With automation, according to experts, a decline in employ-
ment on the production line has been accompanied by an
increase:in “the relative number of maintenance men, engin-

THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

ATI TILA
We

non-machine operators t

eers, office employees, production-control specialists, and other
hat are required. This is simply a

continuation of a trend which has been going on for decades.”

BARGAINING & AUTOMATION

thirty (30) days after the date of his termina-
tion, make application to the personnel depart-
ment of the plant where he was formerly em-
ployed, specifying the other plants under the
jurisdiction of this contract at which he wishes
to be considered for employment.

“Any such employee shall be considered
at other plants for job openings for which he
is qualified for a period of one year subsequent
to the date of his termination.

“Tf he is employed at another plant of the
same manufacturer within such time, he shall
retain his continuous service benefits accumu-
lated with the company. If he is employed at
a plant of another manufacturer within such
time, he shall be hired. as a new employee.”

The foregoing clause is a form of preferential
hiring and provides portability of continuous
service credits between plants of the same firm.

REDUCED TO WRITING

United Auto Workers and General Motors
Corporation:

“Seniority shall be by non-interchangeable
occupational groups within departments, group
of departments, or plant wide, as may be nego-
tiated locally in each plant aad reduced to
writing. It is mutually recognized by the
parties that written local seniority agreements
are necessary.

“When changes in methods, products or
policies would otherwise require the perma-
nent laying off of employees, the seniority of
the displaced employees shall become plant
wide, and they shall be transferred out of the
group in line with their seniority to work they
are capable of doing,, as comparable to the
work they have been doing as may be available,
at the rate for the job for which they have been

transferred.

“For eighteen months after production be-
gins in a new plant, the corporation will give
preference to the applications of laid-off em-
ployees having seniority in other plants over
application of individuals who have not previ-
ously worked for the corporation, provided
their experience in the corporation shows that
they can qualify for the job. When employed,
such employees will have the status of tem-
porary employees in the new plant. Such em-
ployees will retain their seniority in the plant
where originally acquired until broken in ac-
cordance with the seniority rules herein.

“Tf the transfer of major operations between
plants results in the permanent release of em-

ployees with seniority, the case may be pre-
sented to the corporation and, after investiga-

tion, it will be reviewed with the international
union in an effort to negotiate an equitable
solution, in accordance with the principles set
forth in the previous paragraph. Any transfer
of employees resulting from this review shall
be on the basis that such employees are trans-
ferred with full seniority.”

Utility Workers Union of America and the
Cleveland Electric Co.:

“In addition, employees with ten or more
years of continuous service who become sur-
plus as a result of reorganization or the ap-
plication of automation, will receive no re-
duction in their hourly rate of pay and will
be entitled to one-half of future general in-
creases as long as their rate is above the
maximum rate of the classification into which
they are placed. This paragraph will have no
application to incapacitated employees or em-
ployees who are unable or unwilling to qualify
for available work.”

I.B.E.W. and Pennsylvania Electric Com-
pany:

“During the term of this agreement, no
regular employee with five or more years of
continuous service shall be laid off because of
lack of work. In case of reduction in force,
the elimination or reassignment of work, the

company will offer to such affected employee -

with five or more year’s service a job for which
he is qualified in any department of the com-
pany at no reduction in his wage rate. Such an
offer may require the layoff of any employee
with less than five years’ continuous service.
The affected employee with five or more years’
continuous service must accept the job offered
within five days and if such job offered is
in the same division, his refusal to accept such
offer will end the company’s obligation to him.
In the event such an employee is a power plant
employee, his refusal to accept the job offered
in the same division or in any other power
plant of the company will terminate the com-
pany’s obligation to him.”

DEPARTMENT SENIORITY

Steelworkers and Nicholson File Company:

“Seniority shall be confined to department
in all cases, except that plant wide seniority
will apply where changes in methods, products,
or policies would otherwise require the perma-
nent laying off of employees.”

Electrical Workers and Sperry-Rand Cor-
poration:

“An employee employed for more than 84
months shall have company-wide seniority as
follows:

“He shall have full employment period
seniority in his current occupation . . . and, in
lieu of layoff in his current occupation he may
displace a junior employee in any one of such
other occupations, provided: his length of serv-
ice in the classification of the occupation to
which he is to be transferred equals or exceeds
the minimum time specified in the experience
and training factor as set forth . . . in the
classification of the occupation to which he is
to be transferred.”

Machinists and Continental Air Lines:

“Seniority for the purpose of this agree-
ment shall be by work classification and shall
be defined as the length of service for which
an employee receives credit, regardless of
location, in one of the classifications covered
by this agreement with this company or any
of its predecessors and shall accrue from the
date of entering a classification.”

THREE CATEGORIES

Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers and
Anaconda American Brass Company:

“Each employee shall accumulate seniority
rights in three categories as follows:

“(a) Occupation.
“(b) Departmental.

“(c) Plant wide .

“It is agreed that the principle of plant wide
seniority shall be applied in layoffs; that the
principle of departmental seniority shall be
applied to transfers in lieu of layoff; that the
principle of occupational seniority shall apply
to promotions, and to transfers in case of re-
duction in the work force; all with the under-
standing that due consideration be given to
ability to perform the job to be filled.”

United Auto Workers and General Motors
Corporation: .

“Seniority shall be by non-interchangeable
occupational groups within departments, group
of departments or plant wide, as may be nego-
tiated locally in each plant and reduced to
writing. It is mutually recognized by the
parties that written local seniority agreements
are necessary. All local seniority agreements
and modifications or supplements thereto shall
be reduced to writing and be subject to the ap-

proval of the corporation and the international
union,”

Some collective agreements provide moving
allowances but do not guarantee displaced em-

ployees new jobs, either in the same plant oF

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