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Kudos Pharmaceuticals to Close Down! Solidarity with ex-workers!

Kudos Solidarity | 05.03.2010 18:16 | Animal Liberation | Bio-technology | Workers' Movements | Cambridge | World

Kudos Pharmaceuticals - campaigners and ex-staff unite!

AstraZeneca is to close down it's Cambridge site, KuDOs Pharma, with the loss of 40 jobs. Activists that have been campaigning against AstraZeneca's use of the controversial testing lab HLS would now like to unite with workers that have been discarded by AstraZeneca.

Campaigners are offering to accept information from ex-KuDOs whistle blowers about any aspect of AstraZeneca.

Ex-employees don't have to let AstraZeneca get away with mistreating and discarding them. Ex-employees can get information out there without having to be personally linked to it – by using the campaign as a middle man!

Here is the open letter to KuDOs employees:

Dear KuDOs Staff,

We have just heard the news that KuDOs will be closing down with the loss of 40 jobs in Cambridge.

It comes as no shock to campaigners that AstraZeneca may treat it's workforce as expendable. We have been campaigning about how they treat animals as expendable everyday by using the most exposed animal lab in the world – HLS. But, that aside, we may have some common ground now.

It won't be David Brennan, CEO taking the fall but the everyday AstraZeneca employees and smaller R&D subsidiary employees – like the KuDOs' staff.

We would like to offer solidarity with any ex-worker who wishes to pass on information about AstraZeneca or their treatment by AstraZeneca. Anything could be helpful. We can help each other.

If you are an ex-KuDOs Pharma employee and have something to share please see:
 http://kudossolidarity.tk/

Regards,
Kudos Solidarity

Kudos Solidarity
- Homepage: http://kudossolidarity.tk/

Comments

Hide the following 7 comments

Dear Kudos Solidarity

06.03.2010 02:11

After having campaigned against these workers for so long, how can you expect them to show any "solidarity"? It is a fair question - perhaps not one you are comfortable answering, but it is fair. The entire effort comes across as a cynical trawling effort designed to obtain infromation about their former employer.

Before anybody begins shouting their outrage about this comment, consider the fact that - at some point - this question will be raised: "what are animal rights activists doing to ensure a future for scientists and technicians?" It does not seem to be a question that has a current answer but, if any sustainable change is to be made, it is a question that needs to be asked somewhere.

A Scientist


Also remember ...

06.03.2010 02:13

Also remember there is wikileaks which is a good way to anonymously get your own back at your pharmaceutical employer for putting you and your family in financial trouble:

 http://wikileaks.org/

wikileaks


Idea

06.03.2010 12:54

I remember a few years ago, people held an alternative jobs fair type thing outside a weapons factory, showing all sorts of different and ethical jobs in the area.
I know there are barely any jobs around at the moment but something like that would be an awesome way to build up a communication between the activists and the ex workers.

Veganarchist


Do not trust this post, it's a trap!

07.03.2010 03:08

Don't answer this!

anon


@ A Scientist

07.03.2010 19:19

AR activists seek the continuation of scientific research without the use of animals. Many of us directly fund such research via groups like the Dr Hadwen Trust. We do not want scientists unemployed, we want the to be employed in areas of research that don't use animals.

We understand that some ex-KuDOs employees may have reservations about talking to us but we think the cold hard facts of the matter are that it could be mutually beneficial for both parties. If they prefer not to speak to us there is  http://wikileaks.org/ of course.

Kudos Solidarity


You answer a different question

08.03.2010 00:25

@Kudos Solidarity

I appreciate that the Doctor Hadwen Trust provides non-animal testing research opportunities. But that response addresses a substantially different question to:

After having campaigned against these workers for so long, how can you expect them to show any "solidarity"? and "what are animal rights activists doing to ensure a future for scientists and technicians?"

After having been a Scientist, treated with contempt (substantially lower pay than people in the Arts, fewer opportunities, fewer MP's in parliament, Fewer Director Level Jobs and so on) for quite a number of years, that kind of response comes across like the BNP allowing black members: convincing to lawyers but not really that practical.

The Doctor Hadwen Trust is not primarily directed towards Scientist welfare. Petty though that point may seem, I am not being churlish. The situation as it stands would not allow all of the ex Kudos workers to take up equal employment opportunities with the Doctor Hadwen Trust so that kind of tokenism is really not adequate to the problem at hand.

The problem I was asking to be addressed is not the principles of the matter but the practicalities. How do animal rights activists expect scientists - who have been reviled, assaulted and attack as enemies - to respond "in solidarity"? It is not immediately plausible.

If the Doctor Hadwen Trust is the most outstanding opportunity then will all of the thousands of scientists in the UK be able to obtain equal employment opportunities to those they have now through that route? The question is rhetorical because the answer is likely to be no.

Realistically, unless animal rights activists also work towards broadening scientific opportunities then closing down labs will simply lead to labs opening up elsewhere. It is not a matter of morality but practicality: why and where should people work if you object to them working in this or that place?

A Scientist


@ A Scientist

10.03.2010 15:49

What support would the scientific community like from us? The animal rights movement is a small and under resourced demographic and I would say a reasonable amount of our personal funds go towards non-animal research, it may only be a small amount but that's because we don't actually have much.

If there is something we should be doing let us know what it is.

Kudos Solidarity


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