The GPMU is growing alarmed at the high rate of print company closures and cutbacks in the Home Counties, which have claimed the jobs of more than 400 members of the unions Home Counties West branch since the year began.
And the plight is worsening, with a further 180 due to join the dole queues once the Burgess plant at Abingdon stops production next month.
We have really been whipped, admitted branch secretary Tony Kingston. I know Brian Dudley [Bezier chief executive] said he hoped Burgess staff would find work locally, well I would like to know where all the jobs are.
The area was hit by more bad news this month when Field Thatcham was pipped to a multi-million pound pan-European carton contract by MY Holdings.
The Thatcham plant has already suffered this year, with 88 jobs cut back in January. And just across the railway line from Field, the Calthrop board mill closed with 171 redundancies, 40 of them GPMU members.
On top of this, around 120 people were served closure notices at David S Smith subsidiary Corrugated Products in Bracknell two months ago, and staff numbers at the Burgess plant had already declined from 230 at the end of 1999. Plus theres been the odd little company closure, Kingston added. We are very concerned.
He is frustrated at the pending Burgess closure, certain the plant could have been saved with good management: We had been working with the company for months. We had introduced flexible working practices, and given it every opportunity to survive. But the management there are diabolical, the worst I have ever come across.
On a more positive note, the union has succeeded in negotiating a better deal for the redundant Burgess staff than the initial terms.
Story by Tania Mason.