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companies is usually free from the con–
flicts harassing big industry. In big
industry the impersonal assembly l ine
makes employees feel like endless cogs
in an impersonal machine.
A strike at Britain's Pilkington glass
works illustrated the point. The strike
last spring was said to be the ugliest
and costliest in England's recent indus–
trial history. It was the
first
strike in the
144-year history of the company.
It
is easy to understand why.
Founded in 1826, Pilkington had
become the largest family-owned com–
pany in Britain. The workers were well–
cared for. The company paid good
wages, provided recreational facilities
for its workers and maintained a har–
monious relationship with its employees.
Until ten years ago, there was a
strong loyalty to the company. The
atmosphere among the employees was
one of helping each other. Everyone
was happy. There was no need to strike.
Then the c9mpany began to expand
rapidly. Thousands of employees moved
into the area to work in the factory. The
old spirit and atmosphere among the
workecs was crushed. There was no
longer any real job satisfaction.
The outcome?
Demands by employees, fear of
management-
a strike!
Such a strike occurs only when
effective relationships have broken
clown. But labor disputes and strikes
will
fmther damage
an already-bad
relationship between management and
employees. A strike always leaves the
relations between the two parties in a
strained atmosphere of bitterness.
Why Jobs Don't Satisfy
Management must have a personal
relationship with workers. Employers
should be just and fair in dealing with
employees and treat them with dignity
and respect. A worker should
be
allowed to make suggestions and dis–
cuss his problems directly with manage–
ment.
Sorne companies have set up
work–
involvement
programs to give employees
more opportunities for responsibility,
achievement, creativity and job enrich–
ment. These are the areas which give
workers the
most satisfaction
with their
jobs.
The
PLAIN TRUTII
Such a program is the
key
to better
industrial relations, greater effi.ciency
and higher productivity.
To survive, business must be able to
change and to adapt to new technologi–
cal discoveries, shifting economic policy
and demands for better working condi–
tions. But more than this, greater con–
cero must be given to the
psychological
needs of workers. Management must
find ways of instilling a sense of skill,
variety, responsibility and achievement
in what are now tedious, boring and
mundane jobs.
Company managers are also respon–
sible for the
welfare
of their workers.
They should
be
concerned about occupa–
tional facilities, living conditions and
opportunities for education and self–
improvement that will help workers to
better their status in life. That edu–
cation should indude the
development
of character
in order to enable a man to
find greater bappiness - to learn
how
to live
as well as how to earn a living.
Increase in pay and even better
working conditions, however, do not
fully satisfy workers' needs. Workers
have other needs that, if fulfilled,
would give them longer-lasting satis–
faction.
Workers need a sense of achievement
- need to do jobs that have purpose.
They should be recognized for accom–
plishing something of importance.
Where possible and necessary, they
should have a part in decision-making
and should have opportunities to
advance in their fi.eld of work.
Factory workers are fed up with
being human machines - assembly–
line slaves. This is one crucial reason
for the recent auto-worker militancy
that led to the strike against General
Motors.
Most assembly-line workers
despise
their jobs. Their bitterness can hardly
be understood by anyone performing
interesting tasks in pleasant surround–
ings.
T he W orker's Responsibilities
The worker, on the other hand, also
has responsibilities to his employer. He
should give a
ft~lt
day's u;ork
for a
full day's pay. He should want the
company to make money. Yet, employ–
ers find it diffi.cult to recruit people
J anuary
197
J
who are willing to give a full day's
work. Too many are dock watchers.
The fellow who is really interested in
his job and works diligently sticks out
like a sore thumb in many shops.
Then consider the cheating and steal–
ing taking place in the businesses and
factories of our country. Stealing tools,
materials and gbods from the company
is now commonly accepted as the
worker's "right."
Stealing time from the company by
being absent without a good reason
is another problem confronting employ–
ers. One estímate said a staggering
100
mitlion man days
per year are lost
through unwarranted absenteeism.
Slipshod, indolent work done in a
couldn't-care-less manner is another
increasing problem. How many have
the desire to work hard and effi.ciently
to produce a
q¡¡aJity
product?
There is no such thing as something
for nothing. Incomes cannot increase
faster than productivity.
Workers should be
loyal
to their
employers. They should support the
company by building it up instead of
tearing it clown. And employers should
be loyal to their employees. Manage·
ment and workers should think of
themselves as being partners working
in harmony
!
Each should cooperate
with the other for the betterment of
the business
a11d
the salary.
Eliminating the Strike
If
workers followed these principies
and if employers fulfilled their respon·
sibilities, there would be no need for
strikes. There would be no need for
unions to help workers battle against
their employers. Everyone would act
according to sound reason and in a
responsible manner.
In short, this requires a change in
attitude - a change in human oature.
This is the
permanent
solution to
the strike problem. And it admittedly
looks rather oal:ve in our dog-eat-dog
world to think man might change his
nature.
Yet, why should such a solution be
thought of as na"ive or fundamentally
impossible?
It
isn't a new idea.
Almost two thousand years ago a
great religious leader, Paul of Tarsus,
counseled his church members in the