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23 December, 2010
Bargaining in UK’s corrugated paperboard industry concluded this week, with negotiators for Unite the Union and GMB coming to 2010 wage terms with the Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI). The CPI, representing major corrugated boxboard and packaging employers at some 50 plants mainly belonging to D.S. Smith, SmurfitKappa, and SAICA, agreed to raise their wage offer from 2.1% to 2.5%.
The offer, if accepted by paperworkers from the two unions in January, will be retroactive to 1 September 2010, the date a prior one-year accord expired. Unite National Officer Peter Ellis said the tentative settlement falls into the upper level of median pay awards in all industries in the UK this year, and Unite’s bargaining panel will strongly recommend acceptance.
Unite National Officer Peter Ellis
The settlement averts a vote for industrial action, a ballot both Unite and GMB members were about to file for on 10 January. Unite represents 2,500 workers in the corrugated industry, while GMB covers some 800 workers in the industry.
Contract talks began in July, but became bogged down in October when CPI offered a pay hike of less than half of the retail price index.
Meanwhile, Unite and Kimberly Clark reached an early accord recently for 2011, covering 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.