Automation more than invention,
now philosophy of management

UTOMATION is more than

A invention. It is rapidly
becoming a philisophy of man-
agement.
* It is the widespread accept-
ance and usage of the .basic
principles of automatic oper-
ation and control. When ap-
plied to the startling advances
in basic human knowledge,
automation transforms indus-
trial and commercial life. Tra-
ditional concepts and familiar
scenes are disappearing. Pro-
duction is being redesigned.
Factory size and location will
be changed. Compartmental-
ized engineering as it exists
today has become obsolete.

From the raw material to
the finished product of the
office and factory, automation
replaces the tried and true
with new and amazing tech-
niques.

In some instances a new
machine under the control of
one man replaces many old
machines run by several doz-
en men. In other instances
entire departments and even
factories are automated.

The challenge of automation
is self-evident. We must match
‘our technical progress with
equally rapid social and: eco-
nomic progress in order that
the fruits of automation and
the new technology may be
harnessed for the benefit of
all of us. :

xt x xt

To be able to do this, re-
quires that we have enlighten-
ed social policies — that we
have open minds free from the
“dead hand” concept of the
past.

But there are spokesmen for
organizations in Canada ~and
the United States who tell us
that technology automatically
confers benefits on society.
Technology is represented as
the independent variable, the
casual factor.

' This is not true.

Man is the - independent
variable. His customs, his
habits and traditions, his de-
sires and needs, his ingenuity,
resourcefulness and wisdom
determine the shape, kind and
degree of prosperity that he
can and does. wring from thé
natural resources of the world.

As consumers and as politi-

cally franchised citizens, man °

makes decisions. affecting the
number and kind of jobs.
Across the bargaining table,
for example,.and by political

action, workers attempt to im-
prove their living standards.

BEY Seth ac te

The purpose of attributing to
inanimate machinery the abil-
ity to make progress auto-
matically is clear.

If machines can automatic-
ally give us higher living stan-
dards, more leisure, and the
better life, then on what
grounds do unions make de-
mands for higher wages and
for better conditions? Why
struggle to make progress
when automation will auto-
matically provide this pro-
gress?

It wasn’t so long ago that
companies were telling work-
ers that unions were unneces-
sary because workers would
g their just rewatds without
organizing. Working people
rejected that falsehood then.
They reject now the idea that
progress is made automatically.

All of us; in all segments of
our society, working together,
must harness our productive
tools, to beneficial ends.

We must match our greatly
improved power to produce by
a greatly broadened and deep-
ened purchasing power base.
For only as we remain able
to consume what we make can
our delicately balanced econ-
omy function properly.

When unions point out that
drastic changes in production
techniques have, as a by-pro-
duct, disruptive effects on the
lives of workers — out come
the straw men. Management
claims that this js conclusive
evidence that workers are
afraid of new machines, that
workers oppose automation.
This is not true.

Workers do not oppose auto-
mation. We do not fear the
automatic machine. We wel-
come better tools that take
the danger and drudgery out
of our work.

We say that management
has a responsibility to intro-
duce this new technology in
a manner which will minimize
disruptive consequences. It
must time automation instal-
lations to coincide with ex-
panding needs for the pro-
ducts. Management must face
its responsibility ‘to the work-
ers affected by changes in
technology.

5 x $e

We in the United Auto
Workers. will do our -part to

insure that management takes
its. responsibilities seriously.
We have laid the foundations
for a guarariteed employment
plan through the negotiation
of supplemental unemploy-
ment benefit agreements which
now cover more than one mil-
lion UAW members in the
United States and Canada .

‘Under our guaranteed an-
nual wage plan, management
would tend to avoid the intro-
duction of automation when
major layoffs would result.

The introduction of new and
more efficient equipment
would more likely be geared
to periods of expanding mar-
kets when other jobs would be
available for the workers dis-
placed by new machinery.

Similarly the guaranteed an-
nual wage will tend to assure
that new and more efficient
plants are located reasonably
near the obsolete ones so as
to avoid mass layoffs of work-
ers in existing plants.

Under the guaranteed an-
nual wage, as you can see,
management will more likely
make decisions affecting the
introduction of automation
with a greater degree of social
responsibility.

