Bisbee daily review. [volume] (Bisbee, Ariz.) 1901-1971, 1919-04-06
SCIENTIFIC FIRING
PRACTCED IN Mines
OF WARREN DISTRICT
Employees Classified as to
Service. Dependents and
Citizenship


And do you have charge of all Of
this, to do with it as you please, tC
hire and discharge men as you wish p
Sure" replied the foreman, and tc
prove the truth of his statement, he
called:
Jimmie, come here. You're
fred"
This is typical of the old method
of firing"
During the period of the war when
labor was scarce the business of EN-.
ployment manager in industry was
hiring, hiring men and carefully plac-
ing them where they were best fitted
to work. The careful selection of en-
ployes had developed to a consider
able extent before the war, and was
becoming a recognized science.
The Firing" Problem
In the last few months, however,
tn cancellation of copper contracts,
the accumulation OF large stocks, the
necessary curtailment of production,
because the copper could not be sold,
and the lack of any immediate pros
poets of the copper market opening,
have lead to a universal reduction
of force, and the problem that the in
dustry now confronts is that of fir
ing" rather than hiring. The prob
lem has been aggravated by the can
collation. Of contracts in many war
Industries with the consequent turn
ing loose of hundreds of thousands
of men, a great amount of unemploy-
ment, and the return of the soldiers
and sailors.
The problem has now become one of
firing" with the 1eas; hardship and
the least injustice, and yet caring for
the returning soldiers. sailors and ma
rines, who have been in the service of
Uncle Sam for nearly two years, and
who have suffered the supreme sac
rifice
Employees Classified
The Copper Queen branch of the
Phelps Dodge corporation operating
at Bisbee. Ariz., found it necessary,
along with all of the other copper
companies of the country to reduce
materially its force In making this
reduction employees were classified
with respect to dependents length of
service and citizenship. The question
of individual efficiency or workman
ship did not enter into this classifi-
cation.
Copper produced to sell at 26 cents
a pound has been selling at under Is
cents and yeEx little copper is being
sold atsaIL Practically every copper
producer in the country has enormous
stocks on hand and without a doubt
It would be profitable in the sense of
taking no less for many of them to
close down entirely. It has been i'm
possible to reduce wages to the basis
Of the price of copper, for such re-
duction would bring the wage scale
below the cos tot living. 1t void OBJ
viously. cause hardship to stop the
work altogether and throw out of en-
ployment large number of employees
who have worked Loyalty for the COM
pany for considerable time, and it
would disturb the labor situation
greatly by increasing the number of
1t, therefore, became necessary to
reduce the output to as low a point
as possible and still maintain reason
able costs, and yet retain in the en-
ploy of the company men who have
put in years of faithful service. In
many cases it has not been possible
to place these men in actual operat-
ing work, and they have been put on
development, as development work
has not been eliminated, in spite of
the fact that it could be done cheaper
at later date, and that some of the
Phelps Dodge properties have devel-
opment so far ahead of actual mine
Operations that they could afford to
stop such work for considerable
period.
AS one Of the features of its en-
ployes' representation, the Copper
Queen maintains a welfare committee.
composed of nine men, elected annual
- W bAO CAHplOycSs WHO represent
various divisions of tho plant and
mine. For days this committee met
with the superintendent, the foremen,
the employment manager and the SER
vice record clerk and studied individ-
ually the record of. every man as to
his continuity of service, his depend
ents, citizenship and renability. With
the records Of every man before them
the result was a careful classification
OF all employees
Class 1 consists of all old employees
who have been in the service of the
company over two years. who have de-
pendents. and who are citizens of the
United States. This class also covers
old employees of the company who are
nearing the time when they will be
eligible for a pension, without citizen
ship being taken into account, for it
was considered that their pensions
had no relation to their citizenship,