Toward A More Perfect Union

"There are times when I hear union members talking about things like quality and productivity, and I almost feel embarrassed to be part of management.

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It is 6 p.m., the end of a long September day, and J. B. Robinson is heading home. There is a gentle bounce in his step as he approaches the parking lot outside his plant in New Albany, Ind. He passes some young production workers relaxing on the nearby grass during their second-shift break, and he greets them in a folksy, southern Indiana twang. The tone itself seems to suggest that, for the 49-year-old executive, things are on a roll.

Indeed things are on a roll at Robinson Nugent Inc., an electronic-parts maker that J.B. Robinson founded with his father and brother back in 1943, and for which he now serves as executive vice-president At the moment, the company is in the midst of a record surge in sales and earnings. The rebound began last March, and continued at a breakneck pace throughout the summer. Large volume orders from such customers as Hewlett-Packard, Apple Computer, and the Delco Electronics Division of General Motors have kept the New Albany facility humming day and night. Fully 40% of the company's production, moreover, is being sold overseas, nearly half of that in Japan Most impressive of all, Robinson Nugent has made some of its recent gains at the expense of much larger competitors.

So J. B. Robinson has reason to feel jaunty on this particular evening. But life hasn't always seemed so sweet.

When Robinson used to pass this way 13 years ago, he had to run a gauntlet of taunts and obscenities from striking workers. Every night, he would have to check the tires on his car for nails. He was 36 at the time, and the symbol of a management determined to break the back of organized labor. He hated the newly formed union with a deep and fervent passion. The union returned the sentiment. The strike dragged on for over seven bitter months before winding down to an inconclusive settlement. By all indications, Robinson Nugent faced a stormy future.

But something happened over the next 13 years. Little by little, attitudes on both sides underwent a profound and far-reaching change. As a result, Robinson Nugent is now a model of union-management cooperation, producing electronic sockets and connectors that can compete on cost and reliability with anything on the market. Perhaps nowhere is the change more evident than in J.B. Robinson himself. These days, he says, "there are times when I hear union members talking about things like quality and productivity, and I almost feel embarrassed to be part of management."

By way of example, he recounts an incident that occurred one day last spring, when he was taking a Wall Street analyst on a tour of the plant. In the metal-plating room, they came upon Julie Courtney, an hourly worker in her late 30s, who was operating a new electronic measuring device that Robinson did not recognize. Was the machine being leased? he asked.

Oh no, said Courtney. It belonged to the company.

But how was that possible? he wondered. The machine had not been authorized in the budget.

Well, that was not her department, she said, but she pointed out that the machine would pay for itself in about 10 months, and anything that gives you a full return on your investment in less than a year had to be considered a good buy.

"I was amazed," says Robinson. "I stood there with my jaw wide open." He quickly moved on, fearing that the analyst might think the incident had been staged.

Much has been written lately about the changing roles of management and labor, but the Robinson Nugent story is different. It is not a story about concessions and give-backs, about compromises made under threat of bankruptcy, about troubled industries and struggling companies and frightened workers. Elsewhere, after all, the issue has generally been survival. Faced with a catastrophic loss of jobs, unions have agreed to cuts in wages and benefits, often winning a larger management voice in return. But whatever they have given up, their aim has been to get it all back once the crisis has passed.

In contrast, the changes at Robinson Nugent have occurred during a period of exceptional growth. Indeed, the company's sales have increased more than twelvefold over the past decade, from $3.2 million in 1973 to $41 million in the year ended June 30, 1983. This growth is especially remarkable coming, as it has, in the face of vigorous competition and declining prices -- a fact that serves to underline the crucial role played by the union, Local 1708 of the United Auto Workers. During this period, union members have consistently outstripped other producers, increasing their output as fast as, or even faster, than their counterparts at Robinson Nugent's own nonunion plants in Dallas and in Delemont, Switzerland. Management, meanwhile, has responded by making its 235 New Albany hourly employees among the highest-paid workers in the industry. And in mid-1982, when other unions were agreeing to give-backs, and other electronics companies were laying off workers, Robinson Nugent and Local 1708 signed a new contract that included a three-year annual wage increase of 9%, along with other improved benefits.

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