1
1 . re :
HECKING WITH THE Any urforesemn complaints will be
SSS SE TMITTIE = FE wwesolved through the grievance pro-
24 i is ene cedure of the contract. Turbine _
°Y Hiden Be Townsend imainegement claims uhet this rotation
teward Bluto of the |sciedule mar cost G.E. ebout one
SAC See caer Board Member Koral quarter of a million dollars; however
was talking to one of the Union ~ jthe’ Union points out Ghee the rot-
members he represents. During the jation schedule wili help eliminate
course of this conversation, he some of the feeling Fg eee
found out that this man had been that exists among Turbine emp oyees«
laid off in 1958, and had been A layoff of 400 would cause & ae
hired in the fall of 1959. placement of another 800 who os
point, Steward Bluto asked this be required to transfer to abner. vel 3
worker if he had réceivead any va bs, which, in many cases, wou c Jo
ation pay for 1959. The answer t ult ina downgrade and reduction an
this was in the negative. earnings for those people a fected
by the ee ates cetera ba.
aM luto told the worker |pcints out that ese tra > by-
that eae: sure he was en- jand-large would cost Gels a consi a
titled to vacation pay for 1959, erable sum in training Ue See ace
but that he would check Union Head~ employees to learn the di daha op-
quarters to see if he was right. eration, wiich will be pravGnred i
At Union Headquarters, he was told |while rotation schedule is in effec "
that this man qualified for vac-
ation in 1959, as soon as he had Lo} git
raged be tomicd of one month. {Turbine represented by IUE Local 301
: i ale! i ‘at is*time. A layoff of
‘ siness Agent called is 2800 ‘at this tine. / |
laboe Relations in one SAS Dept. 400 employes would involve 1200,
and asked them to check these — either on layoff or transfer to an-
EE BSE TT EER Ey IS
Vol. 7—No. 31 The Voice of GE Workers, Local 301, Schenectady, N. Y. "August 19, 1960: ”
Latest IUE Report On 1960 Negotiation
The total employes working in
NORA
The Following is a Statement of the IUE-GE Negotiating Committee
Ui
_ on
i j or about 42% of present . . . —
facts and if they were aes Toe other job. 3 mere ‘in the dept. Summary of Meetings with General Electric
this man his vacation pay fo e y be Payee : ties Fon postings saith Giners]
: . , ov » rotation schedule is designed to uly agus
after checking out this story, SAC {The ro Au. . is
dmi it de employment in this dept. for |
admitted that he was entitled to provid ! CEP ree
i ay” i y mployes less the normal attrit-
vacation pay ‘and said the reason 280C employ aL 7
he hadn't’ been paid was due to a ion which involves those ieaving for
payroll mistake. As a result of pension, deaths, quits, akCey with
this contact the Union member coll+ the hope that the company Wie : f i : cies, others are due to industry
. d imatel p200 00 due him age to get more work in the om & : a economic, conditions. : “3
SReeS, SEpEOX a more business or a new line of work i
that will provide full time jobs for ! ! ae: elt se ea ae be remedied before
Ithose’ working part time, In the mean-.. fo unempleiiment le eradiéated.
time, the Union is hopeful thet the —— UE Proposals
As our July, 19- statement: repeated, the causes
of unemployment. are muny. ' Some: due to
local managernent and national man ment poli-
national
locations, it will continue to decline, Tn others it
WiLL be “stabilized? at the lowest levels. in years,
Furthermore, even where employment is stable
or even rising slightly we sennnot share in the
complacency exhibited by the Company ‘repro. °
sentatives, Tvom = their own statemer they.
appeared to have heen astonished i outset
of the 1857 recession ane at the ts in
employment that resulted. -
The records will show that’ m -hefore
, Obviously, where ceonomic conditions are the
The moral of this story is_
that it pays to talk with your.
Union representative who is there
to see that our Union members get
what they have coming to them under
the contract. .
current National Contract Negotiat-
ions with the G.E. Co, will provide
some relief and more Employment Sec-
urity for those’G.™. employes who,
TURBINE LAYOFFS REDUCHD
Teont'd)
«The Union Committee realized
that any plan of rotation must be
flexible and could not be for an
indefinite period because of the
many variables that affected the
various groups working in Turbine.
therefore, a plan was negotiated
for the balance of this year which
will be reviewed at that time for
the purpose of modification or ter-
mination, :
The Plan provides that the
employee shall: be eligible for Un-
employment Insurance Benefits dur+
ing the week he is not working» .
