THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

2nd Issue
July, 1965

hourly earnings in manufact-
uring ran about $2.44 an hour
employers paid about 60c ad-
ditional in fringe benefits, he
said. Thus, Secretary Wirtz
said an overtime hour costs
employers only one and one
fifth times the straight time
rate. With average fringe
costs rising at least 3c an hour
each year he says it is no
wonder that overtime is on
the upswing.

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4
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| The majority of the con-

tracts under examination im-
pose double pay for excessive
. overtime or time worked be-
yond two shifts. The Electrical
Workers provide for double
~ time and one half ia excess of

eighteen hours work.

‘AUTOMATION FUND’

The term “automation fund”
is used to describe a device
which is jointly established by
management and labour; to
which money is contributed
because of changes in equip-
ment, methods, or plants
which result in greater output
per man hour; and from which
money is disbursed for the
purpose of sharing the gains
of such changes with the re-
tained employees and/or pro-
viding the equities and needs
of displaced employees and/or
studying the best means of ac-

complishing these purposes. A
detailed study has been made

of six automation funds as fol-
lows:

(1) The United Mine
Workers of America Welfare
and Retirement Fund.

(2) The Music Performance
Trust Fund.

(3) The West Coast Long-
shore Mechanization and
Modernization Fund.

(4) The New York Long-
shore Container and Bulk
Sugar Funds.

(5) The Armour Automa-
tion Fund.

(6) The International La-
dies’ Garment Workers Un-
ion Supplementary Unem-

ployment-Severance Benefits
Fund.

F The development of these
funds indicate a conflict in
policy namely, whether such
funds should mainly benefit
retained employees or displac-
ed employees.

The investigator lists as
major possible goals of labour
es th management in negot-
iating an automation fund the
following:

(1) To prevent, slow down,
33 stop, or limit automation.
“=o (2) To initiate, speed up,
or extend automation.

(3) To share the savings

of automation with employ-
ees.

(A) To provide greater job
security.

(5) To provide greater in-
_ (6) To preserve accumulat-
rights and_ benefit

(8) To gain employee co-
operation in the installation
and efficient operation of new
equipment and processes.

(9) To improve industrial
relations generally.

(10) To improve public
relations.

The benefits of an automa-
tion fund may be designed
primarily to aid those employ-
ees who will be retained in the
company or industry. In this
way the fund provides a spec-
ial mechanism for the retained
employees to share in the sav-
ings brought about as a result
of automation. The price they
pay is cooperation in the in-
stallation and efficient opera-

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BARGAINING & AUTOMATION

tion of the new equipment and
processes.

Most of the income of the
Coal Fund is spent for this
type of benefit. The miners
who are retained in the in-
dustry receive $100:00 per
month pension from the fund
upon retirement at age 60 or
later. In addition, the fund
provides hospital and medical
care and widow’s and surviv-
ors’ benefits for retained em-
ployees and their families.

All of the payments from
the West Coast Longshore
Fund and the New York

Longshore Bulk Sugar Fund
are also of this type. The West
Coast fund provides a lump
sum payment of $7,920 for

Hewers of Wood

and drawers of water. wosnua ix.»

each retained registered “A”
longshoreman with 25 years
of service upon retirement at
age 65 or later, or $5,000 in
death or disability payments.
The $7,920 may also be used
for voluntary early retire-
ment. The fund also guaran-
tees retained employees that
their weekly income will not
be cut below a certain number
of hours of pay per week as
the result of the mechaniza-
tion and modernization pro-
gram.

Of the six funds examined
in the study referred to above,
only three provide benefits for
those actually displaced by an
automation program. The Ar-
mour Fund will in the future

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pay relocation costs, although
originally it did not provide
any benefits to displaced em-
ployees except on a pilot op-
eration basis. The parties in
their 1961 labour negotiations
agreed that relocation costs
may henceforth be paid from
the fund until it is exhausted.

The Ladies’ Garment Work-
ers Fund provides benefits for
displaced workers in the form
of both termination pay and
supplementary unemployment
compensation benefits. Pay-
ments in this industry, how-
ever, are limited to employees
who lose their jobs because
the firm goes out of business,
which in most cases is not re-
lated to automation.

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