We have an ounce throughout the week.
We had a program which we were without yet,
no matter if I can turn it off the announcement.
From the general electric company last week,
regarding making it connected to competitors,
we decided that many questions were raised,
many comments were made that we certainly couldn't
color comment on or answer because we didn't know.
And we thought it would be a good idea
to have some people drop by who didn't know the answer
to questions and the problems.
We could help ourselves.
Therefore, this morning, our guest is Mr. AC Steven,
a gentleman who has expected with us before,
a in the evening, on our community roundtable program
a gentleman that has all the answers,
as far as the company's proposal is concerned,
not actually with community relations.
And we would like to lay one round rule
that we would hope you would follow,
and we will ask the same thing Monday
when we have a representative from the local union.
Would you kindly keep your questions geared to the company,
position the company proposal as far as making
it connected to competitors?
We don't want to put Mr. Steven's on the spot
of talking about the union.
Don't think that's fair.
We don't have a union man here to do that.
You will ask the same thing.
Of course Monday, keep your questions about the union's position.
Mr. Steven, is it a great question to have you here?
I was wondering if you could start off our discussion
and question an answer here,
if you're in by perhaps feeding briefly the why
of the company announced it last week.
Why was it made?
You're a good lad.
For a number of years,
we've been very much concerned over the trend
of our business situation.
And because as we all know,
principally due to the advent of foreign companies,
foreign competition,
and the fact that we are really engaged in the world market,
and as we saw, the world market,
the problem of running in competitive business
has changed very rapidly in the last few years.
And so within the last years,
particularly we have concentrated on trying to determine
whether we have in place the
what it takes to compete in this world market,
and it's not what it will take to put it in that competitive position.
Now this is a very difficult,
and this poses a very difficult problem for us
because what we see is a real threat
to our well-being here in Schenectady,
and our employment and our prosperity,
if we don't do something about some of the situations
that we have lived with for a long time.
Now the easiest way to live with this,
I suppose, is the lazy way,
would be to not to be forthright.
Simply whittled by the graveyard
and hope everything will come out all right.
But we don't feel in contention,
and in contention,
we do not feel that we can do this.
As you know, I've been a long time in Schenectady,
and Schenectady has a very warm place in my heart.
And it distresses me,
and it distresses many of our management people,
to realize that the trends are in the wrong direction.
So we made up a mind based on some very careful analysis
and study that we would try to get,
make known to everyone,
every one of our employees.
Exactly what the situation is,
how we see it,
call the shots exactly the way we see them,
even though it's only this,
is not the easy way to do.
And then see if we can't identify the things
that we've got to do in order to put ourselves back
in a competitive position and give us assurance,
or at least a good chance of a reduction of growth
and a long-term security,
if you want to put it that way here in Schenectady.
So after in line with this feeling,
we felt that it was necessary
that every employee understand the facts of life.
Probably in greater detail than we've ever made them known before.
And for this reason, we have gone to extremes
that we've never used before to appoint every employer.
We've had meetings throughout the whole plant
of their top managers with the people in small groups
to appoint them with a problem,
and not to threaten because we're not posing any threat
to the people or to the community at all.
The threat that we see is imposed by the conditions,
which are characteristic of this world problem that we face.
And there's no like the company is very much a part of this whole thing.
Then in the belief that in the community likes Schenectady,
where there is not hardly a family
that has not some direct or indirect interest in the,
in the phrase of the Genochti Company,
it's absolutely essential that every individual in the community
understand this the same as their employees.
Now we're not imploring, we're not begging people.
We're simply trying to lay the facts as we see them
on the table so people will understand why it is
that we feel certain things are going to be necessary to do.
To analyze those, we've made up our minds to do the things
that he has our direct responsibility
and sole responsibility to do,
but we've also identified the kinds of things
that we believe must be done with involve
with cooperation and understanding and participation
of all our parts of our employees.
