The Walker Budget Is Already Working! Part XCI

Eighty more people in the Madison area are going to get to enjoy the benefits of Scott Walker's budgetary prowess and his ideological bent to destroy the state:

Webcrafters Inc. announced Thursday it will cut its staff of 540 by this fall. The cuts will affect all levels of the firm, including manufacturing, office and supervisory staff. A 15 percent reduction would mean over 80 positions would be eliminated.

“We intend to continue to have a large presence here but hope is not a strategy and you need to adjust,” said company President Jac Garner in an interview. “The fact is the market demand for book printing and almost all forms of printing is shrinking.”

Webcrafters has plants in Madison and Westport. It was founded here in 1890 and has been owned by the Frautschi family since the 1950s.

The company is offering voluntary separation packages to employees and says it hopes to limit the number of forced layoffs. Workers can receive up to six months' pay based on length of service if they choose to leave.

Most of Webcrafters business is printing school textbooks and educational material for the major publishing houses such as Pearson Prentice Hall, McGraw-Hill and Scholastic. Garner says the cutbacks in school funding at the state and local levels nationwide has reduced that demand. Here is a good article on that issue from a few years ago.

“Changes in technology, coupled with lower funding for educational materials, have significantly driven down demand for new printed books,” he says.

Is it June 5th yet?