During that week he will receive a
maximum of $50 according to.the
laws of N.Y. State, The G.H. has
agreed to make every effort to
keep ‘overtime work to a bare nec-~
“essary minimum and only for. emer~
gency work during this period-in. |
order to keep the maximum. number of
. employees employed during .the work.
Week, The contract’ application on.
transfers and displacements: of
shorter service employees shall re-
thru no fault of their, cw are being
laid off or transferred to: lower
rated, jobs resulting in wage cuts.
SCHOLARSHIP AWARD
—— Ceont 'd)
. Paul Gragiade, last year's —
winner, who has just completed his
ist year at Notre Dame has done
very well in his studies, having
recoived a "Superior" rating in all
lof his subjects.
‘ John Whitehouse intends to
enter Holy Cross in the fall. Lots
of luck to you, John!
CONGRESS TO CONVENE AUG. 8TH
sie ty Ceont td)
According to recent reports
from Washington, the Eisenhower Ad-.
ministration is opposed to most, of
[these bills and has threatened to
use the veto. It is the duty of
each and évery citizen to write to
this representatives. in Washington,
without delay, and inform them of
jthe action they should take during
main in effect during the period.
the next few weekS
Our: proposals have aimed at—first—to re-
move those causes of Employment Insecurity
Which were within the power of national and local
nuinagement, This went to the question of
handling the problems of automation, the right | "Y
to move with the job- restrictions on the farming-
out of work and limitations on the excessive use
of overtime while people are on layoff. Second—
where all ‘efforts failed at providing employ-
ment, to provide the assurance of an income
luring layoff or upon termination.
In the reports by the “local management” they
dealt at length with the steps they were taking
lo “stabilize employment.” This includéd in some
cases the building of inventory during the slack
season, scheduling of work and manpower, ete.
These are not unusual but vather normal busi-
hess practices of any concern,
The Company has maintained further that
some of what we are proposing is in some loca-
tions being attempted by local management, But-
the evidence from the local managers is that
their role is to attempt to persuade the operating
management to take into consideration the prob-
lem of security of employment. What success
these relations managers have is determined by
their own convictions, by the attitude of the
Company, division, and local’ operating people
and. the influence that the “service managers”
are able to exert, The record to date is not a
good one, !
The fact remains, that in spite of all these
‘mployment stabilization devices, the number of
jobs has’ dropped. According to the plant repre-
“sentatives themselyes, in a riumber of important
the recession began, we had been‘ warn goof dt
and it should not have been of any. surprise ta
People who were Solowing cepnomice develop
-ments,
Company Complacency
We see a conspiracy of complaceney thar
Would say: “Let us do nothing beenuse | the’.
sittuition is not getting worse" and, "Let (us do
nothing. beeause the siluntion wilk get: worse,”
All economic experts admit Unat we -areshe
straight for another of the recessions. that
been coming regularly ench. four 4 rs TL thd
recession hits in late 1960 on in. 196," there Will
he another serious downturm’~in employment,
from even the miserably low levels that!
today.
many of these local ‘arrangements’ may
the window, ;
Where local employment manage
intention and the authority: to do-it
thing, our proposals would be of real
for they would-establish) a. general
applicable to alt locations with praper fexibili
for local problems. : a,
The evidence has demonstrated that many
thousands of jobs have been Tost due to manage: ._.
ment errors. ‘Some 4,000 jobs were moved out
of Schencetady on the assumption «that they
would be -repliced by other work. :
In Louisville, management admitted that with
all of its expensive, magic brains installed’ for
the purpose of forecasting sales it had badly
PageTwo = (LOCAL 301.NEWS
August 19, 1960
misjudged the market and thousands of. people,
after working.long hours overtime, were sum-
marily laid off,
In Pittsfield and also: Lynn, management 2d-
mitted that- it had misjudged the mark
result was a larg
manage!
»mployc
There is con idence, enemy in
nt, that tanec
try to stabilize emy
been done many ‘years.
sented by Mr. Stevens
cally. :
He declared’: that! th mpany has now
undertaken with ‘the: itilit fo: construct heavy
electrical equipment’ in. vad fice, of their actual
heed to avoid the scrious ups and downs, This,
he said, had not advaneed very far and one of
the big obstacles was the reluctance of GE “to
invest capital in wage payments and materials.
It is perfectly clear that if GE had been willing
to make an investment years ago, it? could have
worked out arrangements with the utilities for
an orderly flow of production in advance of
uctual need.
Employment ‘Trends
More..than 10,000 jobs were lost in. our units
In the last few years as the result of movements
of operations. Some 5700 jobs .were moved from
Lynn with the. claimed expectation that other
work would take its place.’ While the Company
chvims that some were picked by other depart-
“ments, nevertheless there was a drop in Lynn
of 8500 or 439%°in the P&M units.
