LABOUR IN POLITICS By JACK MacKENZIE IWA Regional Vice-President - Wwe any further delay, we must make up our minds in the IWA what we intend to do about the effects of auto- mation and mechanization in the lumber in- dustry. Sooner, rather than later, it will be the major issue in negotia- tions. Unless we prepare ourselves to cope with the problems of automation now, we will call ourselves stupid five years hence, that at this time we are giving so much attention to secon- dary issues. Wage rates are, of course, important, but we must not concentrate entire- ly on rates, for job security is equally impor- tant. There’s little satisfaction to a worker in getting a wage hike today and finding that his job is due to disappear tomorrow. As a Union, we may find ourselves working harder and harder to raise the pay for fewer and fewer members. - CANADA LAGGING BEHIND If we do nothing but “sit on our fannies’ and talk about the problem, we’re due for big trouble. George Meany, AFL-CIO, estimates that industry is losing 80,000 jobs a week to the machines. It is estimated that in Canada, we are losing jolis at the same rate, from 4,000 to 6,000 a week. In the lumber in- dustry, we now realize that we are produc- ing much more lumber and plywood with a smaller work force, which is steadily grow- ing smaller. _ There is no longer any doubt but that automation is contributing largely to the chronic unemployment, which seldom now drops below five per cent of the work force. The statistics do not take into account the “hidden” unemployment caused by the ir- regular work and the number who despair of getting jobs through the NES. The employers have hitherto insisted that automation was job-creating. They ignored the fact that automation is also job-destroy- ing. The new jobs are seldom available in the industries where jobs fade away. The factories which make the automated equip- ment are themselves automated. Many work- ers have had. no opportunity to gain the new skills required on jobs around the new equipment. The United States has had a National Commission at work on the problem for a year with some spectacular results. The prob- lem has given little concern in Western Europe, where the advance of automation has been dramatic since the war. European coun- tries have adjusted to automation to the ex- tent that unemployment has been kept below the allowable three per cent level. > WE MUST GET THE FACTS Only recently, in Canada, did the Minis- ter of Labour announce that “we will enter into agreements with employers or jointly with employers and unions under which we will pay one half the costs of research into the effects of manpower of industrial change.” For years, the Canadian Labour Congress has been pressing for some such survey and the Minister’s announcement comes late in the day. I suggest that we consider taking advan- tage of the offer as it applies to the lumber industry. We have not yet pieced together all the facts about the inroads of automation upon the jobs of woodworkers. Our planning to meet the effects of auto- mation should get under way without any delay. Automation will soon be the major is- sue in our negotiations. WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? immediate requirement is more com- late information about the trend of displace- THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER ment by the new processes. We can no longer talk in generalities of piecemeal information. We must be able to present the whole picture of the changes in the industry, and the rate of change. Some more thorough fact-finding and compilation of the facts is necessary. Guess work will not do. Management should be required to notify the Union of changes in view. This could enable some sensible planning to minimize the displacement of workers with seniority. Planning on this basis has proven effective in a number of British and European in- dustries. The rapid advance of automation makes necessary the early adoption of on-the-job training programs. While the installation of new equipment is in the planning stage, the workers in the operation should be warned ahead of time and given the opportunity to qualify for the new jobs. Otherwise they are likely to be replaced by young graduates from technical training institutions. Our Union must soon ready its policy on questions that will require negotiation. Re- duced hours of work are in the cards. Should we shorten the work day, the work week, or the annual work schedules? Can the shorter work week be firmly established in one in- dustry without a national trade union cam- paign such as proved necessary to gain the forty-hour week? Should we talk in terms of guaranteed income and severance pay? We are not yet of one mind on these issues. POLITICAL ACTION URGENTLY REQUIRED It must now be evident that our Union will not be able to rely exclusively on its negotiations to secure the necessary adjust- ments to a full program of automation. Politi- cal action is necessary that we may deal both with the job-destroying and job-creating as- pects of technological change. Our problems in the lumber industry are related to those of all other industries. Automation will mean a reduction of the work force, whatever steps may be taken through negotiations. Ulti- mately, we must ensure that displacement from employment. in the lumber industry means immediate placement in one of the expanding industries. e Legislative protection for shorter hours of work will be required to establish a non-competitive pattern on a national and provincial basis. ° © Workers about to be displaced must have readier and freer access to training opportunities. Management must accept a greater degree of responsibility for the wel- fare of workers released. e Adequate financial aid will be ne- cessary to assist workers into jobs in other industries, probably located at some dis- tance from the former employment. e The development of new secondary industries is vital for Canadian workers as otherwise the skilled employment required in automated industry will gravitate to the United States. The foregoing is only the beginning of a list of measures required by federal and pro- vincial governments to stave off the rising unemployment caused by automation. Other balancing factors must be considered that consumer demand may keep pace with a vast- ly increased productive capacity, or chronic unemployment will overwhelm us. Never has political action been so neces- sary for organized labour as in the social up- heaval which will follow the full sweep of automation. Automation is not our enemy. On the contrary, like all past technological change, it can confer the blessings of higher incomes and better living, as well as more leisure to enjoy them, if in the ranks of labour, we insist upon proper policies. LABOR Expert says 2 DAY '64 “Too little effort’ GILLES BEAUSOLEIL, di- rector of the University of Montreal industrial relations centre, says “too little effort” is being expended in Canada on automation problems. He told a two-day symposium on automation that some good re- search is being done but there is insufficient knowledge of the consequence of automa- tion. Research was dispersed among several groups, includ- ing government. “Technological progress is an essential factor in eco- nomic development, in the improvement of revenue and in the dynamic transforma- tion of contemporary societ- ies,” he said. “Our life and that of our children will be improved because of techno- logical development.” But, he said, this technical progress could result in having “only welfare traces left in its wake.” | —from Montreal Star HANEY BUSINESS GUIDE ESQUIRE MEN’S WEAR (Graham Mowatt) Complete Stock of Work and Dress Clothing “THE STORE WITH THE POPULAR BRANDS” HANEY BRITISH COLUMBIA PORT ALBERNI BUSINESS GUIDE MacGREGOR’S MEN’S WEAR For Everything A Man Wears * WORK, SPORT or DRESS * We Can Afford To Sell The... BEST For LESS SHOP AT Woodwards: PORT ALBERNI ~YOUR FAMILY SHOPPING CENTRE FOR A COMPLETE SELECTION OF ee eee STAR WORK WEAR “UNION MADE’ BY B.C. CRAFTSMEN Your guide to better value STORE HOURS OPEN 9 AM to 5:30 PM _ CLOSED ALL DAY MONDAY OPEN FRI. NITE ‘TILL 9 PM