West Ferry Printers and the GPMU have started a series of meetings about a proposal to cut 100 jobs at the Docklands-based newspaper printing plant.

GPMU national officer Chris Harding said: "We'll be looking at the areas the job losses will come from, and also a proposed wage freeze for those remaining."

He said the announcement was "very surprising" given the Telegraph Group's order for five Heidelberg Mainstream presses for West Ferry (PrintWeek, 2 June 2000).

The plant, which produces The Express, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph and Financial Times, has lost Sport First to Mirror Colour Print (Watford) in the past few weeks and could be on the verge of losing a number of other Trinity Mirror titles to the same rival. A decision on whether West Ferry's share of the Financial Times will be transferred to Newsfax International in East London is also expected shortly.

Harding added that while the union may not be able to reduce the number of redundancies, it would look for the best terms and conditions for its members. It also would seek "some kind of justification for arriving at the figure of 100".

He added: "Our experience is that once people have got over the shock, they want to get it over with as quickly as possible. It's the same for the company, they don't want protracted negotiations."

West Ferry currently has 760 employees and about 700 of those are members of the union. The plant is jointly owned by Express Newspapers and the Telegraph Group.

Chief executive Bill Wenman said: "I regret having to implement the job losses, which I hope can mostly be achieved through voluntary severance."

He said the firm's forecasts had shown a "serious downturn", and that it was essential that it acted now to secure the plant's long-term viability and the interests of customers and shareholders.

Story by John Davies