Polestar is halfway through a 30-day consultation period with the GPMU after proposing to cut a quarter of the 129-strong shopfloor workforce at its Chromoworks plant in Nottingham.

In a letter to staff, the plants managing director, Peter Clark, said it had been experiencing serious trading problems, leaving it in "an increasingly poor financial position".

He cited overcapacity and "dramatically declining" price levels, and said there was no sign of trading conditions improving.

The 32 proposed redundancies will see 20 jobs going from the press hall and cuts across the pre-press, forklift, maintenance, supervisory and administration departments.

Polestar wants to move the site from a four-shift working pattern over six days to a three-shift pattern over five days.

Clark said the structure and shape of Chromoworks must change to "protect the majority of staff and jobs by putting the business on a sound economic footing".

The firm wants to reduce capacity and its "wholly unsustainable" costs.

Story by Gordon Carson