2. 3,242 General Motors workers were displaced, segregated as follows, by skill: Machine operators (milling, lathe, broach, drill press, etc). Assemblers Metal workers.. Welders (various degree of skill). Spray painters (polishers, etc.). 1,296 1,458 162 65 97 164 3. Local aviation companies employ approximately 28,000 workers at present. 4. The estimated value of contracts scheduled for production in Buffalo is $550,000,000. 5. 2,085 displaced auto workers registered for new employment as follows: Machine operators (milling, lathe, broach, drill press, etc.). Assemblers. 804 985 Metal workers (including ding men, bumpers, metal formers, etc.). 96 37 Spray painters and polishers 61 102 6. 780 have been transferred to the aviation industry as of today (September 22, 1941). All transfers have been made prior to additional training since those being trained are not yet available for referral. Of the above about 500 obtained employment in the aircraft industry as machine hands, i. e., machine operators, as milling, lathe, grinder, etc. Approximately 200 received jobs, based on manual dexterity gained in their General Motors or previous employment, as assemblers, panel department workers, etc. Of the balance, 20 were welders and the remaining were sheet-metal workers such as ding men, cowling workers, metal formers, etc. 7. Of those registered with the New York State Employment Service the fol lowing remain unemployed, with skills as indicated below: Machine operators (various types as indicated elsewhere)_. Metal workers (various types as indicated elsewhere). Spray painters (polishers, etc.) 199 724 21 9 19 31 8. A total of 1,072 were referred and accepted for national defense training. Six hundred and seventy-four started training. There are now, because of dropouts for various reasons, primarily acceptance of employment, only about 600 remaining in school. Practically all machine operators entered machine shop courses. About one-half of the assemblers also entered this course. The balance of the assemblers entered aviation mechanics courses such as aviation assembly, fabrication and riveting. Of the General Motors employees of the lesser skill type, the majority went to aviation mechanics courses (as above). A few studied welding and foundry practice and a small number took machine shop practice. 9. We assume the question here to be: "What is the prospect for placement after training?" In replying, all these trainees can readily be absorbed in local industry quite promptly provided the employers committed to assist in the return to employment of these men, cooperate. 10. Most of the former General Motors workers who have accepted new employment are working in occupations which demand at least as much skill as did their occupations in the General Motors plants. Very few have accepted work in an occupation of lower skill requirement. However, the hourly rate of pay in their new work does not in most instances compare favorably with the rates paid by General Motors. (The General Motors rates were considerably above the local average.) 11. It is estimated that approximately 4,300 persons have been added to the pay rolls of national-defense employers of Buffalo since the date of the General Motors lay-off. We have positive verification of the placement of 1,275 General Motors men, and we believe that the majority of the 781 who have failed to appear at our office in spite of numerous call-in efforts, are also working. The four employers pledged to cooperate in the reemployment program, report that they have hired former General Motors workers as follows: Curtiss Aircraft Corporation.. Buffalo Arms Corporation___. 450 350 24 64 12. The New York State Employment Service and national defense school authorities cooperated in the referral to the training courses and in the training program itself. General Motors workers were accepted in preference to other applicants in all local schools. Every worker who desired training was able to participate. 13. The General Motors Corporation's unemployment compensation plan has proven of immeasurable assistance to the displaced General Motors workers. This plan permits laid-off workers to draw up to two-thirds of their average normal salary for a considerable period of time-the period extends considerably beyond the time needed to complete training. Also, most of the unemployed men are drawing unemployment insurance benefits in the amount of $15. (This amount, however, is deducted from the amount of unemployment compensation paid by the General Motors Co.) We understand that the department of social welfare has found it necessary to help but few of these workers. If such help is necessary, placement on Work Projects Administration rolls would be readily accomplished. (Eligibility for welfare aid is a prerequisite to Work Projects Administration employment.) 14. The plan and its resultant publicity has discouraged migration of workers into this area-which is well. Local companies generally prefer to employ local workers. Replying to the second question as regards "local unemployed" prior to the General Motors lay-off. The local labor supply had been seriously diminished. There were few persons of even semiskilled type available for referral-hence, the plan has not particularly changed the prospective insofar as local employment is concerned. We have heard but very little criticism of the plan from other unemployed persons. 15. We have no knowledge of the placement of these workers on defense jobs in other areas nor do we believe that these men have migrated in any appreciable numbers. There is no plan known to us of Federal Government assistance where moving to other areas is necessary. Definite preliminary successes have also been achieved in applying a large part, if not all, of the Buffalo plan to priority unemployment in the silk industry, where the jobs of 175,000 workers have been threatened and an estimated 25,000 already been layed off as the result of the stoppage of silk imports. CONFERENCE IN PHILADELPHIA A few days after the Buffalo meetings, Mr. Hillman called a similar conference in Philadelphia to discuss methods of absorbing the displaced silk workers into other fields. Fifteen of the largest defense contract employers and the same number of labor union leaders conferred with Office of Production Management Labor Division officials on August 19, and drafted a more general program along the same lines. Here again it was agreed to give preference in hiring displaced workers from the area, and to tie the vocational school and union officials directly into the interviewing of workers who need defense training. LAY-OFF OF PENNSYLVANIA SILK WORKERS Last week Mr. Hillman sent James E. Rossell, Office of Production Management Labor Supply Branch Assistant Chief, to Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, Pa., where several thousand workers in the silk