On th

labor front

An important victory for dem-
ocracy was registered in the
United States recently when the
U.S. Court of Appeals, by a
5 to 3 decision, held that the anti-
labor Landrum-Griffin Act was
unconstitutional in barring Com-
munist Party members from
holding union office,

This action reversed the 1962
conviction of a San Francisco
longshoreman, Archie Brown,
who was sentenced to six months
for holding an executive post in
the Longshoremen’s Union (IL-
WU), while being an admitted
member of the Communist Party,

The Court of Appeals ruled
that the Landrum-Griffin pro-
vision violated the U.S, con-
stitution by punishing a man for
what he is rather than for what
he does or intends todo, Accord-
ing to the court, to be constitu-
tional the provision in the act
would have to require proof that
a Communist was using or plan-
ning to use his union office to
overthrow the federal govern-
ment, No such proof was avail-
able, nor could there be be-
cause Communists do not ad-
vocate “force and violence.” On
the other hand, there is daily
evidence of the force and vio-
lence being perpetrated on the

- American people by the coalition

of ultra-right groups headed by
Barry Goldwater,
* * *

The decision of the U.S, Court
of Appeals, while long overdue,
is welcome nevertheless, and
indicates that alongside the
emergence of a dangerous ultra-
right and neo-fascist trend inthe
U.S,, there is also developing a
growing: movement in defense
of democracy and the democra-
tic rights of the American people
without which the ultra- right
cannot be defeated, In its own
way the U.S, Court of Appeals
registered this growing senti-
ment and was compelled to take
it into account,

It stands to reason, of course,
that the inveterate red baiters in
and outside the labor movement
and the ultra-Right will not take
Kindly to this ruling and will try
to change or obstruct it, Never-
theless, this ruling together. with
others of equal Significance,
should go a long way towards
uniting all the forces of the labor
movement and of democracy in
the U,S,A, in the crucial struggle
against the ultra-Right both in
the presidential elections and in

Britannia strike

Victory for labor
and democracy

By WILLIAM KASHTAN

the continuing struggle after-
wards,

This ruling is not only import-
ant for the U.S.A.; it is equally
important for Canada as well,
This is so because the Landrum-
Griffin Act, an American law,
was imposed on the Canadian
trade union movement, The ma-
jority of Canadian officers of the
international unions were com-
pelled willingly or unwillingly,
to comply with it, International
union officers used it as a club
with which to destroy or nullify
democratic rights of Canadian
union locals, In some internatio-
nal unions, trusteeships were
imposed on Canadian union locals
and officers forcibly removed,
Canadian judges upheld interna-
tional union constitution based on
the Landrum-Griffin Act which
the U.S, Court of Appeals now
declares insofar as this provi-
sion is concerned, to be uncon-
stitutional,

Isn’t it time then for the trade
union movement of this country
to insist that the whole bag and
baggage of the Landrum-Griffin
Act insofar as it concerns the
Canadian trade union movement,
be thrown overboard?

Isn’t it time to insist that in-
ternational union constitutions be
amended to protect the democra-
tic rights of the Canadian mem-
bership, and that justice be re-
stored to those Canadian workers
who became victims of an uncon-
Stitutional act?

* ka: ik

But more than that, In declar-
ing the provision of the Landrum-
Griffin Act tobe unconstitutional,
the U.S, Court of Appeals ex-
posed the pack of lies around
which the cold war anti-Com-

“‘munism and anti-Communist

clauses were built, not only in
international unions, but in the
Canadian Labor Congress consti-
tution as well,

Isn't it time to throw those
undemocratic clauses out of the
Window and replace them by

-clauses which can reunite the

Canadian trade union movement
on truly democratic principles?

Can the Canadian trade union
movement continue to operate
under laws which have now been
declared unconstitutional and

‘which should never have been
placed in union constitutions in|

the first place?

for 40 hr. week

Three hundred an¢ fifty miners
struck the Anaconda Copper Mine
at Britannia on Aug, 11 demand-
ing a 40 hour week and 20¢ an
hour increase in take-home pay,

The workers, members of
Local 663 of the Mine Mill and
Smelter Workers Union, voted
97,3 percent in favour of strike.
action after rejecting a majority
conciliation board award for 23}6¢
an hour over two years on the
present rates of $1,823 to$2,154,

Also included in the concilia-
tion board award was a recom-
mendation for 42 hour week for

continuous employeesand 40 hours

for all others,

The union is reported to be
holding out for the same agree-
ment signed with Consolidated
Mining and Smelting at Trail
granting the 40 hour week to
continuous employees forthe first
time in the North American metal
mining industry,

The last strike in Britannia
took place in 1946 and this is the
first time the operation has been
struck since it was taken over
by the Anaconda Company, an
American concern,

am we

AUTOMATION SPREADING EVERY WHERE

110 SLATED IL Li
.

Computers to change
many people’s lives

ifty years ago the housewife

took her shopping basket and
went from the butcher to the
baker, the grocer and the green-
grocer, Today she can get every-
thing from nylons to nutmegs in
one supermarket, Tomorrow she
will drop a few cards in a slot
and a few minutes later walk out
with the week’s groceries,

Fantasy? No, fact. Automated
supermarkets, restaurants,
bakeries are already here and
probably to stay,

