ABSTRACT
Kinleith mill had a 50-year history of horrific union contracts characterized by, amongst other things, a culture of entitlement. If I asked you to fill the water cooler, and this was a task that you did not normally do, you felt you were entitled to more pay. When we entered the watershed negotiations of August 2001, our tradespeople were earning twice the New Zealand average for their trades, the mill had not earned its cost of capital for several years running and the world price for pulp and paper was depressed. We were on the edge. It was our last chance to create a sustainable future for the mill.
