PROTESTERS against fat cat profiteers paraded outside a busy town centre store today.

They were demonstrating against the decision of retail giant Marks and Spencer to switch suppliers.

Pretending to be members of the Fat Cats Union UK, they wore pinstripe suits and bowler hats,

carried umbrellas and smoked cigars.

Members of the GMB union Tom Smith, John Gill and Shane Butkeraitis carried begging bowls with signs reading: "Please give generously to our telephone number salaries" and placards reading: "Half a billion pound profits at Marks and Spencer is not enough."

The union claims 6,000 jobs will be lost in the British clothing industry through the changes.

Spokesman Terry Butkeraitis, Shane's brother, said: "Why are they going to Third World countries to make clothes? It's not for quality. It's for profit.

"The clothes will more than likely be made by child labour. The quality will not be the same but the price is."

The troubled store group has alarmed the City with recent results but union spokesman Di Howlett said: "On a UK, European, US or global basis, M and S profit margins are very healthy indeed."

An M and S spokesman said some suppliers had been changed and whether they went abroad for help was up to them.

She added: "We do have a responsibility to our customers and our shareholders.

"We don't take these decisions lightly. We need to do this to push Marks and Spencer forward to recovery."

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