¢ At conference were workshop participants. Seated (1. to r.) were Local 1-

85’s Dave Steinhauer, National First Vice President Neil Menard, Local 1-
207’s Bernie Rushton and Local 324’s Doug Northcott.

‘Negotiated partnership’ policy
to be introduced at convention

There are some fundamentals
that are to likely be included in the
policy guidelines on co-management.
and co-design process that are being
developed by the I.W.A.

“First thing first, “says national
union president Dave Haggard. “We
think we should call these arrange-
ments ‘negotiated partnerships.’
After all we are not equals coming
into a new relationship with employ-
ers and it’s foolish for us to think
that we would have any guarantee
at becoming full and equal partners
— although that will be the goal of
our union.”

“Tt’s what we can negotiate with
the employer that’s important,” he
added. “It’s the guidelines that are
going to help local unions and their
operations get written agreements
from employers.”

As a by-product of the union’s
tour of High Performance Work
Organization operations in the
United States with the Interna-

tional Association of Machinists (see
Lumberworker, December, 1997), an
in-depth examination of the IAM’s
position on workplace co-design,
and a recent national conference on
the issues, the I.W.A. national office
is working on policy guidelines for a
Beeenated partnership” program,

Those policy guidelines will be
circulated to local unions for com-
ment and released this fall at the
union’s national convention in Sault
St. Marie.

Here are some of the guidelines
that are likely be included in the
overall policy paper.
¢ Commitment to a Real Partnership -
companies and unions must commit
to an integration of responsibility
and authority for running the busi-
ness,

* A Focus On Growth — any arrange-
ment must have a commitment by
both sides to grow the operation(s),
to increase market opportunities
and create jobs, not eliminate them.
¢ Employment Security — the up-front
security for union members partici-
pation must be a guarantee they will

es savas EA

not “think themselves out of a job.”

Shared Decision Making - a true part-
nership does not mean all decisions
are shared, but it does involve com-
pany representatives and elected
union officials sitting down and
determining jointly which decisions
will be made, at what level, and by
whom.

e Shared Information and Communica-
tion - the company must open its
books to the union’s representatives
and share full information on true
costs, market developments, etc.
Both sides must communicate openly
and honestly to their respective con-
stituencies.

¢ Ongoing Learning and Skill Develop-
ment - there must be continuous
worker and management training
and new educational opportunities
given to workers along with added
responsibility. Skill development
must keep up with new technologies
introduced into the workplace at no
cost to the worker.

Recognition of a Strong, Independent
Union - while in partnership the
I.W.A. must remain fully democra-
tic and independent in all of its
“negotiated partnership” activities
and this independence must be
accepted and respected by the boss.
e Cooperative and Adversarial Relation-
ships - although the parties may
cooperate on the same issues, the
collective agreement must remain
separate and intact. The collective
bargaining process is still the best
way for workers to share in the
wealth and prosperity of the busi-
ness and for union and manage-
ment to resolve legitimate differ-
ences.

“We want to have ‘negotiated part-
nership’ guidelines that can be
adopted in all types of I.W.A. work-
places, whether they are in the for-
est industry or not,” says Brother
Haggard.

“Although we are seeing more of
them in the forest sector at this
point in time we must have a policy
that applies in everything from
sawmills to home care.”

* Local 1-80’s Dan Clements (right) makes a point during conference.

LW.A. policy
Continued from page fourteen

going to be a rubber stamping
process, it’s not going to last with
the I.W.A.”

National Second Vice President
Harvey Arcand said that “we have
not lost our members in this experi-
ence.”

“There are substantive changes in
the way this industry is being run,”
he added. “We have to have a gen-
uine say or there can be no partner-
ship or risk taking.”

Sy Pederson, President of Court-
ney Local 363, said that the union
should put co-management schemes
on the collective bargaining agenda
to standardize returns to workers
and prevent one operation from
fighting against another.

He said that local unions have
done the best they could with co-
design when MacBlo was downsiz-
ing regardless.

“There’s a lot of companies that
are out there that are not going to
buy into co-management,” said
National Secretary Treasurer Terry
Smith. “Don’t get the idea that there
are going to be long lineups to get
into this kind of thing.”

“Many of these employers are not
prepared to share any power and

are not prepared to be reasonable
and stop trying to contract out our
members jobs.”

Manjit Sidhu of Local 1-3567 said
that until about 6 months earlier,
International Forest Products gave
the union menibersr ip a lot of lee-
way in reorganizing the workplace
but that has changed since. They
have cut funding for joint commit-
tees and now the union is reeducat-
ing the membership for traditional
roles.

“It’s happening out there and each
local is trying to reinvent the wheel,”
said Alberta Local 1-207 President
Mike Pisak. “We need to develop

- national programs and keep some

consistency in what’s happening
there. There’s a lot of things that
people are learning and it’s impor-
tant that we share information.”

Saskatchewan Local 1-184 Presi-
dent Dennis Bonville said that the
union has to be ipronetive and quit
getting dragged into co-manage-
ment, co-design arrangements.

He said that partnership plans
must be put in with the intention of
growing the business.

The I.W.A. is currently in the
process of developing national pol-
icy guidelines to assist local in devel-
oping co-management-type pro-
grams that work for the union and
the members (see article opposite).

e I.W.A. National President Dave Haggard answers question at labour
relations conference. Right is the PSAC’s Marilyn Meagher.

Haggard talks on co-management

New workplace arrangements are
on the brain of more than one
employer. It’s on the collective mind
of much of the employer community
which is out to reduce costs by flat-
tening management and getting
more out of their workers.

National I.W.A. CANADA Presi-
dent Dave Haggard had a chance to
articulate the union’s own position
at a labour relations conference in
Vancouver on March 8, sponsored by
the Canadian Institute.

I.W.A. National President Dave
Haggard joined a panel of union rep-
resentatives from the United Steel-
workers of America, the Hospital
Employees Union, the Public Service
Alliance of Canada and the Commu-
nications, Energy and Paperworkers
union.

When asked about building rela-
tions with employers, Haggard said
that both sides have to regain respect
for each other both at and outside
the bargaining table.

“T think labour relations have dete-
riorated over the years because we
have lost respect for each other in
the roles that we both play,” he said.

Haggard said the union is strug-
gling against low wages in the global
economy and has made a decision to
build partnerships with employers
on the union’s terms.

“The first thing that employers
have to do is get over their fear of
workers and until you do that you
won't be as successful as you can be
Until you do that and until we build

these true partnerships, you in man-
agement are going to fail.

“A good strong union in your plant
will enable you to have less problems
with the workforce that makes the
money for you.

“We are now seeking partnerships
to overcome difficulties and to open
new markets,” said Haggard, who
added that both sides should wel-
come the chance to grow the busi-
ness, rather than go through down-
sizings.

“In the partnerships we are nego-
tiating the worker assumes more
responsibility and accountability -
that’s not our fear — that fear is
more from management teams who
will lose their jobs due to redun-
dancy.”

Haggard pointed out that both
sides have to talk about job security
and growing the enterprise.

“Job security has be on both sides
so they can be comfortable. Why
would a worker sit down in a part-
nership and negotiate their job away?
Why should that happen? That’s the
problem with the past partnerships
that we have had.”

Haggard said that the union is
tired of mill closure after mill clo-
sure. “It’s us in the labour movement
that are left to pick up the pieces
and negotiate pension bridging, sev-
erance packages, and closure agree-
ments,” he said. “We want to start to
talk about how we can grow the com-
panies we work for and protect our
membership.”

LUMBERWORKER/JUNE, 1999/15