The newspaper paper and print plant closure follows the purchase by Fairfax last year of Rural Press. It is believed within union circles that redundancies will take effect from around August 22.

“[The workers] are pretty much all very shell shocked,” Donna Sargent, from the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, told ABC News.

“This has been a rumour for a number of years that the print section of the Advocate would be sent to Launceston to be done,” Sargent was reported as saying.

“With the relocation, it’s my understanding from discussions with a couple of our members that everybody will be made redundant. And they will have the opportunity to apply for the vacancies that exist elsewhere,” she added.

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