By LAURIE WERNER

time, overtime, nothing
~ Overtime, still more!

» Oh, overtime’s bow

; ts buck and doe:

lot Shaft confounds,

3, at it wounds,

tickles still the sore.”

a Gpologies to the Bard.

He Mippled across the plant
ae of the General Mo-
toh Plant in Oshawa, On-
eoetly cold morning
ht ae Just outside the
““ddled in a car to keep

» Was a
Vee, General Motors

ae 4 worker with a
that purpose. His hope
ould ne of his fellow work-
‘ Banc’ show up for his
ne; ift. His purpose was
“Pan overtime shift,

a =

: opis it that drove him

€rtime work? What is
"€ millions of hours of
Ours being worked

0 do by Canadians?
head Security is a main
On in working over-
, orker earning $2 an
Y 29 oak his earnings
*and-on nt if he puts in 8
2 €-half hours over his
Der is earnings will
Urs. an if he also works
Sunday Ime on a double-
et :

n hip duestion cannot be
8 ha that simply. Over-
ng Rene an effect on
efo Sple to an extent
. ~€ witnessed in in-
Unions few years the

Movement has all
Vert d the struggle to

nds of. Yet 300 to 500
nt, Working people in
treetg  2re still walking

f Hable to find jobs.

€ overtime work
tmed by these un-
kers with a mini-
training.

is” ade unionists suggest
fibe, Teakdown in the
Sirg ie of Working people,
_ 8et all you can”.
ne we Shops workers
Porty _for a chance at
h eel to work over-
Basins their “share”.
sist lal union agree-

that they get their

0
ae Teasons are ad-
ut Aiden workers have
‘ettim Stops in reaching
he, -°: Contradictions
ene looks into the

Wor
ae who returns
Brees, Overtime as a
de « 'n lost earnings
further cthing” in the
S sea © lay-offs. Other
No difference in

a

Time for labor fo make it

their working overtime than
“Bill” who is moonlighting on
another job, or ‘Jack’? whose
wife works and brings two
wages into the household, or
“Pete” with his small farm on
the side.

Workers who can claim none
of these excuses leap at the
chance to work overtime. It is
only the “odd-ball” or “union
type” who refuses overtime to-
day. This has resulted in some
sharp divisions among workers.
Certainly the fight for shorter
hours and a modest wage in-
crease has a hollow ring when
overtime is excessive.

Some people suggest that it
is an ailment of the capitalist
system, (the problem does not
appear to exist in socialist coun-
tries.).There is no doubt it is
a problem in many countries be-
sides Canada. :

' Scots, too
(EE

Two Scots workers discussing
their former work mates over
home said when you inquired
where one worked and what

were the hours the usual reply

was: “Two nights and a Sun-:
day.” In Italy the trade union
movement, under strong left-
wing influence, had to tone
down the anti-overtime fight,
when the workers all but ignor-
ed the call. Dock workers in
England broke through to win
a 40-hour week . . . with 2
hours overtime on Saturday
morning written into the agree-

. ment.

In France and West Germany
overtime is a matter of course,
and in the USA more overtime
is worked, in this high-wage
country, than anywhere else in
the world.

A recent article by Lee W.
Minton, President of the Glass
Bottle Blowers, AFL-CIO, repro-
duced in the United Rubber
Workers paper, points out that
more than 22 million American
workers are putting in hours in
‘excess of a standard 40-hour
work week.

_ U.S. Secretary of Labor Wirtz
revealed that a survey of indus- .

tries covered by the Fair Labor
Standards Act showed overtime
worked was equivalent to 1,250,-
000 full time jobs. Some 17 mil-
lion additional workers (exclud-
ing agricultural workers) are
not covered by this Act.

The United Electrical Work-
ers Union in the U.S., before a
hearing of the House Commit-
tee on Education and Labor, ex-
posed how companies are in-

sisting on compulsory overtime :

even while huge unemployment
exists in the very plants and
communities where the com-
panies are located.

Many studies have disclosed

the serious health and safety
hazards of protracted hours and

shown that fatigue is a major
‘contributing factor to industrial
accidents.

Despite rapid increases in
‘Gross National Product and cor-
poration profits, unemployment
has continued to> rise. For the
next several years 1,400,000
young people a year will come
into the U.S. labor force, an
alarming situation when you
consider private industry did not
create net additional jobs in
the period 1957 to 1963.

In face of these facts it is
estimated that some 40,000 jobs
are being eliminated every week
due to automation. In spite of
this, those employed, fearful of
becoming unemployed, are driv-
en into more overtime.

