The basic goals of North American unions do not conflict with the principles of TPM. If union leadership and membership understand TPM, they will not fear it. Management must take responsibility early in the process for involving union leadership to avoid misunderstandings and to clear the way for successful implementation.

Many companies question whether TPM implementation is possible in a union plant. They fear that the unions will object strongly to the shifting of maintenance responsibilities from craftspeople to the production operators. If management’s intent behind the shifting of these responsibilities is to reduce head count, unions certainly will resist. But TPM is an improvement methodology focusing on improving equipment management, not reducing personnel. If the objectives and benefits of the improvement process are explained and implemented correctly, employees will throw their full support behind them.

Full TPM implementation is possible in union plants. The degree of acceptance of TPM by plant floor workers is not a function of whether the plant is a unionized or an open shop. Union management and members recognize that in order to compete in today’s world marketplace, quality products must be produced as efficiently as possible. By educating employees in how TPM can help the company achieve that objective, management can change people’s attitudes and open their minds to new possibilities.

It is helpful to examine the purpose of modern bargaining units in North American plants. Trade unions were formed to provide the hourly work force with a common voice against unfair labor practices, and their power was derived from the solidarity of the workers. Their mission was to improve the quality of work life as measured by compensation, health and safety issues, job security, and general working conditions. Unions also provided a service to the companies by providing a mechanism for training and ensuring consistent job skills of their members.

Employee quality of work life and safety was once the primary issue rallying union members, but companies came to realize that good work environments and safety are not only correct morally, but also make good, solid economic sense. Government agencies have set increasingly stringent requirements and standards for ensuring good working conditions and safe operating practices for all jobs, and there is little doubt that sites are vastly safer today than fifty years ago. Although working conditions and safety are still overriding issues of the unions, their primary focus has changed.

Compensation remains the major focus of unions today. Leadership is often judged in light of gains earned at the bargaining table. Compensation includes salary and associated benefits of:

• health, life, and disability insurance

• educational reimbursement

• vacations, holidays, sick days and other paid time off

• pensions

• cost-of-living (COLA) adjustments

Over the decades, the unions have been extremely successful in achieving significant increases in their total compensation package, and their members’ standard of living has risen accordingly.

In recent years, much has been publicized about a decline in blue-collar union membership, which has been accompanied by a reduction in the total number of highly skilled manufacturing jobs. People have voiced concerns that perhaps the unions were too successful in negotiating compensation packages, and had left their companies or plants unable to compete with lower-cost operations. Companies have shut down many older plants, most of which were unionized; and many of the new plants being opened are situated in the South where wage scales are not so high and unions are less prevalent. Offshore manufacturing also has proved alluring to companies, and more and more plant operations are being transplanted to Third World countries. This combination of events has led unions to reexamine their compensation position. They have shown an increased willingness to tie compensation levels to the financial performance of the plant, to trade compensation gains for job security and pension guarantees, or to consider two-tier wage systems.

Although the services sector is growing, the North American manufacturing base is shrinking. The trend appears inexorable. North American jobs continue to face stiff competition from developing third-world countries, particularly in the Far East, while the increasing quality of goods and products has enabled consumers to stretch replacement intervals, effectively adding to a glut in manufacturing capacity. For example, the average life span of a car has increased over the last decade, effectively limiting the demand for new cars. With reduced demand and improved manufacturing techniques, automotive companies and their suppliers are closing underutilized or obsolete plants. The situation has been exacerbated by trade policies that have allowed foreign competitors to capture domestic market share without allowing North American manufacturers equal access to their markets. The result is a shrinking manufacturing base and fewer North American manufacturing jobs.

The decline in manufacturing jobs has made job security the most important issue for unions. Daily headlines trumpet job cutbacks numbering in the thousands, and the trend does not appear to be slowing. Many of the jobs that are available or are being created are low-skill, low-paying, service sector jobs, as opposed to more remunerative high skill jobs.

Recognizing the importance of the job security issue, business leaders and North American unions leaders are striving to build new working relationships that protect the best interests of all parties. New “operating agreements” are being hammered out at bargaining tables across the country, as management and union representatives try to improve companies’ competitiveness and worker flexibility in return for secure employment. This trend dovetails with TPM, as increased worker flexibility is applied through autonomous maintenance and multi-skill development of the work force.