Jim Dator expressed his interest in documenting the early debates and
responses to automation. The termed reputedly was coined in the early 1950s
by a guy named Diebold (can't find his first name at the moment). What to do
about automation was a big issue for the newly merged AFL-CIO in the
mid-fifties. The president of the UAW, Walter Reuther, was an outspoken, if
wavering, critic of automation. There's a story he told about being taken on
a tour of a new, highly automated car plant and asking, "but who is going to
buy all these cars?"
Soon after the merger of the AFL and the CIO, the organization held a
conference on the shorter work week. I've got quite a bit of documentation
on the 1950s automation/shorter work time debate, which I can forward as
time permits. By the mid-1960s union alarm about automation seems to have
subsided and been soothed by 1. schemes for retraining existing union
members and 2. substantial increases in government spending, particularly on
military buildup, war and space exploration.
Looking back at old magazines and news reports, one might go so far as to
say that Sputnik killed the four-day week. There's a fascinating footnote to
this history that reports Lyndon Johnson, then Senate Majority Leader,
calling for scrapping the 40-hour work week and full wartime mobilization to
meet the challenge of Russia's sputnik and missle development. ("Up Work
Week, Johnson Urges", Washington Post and Times Herald, December 11, 1957)
Regards,
Tom Walker
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Vancouver, B.C.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(604) 669-3286
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The TimeWork Web: http://www.vcn.bc.ca/timework/
