Cambridge Printing Back in Business (for now)

Back in January, the Cambridge Printing website was shut down, replaced with a static page instructing its customers to look elsewhere for their printing needs. This amounts to a cynical attempt to make consultation pointless, sabotaging the case for continued printing in Cambridge. Whether fearing repercussions in an employment tribunal or because of a genuine change of heart, the CPSL website now states:

In the meantime we remain very much open for business and we hope that print customers will continue to place work with CPSL

The figures from the past few years show that the workforce are doing more than enough to keep the Press running with per capita production around 30% above industry standard - but their efforts have been frustrated by unsupportive management. So, over the past weeks, union reps have been questioning the Cambridge University Press' plans to close the printing section down, and presenting alternative business models to the Press Syndicate and to management that would see the Printing section make a profit.

Management have now conceded significant reductions in the number of proposed redundancies, as well as some redeployment to other parts of the Press; negotiations continue over numbers, as well as the redundancy package in the event of any job losses.

Support from Waterford Glass Workers; Public Meeting

Wednesday saw a visit to the Press from Donny, a worker at Waterford Glass factory in Ireland, which has been under occupation for four weeks as the workers are determined to keep management from shutting it down. It's been a focal point in Ireland over the last weeks - in fact, another factory has gone into occupation too!

The factory has now been bought by a US firm, which means the plant won't close, but the workers there are still occupying until they know whether their jobs are safe. It's a useful lesson that when people fight back and resist cuts and closures, they can make a real difference.

Donny's vivid description of the efforts of workers at Waterford Glass to thwart the plans of their management to close the plant and put them all out of a job was inspirational. They've managed to keep the glass furnace going - which, once shut down, would have been effectively impossible to re-start so any efforts to save the company would have been pointless. They've managed to force a re-think about getting a buyer for the company after all, and through the solidarity of the local community and workers across Ireland, in getting 8000 people marching through Dublin, they've even managed to get the law changed to protect workers' pensions which were otherwise in jeopardy in situations such as this.

His message was that standing up for ourselves is worthwhile and we can make a difference. He offered us the support of the workers at Waterford for our own campaign against job cuts and we in turn have sent them the message of support below.

Tom Woodcock, the Secretary of the Cambridge and District Trades Council pointed out that the fears of ordinary people are being manipulated to encourage them to fight each other rather than unite to defend themselves against the worst effects of the recession, and meanwhile many of those who might be held responsible for the situation are well-cushioned against its effects.

The Trades Council is holding a public meeting on Wednesday 18th March from 8pm at the University Sports and Social Club in Mill Lane. The meeting will be a solidarity meeting for those facing job cuts in the region, with speaker(s) from Cambridge University Press speaking about our campaign.