Canadian statistics are incom-
plete and do not uncover the
depth of the problem, however,
we just have to look around us
to find overtime being worked in
every nook and cranny of our
country. Most union agreements
in Canada make overtime com-
pulsory. Some provincial labor
acts make it an offense for work-
ers to refuse overtime in concert.

Some educated speculation in-
dicates 2,000,000 jobs will dis-
appear in Canada by 1971 as a

result of automation and techno- |

logical advance. At the same
time 2 million young people will
enter the labor force during the
decade 1961-1971. Additional
hundreds of thousands of jobs
will disappear due to increased
worker productivity.

Business
ES)
Where does Big Business fit
into this picture?

Surely these immense doses
of overtime would not exist if it
did not mean dollars in the pro-
fit pockets of the corporations!

Big Business decided some
years back on a new drive to
head off the fight for shorter
hours and improved living stand-
ards. Calculating they could

a 40-hour work week in fact

carry a high degree of overtime
without adding to their costs,
they reckon fringe benefits (and
they include Workmen’s Com-
pensation payments, unemploy-
ment insurance costs and gov-
ernment safety standard require-
ments as fringe benefits) as run-
ning from 7 cents to $1.35 an
hour.

At the same time they do not
have to bother with training
new people. Overtime gives
them a trained worker, familiar
with the machinery and know-
ledgeable with the operation and
product of the company.

So profitable is this tactic to
Big Business that even in major
cut-backs a company cuts deep-
er than necessary so that the
remaining workers will be re-
quired to work overtime. In one
large plant in Hamilton work-
ers were suspended when they
refused to work overtime on the
very day the company had given
lay-off notices to their work-
mates.

: Profits

Certainly Big Business has
scored with their tactic. The
fight for shorter hours and im-
proved conditions has been
seriously weakened. With the
advent of automation, the fight
for shorter hours is a vital ur-
gency. If we are to prevent
chaos, then the labor movement
will have to launch, in short or-
der, what could well be a life
and death struggle for shorter
hours and overtime restrictions.

The labor movement does not ;
appear to be in shape, or de-
sirous, of such a ‘struggle. Some

_ labor leaders, in responsible po- —
sitions, are prone to use the

shop worn phrase that “ob-
jective conditions are not right”.
This approach does a_great deal
of harm and weakens the fight
to build alliances among trade
unionists.

Positive work must commence
to reach an understanding as to

New plants being built in Canada such as the one shown
above are not relieving unemployment because the companies
choose to pile on overtime rather than hire additional men.

i

the best methods of stemming
the tide of overtime and con-
centrating on the need to win
shorter hours.

Hand in hand with a re-edu-
cation of union members and
leadership on the serious effects
of overtime in the struggle to
win shorter hours and to pro-
vide jobs is the question of ne-
cessary protections against
health and safety hazards re-
sulting from overwork. The
trade union movement could
demand double and triple time
payment for overtime work (al-
though this has not solved the
problem in the craft unions
where they have won such pay-
ment).

Where 40 hours has not been
established by law, we must —
campaign to achieve this 19th
century goal. Strict legislative
restrictions must be placed on
the amount of overtime worked
per year by an individual. Gov-
ernment contracts should carry
a triple time penalty to the em-
ployer who demands overtime
on such work.

Lastly, only six out of every
100 students starting school to-
day will graduate from univer-
sity. Much of the reason for this
drop-out is the-lack of funds to
continue their education. Educa- —
tion must not be based on abil-
ity to pay ... free education
should become a goal of all
unions. Those young people whe
are not able to continue their
education for other reasons
must be assured the right of
employment at decent wages.

Program

A comprehensive program will
have to be worked out by the
labor movement to give direc-
tion in the automation age and
for the employment of our
young people. The NDP started
on such work by calling a semi-
nar in Hamilton, Ontario, but
all organizations have a respon-
sibility to get down to business
on this all-important question.

The Communist Party at its
18th convention, held in Toron-
to at the end of March, warned
that if automation “is allowed
to develop in the ownership
and control of the monopolies,
it will have disastrous effects
upon the working class and for
society as a whole.” Calling for
democratic public control over
automation the party pointed
up the tremendous advance that
could be made by the working
people in this era of new
methods of social production.

If labor does not act in this
area, and quickly, then we can
expect large groups of workers
crowded around plant gates.one
winter’s day . .. they will be
the unemployed vying for the
jobs of trade un‘onists and they
won’t much care about trade
union rates!

June 5, 1964—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5