The works council

The Picañol works council was founded on 21 March 1950. Based on a shared wish for cooperation, the new council established even firmer ties between the management and the employees. An exceptional feature of the works council was that the Chairman of the company, Bernard Steverlynck, chaired most of its meetings. In addition, the meetings took place in a ‘person to person’ rather than the ‘employer to employee’ atmosphere that was the rule in many other companies. Nevertheless, the council had but an advisory role; it could not make any demands. The establishment of a works council also found a follow-up at a social level: a party committee was founded that would coordinate the activities of all the sporting and cultural associations. It counted six members in its original composition: Julien Nuytten and Maurtis Degroote were appointed by the works council, Maurice Quaghebeur and Frans Vanden Broucke by the Picañol Brass Band and Roger Bolle and Remi Stroobant were chosen via the WAPs.