CRUNCH talks between management of North Yorkshire printers RR Donnelley and print union officials over plans to introduced continental shift patterns at the plant have been adjourned.

The delay is to give management time to explain to about 130 members of the Graphical Paper and Media Union (GPMU) why shifts should change to ensure 24-hour working seven days a week to meet unexpectedly large orders for the firm which prints Yellow Page directories in Britain and Europe. The union opposes what it claims will mean loss of weekends.

John Goodrich, Leeds and Central Yorkshire branch officer of the GPMU, said today: "We will be resuming the meeting, which was adjourned so that management can put its position on the state of the business and the necessity for shift changes as discussed in a three-option paper."

Roy Houston, vice president and divisional director of RR Donnelley, which moved last year from York to Flaxton Moor, said: "I am very satisfied with how talks are progressing.

"We are making progress and will continue to take into account the opinions of the workforce."

Updated: 10:55 Wednesday, September 26, 2001