And it's this effort that we've engaged in
and when you speak of an announcement in the capital form
of what I just said is the sense of the announcement.
The best way we know to pose the problem is to say
that the situation threatens us with a loss of job.
Now people can understand the loss of jobs.
And we put it in terms of that I think people can understand
by saying that we think that if we don't do anything different
than we're doing right now,
we can see the steady decline of jobs
and connected to the tune of better than 5,000
in the next four or five years.
By the same token, we believe that if we take action,
action which is feasible and certainly can be taken,
we can say this and avoid this point.
So this is the way that we've tried to picture the situation
in terms of people who can readily grant.
Because this is not a simple problem.
It certainly isn't.
And now we'll take our first question.
Let me explain to our listeners,
I will hear your question.
Your listeners, your fellow listeners will hear your question.
Mr. Stevens will not.
So I will repeat your question.
I guess that lady got tired of waiting.
We had somebody on the phone, but evidently she stopped there.
We wouldn't give her a chance.
We'll line up open right now.
If you'd like to ask any questions,
I'll express 31771 and we'll take Mr. Stevens.
We'll take care of him.
I certainly will.
All right, go ahead, please.
When you figure the process of communicating in between the years 1954 to 1964,
are you taking into consideration those days?
Can I be doing the work for us?
Has Ben reduced and many buildings have been planned for it
out of the connected days, which will reduce the production?
That's from 54 to 64?
Okay.
All right, thank you for calling.
Thank you.
Bye.
Mr. Stevens, this lady would like to know,
when we figure the process for the 10-year period for 1954 and 1964,
are these factors taking into consideration that the work force
and connectivity has decreased and the certain departments have moved out of connectivity?
Are they talking into profit figures?
I don't know quite how to answer that because I don't see any connection
between the number of employees and the profit.
The profit of the whole of the entire company, of course, includes the profits
that are made by the business of hearings connectivity.
We haven't made any particular point of profit because this isn't really not the problem.
We are having our difficult reasons, spots, but our real concern is what?
It is the trends and where we're headed in the next two years.
When you're thinking of problems, obviously, if we can't continue to make money in these businesses,
we have to make decisions that it will affect our operations here and there for employment.
I don't think I've answered the question, but I don't quite understand.
I agree with you.
Hello. Go ahead, please.
Well, my question is, when you have to come from this audience
please come and meet with this professional level that's connected to you
and how heavy it was management.
And nowhere, it's connected to you and how much management costs is connected.
Are there figures available?
I'm not directly concerned with this problem nor indirectly.
And I'm quite interested in that I can formulate an article evaluation.
And the other question that I have is why are you planning to prevent a $20 cheaper in New York City area
than they are, as you can see, in the employee story?
Well, I'll tell you, I won't ask that today, that second question,
because I would rather get a question relevant to a program.
I think the question is the aspect, ultimately, the volume of sales.
Well, okay, thank you for calling.
Steven, this lady, I'm going to just roll right out there
and I'm going to try to catch them in certain terms.
You're wrong.
Okay, this lady says that she heard from people on a professional level
at the general electric, that connected electric is kept heavy in management.
I guess that's the first question.
Are there any figures that show how much management makes in New York City?
Maybe she means we should actually have too many cheapy, too few ending.
I don't know how I can comment on that in terms of numbers.
I can assure you that we don't have any more managers than we think are necessary to run the business.
And again, I don't think that management can be measured in terms of numbers.
Management is effective in terms of its quality of decisions and courage and force I have to just exhibit.
Now, if you're talking about the amount of money spent on management,
there again, our objective is to keep every element of our cost in line with efficient operation.
I can assure you we don't pay any more money to managers and we think it takes to get good management.
I don't even know how to repay any more money for the coal we buy or the materials we buy or the people we hire in the shops.
May I just ask this?
I might add this, but just by comparison, some of you may have noticed that one of our chief competitors is the Western House Company.
It has recently apparently decided that they have more overhead than that and this would include management.
