ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the impact of the changes in the economic environment of Quebec’s pulp and paper industry on sectoral and local union strategies and structures. Pulp and paper manufacturing is the main industry in Canada, the world’s most important producer of market pulp and newsprint. Nearly 40 percent of the jobs and mills in the industry are located in Quebec, where newsprint production is concentrated, while the market pulp comes mainly from the western province of British Colombia. The deterioration of the commercial and financial situation of the pulp and paper industry in Quebec during the early nineties has led to numerous job losses. Management demands for increased work flexibility in order to reduce production costs were first rejected by labour organizations, but the deepening of the crisis at the end of the 1980’s has compelled some local unions affiliated to the Quebec-based Fédération des travailleurs du papier et de la forêt (FTPF) to negotiate flexibility agreements to insure the survival of their mills and, in so doing, to improve job security. From 1989 to 1994, a growing number of local agreements were negotiated to introduce various measures of job flexibility in maintenance and production; in some cases major organizational changes, including semi-autonomous teams, were implemented.
