FRENCH union leaders have promised not to accept transferred work from Nestl's Staverton plant while a closure row rages on.

Up to 155 jobs are under threat after managers revealed plans to close the plant by September.

Officials from the Transport and General Workers Union (T&G) have backed a bid to save the factory and are fighting proposals on a European and international front.

French unions have responded to pleas not to take on any transferred work at the company's factory in Vallet.

Branch chairman Ian Gammie and secretary Steve Silcocks fly out to Switzerland this week to meet with Nestl's European Works Council, to discuss the transfer of work from the UK to France.

Prime minister Tony Blair, a former Fettes College classmate of Mr Gammie, passed details of the closure to the Department of Trade and Industry.

On May 5 union leaders will meet with Greg Krol, managing director of Nestl Chilled UK, but still demand meetings with Nestl's UK chief executive Alistair Sykes.