And then there's wise and prudent and from some indications that I've read and been given the garden from the press,
they hadn't had something in the process of what we have and the result is they recently given notice to about 3000 who are overhead people that they don't need them anymore.
So I would bring up the people to a house.
Hello, it's my head please.
I'd like to ask him to explain to me if he can the hourly rate and the piecework rate.
This is all his budget because I know that there are people who get as much as $4 an hour on the piecework and bring home checks about 160 and over.
And yet right next to the same person will be working a person doing identical work on a day rate,
bring home a check about $70 which is quite a distance when you stop to think that you're both doing the same work.
And I can never understand this.
Of course, then when the living and what concept living and what comes along, the man who's making the hourly rate gets a 3% but the man gets the piecework rate also gets a 3% which is as it increases to him
because he gets more money at the end of the week than the man who's on the hourly rate.
I'd like to have this explained to me if I could.
I think we're getting right down to the bone now.
Okay, thanks, Shikol.
All right, right.
I think that this was mentioned, I think it was very important factor in the recent that he made this statement.
This way, he would like you to explain to Shikol because he honestly doesn't know and can't figure out in an online,
the basic difference between a piecework rate and an hourly rate.
He says that he understands it and certain instances.
People might be next to each other or close to each other doing the same job but the rate of faith might be very, very different.
Can you give her a nice point?
I suppose she wants to know what is really the difference between paying people on the piecework and paying people by the hour and other words on day work.
My father, the majority, the performance of our work is performed on the basis of paying people by the hour or by the week or by the month.
In fact, those people are called day workers and are paid by the hour.
They're paid at a fixed rate which is determined, which is proportion to the skills and the time that they...
They have to have and the responsibility they take on the job and the time that it takes to learn the job.
So that they have a rate which they earn every hour that they spend in the shop.
Whether they produce anything or not, whether they produce a lot or a little, they get the same amount every hour.
Now that's a day worker.
And those rates, since the day we are rates, which are fully competitive with labor market.
In other words, we have no difficulty hiring people for those rates, their sound and their fare, and generally speaking we believe they're equitable.
Now on the piecework, when people are paid on the piecework basis, they are paid in such a way that at least theoretically, they are given an incentive to produce more by their own effort.
So they are given an allowance in time or money to do each tax.
And let's assume that a man is making something on a punch press and it's then determined that he should, by reasonable efforts and care and so on, be able to produce a certain number of lead for all.
So that we can express that in terms of the value of each piece that he makes.
And therefore, let's say that's ten cents a piece.
So he's given ten cents a piece where we want to make.
Now the more he makes than the hour, the more dollars for all he will make.
And therefore, the more money he will take home at the end of the week, so the incentive is for him to work more efficiently and produce more pieces.
And this is to his benefit and the dars too. That's the theory of piecework.
So that he isn't paid a fixed rate per hour, he's paid a fixed rate per piece.
And then the number of pieces he makes, he's done as much as he finally runs up with the prerog.
Well, when that system becomes out of joint because, and I won't try to get into this because it gets rather involved, but you see, this depends on having the right rate per piece.
And not assume that we know how long it should take to do the job.
And because of changes in the shops and changes in the product and so on, very often the price for piece, the amount for piece gets out of whack to the reality of the situation.
So it's very possible for him to make more pieces sometimes without doing it anymore.
And therefore, his earnings go up. So this leads to what he referred to, I think, of people working rather than we side by side doing work that's not too different in skills.
But one person making a formal money than another, which is a question of inequity, and which then ceases to be a real incentive to produce more by more care and effort to form.
It's got a simple problem. It's not a simple, it's much more difficult to fix it. It's talk about...
Hello, go ahead and please.
So I was wondering if there are some people to produce more for the fair amount of money or to take away the cuts or something like this.
They're doing this to maintain the status quo in other words, so that they let lose the 5000 get their jobs.
