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THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

Guest Editorial

The Golden Years

CAM aol retirement at age 45, or 40 or perhaps

even at 35? Fantastic? It might seem so at first
sight. Yet many economic thinkers consider that the
spread of automation may compel industry to retire
workers at what now seems an absurdly early age in
order to provide job opportunities for young people en-
tering the labor market.

It might be thought that a prediction of this sort
would be greeted with delight. One of mankind’‘s oldest
dreams has been release from the bondage of working
for a living, a chance to develop one’s own personal in-
terests—whether sports, hobbies, study or public activity.

Until recently, leisure of this sort was possible only
for a few of the wealthy and privileged. The great
majority of human beings, throughout history, have
spent their lives from childhood to extreme old age in
hard, monotonous labor for a bare living.

Yet the prospect of release from daily labor early
in life will be far from welcome among working people
today. Experience with existing company pension plans,
many of which require contributors to retire at 65, have
proved that enforced leisure is not always a welcome
gift.

Too often men and women suddenly compelled to
give up the job to which they have grown accustomed
find it impossible to fill the empty hours of retirement.
They may deteriorate mentally and physically, and die
before their time.

For this reason, a strong movement has developed
against rigid retirement dates. For example a govern-
ment commission in Saskatchewan, investigating the
problem, recommended last month that there should be
greater flexibility in pension plans so that older workers
could retire when they wanted to, not at some arbitrarily
fixed age.

Indeed, many pension schemes started during the
last few years follow this principle. Instead of being re-
tired automatically at 65, employees are allowed to stay
on the job until 70, provided they are still able to work.

An arrangement of this sort is obviously kinder to
older but still active employees than the old rigid system.
It is also better business from the employer's standpoint,
since he can keep the services of experienced and valued

- employees longer, and it reduces the cost of financing

the pension fund. Unfortunately, it makes no allowance
for the effects of automation.

As automation spreads through industry, “intelli-
gent” automatic machines: do more and more of the
work and the labor force tends to shrink. If the age of
retirement is pushed back and older employees are per-
mitted to stay on till 70, the effects on employment will
be magnified. Young people leaving school will find it
increasingly difficult to get jobs, and junior employees
will be frozen indefinitely on the lowest rungs of the
promotion ladder. |

Under these conditions the pressure for earlier re-
tirement will become irresistible. To give the younger
men and women a chance, older workers may have to
be retired in their 40‘s, or conceivably even earlier.

This necessity could create social problems dwarfing
anything we have encountered in the past. Retirement
at 40 or even 45 would be a disaster to the individual
without the assurance of a comfortable pension; half a
lifetime spent in unemployed poverty is an appalling

prospect.

The question of early retirement will certainly in-
volve enormous difficulties. But it is surely time for in-
dustry and government to study it seriously before the
problems become unmanageable.

—Star Weekly

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of parliament.

Federal Government

Plans Labor Code

The federal government may do something about put-
ting a national labour code into Jaw at the fall session

Sources say labour code legislation may “possibly”
be ready for the session starting September 30. :

Labour Minister Allan MacKEachern has got his de-
partmental experts working on studies on the social, eco-
nomic and political repercussions of a set of federal
labour standards for minimum wages, working hours,
vacations and statutory holidays.

e Liberals promised in their election speeches to
bring in a labour code that would establish a minimum
wage of $1.25 an hour, a maximum working week of 40
hours, two weeks vacation with pay after one year on a
job, plus seven statutory holidays with pay.

Canadian Consumers
“Pay Through Nose”

: In an August column, well-known consumers’ columnist,
Sidney Margolius, points out a few facts on prices that Cana-

dians should note.

Says Margolius of 16-inch
TV sets: “A new round of
reductions on television sets
has made available 16-inch

-sets for under $100. This is.

the lowest price yet for U.S.-
made models... .” :

Yet 16-inch TV sets in
Canada are being priced well
over the $200 mark. A recent
markdown on Philco’s 16-
incher saw it cut down from
$249 to $189.95, and this is
supposed to be cheap. The
Zenith 16-inch TV portable
is marked around $235. The
U.S. price is around $149.00!
Zenith and Philco get highest
marks for 16-inch sets by a
leading consumer publica-
tion, but their Canadian
prices get high marks, too.

Here is what Margolius
says about fruit juices:

“Juice Gouge: The current
high prices of frozen an
canned juices is, frankly, a
gouge. Frozen orange juice
currently costs 50 per cent
more than a year ago. The
price hike is blamed on last
winter’s Florida freeze. How-
ever, at the time of the freeze
stocks of orange juice concen-
trate were the largest on re-
cord—more than double the
previous year’s and 2% times
average. Thus canners and
retailers reaped windfall pro-
fits on these big inventories.

“Our only advice is to at
least buy the stores’ own
brands of’ orange juice and
other concentrates. In a re-
cent survey, we found na-
tional brands of six - ounce
frozen orange juice selling for
35-37 cents, and stores’ own
brands for 27-29. You can
feel assured of the quality of
the private brands since of-
ten they are labeled ‘U.S.

Daily Herald
Gets New
Reprieve

The pro-labour Daily Her-
ald British newspaper will re-
main alive at least until af-
ter the next general election.

The Herald, which has a
circulation of approximately
1.3 million, was due to be
shut down by its publishers,
the International Publishing
Corporation, Britain’s biggest
newspaper group.

The Corporation claims the
Herald is losing money at the
rate of $2.4 million a year.

The Herald is the only
daily officially backing the
Labour Party.

Grade A’. In fact, many of
the nationally advertised
brands are not labeled accord-
ing to this official quality
standard, and may not be
Grade A even at their higher
prices.

“You can substitute toma-
to juice for orange juice if
you use correspondingly
more, since it has less than
half the vitamin C value of
orange juice. One relatively
good value is orange-grape-
fruit juice. It has almost the
same. vitamin C value of
orange juice, at a little lower
price.

“But be sure you buy ac-
tual juices not the canned
‘fruit drinks,’ ‘fruit punch,’
etc., now widely sold. These
have water as their leading
ingredient. So much water
is being used in various fac-
tory-prepared foods, like pro-
cessed meats, frozen cooked
dinners, etc., that we can un-
derstand why there is said
to be a water shortage in
some parts of the country.”

Automatio
Ills Must
Be Shared

Canadian Labour Congres§
Vice-President Joe orris
told a meeting in Montreal
that industry must share the
responsibility for the social
conseqences of automation.

VICE-PRESIDENT
JOE MORRIS

Morris said industry must
be responsible for relocating
displaced workers and must
foot the bill for retraining
these workers.

He said society as a whole
must see that automation
won’t result in the scrapping
of human beings and the en-
richment of corporations.

“Labour and management
must sit down together and
analyze the serious problems
of social dislocation which
will result from automation,”
he said.

There are those who define
the workers’ contribution to
the economy as producing as
much as possible for as little
as possible, he said.

Those who hold this view
say the only way for Canada
to compete with low-wage,
under-developed countries is
to accept their lower pay
scales, he said.

The workers’ contribution,
he said, could better come
from people within the trade
union movement who are
willing and able to help plan
the country’s economy.

ORKER is September 19. Deadline for ad copy is

Publication date of the next issue of the WESTERN CANADIAN
LUMBER W
September 5, and for.news copy September 6.

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