industry of that area have lost their jobs. Two meetings were held in each city, one with trade-union representatives and the other with employers. In Scranton, Mr. Rossell obtained commitments from 14 employers present at the meeting to hire 335 power-sewing machine operators as soon as they are available. All told, Mr. Rossell ascertained an immediate need for 550 powermachine operators for the garment industry. In addition, it was disclosed that there was an immediate need for 50 workers in Scranton's cigar-making industry and an eventual need for 100 more. In nearby Wilkes-Barre, the need for skilled workers in the garment industry was even more pressing. The industrialists who met with Mr. Rossell declared that they could employ at least 1,000 power-machine operators as soon as they were trained and qualified for the work. Here, then, was a need for 1,550 skilled workers in an area where between 1,500 and 2,000 men and women had recently lost their jobs. The employers agreed to take on the displaced silk workers if they were trained to operate the power-sewing machines. Action is being taken now by the Office of Production Management Labor Division to establish, as quickly as possible, training programs in Wilkes-Barre and Scranton which will qualify the displaced silk workers for these new jobs in the garment industry. Existing training facilities will be used to the fullest extent, but where they are not, adequate machinery and materials will be supplied by the Government. To facilitate this work of placement and retraining, employers were asked to survey their present and anticipated labor needs and make this information available to the State employment office. Trade-union leaders were requested to make certain that all workers whose jobs are threatened are registered at the employment office. The problem of priority unemployment is by no means unsolvable. It can be effectively attacked by a coordinated program of action that utilizes all the existing Federal, State, and local facilities for training and placement and sets up; new facilities where needed. The Office of Production Management Labor Division, we believe, has developed a valuable approach and technique of procedure which, when finally prefected, should go far in cushioning the effects of priorities displacement. THE DISPLACEMENT PROBLEM IN MICHIGAN The ramifications of the labor displacement problem in Michigan, particularly in Detroit are probably more complex than any facing the labor supply branch of the Office of Production Management anywhere in the Nation. The labor supply branch has gotten into the Detroit situation in advance of the majority of lay-offs which are expected due to curtailment. Government, management, and labor are aware of the probability of serious dislocations and are taking steps in an effort to alleviate the situation. In our opinion the best figures available on the Detroit labor market situation are those prepared early this month by the Research and Statistics Division of the Michigan Unemployment Compensation Commission after a comprehensive survey. However, it is important to note than even these current figures of estimated unemployment are subject to change because of possible acceleration of defense production and the award of additional contracts or subcontracts which can be placed in production without extensive retooling. There is also the possibility that these figures are subject to upward revision in case that automotive manufacturers are not able to secure the materials necessary to produce passenger cars for civilian use to the maximum allowed under present Office of Production Management quotas. EXPECT ONE-THIRD OF AUTO AND PARTS WORKERS TO BE DISPLACED (2) Using the aforementioned figures as the best estimates available' it is indicated that approximately 450,000 persons employed in automobile and automotive-parts manufacturing in Michigan, roughly one-third, about 160,000, are expected to be displaced as a result of automobile curtailment by the end of January 1942. Almost 114,000 workers will be displaced in and around Detroit. This assumes a 40-hour operating week. With a 32-hour week, the displacement would be not more than two-thirds of the above or approximately 100,000. The problem will become quite large by November 1941 when perhaps one-half of all those affected will be released from their regular employment. Defense employment will expand at a much lower rate than displacement and by the end of January will still leave between about 70,000 to 75,000 unemployed. Expansion of defense employment during the early part of 1942 will be relatively slow. Thereafter, particularly during the last half of the calendar year 1942, defense employment will accelerate and the slack is expected to be taken up. Probably by late 1942 or early 1943 a labor shortage rather than unemployment will be the problem in the Detroit area. One of the assumptions used up to this point is that new jobs will be available to those currently employed in automobile or parts production. Several thousand defense jobs will, however, call for different skills than those possessed by auto mobile workers, and competition for defense jobs from better qualified workers in other industries or among the unemployed, might change the composition of those employed but leave the net displacement as a result of curtailment the same. An additional factor which will swell the unemployment total will be the return to Michigan of several hundred draftees who will be released from military service in the next several months. On a basis of the best available estimates it is evident that a considerable period of dislocation will occur for several thousand workers during which they will be unemployed or working at considerable reduced hours. The above discussion pertains only to automobile and parts industries. Other priorities unemployment which may occur in Michigan in the refrigerator, radio, electrical appliances, aluminum products and die casting industries will add several thousand more workers to the unemployment rolls since employment on new or defense jobs has already been measured against the supply of displaced automobile labor. We estimate that approximately 10 to 12 thousand additional workers may be involved. WORK OF LABOR SUPPLY BRANCH OF OFFICE OF PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT (ii) The labor supply branch was created in the Labor Division of the Office of Production Management on July 7, of this year and the Fifth Regional Labor Supply Committee covering the States of Ohio, Michigan, and Kentucky, had its organizational meeting July 22. At this latter meeting the situation in the automobile industry was given extended consideration. The report of the representatives of the Michigan Unemployment Compensation Commission, who had prepared a report on automobile employment displacement was discussed, and