Or are they going to give us more? What is? Are they thinking of investing more in heavy industry and what happens with this idea to keep you residential or the specialty residential for free?
I think there's some development for G.E. I guys contemplating putting in more heavy industry here to employ more people. Are they just trying to keep those 5000 jobs?
Trying to ask a quick question.
Thank you.
I'd like to know, Mr. Stevens, when we're talking about this competitive plan, let's say theoretically that connectivity really does get competitive.
I know if everything works out to be open to benefit of everyone.
The money is more than 5000 jobs. I got to know about investing more money in heavy industry.
And if so, if we invest more in city and heavy industry, we're just in any way take away from these plans of making city to research and development better, not only of the company but I guess of the world.
In other words, are we talking about saving these 5000 jobs in heavy industry or are we talking about harming more people and having a good life?
Well, it's a little bit of a focus to make a specific prediction.
What we're trying to do at first is to change this trend which is downward.
In other words, stop this loss of jobs which is caused by the continual loss of business which in turn is caused with effectively that we are not competitive.
In other words, we cannot compete with our manufacturers abroad in this country.
So our hope and belief is that if we take the action in many areas that is necessary to become competitive,
then we will not only preserve the business that we'll call for the retention of these 5000 but very hopefully I can afford to get growth from the business.
A growth sufficient to want more people. We have no limit on the number of people we intend to employ, this was in any region anyway.
As far as the effect on our research and development activities here, I think those are somewhat separate in the...
they don't directly depend on the business activity of our product business here, the manufacturing.
But indirectly, it certainly do because the success of our product business at the parents' connectivity has its effect on the need for our...
and our ability to finance our research and development here at the connective.
And also, the habits and the prowling and the attitudes and so on that prevail in our manufacturing operations, both in the offices and in the factory are present in our laboratory.
And we're not saying for a minute that we are completely competitive even in our laboratory.
And we talk about work habits and attitudes. And this is an... any criticism of any individual that is just a... or any group.
The facts of life are today that we cannot do business and laboratories are in our manufacturing operations the way we did them a few years ago.
We've got to realize that the whole temple, although our business life and the complexity of doing business, the complexity of management decisions, for instance, has changed markedly and we've got to change with it in order to meet the demand of the time.
Thank you, sir. So hello, go ahead, please.
The main thing I read in the paper is the technology we're putting out is that the 3000 P-warkers take a product that a large part of their palms are going to be solved.
I think there's other conditions that the General Electric Company wants in order to stay and connect these.
And I'd like to find out if Mr. Sealings could give us some of these other conditions such as are they going to ask the community reduce their taxes on real estate?
So at least one of the conditions is they're going to require the community to stay and connect it.
All right, sir. Thank you for calling.
Thank you, everybody.
Mr. Sealings says that he's heard great deal about peace work and about peace workers perhaps taking a cut and pay.
He would like to know if there are other conditions too that would certainly be on a positive side from keeping these 5000 jobs and keeping the status quo.
He would like to know if you can say or if you know, is there any plan opportunity to ask for a reduction in community taxes and real estate taxes?
Is there anything to that that you can talk about?
There are a great many things that we believe have got to be changed and improved.
And many of these changes we can affect ourselves.
For instance, we know that we must invest a great deal of money to modernize and keep modern facilities we have here.
But whether we, whether this is a proper decision to do this from here on out or not will depend on whether we judge the our ability to compete, granted that we have good facilities,
whether whether this condition warrants this kind of investment here or whether it would be more prudent to place it somewhere else.
Now from a sentimental standpoint, if we want to place it here and we're determined to get ourselves in a position where those kinds of investment is warranted here, which will assure at least for not standpoint of facilities and buildings and so on,
a modern plan which will enable us to to utilize the good, the skills and the and the concentrated effort and the food, the more we're employed.
We have many areas in which we must we must make major changes and improvements.
For instance, in our whole technique of selling, which is something that's difficult for the average layman to understand, we're in a world market today and we we must learn how to deal with the foreign political situation which has great impact on our ability to sell abroad and our ability to compete with foreigners.
