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5 May, 2008
Rather than negotiate in good faith with print shop members of UK union Unite, a book producer did the unthinkable: it suddenly sacked 287 workers and took the company into liquidation.
Butler and Tanner, a 170-year-old printer in Frome, Somerset, that was bought last year by Media and Print Investments (MPI), had informed UK’s Advisory, Conciliation, and Mediation Service (ACAS) that it was prepared for further talks with Unite over the weekend of 25-27 April in order to avert a planned 30 April industrial action.
Instead, Butler and Tanner’s chairman issued a terse letter to all 287 union members, received on 26 April, that the prestigious colour book printer was closing immediately. Unite then learned that the company had deployed labour agency staff to continue operations.
Union members last Tuesday, 29 April, voted to take legal action to recover £12,000 per worker in lost wages and £44,000 in total pension contributions for the workforce. The union also organised a mass rally at the locked plant gates on 2 May.
United National Officer Ann Field called it a “despicable act,” and said the union will demand full recompense. The union’s Assistant General Secretary, Tony Burke, said staff had given their working lives to make Butler and Tanner one of UK’s quality book printers, “but they decided enough was enough when the goalposts for an agreement were constantly moved.”
Print workers had conceded pay cuts and other economic items when private equity company MPI took over in August 2007. The company was currently seeking another £1 million in cost reductions, including radical shift changes, as well as a clause in a proposed new contract that would restrict Unite’s ability to negotiate for workers.