The end of an era

Norman West was secretary of the Society from its foundation 25 years previously. Even before that, Norman was involved with the baking industry as an employers’ advocate, and he witnessed many of the somewhat tumultuous events that led to the formation of Society.

Though he has never had his hands in the dough, Norman has earned the respect of bakers (not an easy job) throughout New Zealand and further afield. He has certainly done more for the baking industry than most bakers can claim.

His reflections on the baking industry, particularly the craft baking side of it, are rich with wisdom and wry observation.

The Baking Society is a vastly different creature from the one that engaged Norman West from time to time 25 years ago.

In his last six years, the Society "just took off," and the work had become very intense. “It’s no longer a comfortable part-time position,” he said. “The President never stops dreaming up new initiatives.

Beth too has had an increasing load to carry: the telephone alone imposed a considerable burden. Norman was keen to have her contribution recognised here. Always a team player, Norman West has had Beth on the team, particularly with the Baking Society, since he first took on his responsibilities. “I certainly could not have done it without her”, he says.

An accountant learns to say no
Norman was educated at Christchurch Boys High and Canterbury University College (as it was then called), and graduated in accountancy with a Bachelor of Commerce degree.

His first “proper job” was with a firm of chartered accountants in Christchurch, and one of their clients for audits was the Canterbury Employers Association. Routine work in accounting failed to excite Norman — “I got sick of timesheets” — and when an opening appeared at the Employers Association, he jumped at it.

As an industrial advocate engaged in a succession of negotiations with trade unions, Norman learnt, as he says, “to say no in a dozen different ways.”

While the employers had the money, the unions’ weapon was the strike, and once a strike had started, negotiations could become extremely fraught. It was high-pressure work. Nevertheless, Norman developed a keen respect for many of the union officials. “Most of the union secretaries were very good to deal with,” he says. “If they agreed to something you could rely on them to keep their word.” There were however some groups and individuals on both sides that could be very difficult to deal with. Fortunately the Cake Bakers were not among them.

While wage negotiations were never easy, a government imposed wage freeze in the 80s only made matters worse. There were many employers who found being sandwiched between their workers and the Government quite intolerable “Many, in order to merely survive, had no option but to find ways through a maize of regulations to justify doing something sensible.”

The arts of diplomacy and negotiation, although, he admits, sometimes less in evidence, have been central to Norman’s career, and he learnt them at the very best schools.

As he worked his way up to senior advocate, he was asked to represent New Zealand employers at International Labour Organization conferences in Geneva. (The ILO was founded in 1919 and brings together representatives of governments, employees and employers to deal with matters such as exploitation and workplace health and safety.)

Norman attended the conferences in Geneva three times.

West meets East
The cold war was at its height and Russians were rarely seen in the West, but they did participate in ILO meetings where their presence often caused consternation and even confusion, some incurred by the representatives themselves. ILO meetings are conducted in English, French and Spanish, with instant translations. Norman recalls an impressive Russian Government delegate on a working committee who complained strenuously and at length about the lack of Russian translators. Then, at the final social function, as the valedictories were being handed out, he proceeded to praise the work of his committee colleagues, East and West alike, in fluent classical French.
Another Russian Employer delegate, apparently unable to understand a committee’s deliberations and uninterested in translations, took no part in proceedings until the very final vote. He then spoke up firmly from the back of the room — just one word: “ No.”

Friends and family
Norman West is a man who keeps friends. One friend in particular, from Canada, he met first in Geneva in 1958. A wit, he gained Norman’s attention by claiming he could not distinguish Australians from New Zealanders. This brought a predictable response. Their families became quite close and Wests have continued to meet Stewarts regularly ever since. “Every time we went overseas we ended up visiting the Stewarts’ home in Moncton, New Brunswick, on the eastern coast of Canada. My travel agent could never understand why. We’ve been to Moncton four times now, and our friends have been to New Zealand three times. I am proud of the way I have managed to retain these contacts from the past.”

The invaluable Beth
Norman married the invaluable Beth in 1954. They have a son doing very well for himself in Sydney and a daughter in Christchurch, married to a South African she met in London. “He has no trouble backing the All Blacks,” says Norm, “so I have no problem with him.” Their grandson, 12, shows great promise as an athlete and rugby player: a source of great pride to Norman.

A retiring character?
Though his 33 year association with baking has equalled his stay with the Employers Association, Norman has held a variety of other positions in his time: Director of the Canterbury Employers Association for 18 years, a member of the Arbitration Court for two years until the Government changed the rules, and then five years running the office for a firm of surveyors through four mergers, after which he called that quits.

The relinquishment of his current position is thus, by his count, his fourth retirement.

