Smith-Corona strike

ompany
a killing

makes

by ‘de-skilling

By RAE MURPHY

About 265 workers at Smith-
Corpna-Marchant, the Canadian
subsidiary of the large American
typewriter and business machine
manufacturer, have been on
strike since March 8.

The issue involved in the

strike — wages, improvements
in vacation pay and _ seniority
clauses — appear typical of

labor disputes that have taken
place in Canada over the past
period.

However, this is a strike with
a difference. The root cause of
the strike goes back to 1965,
and the use — or misuse — of
the phrase _ “technological
changes” figures strongly in the
situation.

According to the company,
technological changes in the pro-
duction of typewriters have ‘‘de-
skilled” the workers. This “de-
skilling’’ was parlayed into
wage-cuts for many of the pro-
duction workers employed in
the factory in Scarborough, On-
Tarlo.

These technological changes
took place in July, 1965 when
the company introduced a “pac-
ed line,” that is, the typewrit-
ers moved through the assembly
process along a conveyor belt
instead of being moved manually
from the bench. Some pneumatic
screw-drivers and _ other air-
driven manual tools. were added
to the lines and various opera-
tions were juggled among the
workers.

With these new efficiencies
the work cycle was cut to about

4%) minutes per operation as
the typewriters moved along the
line, allowing the company to in-
crease production. At present,
100 typewriters are assembled
on each of the two paced lines
every day.

With the changes in produc-

tion methods the company in-
troduced changes in its jargon.
For example, in June 1965 a
grade three assembler made
$2.15 an hour with incentive
bonus, in July 1965 a grade
three assembler became a grade
“c” assembler. A grade “‘c” as-
sembler does much the same
work as she used to as a grade
three assembler, only she does
it a bit faster and more efficient-
ly and her wages have been cut
to $1.80 with no incentive pay.

Striking workers at Smith-Corona Marchant in Scarborough protest the removal of th

Boal

eir troll

: 5 : : G
headquarters at the borough's council chambers. Early in the strike several police cars swore
on the picket-line and towed away the trailer. Scarborough Council refused the striker’s requé

the trailer by the picket line.

a grade three assembler and
coming the next as a grade “c”
assembler.

The arbitrater took about
four months to reach his judg-
ment. When it was handed
down, the ‘“de-skilled” workers
“de-worked” for three days to
study it. This and subsequent
negotiations persuaded the com-
pany to boost the rates to

TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE
WAS THE EXCUSE TO CUT
WAGES AND SPEED UP
PRODUCTION

This is automation?

“Yes,” said a judge, who pro-
bably thinks a_ technological
change is that which happens to
a woman in her late forties. In
a 60-page judgment, the arbit-
rator ruled in favor of the com-
pany’s position that the paced
line ‘‘de-skilled’’ old jobs and re-
placed them with new ones,
thus the rationale behind a per-
son coming to work one day as

Nation-wide tea

By WILLAM ALLAN
DETROIT
“¥TS overwhelming,” said Rob-
ert Holmes, international
vice president of the Team-
sters, speaking of the strike vote
of 500,000 U.S. over-the-roa¢
drivers and warehouse workers
covered by the National Freight
Contract that expired March 31.
Holmes is the Teamsters vice
president in charge of Michigan,
Ohio, Indiana, and will work
with the Canadian Teamsters
Council that represents 10,000
under a Canadian National
Freight contract, not now up for
negotiation,

Holmes said that when Cana-
dian drivers cross into the U.S.
with a load then they get Ame-
rican rates as soon as_ the
wheels rol] over the border. U.S.
rates for over-the-road are $3.52
while in Canada they are about
$2.20.

U.S. demands in present nego-
tiations are for 56 cents an hour
over a three year period. Truck-
ers Employers Inc. (TEI) have

countered with 37 cents. Both
figures, said Holmes, include 1]-
cents in cost of living allowan-
ces which Teamsters had under
the old contract.

Holmes said also that union
and truckers negotiators are
agreed on a_ quarter-of-a-cent
a mile increase for highway driv-
ers for each of the second and
third years. But for the first
year, 1967 of the new contract,
the union is asking fifty three
hundredths of a cent, while the
truckers are offering three-
tenths of a cent.

Holmes said that 378 of the
more than 1,000 Teamster locals
in the nation will be involved if
there is a strike. The men in the
378 locals work for 12,000 firms
from coast to Coast.