We've got to change, we've got to get people to realize that they're very attitude toward their job, their enthusiasm, with which they would with their post their job is a very very critical factor in whether we whether we can focus and channel the efforts of thousands of people toward a common goal or whether we waste our energies by by uncertainty.
Uncertainty and lack of enthusiasm, not so I think. So these are the kinds of things that we must we must affect. Now the question, I've got to lost on the question now.
I think what this was primarily or specifically interested is I get a reduction exactly all right that's a good logical question. We haven't made this a prime factor because while we are generally genuinely concerned over the trend of government expenditure not only locally, but on a state level and a national level.
And frankly we think that we're engaging as a country and as a community in in in excessive expenditures and this means rising taxes. This concerns us very much and we are continually working on to try to get a realization that the economy can
expand just so much grain for government and public purposes and beyond that it becomes the the tax grain becomes a burden with put this sort of serious disadvantage with the with a foreign competitive.
But in all honesty we don't consider that that our local taxes are are the are a prime target of our efforts today. I hope this isn't understood because we nobody's happy with it.
We pay as you know a very large tax in connectivity and we could be very critical of some of the some of these funders that we see being made but we I think we're practically enough to realize that this is a very complex problem.
I think all I can say is that we we cried to set what we hope is a good example of running a good business running an efficient business and we believe that the same principles of guidance and that should be applied to the municipal and state operations.
We don't think this is the case in too many instances because what you spend determine what the taxes are going to be. You don't spend it unless you collect it later.
We have time for one more question. I will say you are both the effort of dialing your fingers down to the muscles and this will be the last one that will entertain today. Hello, go ahead please.
I'm at the service of the statement of our credit system. We're getting along with that instead of being the same.
What do you guys expect all of the necessary measures that they can employ and when you have to save a city everyone could understand what needs to be done and why it needs to be done.
So many times people seem to have no control or even know what's going on only what you read and what you hear and are told in a different time helps them what.
But why not have public meeting? Why not area reasons for being in and the company if you want to pay the city you've got to do something and it's not going to be good what you read and the paper.
All right thank you for calling.
I just said he puts it on this level Mr. Stevens that we're trying to save a city here we're not trying to save a building or whether
she's right or wrong and they're going to come in on that. I'm sure opinion.
People that would be a tremendous idea you've already talked about company meetings are actually involving every employee who's going to be general electric.
What about public meetings everyone has an interest whether they work with you here not what about the company and the union airing their views and public meetings is this feasible.
Well I think we've been doing that I guess that's what I'm doing right now for one thing we intend to use television and thanks tonight I think it's at seven o'clock on the WRGB Mr. Craig who is vice president and charges
the overall charge of the off the connective plant and tends to make make a presentation until it is you to try to make clear what we're trying to do what's the same that I've done in the
abbreviated form now we have had several meetings with various groups of community people we intend to have more and we've invited we invite questions from anyone
because we sincerely want people to get a together to understand this problem and I think the union plan to do about the same thing I'd like to when you're
referred to the union I just like to make this one comment we see this is no sense as I see it should be interpreted as any dispute between the company and the union this
problem is one that is a mutual problem there's no such thing as the union win in argument and we losing our vice
person because if we if we together lose I mean if we if one wins in the other loses we all we always so we we hope we can attack this problem
and as far as I'm concerned this is the way we are attacking it mutually with the union to lay the fact before ourselves consider what must be done in the
areas where the union have primary interest and then comes to some some solutions and even what we find to work out today
Mr. Stevens thank you so much for being our guest Monday we will have a representative from the union to discuss their position
Mr. Stevens thanks again it's always a pleasure to have you and I think you are very forthright with your answers on behalf of the listeners thank very much
this is WSNY connected e New York 11 o'clock instant news time on WSNY connected to New York Bill Duffy reports the news
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