In Long Island, New York, an
automated drive-in restaurant
can cook and serve a complete
short order meal in four minutes,
Hamburgers, hot dogs, french
fries, milk shakes, soft drinks
can all be produced by ORBIS
(short for ordering and billing
systems), ORBIS delivers acheck
at the order assembly area, totals
and adds sales taxes, produces

automatic from the arrival ofthe
flour and other ingredients atthe
receiving dock to the delivery of
the bread to the shipping plat-
form, The computor which di-
rects all this also keeps produc-
tion records on the side,

What about Canada? Well, may-
be we can’t do our shopping via
an IBM card yet, but automation
in the service field is creeping
up on us nonetheless, In 1957,
for instance, there were only
three digital computors in the
whole of Canada, By 1960 that
number had increased to 89 and
by now, although there are no
up-to-date figures available, the
rate of expansion is rapidly in-
creasing, Canadian National
Railways has recently installed
a Magnetic tape computor, the
IBM 7070 which is said to be
capable of reading and re-writing

the Montreal telephone book in:
seven minutes!

Right here in Vancouver, the

6b beage_

WAbb sTkEEF JoURNAS

Weber in the Wall Street Journal

“Our electronic brain is on the blink. Hire 16,000 office work-
ers for the next two days.”

the check for each order at the
assembly point and activates the
menu-producing machines, ac-
cording to a story in Canadian
Hotel & Restaurant,

In Paris, a retail grocer has
one of each item only on display,
The customer selects the items
she wants and drops the appro-
priate cards into a slot, The
information goes to the check
stand where an electronic com-
putor prices the items, figures
the bill and orders the groceries
which are delivered to the shop-
per at the door,

Worried about the effect this
may have on “impulse buying,”
an American firm Proposes to
keep the old method of displaying
large stocks but they will be
painted with fluorescent paint of
different wave lengths to corres-
pond to price, You pick up your
groceries in the usual way, but
when you arrive at the check
Stand there is no friendly clerk
to greet you—just the cold fishy
eye of the electronic computor
which adds up your bill and
mechanically packs your gro-

. ceries,

*

Bread-making too has come a
long way since mother mixed and
kneaded the dough, stoked a coal
and wood stove and Produced de-
licious crusty loaves, Now in
Illinois comes word of a new $22
million factory which will be

Finning Tractor Company has
just automated its invoicing pro-
cess, which since several thous-
and different mechanical parts
are sold every day, is a sizeable
job. Now from cards punched
only with the customer’s number,
part number and quantity, the IBM
1440 produces invoices at a speed
of five lines a second—invoices
which are correctly addressed,
priced, extended, totalled and
double-checked! In addition to
this, while issuing the invoices
it also keeps in its 36 million
digit memory all the information
needed for inventory, accounts
receivable, etc,

Again, Woodward’s Stores is
planning to introduce an even
more complex IBM system to take

care of much of its accounting
and billing,

*

Where does this leave the in-
voice typist and the bookkeeper?
What does it all add up to? Are
those 67 percent of Canadians
who replied in the negative tothe
Gallup Poll question: “Do you
think increasing automation will
affect you in your work?” justified
in their optimism? Will automa-
tion in the clerical field lead to
mass unemployment?

Precise figures for Canada are
hard to come by, A story in the
Wall Street Journal admits that
automation has already sharply
cut the rate of hiring in office

August 14, 1964—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—P09

occupations, In the United States
in the decade of the fifties, white
collar employment grew by 2.81

percent a year, but in 1963 the

increase was less than one per-

cent, although total non-farm em=-_

ployment rose 2.3 percent.

According to a story in a
Vancouver Province a couple of

years ago, even at that time a
Vancouver accounting staff 0
General Motors had been reduced

by 10 percent through the use of

centralized computing systems.
B.A, Oil centralized its electron

ic bookkeeping in Calgary and was

able to cut its accounting person-
nel inhalf,

It would seem that for the timé
being at least, the reduction i?

office jobs is being masked bY

turnover, which is usually quite
high in this field: 20 to 30 per
cent annually at banks and insur
ance companies, it is estimated.
Fewer people are being hired t0
replace those leaving, rather per,
large numbers being’ laid off

In 1961, the Department of
Labor at Ottawa prepareda study
on Technological Changes and
Their Impact on Employment a2
Conditions in which they pointed
out that: “In the case of office

workers, problems of adjustment ;

...are,,. different, ... with
some planning individual employ
ers can avoid or reduce the nee
for layoffs by reducing hiring®
and allowing employment to de-
cline through natural attrition.

They go on to say: “This, how"
ever, does not solve the problem:
it shifts it again to the youns
people who are just entering thé
labor force, .. .”

The solution to these problem®
is not going to be easy and the
trade unions have a tremendous
responsibility to see that the U2”
doubted benefits of automation ie
not go all one way—into the ple
side of the profit and loss state
ment,

e
A pamphlet issued by the offic

Employees Union in the ve
States says that “it is necess
for our unions, through collect”
bargaining, to protect work
against displacement
machines, ...

1d
“Layoffs, if necessary, er 3
be accomplished through # d

‘tion, Workers displaced Sh°)

be given an opportunity i
same firm to be trained for ° ‘
positions. Liberal severanc®
provisions should be incor ‘of
ated in all contracts. Pee
programs should provide ge
retirement features. ...

ed

“Together with other organiar
workers in the organized an
movement, we should fight Some of
achieve a substantial reduc’

in working hours,”

—

Unfortunately, thousan fe
fice workers still are un0?e

any protection at all iD
growing automation and be :
jobs,

as of

e2

ete “sss”