Forest Industry To Be Aut Sooner Than Expected Says Moore Automation is about to change the volume and nature of em- ployment in the forest products industry more rapidly than origi- nally expected, stated IWA Regional President Jack Moore in a recent address on the subject. His remarks were based on studies conducted by the Union during the 1962 negotiations, The marked acceleration in the introduction of automatic processes will now require the close study of labour and management to avoid dis- placement of workers, he declared. He said in part:— “At one time we thought that the lumber industry would be one of the last to be automated. Now our in- dustry is under pressure to automate in many important sections. We must now consider the economic and social impact of automation on the processing of wood. We may not see a fully automated sawmill, plywood plant or woods Operation overnight, but very im- portant changes are under way. These changes in the making make ‘it all the more important that we should think about the effects on our employment. Management is inclined to say that the situation will take care of itself. They argue that automation will make as many new jobs as it will wipe out. Our experience is that in the short term view this is not true. Automation Defined In the first place, let us ask our- selves, ‘What is automation?’ There is a simple answer. Automation, as we understand it now, is the intro- duction of highly automatic machin- ery or processes which largely elim- inate -human labour and detailed human control. It's not possible for anyone to draw a fine line between the rapid rate of mechanization in our. in- dustry and complete automation. It is this rapid rate of mechanization in our industry that makes full automation an early possibility. Take a look at production today in a logging camp, in a sawmill, in a plywood plant, and compare these conditions with those of only a few years ago, You'll find new labour- saving devices everywhere. Then take a look at what these changes have done to employment for many of our fellow-workers in numerous categories. You will quickly realize that we are dealing with a trend that is picking up speed. As it picks up speed, it is made possible for fewer workers to produce more lumber. We must nail the employers’ argument that the situation will right itself. It never has and it never will. Hours must be adjusted to meet the new conditions. Second Industrial Revolution Automation is sometimes called the second Industrial Revolution. The early stages of the Industrial Revolution, or industrialization, caused the workers the most dis- tressing unemployment hardships and degradation beyond belief. When the machines started doing the work of men and women, adjust- ments had to be made and were made. There has been a steady down- Heaven For Dentists VIENNA — Poland’s 30 million people use an average of only one tube of toothpaste per person per year, according to the Communist newspaper, Trybuna Ludu. Tooth- paste is scarce because of a tube shortage. LOOK FOR THIS NAME It is your Guarantee that you can’t buy a better Glove ANYWHERE Union Made by JOHN WATSON LTD. 127 -2nd Ave., E. Vancouver B,C. ward trend in the manhours of | Jabour required for a unit of pro- | duction, If we set the index at 100 in the year 1880, it has fallen today to less than 25. Between 1880 and 1912 the amount of machinery and of other so-called fixed investment per unit of production rose by 34 per cent, while the manhour labour input fell 40 per cent. Industry introduced more efficient machinery rather than a_ greater quantity of it. In 1933, a unit of pro- duction consumed only about half as many manhours of labour as would have been spent on its pro- duction in 1918. The employers like to talk about the new industries which will re- sult from new inventions. The only new industry we know about is the automatic production of automatic machinery, mainly in the United States. No Compensating Industry It is true that when the automobile was first introduced, this stimulated investment in the oil, rubber, high- way and construction industries. Automation, as we know it today is not having the same investment re- sult. This has already been shown in the United States and Canada. Nearly all industries affected are producing more goods and services with fewer workers. The buying power of the workers is not keeping pace with the vastly increased pro- ductive capacity. Make no mistake about it, our in- dustry is under pressure to install more automatic processes. The pressure comes in the first instance from competing countries, who are ahead of us in automating the pro- cessing of wood. The pressure comes from industry around us. Automatic control of units of production are more com- mon. The development for us to note is the intreduction of the automatic transfer machine. The modern trans- fer machine in metal-working in- dustries can take the raw material in at one end, cast it or forge it, machine it and deliver the finished product. painted and packed at the assembly point where it is required. If this can be done with metal, we must expect similar processes with wood. Modern Chipboard Factory I could tell you about a chipboard factory which is almost completely automatic, The raw material which may be either logs or chunks of wood is taken in at one end, ground, weighed, mixed, sprayed with auto- matically controlled mixtures of resin and hardener and passed con- tinuously through a press under heat until the final product is packaged for shipment. A handful of loaders and technicians can produce a vol- ume of chipboard which formerly required 200 workers. Another pressure comes from the introduction of automation into chemical and plastics industries. Wood products are thus getting hot- ter and hotter competition from wood substitutes produced cheaply by automatic processes. Foreign Competition Automation is forging ahead in the United States and the USSR. More slowly it is coming to Canada, but a recent survey by the Federal Department of Labour revealed that everywhere in large manufacturing industries, decisions to automate lead in every instance to a sharp drop in employment. At some points eleven men are producing twice as much as 43 men under the old system. Unless we act to meet this situation at the bargaining table and in the political field, the new auto- mated processes will displace more and more workers, for whom no em- ployment is available. This will place a downward pressure on workers’ buying power and in turn adversely affect export trade. There is also the danger that automatic processes will bring a re-location of operations and create ghost towns and commun- ities.” omated s ANNUAL BANQUET AND DANCE sponsored jointly by Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan, and the Saskatchewan Timber Board, Forty members and their wives enjoyed a fine evening of dancing and entertainment which was provided by Tony Zerba and his Committee. IWA Sub-Local 1-184, — Bigger Unions Planned LONDON—Several British unions are considering plans for mergers to build more powerful organizations and to avoid jurisdiction disputes. Britain’s eight million trade unionists are at present organized in about 180 unions, many of them small and some with only a few hundred members. Bad Press Jurisdiction disputes, particularly in shipbuilding and engineering have got a bad press in recent years. Voting on a merger between ‘the United Society of Boilermakers, Shipbuilders and Structural Workers (about 100,000 members) and the Shipconstructors’ and Shipwrights’ Association (25,000) is expected to take place later this year. Executives of the two unions have reached com- plete agreement on all points of principle. This move has been described as one of the most important develop- ments in the shipbuilding industry over the past 40 years by Victor Feather, Assistant General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress. Printing Trades A number of printing trade unions are also considering mergers. But proposals to merge the two biggest, the National Union of Printing, Bookbinding and Paper Workers (158,000) and the London Typo- graphical Society (20,000) have suf- fered a setback in a “straw” ballot of LTS members which was 6,138 against and 4,906 in favour. LTS officials are disappointed with this result so it is likely that the issue will be raised again in the near future. The General Secretary has warned his members that “prejudice against association with other of- ganizations could well mean the destruction of our trade union or- ganization as we know it.” New Federation Formation of a_ 100,000-strong federation is the object of a sugges- tion from the Association of Scienti- fic Workers (10,000) to the Associa- tion of Supervisory Staffs, Executives and Technicians (22,000) and the Draughtsmen and Allied Techni- cians’ Association. 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