PROVIDING FULL EMPLOYMENT

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24272, 1 June 1944, Page 3

PROVIDING FULL EMPLOYMENT

1.L.0. APPROACHES PROBLEM LABOUR PARTICIPATION IN MANAGEMENT (By Leo Cherne, Executive Secretary of the Research Institute of America, through the United States Office of War Information.) May 2. 1944.—The International Labour Organisation, meeting in Philadelphia, is stressing one central theme consistently. Among the 346 delegates from 41 nations in attendance, it is fundamentally agreed that the major goal of any post-war federation and of individual nations is employment for all. The importance of providing high employment levels, particularly in nations where chronic unemployment has almost come to be accepted as inevitable, is specially emphasised. Recognising its Herculean difficulties, the 1.L.0. delegates have come to grips with the practical problem. One device on which most delegates agree is cooperation between management and labour groups within the individual nations of the world. Such co-operation, is seen as a key to “maximising production by means of full employment, as. the new president of the 1.L.0., Mr Walter Nash (New Zealand), has said. This might be considered merely a hopeful expression of a pious principle Actually, it is not unrealistic. There is no one in the United States who does not agree that labour-management committees have substantially contributed to the United States’ recordbreaking war production. The significant point is that industry has accepted labour participation in management. Before the war such participation was generally resisted. The experience of the last few years has proved to an ever-growing group in the American business community that labour’s voice in management decision is actually profitable to all concerned. An almost identical development has occurred in England. . The interest of the American industrialist, W. Averill Harriman, in 1.L.0. activities is significant. Equally significant is the visit of Eric Johnston, president of the United States Chamber of Commerce, to Soviet Russia. Johnston’s acceptance of the Russian Government’s invitation exemplifies the spirit of open-mindedness and willingness to co-operate with which American industry is approaching the problems of post-war „ international adjustments. Further evidence of increased understanding between management and labour appears in the constitution of the War Labour Board, the supreme tribunal in war-time industrial disputes, on which government officials, management, labour, and the public are equally represented. Such precedents are in the minds of the 1.L.0. representatives when they propose greater use of labour-management groups in all countries as a means of achieving world prosperity.