Into the thick of it
Norman, through his advocacy position, was there when the New Zealand Baking Society began in 1967 as a breakaway by the cake bakers section from the New Zealand (Except Auckland) Baking & Related Trades Industrial Union of Employers. A number of colourful characters on both sides each held strong views on the conduct of labour relations and on the needs of their respective sections.

The mix of large plant bakeries and small craft bakeries created its own problems.

Walker’s baby
As the factions could not get on, The Master Cake Bakers (excluding those in the Auckland area, who remained separate for a further 20 years) formed their own Industrial Union of Employers. Norman was soon working with founder President Ray Walker, who held office for ten years and remained active until his death in 1997.

Norman’s expertise in labour relations and award negotiations remained central to the new organisation’s activity. These matters were rigidly regulated, but the Baking Society, then a separate organisation formed at the time of the split, was able to be far less formal in its workings. The Baking Society had as its prime objective the fostering of craft baking, providing advice and encouragement to its members to raise standards.

The Society was Ray Walker’s baby, and the annual conference and institutions such as the members’ baking competition were the fruits of his efforts.

Over the last 15 years, labour relations problems have been less prominent, a result of massive changes in employment law and the economy. This opened the way for the effective merger of both avenues of activity.

Proven filing
It soon becomes clear, talking to Norman, that even after all these years he finds dealing with bakers ‘different.’

“I have always been concerned at the difficulty we have in getting replies from people,” he says. Meticulous himself, he can’t understand anyone’s failure to attend to their correspondence, particularly when they are being offered help and money. His bakers, he indicates, are amongst the worst. “Ray Walker told me that bakers’ filing systems are on top of their provers,” he recalls. “I was soon able to go back to him and tell him I’d found another — the oven. One survey form came back to me with charred edges!” But give credit where it’s due, he says. At least it did come back.
A great sport

When he retired from the Employers’ Association, no member of his staff was interested in the invitation to become secretary of the Society, so in a way he was stuck with the job.

He hasn’t regretted the chance, but nobody told him that the executive only met on Saturdays. That oversight still appears to niggle as it often got in the way of his treasured sporting activities.

Norman has always been a keen sportsman. Rowing was his first love, at school and for many years later, and his team came ever-so-close to a New Zealand championship. At university he took up fencing and represented the university in national tournaments.

More recently he has taken up lawn bowls, again with great enthusiasm and a fair degree of success.

Training: the old old story
Employment terms and conditions may be less of an issue these days, but training and apprenticeships remains a bone of contention. In fact, says Norman, it has been a bone of contention in every employers’ group he has dealt with: the same problems and the same attempts at solutions appearing repeatedly over the years.
Norman has seen it all. An example, day release courses being abandoned in favour of block courses in the early 50s, now giving way again to day release courses.

He has also seen apprentices’ logbooks disappear and then reappear in a different form. The words may change but the substance remains the same. In baking, says Norman, “twenty five years later and we’re still trying to sort out a decent means of training. Sure what we had was in need of improvement, but what we now have been obliged to accept is far from perfect. It has potential but is being choked by paper.”

Norman had to deal with training and trade examinations long before he became involved with the baking industry, and was at one time a member of the NZ Trade Certification Board.

The turning point
Norman has very strong views on government policy towards education and training. The turning point, he recalls, was 1991, when the then National Government decided that training and education was not a public good but a private benefit.

That change led to the introduction of student fees and also meant, in trade training, that the employers became responsible for “far too much” of the burden of cost of training,

Employers, as Norman sees it, and particularly smaller employers such as the bulk of ours, are struggling to cope, and recent experience with a succession of organisational difficulties has proven it. “Confidence will have to be rebuilt to get many of those who have opted out of training back on stream.”

“The policy makers have a seeming inability to understand that small businesses can’t do what large ones can,” he says. As with parental leave provisions, current training policies might be workable in large organisations and corporates but they can’t possibly work in small ones. The sooner that realisation sets in the better.”

In the meantime, he points out, bakers in Australia, for example, enjoy substantial help with training from both the Federal and State governments, direct financial encourage­ment. It’s something we once had but no longer enjoy.

Training may be the most constant issue but it is far from the only one Norman has had to contend with. “What constitutes a meat pie was a vexed question that died only recently,” he recalls.

“Now we have to put very considerable effort into preparing our members for the advent of compulsory Food Safety Programmes. It’s never ending but worth the effort”

When it comes to training issues, Norman has clear ideas backed by unparalleled experience.

On behalf of the Baking Society, he’ll be keeping his teeth on that bone of contention for some years yet.

“I want to see training back on a more realistic footing,” he says. If anyone can help that happen, it’s Norman West.