Read this article in:
6 April, 2006
UK Trade unionists of Amicus at International Paper Co.’s Inverurie mill in Scotland will extend industrial actions into next week, giving notice to the US-based company that another four-hour strike will occur on Monday, 10 April, and then an eight-hour downing of tools on Thursday, 13 April. It will be the fifth time since 23 March that the 231-strong workforce will have struck, and the 13 April action will mark the first eight-hour strike.
The two sides met on 4 April. The union was heartened that company negotiators moved off a pay freeze for 2006, but the company attached unacceptable conditions to the sub-standard, two-year pay offer. It sought not to make the pay offer retroactive to 1 January, and the company also wants to make the first two days of January mandatory work days each year.
Amicus union officials consulted with union members, and informed management today that their offer was unacceptable. “We will keep the door open to further bargaining,” said Amicus Asst. Branch Secretary Willie Wallace. “We have suggested that ACAS get involved and we sincerely wish to resolve this dispute,” he added. ACAS is the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service of the UK, an independent but public-funded mediation service with a longstanding reputation.
Amicus branch leaders and trade unionists at the Inverurie mill are perplexed by the company’s bargaining posture. Absent in bargaining is good-faith and a fair exchange of ideas and proposals. Instead, managers come to talks with “take-it-or-leave-it” proposals, void of any desire or willingness for dialogue, according to Wallace. International Paper has presented three “last, best and final offers” in recent bargaining sessions, a fact not lost on Inverurie paperworkers as they’ve united more through this dispute than ever before.
This week’s bargaining is a case in point. Amicus members know the company has never had a problem operating paper machines on 1 and 2 January. The voluntary system of working those days has never failed in the past. Considering also the company’s demand that any wage increase for first quarter of 2006 is lost, this week’s restructured “last, best and final offer” was easy to reject.
“The mood among members is hardening,” said Amicus Asst. General Secretary Tony Burke. “The company does not understand that they cannot keep rehashing previous offers which have found no favour amongst our members.”