement to co-determination in the workplace and the
tried and tested system of [employee] representation on the
supervisory board will remain intact," Linde said.
Write to Friedrich Geiger at friedrich.geiger@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 27, 2017 12:44 ET (16:44 GMT)
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