Where the introduction of :

automation nevertheless would
resu:t in displacement of some
workers, the guaranteed an-
nual wage will serve to cush-
ion the shock of layoffs. It
would give these displaced
workers up to six months un-
der present agreements, and
eventually, we hope, up to a
year, to find jobs in keeping
with their experience and abil.
ities or enable them to under-
take retraining for new and
betier jobs made possible by
the new technology,

The corporations moreover,
would be impelled to provide
various types of aid to dis-
placed workers to minimize
their period of adjustment.
The struggle to obtain a guar-
anteed annual wage is just the
present chapter of labor’s his-
toric fight to provide greater
employment security of wage-
earners,

® From an address given
by Jack Conway, chair-
man of the UAW com-
mittee on automation,
to the 1956 conference
of the Canadian Insti-
tute of-Public Affairs,

.

Praises Hardy’s book

W. C. MUIR, Fruitvale, B.C.:
I don’t know how the Pacific
Tribune was able to put up
such a valuable book as Those
Stormy Years for a premium
recently, but I do know that
people who failed to take&d-
vantage of the offer really
denied themselves of a good
thing.

Those Stormy Years is fill-
ed with -a wealth of back-
ground history of the struggles

of the labor movement both
in B.C. and the U.S. : It is all
put down in an easy-to-read,
interesting fashion. -

The legal murder of the
Rosenbergs and the present
day trials of militant union
leaders in the U.S. become
much easier to understand
after reading Hardy’s accounts
of the 1918 trials and jailings
of himself, Bill Haywood and
other IWW unionists.

Those Stormy Years has a
highly inspirational value that
is badly needed at this time
when so many people are
“drawing themselves back”
due to lack of understanding
and appreciation of events
abroad. In addition, it is very
educational, as it gives the
reader an insight into so many
parts of the world, through a
worker’s eyes.

In addition, Hardy should
be congratulated for his abili-
ty to inject so many amusing
incidents into his narrative at
just the right times, thus mak-
ing it a hard-to-put-down
book.

It would be good for the
labor movement if every
working man and woman

could read this book at this
time.

‘It sure made me mad’

L. CHARLAND, Powell
River, B.C.: The story in the
November 30 issue about the
threatening letter sent to
Nigel Morgan, LPP provincial
leader, over the Hungarian
situation sure made me mad.

As a Canadian citizen, I
want you to publish this pro-
test. I am also writing to Prime
Minister Louis St. Laurent,
and what I am telling him is
nobody’s business.

Prizewinning letters

Each week the Paci-
fic Tribune will present
a book to the writer of
the most interesting, en-
tertaining and_ topical
letter published on this
page. Contributors are
urged to keep their let-
ters to a reasonable
length.

The prize-winning let-
ter in our last issue was
written by E. W. Green,
Vancouver, B.C.

Ring the truth

ROY LOWTHER, Vauill
ver, B.C.: The two verses /

below came from the he
without too much considét
tion about political or form
aptness; they express a bit!
my feeling about the Huns?
ian and other matters:

Through the teeming
And the screaming f
Still I hear his silver belli
When they hush in |
Lull, the Russian {
Still will ring the truth #
well, "=

When the lying F
Round the dying ie.
Dies itself, to Doctor Tim!
We will listen; dl
Peace will glisten 1
Once again, and crush #
crime!

4
Frankly prejudiced |

ROY REID, Saskatoon, si
The Wheat Pools are the Fi
example of cooperation of
country, except for the ™
practical 100 percent P 7
known as the Canadian Ye
Board Marketing Act. 4
most beneficial legislation ’
forced from the R. B. Bem
government by the mass yi
sure of the people during ©
Hungry Thirties.

Most people understand wh
gets the benefit from the |
ops.. Free enterprise ma
a different contributio®
social welfare. For the
erg there is a squeeze betw i
high costs of- production fi
low prices for products. fi
urban people there is the
that wages, salaries and fe
sions tend to fall behind
rising cost of living.

Internationally, the st
struggle takes place betwe
capitalism and socialism. ,
have the examples of
and Hungary.

The people of the west !
gard the Warsaw Pact 2 ‘
offensive military organ
tion. The people of the
feel the same way about
North Atlantic Treaty om
ization. We should not fom
we were the first to bye
the United Nations and NA ‘
Our military men, less 7
matic than our politi
often speak openly of
ing” the east from Comm
ism. i

We cannot consider |
struggle between unionis™ (
cooperation against free
terprise, except in relatio?
how that struggle affects f
lives.. For us the same ‘of
applies to the internal?
struggle. In the natury
things, we are not and C#
be neutral. i

Frankly, I am _ prejut
against free enterprise gi
capitalism, as I am prejU
for cooperation, unionism ;
socialism.

JANUARY 18, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAG