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| Graphic Communicator photo by Susan Zachem |
| Chris Harding, right, national officer of the Graphical, Paper and Media Union, and former GCIU Vice Pres. James J. Cowan talk during a convention break. |
The topic is important for unions as multinational companies, such as Canada-based Quebecor and U.S.-based Gannett, rapidly expand in Europe, while European companies have bought operations in the United States and Canada. For example, Gannett purchased 300 regional newspapers and magazines to become the largest regional publisher in England and Wales and the second largest in the United Kingdom.
The GPMU's 200,000 members work in printing, publishing, paper, ink, advertising and related industries in the United Kingdom (U.K.) and the Republic of Ireland.
GC: The list of U.S. and Canadian companies operating in the United Kingdom appears to have grown recently.
Harding: It's literally grown monthly. There's a continuing growth of North American companies in both the graphical and the papermaking sectors.
Maybe the biggest surprise to us is Gannett because we had not picked up any information or any indication that they were going to swoop and pick up a fairly large provincial newspaper group. Since that time, they've acquired Newsquest, which is another provincial newspaper group.
They've also bought a commercial printer as well as part of their latest acquisitions – a large web offset magazine printer which they decided to keep and to develop. . . . They want to invest and develop it and they want some cooperation and some commitment from the GPMU and its members there.
GC: In the United States, Gannett is famous for its anti-union management. Does it operate similarly in the U.K.?
Harding: Newsquest was pretty anti-union. We didn't have any agreements in their plants. But within two or three months, we had some skirmishes by way of exchange of letters. They accused us of being libelous in some of the statements we made in our organizing campaign . . . threatened us with legal action. We threatened them with legal action but we said look, this is bloody stupid, why don't we sit down and talk?
[GPMU General Secretary] Tony Dubbins and I met with senior management and Jim Brown [executive chairman of Gannett's Newsquest Media Group]. We had two or three meetings, and we ended up with an agreement that facilitates access to all their workforce and local officials on site during working time. We can make a pitch with regards to the benefits of union membership, etc. And if we get 50 percent plus one of the workforce in membership, they will grant recognition and collective bargaining rights.
We don't underestimate the role the legislation has played that the Labour government has introduced – employment legislation. And I think most companies, not just Gannett, have taken the view that if the unions have got the membership, let's reach a voluntary agreement rather than running down the legal path.
Because there are pretty tight time scales down the legal path, it's not like in the States where you can delay it for two or three years. They might delay it for two or three months, but that's about the limit. And if they do go down that path with the law, that means a ballot and an election. We can claim now you'll have to give us access to every staff member individually for 15 minutes. That really would be disruptive for a company. . . . They've taken a pragmatic view that it's there so let's do it.
One of the things I found enlightening yesterday: I went to the Quebecor Caucus. It's quite clear from the comments that colleagues were making Quebecor deals with the GCIU differently in the U.S. than what they do in Canada and they deal with us in the U.K. differently again.
I think we've got a reasonable relationship with Quebecor, and they're clearly on the acquisition trail again. I think that's a classic case of a multinational where we can support each other in a very positive way. I believe the importance of all that, as well, is the message it sends to the company because they're quite happy to play us off against each other both nationally and internationally. So, the greater contact we have and the greater understanding of each other's problems I believe can only be in our members' best interest.
GC: What can the GCIU and GPMU do to level the playing field with multinationals like Quebecor?
Harding: Where we believe we need to get to is for unions like our own and the GCIU to be sitting down and talking about a common agenda – how we approach these multinationals and put the same bargaining issues on the table at the same time. Not on wages and hours and holidays necessarily – we have different holidays – but the main employment issues. I think that's one of the key areas that could be looked at in the future.
I think it certainly needs to be a question of training, safety standards, harassment, bullying in the workplace. We ought to have common standards and agreements on those sorts of issues. How our ethnic groups are treated by companies – we believe that ought to be on the agenda. The whole question of discrimination is something we believe we could have a common policy and a common agenda in our dealings with the various multinationals.
Cowan: In the case of Quebecor, they're keenly aware that we pass information back and forth between Europe and America. . . . When we had a group from the U.K. come to Canada, someone [from management] was delegated to stay with us the whole time. But even there we had free access because we were talking to [GCIU members].
. . . What they were doing was telling them that our manning provisions were such and such, our wages were this and that, and when [GPMU representatives] came over here and started talking pressman to pressman they found out the hours were the same; the manning was the same. Quebecor was trying to whipsaw us.
Harding: I think the other side of the coin is as well we shouldn't forget that there are U.K.-based companies in the States and Canada that are predominantly non-union. Our concern is we certainly need to pursue this. I've spoken with some [GCIU] local officers so they can have a look at those because some of them are fairly large operations. If there's anything we can do to put some pressure on them, then again I think that would be a demonstration of our international cooperation in an effective way.
I believe we need to be quite imaginative how we tackle these multinationals. Where we've both got GCIU and GPMU target companies for organizing in the same multinational, we ought to look at the feasibility of having some sort of common campaign that could be coordinated so that we're doing it at the same time and even producing similar literature. Again, I think it's the effect that would have on the management of these multinationals that would be a benefit to us.
It's vitally important to us to have the contact internationally. Because there's so much in common between the GCIU and the GPMU, we see that relationship as being vitally important for both organizations – especially when we're dealing with these multinationals.
I think there's a lot we can do to push on with an agenda that's important to both the GCIU and the GPMU and our members. I had a conversation with [Cleveland 546M Pres.] Chris Farrand. We've been trying to get recognition at an Avery labels plant. He's got [an Avery] plant in Cleveland which is fully unionized.
Chris got all the employees there to sign a petition in support of our members in the U.K. calling upon the company to grant recognition. . . . And we just got the first recognition agreement with Avery labels at their plant in Glasgow, Scotland. We're now in discussion with another one just outside London because we've now got the membership. And we're continuing at their other major plant. . . .
Our members were delighted when they saw that colleagues in the States were taking an active interest by signing this petition, and it gave a lot of help and encouragement to our local officials with their recruitment drive. I think that's a practical example of a simple demonstration of support that's had some effect.
GC: What other messages would you like to send to GCIU members?
Harding: . . . I've detected quite clearly a new sense of purpose among the [convention] delegates, a much more positive outlook for the future and more confidence with regards to what the GCIU can do. I think that's welcome. We've gone through our own difficulties as a union in the past. You have to come through them and make the union stronger.
I think there are lots of good signs there that we would like to join in with and be part of. Certainly we would hope that both the GPMU and GCIU will continue to play our role in the International groups we're both members of and make sure we have input and influence as two of the largest graphical unions in the world. We should be taking the lead in most of the issues facing our members both in our individual countries and in the world as a whole.
Our view is that, if we can't maintain and enhance the trade unionism in Europe and North America, we're not going to have much of a chance in Asia or Latin America or anywhere else. We ignore that at our peril.
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