Read this article in:
17 January, 2011
Unit chapel leaders at some 50 corrugated paper operations in the UK, representing some 2,500 Unite the Union members, recently recommended acceptance of a 2010 pay package. Paperworkers represented by both Unite and GMB will now vote in the coming weeks on a pay accord that was agreed to with Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI) in mid-December.
The CPI, representing major corrugated boxboard and packaging employers at plants mostly owned by DS Smith, SmurfitKappa, and SAICA, agreed to raise their wage offer from 2.1% to 2.5% last month in response to the unions moving forward on a ballot for industrial action.
The offer, when accepted by members of the two unions, will be retroactive to 1 September 2010, the date a prior one-year accord expired.
Unite National Officer Peter Ellis
Unite and GMB were set to file for an industrial ballot on 10 January. Unite represents the majority of workers in the UK’s corrugated paper sector, while GMB represents some 800 workers in the sector.
The 14-member joint union/CPI bargaining body began 2010 negotiations in July, but talks became bogged down in October when CPI offered a pay hike of less than half of the retail price index. Unite National Officer Peter Ellis says now that the tentative settlement falls into the upper level of median pay awards in all industries in the UK this year.
Meanwhile, Unite and Kimberly Clark reached an early accord for 2011 that was agreed to by workers in December. The agreement covers 500 workers at two towel and tissue mills, the Northfleet mill in Kent and the Barrow-in-Furness mill in Cumbria. The 2011 pay award, effective 1 February, will be 1.5%, with Unite also winning a lump sum bonus of £1,450. That lump sum will also be calculated into the pension contribution, thus raising the benefit level.