Push Buttons and People (1959)

[Music] a [Music] machines without human beings machines without human beings that uncanny spectacle is automation a forboding frightening word a word do send a shutter through a man or a woman or a child even in periods of Full Employment when wages are decent jobs are plentiful and times are good but during a depression or a recession when men and women and children seem to be in overproduction then automation is a word to strike Terror in any human heart especially if that human heart beats in a wage earner breast now people know in a general way what automation means means 150 years ago the world went through something called the Industrial Revolution we found out how to build machines that could perform much of the mechanical Work men and women used to do machines replace the muscles in our backs and arms and legs but you still needed human beings to direct the machines to do the thinking to do the brain work but now automation provides machines that do the brain work that like the decisions men and women used to make in the factories electric eyes limit switches tapes Punch Cards Servo mechanisms everybody knows that but what does this mechanical brain plus a mechanical muscle do to people to jobs to the way we live will whatever happens happen automatically can we do anything well not long ago UAW president Walter Ruther was in Washington DC there the members of a senatorial committee asked him these very questions so now let's go to Washington and Walter Ruther here is Mr Ruther and here is the senatorial committee how does automation look when you see it in the plant what happens when automation comes to a plant let's let Senator Langer of North Dakota ask the the question Senator Langer Mr Luther you say that these three big corporations put 7 b200 million dollars into automo Automotive uh uh Machinery whatever it may be how many men do that put out a work well it's hard to give you an exact figure these are some of the things we'd like to know more about we do know we do know that we have felt the impact of automation I work first time I went to work in the automotive industry was back in 1927 in February they were making the last Model T4 Senator Langer and you know all about a Model T because up in your country they were very handy back in the days when the roads weren't very good very handy politics too driving around I I wouldn't be surprised if they were I think I think Senator Langer still public uh campaigns in a model to you I'm not certain I did anyway when I went to work at Fords in 1920s this was before we had automation took thousands and thousands of workers on individual machines to make a Model T engine which is a relatively simple piece of mechanism I mean they boarded each cylinder separately and they did all the other things on separate operations 1951 the Ford Motor Company opened up a new engine plant in Cleveland Ohio adjacent to this the municipal airport it was the first fully automated engine plant they take a rough casting of a V8 engine which is a very complex piece of mechanism compared to a Model T engine block they bring it from The Foundry and feeded into this automated Machining line completely automatic and without a worker's hand touching that engine block 14 and 610 minutes later it's fully machined I went through that plant many years back and the people who were showing me around said to me I couldn't hardly see the workers because there were just a few here and a few there watching electric p red and green lights going on that showed whether the machine was operating to standard when all the green lights were on it meant that every tool in the back battery of machines was operating to performance meeting the the the precise tolerances of the Machining operation when an amber light came on the machine was still operating but this was a signal that the tool in station number 82 was becoming fatigued the worker got a replacement tool walked over in front of 82 when the red light went on the machine stopped he put the new tool in the green light came on she went on without a worker's hand touching that 14 and 610 minutes later it was fully machined and so they said to me aren't you worried about how you're going to collect union dues from all these machines I said you know the thought never occurred to me what I'm worried about is how you're going to sell Ford cars to all these machines you know you can automate the production of automobiles but consumers are still made thank God in the oldfashioned way this is our trouble this is our trouble this is our trouble Model T to experimental model electronic Flash from muscle and blood to the automated Engine line Mr Ruther tell us what has this meant economically to the automobile industry if you take some overall figures which I think indicates what's happening in terms of productivity in 1947 the industry made 4,7 98,000 cars and trucks and we had a Workforce in 1947 of 648,000 workers in 1957 10 years later we made 7,220 th000 cars and trucks with a Workforce of 652 th000 workers in other words in those 10 years we had an increase in the total production of cars of 50.5% with only an increase of 1 half of 1% in the labor force so that if you take the level of production in 47 and the level of production in 57 and the level of employment in 47 and level of employment in 57 you find that production went up 50 uh 5% and employment went up only 1 half of 1% what Walter Ruther is saying is that American companies in the last 11 years have bought and built $385 billion worth of new factories and new equipment much of it automated equipment in the auto industry alone The Big Three have invested $7 b200 million in modern automated facilities and the result has been unemployment like this unemployment like these unemployed General Motors workers there they are here we are people wanting jobs needing jobs and there are the new factories modern as all get out but Clos down tight since this is the way things have worked out Mr Ruther do you oppose all this expansion we don't object to that expansion in our productive capacity because we know the workers that I represent they're grown people they know that there are no economic Santa Clauses that you can't get something for nothing that you can only have higher living standards and more of the good things of Life only as you create the economic wealth by the application of human labor and human intelligence to the tools of economic abundance and the economic resources that we have access to so they say fine we've got a bigger plant capacity we've got more modern and more productive tools but they say if we aren't using these tools and we've got idle capacity and unemployment then why and the answer is we aren't using our productive capacity because we haven't got the purchasing power in the hands of Millions of families necessary to translate human needs into Demand on the store counters of America and that's why we're in trouble we're in trouble Walter Ruther says in a sense these machines can only do almost everything a human being can do but not everything machines don't buy automobiles for example and that means unemployment all right since this is the situation is the UAW a opposed to automation many people at least have been told that unions oppose technological advances Mr Ruther what about that I have I have been very sad when I hear a labor spokesman fight against improved technology you know King Cano couldn't stop the flow of the tide and labor can't stop the flow of Technology labor ought to welcome technology you haven't gotten our pamplets on automation I shall see that you get because we have we have been standing on the housetop saying give us the best automation you can bring in give us the most productive tools because we know that the only way we can have more is to make more and the only way you can make more is to have more productive tools we have been leading the parade for automation we want automation we want the peaceful use of the atom because only as we apply human labor whether be with