A union was today pressing for plans to close a York packaging factory to be reversed - while admitting that the decision seemed a fait accompli.
The GPMU print union's branch secretary Brian Brock was meeting bosses of Lawson Mardon at the start of a statutory consultation over the proposed closure of the plant at Clifton Moor.
As the Evening Press reported on Saturday, the shutdown at the end of June will mean the loss of 76 jobs.
Mr Brock said: "We are going to try to get them to reverse this decision." But he feared the union's efforts would be unsuccessful, because he believed the company had already made its decision without consultation with the union, City of York Council or any other such body.
He claimed there had not been good levels of investment in the site in recent years.
Mr Brock said Lawson Mardon might be forced to re-consider if it was pressed to do so by Nestl, a major customer of the factory, where wrappers for famous products such as KitKat are made. Nestl has simply said it intends discussing with Lawson Mardon how it plans to continue looking after the confectionery firm's business.
It is understood that the firm plans to continue making packaging for Nestl at its other plants in Cumbria and Bath, with ten to 15 employees from York having the chance to transfer to the other sites.
Bryn Jones, of City of York Council's economic development unit, was today trying to make contact with the company to discuss the closure proposals.
He said: "We need to understand what the issues are and see what options are available."
He said that Future Prospects would be available to assist the workforce if needed.
Lawson Mardon was unavailable for comment today, but said on Friday after announcing the closure plans that it would participate in consultation but could not see any alternative to closure, although it very much regretted the impact on employees.
It said the factory was being closed because of over-capacity in the UK market coupled with the strong pound and weak euro.
Updated: 11:55 Monday, April 09, 2001
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