Jobs blow for printers

Telephone book printers RR Donnelley is set to close at the end of the year with a “devastating” loss of about 200 jobs.

Unite is due to have talks with the management at the Flaxby plant in rural North Yorkshire in a bid to secure as many jobs as possible and to ascertain the causes for the closure.

Bitter blow

The union’s regional officer Chris Daly described the news as “a bitter blow for the workforce and their families as well as the local economy.

“These are well-paid jobs that are under threat and won’t be easily replicated in rural North Yorkshire,” he said.

Best deal

“We are due to have a meeting with the management next week with a view to securing the best deal possible for our members”, Daly added. “Obviously, we would like to secure all the jobs under threat.”

Based in York until 2001, the company was famed for printing the Yellow Pages from the 1930s.

As Daly explained, RR Donnelley, has diversified in recent times.

“The company prints telephone directories for the UK and foreign markets. It had moved into other markets and has been printing Avon for a number of years.

“We are not sure at this stage what has precipitated the closure announcement.

“This is an American-owned company and one of the avenues we will be discussing is redeployment to another of its sites in the UK,” he added.

“We will leave no stone unturned in our efforts to support our members at what is a traumatic time for them.”