hand or with brain to the tools of production can we create the economic wealth that we want to share this is the General Motors contract that we signed in 1955 on page 66 section 100 reads as follows this is out of our agreement my signature is at the end of this agreement it reads as follows and I quote the annual Improvement Factor provided herein recognizes that A continuing Improvement in the standards of living of employees depends upon technological progress better tools methods processes and equipment and Cooperative attitude on the part of all parties in such progress if further recogniz it further recognizes the principle that to produce more with the same amount of human effort is a sound economic and social objective we want the best tools that General Motors can buy we want the most productive automation Machinery that the General Motors and Ford and Chrysler can create in cooperation with machine tool industry on this there is no argument we know we can have more only if the tools of production create more and we want the most productive tools available let us suppose that we had no autom automation no multiple drills no huge presses to press out frames what in your judgment would be the cost of an ordinary automobile today compared with the price that it actually obtains in the market if we did not have the tools of mass production and economic abundance there would be no automobile industry there'd still be a few buil around by hand and only a few fellas who were millionaire sport car owners would have them they'd just be a handful and the roads would still be muddy and so forth we all know that but why do we make progress we make progress because management wants to drive ahead they want to make more money they want to get more of the things that they want but workers when they drive for higher wages why is it in a country where there where you have wages why is it that that rate of technology is always slower because when Manpower is cheaper than machines nobody gets a machine but when you raise wages and it's cost more to have Manpower than machines you invest in technology and the drive for higher wages is perhaps the most powerful motivation that accelerates technological progress on one thing Walter Ruther and President Eisenhower are agreed automation by itself is not good or bad it is like a knife or high explosive it can be used to advance the well-being of people then it is good or it can be used to produce dark hopeless tragedy and then it is evil but the question is how do you tame automation how do you make it serve people the UAW says when men or women are laid off because of automation when the plant moves people should be given new jobs if there are not new jobs they should be given moving allowances to places where there are jobs if they need training they should get training if they have to be re-educated for new jobs then they should get the education and allowances to live on in the in between times but says senator durksen who is sensitive to the interest of the big companies doesn't this cost money now among other things you include of course severance pay and also removal pay where a facility is removed to another town and the employees have an opportunity to grow so that they would be paid for moving to another site I think that's in your bargaining demand that's right but that's that's not a cost Factor because when the company moves the factory now let me give you a good example you know there's been a lot of uh political propaganda circulating in Michigan about how the climate in Michigan because of the democratic Administration in the in the governor's office is creating an unfavorable political climate and the automobile industry are all running away and other companies are running out of Michigan but that isn't true they're moving for reasons quite unrelated to politics and the best example is that the last decision made by the Chrysler Corporation and Chrysler Corporation is the last of the big three who have decentralized their operations uh General Motors started out on a more decentralized basis Ford was pretty compact in Detroit they have decentralized since the war and Chrysler now is getting around to that sort of thing Chrysler Corporation recently announced that they were moving a plant from Evansville Indiana two plants there to St Louis Missouri now in Indiana they consider that they got the most favorable political climate they got a republican Administration they got a right to work law they got everything that that the people who represent that point of view thinks constitutes a completely favorable climate from industry's point of view and yet they're moving out of Indiana into a democratic City in a democratic State why because these moves have nothing to do with politics they are moving there because the Evansville plant is Antiquated it's an old plant it's inefficient it's a high cost unit plant in terms of its physical layout and its equipment and they're going to build a brand new plant in St Louis but the reason they aren't building a new plant in Evansville is St Louis is closer to the market that plant will service and that's why they're moving now when the Chrysler Corporation moves they will have to pay for the cost of moving their machinery and all the other things that go into the physical plant and we think that moving the worker's family or providing the worker with some cushion until he can make a Readjustment and get relocated himself is a part of the cost of doing business just like moving the Machinery now the Chrysler Corporation will have a more modern more efficient plant and they will pay for the cost of moving the Machinery out of the greater efficiency out of the greater profitability of the new plant and we think they ought to pay for the cost of moving the workers out of the same greater profitability and greater efficiency so this isn't new money this isn't going to cost the consumer anything and I just think that that if moving Machinery is absorbed of the normal cost of doing business that moving people also should be that's all this is but it won't cost the consumer a penny unions tell us that it is possible to plan automation so that it is introduced into the economy in such a way that the nation moves forward and no wage earner is hurt in the process at relatively no additional cost to the company but this is hard to believe Mr Ruther could you explain exactly how this would work out financially specifically in this Evansville case for example how can you pay severance pay without adding to a company's cost but I would like to say this about the Sever's pay the Chrysler the two plants of the Chrysler Motorcar Company that are now operating they're still operating uh not very fully but they're operating in Evansville Indiana they had when they were operating 5,300 employees the two plants together they will turn out more production in the new and more efficient plant in St Louis when it's completed two years from now but they tell us that they will only employ 3500 workers so that there's a tremendous economy and that economy that will result from the new and more efficient plants that reduces the number of workers from 5300 to 3500 with greater productivity will more than cover all the cost of moving the plants and the Severn pay and the transfer allowance that we're asking for and therefore this is not a cost Factor because the company will make the move and make a profit out of moving well here we are back again with our original word automation machines that do things and make choices without human beings you and I and a senate committee and Walter Ruther have had a discussion why because it's our common problem if we can solve it and make automation our servant then we will cross the bridge to prosperity and peace and democracy but if we fail and automation produces The Bleak Terror of of unemployment there will be no Prosperity no peace no Freedom the question is what shall we do to succeed to tame automation we you Walter Ruther the companies the United States Senate [Music] the