| Show t wm m m mm l i 1 i It Seems To Me MeBy By Joseph Josrph B H. H Roberts 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 1 1111 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 11 1 Shorter work week The leaders of our nations nation's most powerful labor unions are putting on a wide nation campaign for a shorter work week One might ask so what The unions have been advocating advocating advocating ad ad- a shorter work week ever since a Democratic Congress gave them a hour 40 week in 1938 out of which grew the lucrative policy of time and d- d half a-half a for overtime Well the what is that the present Democratic Congress is inclined inclined in in- dined to listen when big labor speaks especially if its leaders use words that are palatable to home down-home constituents And their words are re mighty palatable They promise jobs for almost everybody who wants to work and plenty of freetime freetime free freetime time for the fully employed Their proposal sounds almost Utopian Simply put the leaders propose to curb unemployment by cutting the hour 40 week to say a 20 lour week and then hiring twice as many workers Frank Runnels speaking for the mighty United Auto Workers Union said It is our position that it would be cheaper to employ these people than to pa pay for their NOW DOESN'T that sound logical Why pay the unemployed unemployed unemployed to sit around doing nothing when we can r reduce duce everybody's work week week by putting the idle ide pe people pI Work And just think what we could do with all that free time Those workers for example who have to moonlight to keep up with the rising costs of living could have three maybe even four jobs instead of just two So could their wives and teen-age teen children since jobs would be plentiful No doubt too they would have to hold more than two jobs because the higher cost cast of consumer products and services would eat up several normal pay checks Why higher costs Well forone forone for forone one thing in spite of our high rate of unemployment there are not enough highly skilled workers to fill the jobs that would go begging if the workweek workweek work workweek week w were r red reduced ced to 20 hours This means these workers would put in their 20 hours and then go on overtime for the number of extra hours they were required red to work to satisfy the needs of their employers Can you imagine for instance instance instance in in- stance what time-and-a-half time pay for repairmen would do to the costs coots of maintaining our homes appliances and automobiles We would either pay for overtime or wait months or forever for the work to be done Then too with twice as many workers required to do about the same amount of work production would either remain at its present level or decline while costs to the manufacturer would skyrocket Fringe benefits alone such as medical and insurance paid vacations pension funds Social Security and company company- sponsored recreational and safety programs would be doubled IT DOESN'T take an economist to realize that increased increased in in- creased costs will result in higher prices to consumers Workers are consumers even if the labor bosses seem to forget this fact The only way the the work week could be reduced r without creating a horrendous inflation would be for labor to agree to cut hourly wages in half or increase hourly production to about double what it is now It is not likely the unions will agree to either of these con con- In fact we can expect them to demand higher wages to keep up with the higher prices their shorter week will cause which will further in increase increase increase in- in crease crease inflation The proposal is a delusion It Itis Itis Itis is not designed to curb unemployment unemployment nor provide more leisure time for workers It is designed I primarily to increase memberships membership in the unions and secondarily to improve the pay and other benefits of the skilled workers who are already employed The American public of course will be expected expected expected ex ex- to pay the bill 9 rc i The most expensive table lighter in the world is an 18 carat 18 carat gold replica of a lighthouse that is set on an island of amethyst It sells for |
