The industry’s two main trade bodies have yet to settle on a name for their merged organisation, but have agreed there will be no redundancies or site closures.

PIAA chief executive Bill Healey said GASAA and its three staff would continue operating out of its Sydney office alongside the PIAA branches. GASAA boss Garry Knespal will report to Healey and has been guaranteed at least two years’ tenure.

The merger moved a step closer in late September when Fair Work Australia gave it its blessing.

The next step is for GASAA to ballot its members, a step the PIAA is not required to take. Healey and Knespal both said they expected GASAA members to approve the plan and for the final paperwork to be signed-off by the end of the year.

[Feature: Merger is part of consolidation trend]

Healey told ProPrint the name of the new body was being considered as part of an ongoing strategic review by the PIAA.

He said there was a chance the name could change and that it could even remove the word ‘printing’.

“There’s a real question as to whether using ‘print’ reflects the nature of the work a lot of our members are involved in… the challenge is to find a name that maintains the history of the printing industry but is also contemporary enough to ensure we maintain relevance.

“We’re not going to change things for the sake of change, but we think in order to be relevant we need to broaden our name in order to take account of what’s happening on the ground,” said Healey.

[LinkedIn: Are you a member of an industry association?]

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