Kåre Leira - the chief shop steward

Collaborator and corrective

The concept of continuous improvement is nothing new for Norske Skog's employees, says chief shop steward Kåre Leira. “We've accepted change and improvement requirements as part of our daily lives ever since the company was created.”

Leira has witnessed many changes since joining Norske Skog almost three decades ago, through good times and bad. He has played an important role for many years in developing a good climate of employee-management collaboration. But many employees nevertheless found
the Improvement 2003 programme, which aims to cut costs by NOK 2 billion, to be on the tough side. 

“The uncertainty over redundancies was undoubtedly the hardest part,” says Leira. “A lot of people were redeployed without adequate training, which can be difficult to cope with. Matters weren't improved by an inadequate pay settlement for the Norwegian mills, which undermined motivation.”

New forum

All our union-management collaboration bodies are now functioning, but the workforce wants to exert greater influence.We have established works councils in all our regions on the model of the European body. Before Christmas, the chief executive and Leira signed a historic agreement to create a Global Employee Forum (GEF). Only four or five other multinationals have so far established a similar worldwide collaborative organ. “This initiative has been very well received by the whole union movement,” says Leira. “Union officials and group management are working constantly to cooperate better. Such collaboration is very well developed in central fora, but the picture remains rather more disparate at the subsidiaries.” After visiting South America and Australasia, he has nevertheless found that an acceptable mood prevails in our company. “A lot depends on personalities,” he notes. “Heavy demands are made on the communication skills of each mill manager and their willingness to involve employees before difficult decisions are taken.”

Long-term staffing

We are drawing up a long-term staffing plan to create more stable employment conditions. Our union officials see that such a plan can help us avoid further large-scale improvement projects with massive downsizing. “The intention is that mill managements will review future staffing requirements together with union officials,” Leira explains.

“All departments must be involved in this process. I believe senior management sees the value of such collaboration, and they have specified that union officials must be involved. This hasn't happened yet, but the plan is due to be implemented in 2005.”

Nothing hidden
Leira believes that we are living up to our ambition of being open. “Nothing is hidden from us, but we have to know where to find the information,” he says. “I devote a lot of time to going around the various parts of the company to collect data. It's also a great advantage to have a seat on the group board, where we can ask questions and discuss issues.” 

Emphasising that he also has a direct line to the chief executive, Leira says that an open dialogue with the corporate management shows its worth when the really challenging questions appear on the agenda. The main issues for him and his colleagues are defining the appropriate level of staffing to safeguard employee working conditions, and requirements for production and quality. Every effort must be made to avoid redundancies. At local level, improved pay and working conditions top the list alongside staffing.

Pioneer

We have been a pioneer in many areas, and not least in making a commitment to all our employees. The global agreement with Norway's United Federation of Trade Unions and the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers (ICEM) aims to secure good minimum rights for all personnel. It also builds on human rights. In force since 2002, this agreement has subsequently been revised. But none of our mills has breached any of its principles.

“I'm very pleased with this agreement and its follow-up throughout the group, so it wasn't difficult to sign a revision in 2004,” says Leira.He adds that too many contractors were employed in parts of our business for a time, but that this has now been resolved.

Negative expression

Norske Skog's union officials have not unreservedly accepted our goal of being a low-cost producer of newsprint and magazine paper. “We're sceptical to the actual expression 'low-cost' because we're unsure about the consequences,” says Leira. He believes this term could give the wrong impression of what we stand for, and suggest that we are willing to compromise on quality standards. The lowcost image also creates uncertainty about the future of jobs in our Norwegian operations. “That said, we also see the need to restructure if we're to compete successfully as a leading company in this industry,” he acknowledges.

“Even though this might be a painful process, we must shut down old capacity and build new in order to become more cost-effective. I can't see that this conflicts with the interests of the employees.” He points again to the process at Norske Skog Tasman as an example of how this can be done, and maintains that the workforce will be satisfied if forced redundancies can be avoided.