Holmes said that he believes
a settlement can be reached
without a strike but if there were
one it would be on a selective
basis. The TEI spokesman, M. N.
Gordon, president, said a}} major
employers would halt operations

if the plead eda fe a strike

around $2 an hour. When nego-
tiations came around this year,
the company’s final wage offer
still meant that the workers
would be working for less than
before the “paced line” came
into operation.
- So the inevitable happened.
All this was explained to me
by Gwen Motely, chief steward
in SCM for Local 514 of the
United Electrical Workers Union,

mster strike looms in Us

no matter what type. Holmes
said this would constitute¢a
lockout and he doubted if the
TEI had that much control over
the 1.200 employers.

Holmes explained that the 56
cents would be broken down as
follows; 26 cents for 1967, which
would include 1] cents in cost
of living increase, 15 cents an
hour for 1968 and 15 cents for
1969.

Meanwhile the voting returns
indicate the overwhelming vote
_that Holmes spoke of. Voting re-
turns from the giant union (1,-
880,000 members in U.S. and
Canada) showed 50-} for strike
in St. Louis; 4-1 in Salt Lake
City; 25-] in Atlanta for strike;
Locals 299 and 337 in Detroit
about 10-1. About 8,000 in the
two: Detroit locals are over-the-
road, and about 6,000 voted.

Imprisoned Teamster presi-
dent James R. Hoffa, now in
federal prison in Lewisburgh., Pa.
following his railroading on a
charge of ‘‘jury-tampering”, can-

not participate in this down to —

mineloea

which has represented these
workers for over 20 years. She
told of the worsening conditions
in the plant, which has caused
such a rapid turnover in the
work force, that almost three-
quarters of the workers have
been employed less than five
years.

Sixty-five percent of the
workers are women who are ex-
pected to keep up with the pro-
duction line pace by the end of
a 60-day probation period or out
they go. For many this is im-
possible, and they are cut off be-
fore establishing seniority, al-
though the company claimed,
and the.judge believed, that a
worker could be trained for the
lines in two “weeks, a claim
which Gwen described as “‘ridi-
culous.”

Gwen Motley’s history at
CSM is indicative of the pres-
Sures that are placed on these
workers today, as well as of the
courage and fight-back of these
union-conscious workers.

When she was first elected
shop-steward she was fired by
the company because, they said,
she couldn’t keep up with the
production norms. The union

fought the case and she was re-

the line struggle between 500,-
000 of his members and 12,000
truckers.

But in all strike meetings
this last week-end, a dramatic
image of Hoffa was presented.
A tape was run of remarks by
Hoffa, an hour before he was led
away in handcuffs in Washing-
ton, D.C. to a federal prison.
Hoffa calls on the members to
stand united, fight if they have
to, make no compromises that
will weaken their union and to
“remember that some day I'll be
back there with you — these
people who put me in prison do
not know of what stuff Teams-
ters are made up, never give up,
never...”

* * > a

Holmes spoke of the over-
whelming vote. It was, he said,
was: “not only a vote against
the employers offer and to au-
thorize the Teamster National
Freight negotiating committee
to take whatever action is need-
ed, but it is a demonstration
that the members are with this

wo, penn fs 45.
ete Egenener Lee

instated. Again, around
she was elected chit
she was dismissed pects
couldn’t maintain © oy
After six months, durin
time she worked tom
typewriter manufactl™
was re-instated.

sitll

She is now a spoke,
these workers wh0 Y
staging a 100 perce?
strike for over a mony”

It does hot appeal
cidental that almost ©),
with the “paced liné ail
American top-manag®” ¢j
over the reins at S He
and that the first sil
years dates from this
of command.

t ¢

if
3 3 da
The issues involv fi
strike are not would gl
automation. “We kn0™

” $
tion is coming, vail
Motley, “but we ofl
wage cuts. If the en

making more money: jj
be making more MOM; 7
not taking wage ee
Is SCM _ jargon, int?
skilled” workers 40”! age!
“de-pay the rent” oF wo!
and above all they
de-unionize.”

leadership. There 8 “pp
thought that whe
Hoffa was led 0
were soft and wou e
from a challenge inte
have wanted tO ina
after this vote t

their plans.”
* q
ke n
A moving spec” ott

8,000 Detroit over "ill
ers, assembled for nt Vi
was made by Teal | jl
William Bufalino, “ge
returned from se@
soned Hoffa. yyhet ad
Said Bufalino: ine fy
is in the hands a pul,
ment agency, like :
Prisons, as in the -
dent Hoffa, he is # ral
soner and all he © - aims
legal problems. 1 ould me
this man, who ° rion! ;
heading up the nec
bargaining team, d of i
ed, then was haule mer
Your vote toda hi
solidarity to IM
walls i. Lewisbue

oxen ae
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