a subcommittee of the Labor Supply Committee was appointed to work out with the Michigan State Employment Service and the defense training agencies, a procedure to effect a program of orderly conversion from nondefense to defense jobs. The subcommittee met with the State Council of Administrators for Defense Training, and subsequently with representatives of management, to determine the feasibility of a detailed survey of the industry to secure the necessary occupational data in order to lay out a schedule for a revised and expanded supplementary training program to implement an orderly transference of workers from nondefense to defense jobs. This was not particularly successful because of the lack of detailed information available regarding the extent and immediacy of automobile quota cuts. As soon as passenger-car production quotas were set, the labor supply branch initiated a series of meetings with management and labor representatives of the automobile industry, separately and jointly, to develop a program designed to assure workers who are displaced the fullest opportunity to find jobs with due regard to their qualifications and experience, and with protection to their seniority rights. As result of the first two conferences, statements of policy with respect to the handling of displacen en' in the automobile industry were promulgated by the Office of Production Managen ent on September 17. The statements of policy are as follows. Statements 1 to 5 are to be considered as subject to the general provisions listed in statement 6: Statement No. 1. Where a man working on nondefense production is laid off and obtains defense employment with another company, and that fact is certified to his former employer, he will not have to report back for civilian production work in order to protect his seniority so long as he retains the defense employment to which he was certified. If he shifts from one defense employment to another, there must be a recertification as to his new defense employment. Employers concerned with the application of this policy will work out arrangements which will result in the maximum possible acceleration of the defense program. Statement No. 2. Transfer of employees to defense work shall be by seniority in the following order: First, those fully qualified for skilled or semiskilled jobs on the basis of past experience and training. Second, those who can qualify within the period normally given to new employees. When management and representatives of the workers are agreed that no employees or an insufficient number of employees with seniority are available in the first group, new, fully qualified employees will be hired. Statement No. 3. When hiring new employees for defense work, qualified applicants working on nondefense work with seniority in local industry will be hired before workers coming from other localities. When so hiring, the qualified applicant with the longest seniority record will receive preference. The senior employees among those working in plants where employment is decreasing who can be spared; who elect to accept such defense employment; and who are found acceptable will be the first released with full protection of their seniority rights. Statement No. 4. Skilled tradesmen laid off, partially employed, or employed at occupations other than their trade or its equivalent in defense usefulness, will be released upon their request, with protection of their seniority rights, for full-time defense work (40 hours per week) at their trade. The need for these workers in defense employment will be certified to the worker's employer. Statement No. 5. The above policies are to be construed as a pattern for industry and labor to follow and are not retroactive. It is understood that their application is a local community problem and must be worked out on the basis of cooperation between plants in a community and the workers involved. The operating machinery to effect this point will be set up at an early date. Statement No. 6--General provisions. 1. Recall of employees. An employee loaned or laid off, whether unemployed or currently employed on defense or nondefense work, must report back for defense employment to the company with which he holds his original seniority, if and when called, on notice of at least 1 week. Recall of employees to defense work presupposes, and management will endeavor to provide, full-time employment, contingent upon the availability of the essential tools, material, and facilities. Skilled tradesmen will be subject to recall only for full-time defense employment at their trades or the equivalent. 2. Defense training. For the purpose of these policies, defense training is to be considered defense employment, provided there is an understanding between the employer and the employee that the employee is being trained for a specific pay-roll job. To implement statement of policy No. 1, and make if effective, an agreement was reached at a subsequent meeting held with labor and management representatives in Detroit on September 18. A form with instructions which were also agreed upon at the conference has been provided as the certification required by policy statement No. 1. The plan being developed in Detroit will govern the handling of displaced workers in the automotive industries throughout the country and will serve as a pattern for the handling of labor displacement problems in other industries. Paramount in these plans is the place of the public employment service, the agency which is handling the recruitment of new workers for defense employment and which can handle the registration of displaced workers or workers about to be displaced with the purpose of providing an orderly transfer of such workers from nondefense to defense employment. Because a national policy is involved, time and considerable thought is necessary before determining upon the detailed machinery and interpretations which will place into effect the other statements of policy. In general, it is hoped that the detailed procedures will insure that trained and skilled local older workers will be moved as rapidly as possible from nondefense to full-time defense jobs. Otherwise a situation could exist in which older workers who are established members of the community would be retained in nondefense passenger-car production, with the possibility of suffering reduced hours of work or unemployment, while workers who are just coming into the labor market would be filling the jobs in defense industries, working full 40-hour weeks, perhaps with overtime. In our opinion the morale of the country necessitates planning which will eliminate the worst features of this situation, not only so that migration will be held to a minimum and unnecessary migration eliminated, but so that the older workers who have been working regularly and over an extended period of time in civilian passenger |