Officials: do not expect that there will be any
significant increase in employment in the P&M
units in the next ten years and there may well
be some further declines. The plant is\-now
facing the loss of several hundred jobs to Son
worth With the denial of the right of “Lynn
employees to move with the job,
A similar situation occurred in Schenectady
where 8600 jobs moved out, again with the so-
talicd expectation that these would be replaced
by other-jobs. As in the case of Lynn the Com-
pany managers admitted that, at the very lcast,
they had made miscalculations. None of these
people were permitted to move with tieir jobs,
In Pittsfield there was a large drop in em-
ployment when jobs were moved to Rome. Again
these employees were assured that the jobs would
be replaced by other work, Employment is
expected to drop by several hundred more by
1962 and will not recover to even the present
employment level until 1963,
Syracuse has lost a considerabiec number of
jobs due to plant movement and is now losing
the Technical Products Division with’ some 700
jobs.
“ Bridgeport lost many hundreds of jobs through
plant movements again with the expectation that
they would. be replaced with other work. Now
employment is at exactly one-half the level of a
few years ago.
The situation in Fort Wayne is similar to
shat of other’ large plants. Our Dekalb local
reports a loss of jobs to Murfreesboro, Tennessce.
In many eases the evidence was overwhelm:
ing that even where new work was moved in,
the employecs lad to take drastic cuts in pay.
Syracuse is a case in point.
The Company prefers to go to the expense
of recruiting people from the Southern and rural
areas who have had: no experience with. the
operations, training them, and getting them to
the point where they are productive, It prefers
to do this in order to avoid using on these jobs _
“Yaid off employees from the plants: from: which -
the operations have been moved.
The refusal of General, -Mlectric to do what
so many other large companies have done on
this problem is without any valid reason.
The Company argument that in some cases
the local. management. may wish to retain the
employees in other work is a. ridiculous one, It
is obvious that where the Company offers the
individual a reasonable job in his. home town,
he will not wish to uproot himself to travel to a
far-off community, The threat of additional plant
movements still exists. What we ask, therefore,
is contractual protection for. the jobs. of en
ployees from further moves on. the part of the
mianapements
Handling the Problem of Automation
The reports proved that automation is a
current and a growing problem in the major’ GE
plants. 5
The Lynn management showed that: tcenend-
ous changes will take place.in the’ skill. require-
ments of employees, with a considerable number
of present skills becoming obsolete.
As an example of the deep concern of the
employees, management noted that when an offer
was made to electricians to be trained for repair
work of electric equipment four times the ex-
pected number applied. This_was several times
the number that the Company claimed would be
needed.
In Louisville, our local union maintained ‘that
over 2,000 had been displaced because of automa-
tion. The local Company representative appeared
to be unfamiliar with the facts. The automating
of operations in the appliance industry has cre-
uted a considerable amount of excess capacity
in comparison with the present market. Employ-
ers feel that the most economical method is to
run the equipment full tilt until a comsiderable
inventory has been built up and then shut down
the operations with considerable layoffs,
In Schenectady it was reported that produc-
tion increased by 26% in some of the operations
and even management admitted that technology
is being introduced at an increasing rate. - It
decliured that a better planning job must be done.
Management from Syracuse indicated the
large number of jobs that had been automated
in the communications ficld. In Syracuse, as
elsewhere, not only is there a loss in employment
bub a downgrading ‘of, employees with consider-
wble losses in income, .
The reports from DeKalb indicate a loss of
250 people caused by automation. From Memphis
we learn that the plant has become completely
automated resulting on some operations in a 50%
reduction in personnel with a downgrading of
people to lower rated jobs.
Our Tyler, Texas local reports that in many
cases one machine will do as much as four opera-
tions did before, and the number of people
needed has been reduced considerably. Wages
have not gone up as a result,
From Anniston, Alabama, we were told that
some 800 jobs had been lost due to automation,
oa et em tater na Om ae cata Me me
August 19,1960.
LOCAL 301 NEWS
Page Three
Bpeed-ups, etc. In many cases wages have been
reduced. In. the last five years, production has
Increased from 110,000 to 130,000 ‘tubes per day
with «a reduction in employment of nearly 50%.
This means an Increase in man hour output of
_more. than 100%.
Avsimilar situation exists in Tell City.”
~The extensive changes and dislocations cre-
ated by automation result from capital expendi-
tures voted on by the Board of Directors and the
top management. of GE, These expenditures are
planned years in advance on the basis of precise
knowledge’ as to what the expenditures are sup-
posed to yiéld,
We have absolutely no desire to. interfere
with the functions which are normally those of
management alone. Nor do we have any desire
to engage in meetings of time- wasting commit-
tees.
But as the evidence from places like Lynn,
Syracuse, Tell City, Anniston, Fort Wayne,
Bridgeport, Louisville, increasingly in Schenec-
tady, and other areas has demonstrated, the
" problem—whether we call it automation or tech-
nological improvements—will be of increasing
importance.
- Suspect GE ‘Motives
The hundreds of millions. of dollars that are
being poured by GE into plant equipment ex-
penditures will be devoted. increasingly to auto-
mation and technological improvements. This is
erenting a great sense of insecurity umong the
employees and a suspicion as to Company «mo-
tives and policies.
The Company maintains that automation has
not caused losses of employment at the time the
machinery is introduced. This might well be—
true. It often takes a little time for the effects
of automation to show themselves, especially
when introduced piecemeal. For example during
a downturn In production, the automated equip-
ment is operated to the exclusion of less pro-
ductive equipment and, therefore, the number
of people needed is reduced further, The same
is true during an upturn. After several years,
the impact of automation is felt more and more.
No one can deny that if a Joint Committee
on Automation had been in existence in the last
four or five years, that through the discussion of
company plans, the resulting better understand-
ing, the exploration of the best way to handle
the resulting labor problems, etc, many valuable
suggestions could have been made and proposals
submitted. that could have saved jobs and im-
proved the situation:.of those affected.
The Company has demanded to know where
such joint committees have solved the employ-
ment problem, The major committees, in steel
and meat packing particularly, are just getting
underway. The ones in Philco and Sylvania have
proved valuable in eliminating serious problems
that might. otherwise have plagued ‘the parties,”
Restrictions on Farm-Outs
The evidence presentéd of problems created
by the farming-out of work is almost universal
in the chain. While some steps are being taken
In some plants to curb some of the worst prac-
tices. the problem still exists in serious form
nnd unless there are national regulations, even
local efforts, to get some sense and reason into
this picture’ will fail,
_The claim made by management in Lynn that
they have a policy on it was denied by our. local
union representatives. AN that management ad-
mitted was. that in a given case if there were
available facilities, the local people would be given
consideration. Numerous examples ‘were brought
forward by our Lynn ‘representatives of the con-
tracting-out of work that could be done in the”
plant. In some cases work is contracted-out to
‘another city and re-contracted back to: vendors.
in luynh.
Our local union maintains’ that if they had
ue of the farmed-out work, they could. employ
2,000 more people,
In Louisville our Union declared that out of
a central maintenance group of 450, only 90 people
are left due to the farming-out of work.
In Schenectady, some local agreements have
been reached but the situation is still unsatisfac-
tory.
In . Pittsfield, the farming- -out of maintenance
work is a growing and serious problem. |
In Philadelphia, tool and die work is farmed
out and then operators are asked to scrub their.
machines. .All this is done to keep the vendors
happy.
Complaints were also made from DeKalb,
Philadelphia (salaried), Tyler, Anniston and Fort
Wayne,
Management has raised some problems with
regard to the “practicality” of contractual pro-
visions ‘in this field. It maintains that all. these
questions should be settled locally, Qur position
is that just as language has been w ritten on many
other questions which are applied locally so
flexible and practical language can be written
in the national agreement without doing injury
to the legitimate needs of management.
To the extent that the problem is handled
properly by local management, the need for
enforcement of a national contract provision will
diminish. To the extent that local management
fails to carry through a policy that properly takes
into consideration the problems of employment
‘ seeurity, the national provision will provide the
necessary policy guide. It will be of help to E.R,
managers trying to do the right thing as against
short-sighted opposition of operating people.
Restriction on Overtime
Our statement of July 19 gave a number of
illustrations of the use of excessive overtime while
considerable numbers went on layoff, These need
not be repeated, In addition, a report from
Rome, Georgia, declares that after a layoff occurs
the Company will invariably ask the men to work
overtime using every excuse that they can think
of,
The employment relations. manager at Lynn
admitted the use of continued overtime schedules
with considerable numbers on layoff. A vivid
example of the effect of this::is shown by the
following figures from Lynn :
; a on Weekly
Date . No. of Employ Layoff Hours
December 1958 9930 4200 13.3
March 1960 9354 140 42.6
This shows that there were 600 less employces in
March 1960 than in 1958, 1,100 people on layolf
were. terminated but the whole plant was working
an average of 42.6 hours a week.
Our Philadelphia local reported situations in
which the A.C, group was working 4 days a
week while the D.C. zroup was working overtime.
