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Part II in a global company's restructuring
Following the successful restructuring of its largest U.S. facility, UPM North America (for which I worked from 2002-06) turned its attention to its largest Canadian facility, which was losing millions of dollars each month.
An uncompetitive labor contract was also the single-largest contributor to the facility's financial difficulties. However, the union at the Canadian facility was extraordinarily strong and had a rich strike fund that could sustain employees during a long strike.
To complicate the situation, UPM chose to close an obsolete, but significant, portion of the facility during the negotiations, eliminating one-third of the facility's jobs. To allow those employees to draw strike pay, the union immediately authorized a strike.
Because of these factors, our communications program was much more proactive than it had been in the United States, and required more planning. For example, on the day of the closure announcement, we oversaw an intricate, minute-by-minute communications program, in which company officials communicated news of the closure personally to union executives, non-union employees, local, regional and federal politicians and local and regional business and community leaders. The centerpiece of the day was a news conference featuring our regional CEO and president of the facility, which was covered by more than a dozen media outlets from the local, regional and national levels.
After a grueling eight-month strike – which included a siege of the facility by angry union members during which salaried employees were prevented from leaving for 72 hours, and some minor acts of violence – a contract was ratified, 17 months after our planning had begun.
Please click the icon below to access an overview of the communications program. (Please note that there's a slight hesitation at the beginning of the recording, but it's in a format that should play on virtually all computers.)
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