LABOUR PROBLEMS

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21204, 29 August 1940, Page 9

LABOUR PROBLEMS

HUMAN ELEMENT FACTOR ROUND TABLE CONFERENCE . TALKS WITH MANAGEMENT “Understand the man who runs the machine and you have a key to the solution of labour problems,” agreed speakers invited to express their views into microphones for the benefit of the Chicago Rotary Club, says The Christian Science Monitor. If labour is treated not as a commodity but as the human element that it i:, much trouble can be avoided and all parties will benefit, insisted the speakers. Like symbolic figures in cartoons, the three Rotarians representing labour, management, and the public, respectively, presented their viewpoints to a sympathetic audience of business men. Of course labour didn’t wear a blue shirt and overalls; he came in business clothes and talked like any other Rotarian. He was Herbert C. Angster, secretarydirector of the pump industry of the United States, who has made thousands of contacts with workers in various plants in connection with his duties in determining fair trade practices. Representing management

was Dr. Alfred P. Haake, Managing Director of the National Association of Furniture Manufacturers, and radio speaker on economics. Public a Giant A 1 Carder, Chicago restaurant owner, third in the group, said he ought to be a wizened little fellow to look like the Public as depicted in cartoons, but he reminded the audience that the Public increases quickly in stature and power when its rights are stepped on. One by one, these men gave their recipes for the solution of labour difficulties. “So lovg as you treat labour as a commodity instead of a human element you will have estra’iged relationships,” said Mr Angster, speaking for the workers. “We’ve robbed labour of its greatest heritage, pride of accomplishment. Labour doesn’t want paternalism. You’ve got to make a partnership out of this affair if you would take the strain out of relationships. You’ve got to take the mystery out of business. You must furnish the men with the same facts you would give your board of directors.” Gangsters in Unions Management must take over responsibility for much that unions now fight fdr, declared Dr. Haake, in his role as spokesman for employers. Management must study workers, he said, to learn their needs and desires and care for thpm, so that

g unions need no longer dissipate their n energies in struggles to get what is d rightfully coming to wovkers. Then unions can develop into professional societies and devote their energies ;c getting a better understanding of the , business in which they are organised. . With this better understanding they *■ will then work with management to , solve joint problems, predicted Dr. Haake. “But aren’t many labour organisations led by gangsters?” someone in the audience questioned. r r Agreement to Best a “Yes, they, look like gangsters to us,” replied the furniture manufacturers’ director. “But I suppose some _ business leaders who dominate their rj plants look like gansters to union e men. Perhaps we need fewer gang- >♦. sters in all directions.” ;g All the speakers agreed that labour j difficulties should be settled not by calling in the Government to make e laws preventing strikes but by agree.j. ment of the two parties concerned, • s labour and management. Calling in _ the public by means of the strike is a costly procedure, said Mr Carder. When Mr Public is called upon to suffer, he is likely to grow indignant - and change his buying habits. In the is recent Chicago milk strike, for ex- », ample, Chicagoans learned to buy - milk at outlying stores at reduced y rates, and this hurt both managers ment and workers in the industry, l: observed Mr Carder. The thing for

, management and labour to do, he 0 saiffi is to settle their differenoee around the table without recourse to the public. f I,