By Susan Zachem

Graphic Communicator photo by Susan Zachem

GCIU Vice Pres. Garry D. Foreman urges union leaders at the bargaining conference to work together.

How many employers would it take to drive down the level of GCIU wages, benefits and working conditions all over the United States and Canada?

Just one if that employer is a giant multinational like Quebecor or Mail-Well, warned GCIU Vice Pres. Garry D. Foreman.

In an address at the GCIU Coordination of Negotiations Conference in Pittsburgh, Foreman said the rise of giant printing companies makes it more important than ever for GCIU locals in the United States and Canada to coordinate on bargaining.

"I can't stress enough how important coordination is – especially the way our industry is going where we've got World Color, Mail-Well, National Envelope, and Quebecor buying out plants right and left," Foreman said.

"If we don't get together; if we don't coordinate our efforts; then they're going to whip us," Foreman said. "We can win, but we have to work together. We're all GCIU members, and if they attack one, they attack us all."

Foreman explained the two types of coordinated bargaining. Internal coordination refers to more than one bargaining unit or more than one local inside the same plant. External coordination involves locals in more than one plant location.

Both types of coordination are needed in today's printing industry, Foreman said. He cited the example of negotiations with one of the printing behemoths in which company negotiators told GCIU locals in different locations that the other locals had agreed to give up double time on Sunday. Because Foreman was coordinating negotiations between the different locations, he was able to tell the locals that wasn't the truth.

"Had we not coordinated the groups in different locations," Foreman said, "[the employer] might have been able to be persuasive with that particular local to give away something. As soon as that local union gives something away, then they're going to go to the other locations and try to take it away from everybody else."

Foreman said that "there are a lot of advantages with coordination. . . . What you're able to do is to stop your employer from being able to whipsaw one group against another. There's also strength in numbers. By uniting together, you're able to put more collective strength, more bargaining power against that employer than if you stand by yourself individually."

For locals worried that coordination with other locals would disrupt their negotiations or cut into their local autonomy, Foreman said, coordination doesn't have to disrupt a relationship with an employer. "It's just bargaining smartly. You're sending the message that you're united."

As for the autonomy issue, he said "that's not the worst thing in the world, because if you come out with an agreement that protects all of the GCIU members, then you're stronger for it. You have to be prepared to be flexible."

Foreman stressed that the time to begin coordination is well before bargaining begins. "Don't wait until you get to the bargaining table," he said. He urged locals that bargain with multi-site employers to contact the International Contract, Research, and Education Department to find out if there are other GCIU locals with contracts with the same employers and what those contracts provide. The International can help develop a coordination effort among GCIU locals in different locations, he said.

Foreman also urged locals with common employers to communicate with each other and with the International and to try to arrange to sit in on each other's bargaining sessions.

"We have to do a better job in our coordination because these employers are growing. And if we don't coordinate, they're just going to eat away at our benefits and our wages," Foreman said. "We've got to support one another. By sitting in on each other's bargaining sessions, the message is clear: 'we are together.' You're going to get better agreements. You're going to get better benefits. . . ."