Partnership Resource Centre
CONSULTATION, PARTICIPATION AND CO-OPERATION BETWEEN WINSTONE PULP INTERNATIONAL, THE NDU AND THE EPMU
What Motivates the Parties to Work Together?
A shared vision
The following preamble has appeared in collective agreements and contracts for a number of years and reflects the parties’ shared vision for the development of their relationship in the context of Winstone Pulp International’s continued growth and success.
Winstone Pulp International is committed to being an internationally competitive producer of pulp and paper products while providing job security, job satisfaction, overall improvements in the standard of working life, adequate wages and conditions to its employees, and a secure future for the communities that service the mill site. The employee parties recognise these objectives as being mutually beneficial.
All parties are fully committed to achieving these objectives and acknowledge that consultation/participation and co-operation along with a workforce that is treated equally and fairly, is highly skilled, motivated and flexible, will ensure ongoing job security for employees and continuing investor confidence in the company.
This Collective Agreement is designed to provide the framework for the steady improvement of quality and production levels through continuous improvement and the efficient utilisation of labour while enabling employees to achieve greater job satisfaction, skill enhancement and career opportunities.
The parties recognise that in pursuit of, and subject to the above objectives, the employer shall have the right to manage the enterprise and undertake all activities incidental to the efficient and business like operation of the mill. In expressing this right, the parties also commit themselves to consultation and dialogue to ensure that decisions taken are understood and the opportunity for employee input in such decisions is maintained.
The parties agree that maintaining continuity of work, production and income is desirable and thus, while this agreement is in force, the only interruptions that will occur will be for agreed purposes or for legal action taken by either party in accordance with the provisions of the prevailing industrial relations legislation. Source: Preamble to the Kariori Mill Collective Agreement 2005
WPI’s motivations
In 1978, WPI was brought into existence as a new pulp mill. At this time, under the existing Industrial Relations environment of compulsory unionism, a relationship with unions was inevitable. The only question was what type of relationship: good, bad or indifferent?
In talking to some of the staff who have been with WPI since its inception, and who were initially workers and are now managers, it is clear that the company sought from the very beginning to have a positive, constructive relationship with its workforce. This has remained a constant factor up to the present time and perhaps is most pragmatically reflected in these recent comments:
“We need to have well-organised unions. It is a way to engage the people on the shop floor in an organised way.” Paul Saunders – Pulp Mill Manager
During 1999 and 2000, a number of important challenges confronted the company and its workforce. These challenges included problems with shift rosters that only provided for two days off before the resumption of an employee’s work week. This inflexible work pattern led to both poor performance and high sick leave usage. There was no ability to train staff on the rapid change roster in place at that time; they could only train on overtime, which was not acceptable.
Tackling these issues became the focus of some groundbreaking work between the parties which has been cemented into the staff’s terms and conditions of employment.
WPI’s relationship with the unions in achieving these changes is acknowledged by the company.
“Sixty percent of these initiatives came from Jim Jones. (Wood Sector Division Secretary NDU) I have a huge amount of respect for him.”
“The NDU delegates ran with it. We resourced it by taking one delegate off shift work for six months to undertake the work.”
Paul Saunders – Pulp Mill Manager
In retrospect, the company now acknowledges that it lacked an integrated vision about these changes and didn’t fully capitalise on them. For the company, the case study provides an opportunity to benchmark how far along it has travelled before moving forward.
The company has now embarked upon a further period of change and sees its ongoing relationship with the unions as supporting its strategic plans.
In a nutshell, what is the company’s agenda going forward?
Three strategic projects are the focus for the company
- Improving people management (driving down accountability to the shop floor).
- Improving plant availability.
- Improving the quality of process.
The company wants everybody to work in the same direction to change the workforce culture, establish creativity in the workforce, establish key values, get clear accountabilities that are measured, to create a process of continual improvement. All of which requires a commitment from the union to work smarter and to tap into their knowledge. The pay-off is a better work/life balance and if the site does better there will be benefits to share.
Paul Saunders – Pulp Mill Manager
The unions’ motivations
The unions’ motivations at the industry level, as described above in their five-year strategy, is to help develop a forest products industry that will be recognised for its mature, highly skilled, unionised workforce. Even before the emerging challenges of 1999, their approach was wider than simply gaining higher wages for workers at WPI. From the union point of view, they were, and are still, committed amongst other things to:
- a fair, objective pay system
- increased wages and opportunities
- a collective rather than an individual model
- access to training and career paths for the workforce
- the opportunity to devolve decision-making to the workforce (through teams)
- an entry point for union/worker involvement in the company and industry development.
The launch point in 1999 for the period of intensive work with WPI was the unions’ motivation to significantly improve the working lives of their members through improved rosters.
“We went to the workforce and asked them what they wanted out of their lives. The focus was not wage delivery; it was the quality of our members’ lives. The types of shift rosters in operation were detrimental to workers’ health. They had to change.” Jim Jones – Wood Sector Division Secretary NDU
At WPI, this initial focus was part of a continuing union agenda to challenge traditional forms of work organisation and ultimately change the nature of the work experience itself through the creation of opportunities for workers to gain training, paths for advancement, new forms of recognition and involvement in decision-making. The unions’ aims were, and remain, to increase participation by workers in the planning and development of their work and provide those closest to the actual work with the skills, knowledge, and responsibility for making decisions.
Implementing the preamble
Over the last six years, the parties have made significant mutually beneficial progress towards their shared and individual goals. However, there is plenty of work still unfinished and the requirement for the business to become more productive continues to drive leadership from both the employer and union parties to work together on achieving their goals as outlined in the preamble to the Collective Agreement.