AFL Web Closes New Jersey Facility

VOORHEES, NJ—As many as 200 AFL Web Printing employees here will be without jobs only weeks before Christmas following its closure Wednesday, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

The company also has a facility in Secaucus, NJ. There was no word on the status of that location.

AFL Web Printing produced a number of newspapers, including the Catholic Star and Herald, the South Jersey Times and the Jewish Week, as well as guide books, coupon books and niche publications.

Last week, the Bergen Record reported that the company was laying off 63 people, including 49 in Voorhees. The paper quoted Patrick LoPresti—president of the Local 1-L of the Amalgamated Lithographers of America—as saying the layoffs were prompted at least in part by the loss of a contract to print the Metro, a free newspaper for commuters in Philadelphia and New York.

According to the Record, the union had been trying to organize AFL's workers and has been attempting to negotiate a contract with the printer ever since employees voted to unionize in 2010.

AFL Web Printing is owned by private equity firm Westbury Partners.