Employees from the printing and publishing group are expected to address the Syndicate stating the press is still profitable and that their jobs should not be cut in the current climate.

Today (March 6) also marks the end of the minimum consultation period for publishing staff at the press, but talks are expected to carry on until next week.

More than 150 positions are under threat at CUP after it entered into a 90-day consultation with staff in January.

Unite national officer Ann Field said the delegation will be making the case that CUP is still a profitable organisation "with a hard-working and dedicated work force - and that jobs should not be axed unnecessarily during a recession".

She added: "In recent years, staff have lost their final salary pension scheme, experienced a three-year wage freeze and its print members had increased productivity by 80%."

The union has cited the loss of a five-year £40m Cambridge Assessment contract, which was put out to tender last year and later won by equipment manufacturer Océ, as a reason behind the 'present crisis' at the press.

Previously, Peter Davison, corporate affairs director at Cambridge University Press, said: "The likely redundancies this year, predominantly in printing, are more than offset by the jobs that have been created in Cambridge over the past three years in the publishing part of our business."

Also see:

Unite slams proposed CUP job cuts

CUP pledges enhanced redundancy deals