Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1919-04-12
SCIENTIFIC ''F|R|NG' AS
 APPLIED TO MINING


 genial Irish foreman, and one admir-
 ing asked:
 And do you have charge of all this, to do with as you please, to hire and discharge men as you ,wish?"
 Sure replied the foreman, and to prove the truth of his statement, he called:
 Jimmie, come here Your fired!"
 This is typical of the old method of firing.
 During the period of the war when labor was scarce, the business of the employment manager in industry was hising men and carefully placing them where they were best fitted to work. The careful selection of employees had developed to considerable ex- tent before the war, and was becom- ing recognized science.
 In the last few months, however the 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 universal reduction of forces, and the problem that the in- dustry now confronts is that of firing, rather than hiring. The problem has been aggravated by the cancellation of contracts in many war industries, with the consequent turning loose of hundreds of thou sands of men, a great amount of un- employment and the return of the soldiers and sailors.
 The problem has now become one of "firing" with the least hardship and the least injustice, and yet caring for the returning soldiers, sailors and marines who have been in the service of Uncle Sam for nearly two years, and who have offered the supreme sacrifice.
 The Copper Queen Company at Bisbee found it necessary, along with all of the other copper companies of the country, to reduce materially it's force. In making this reduction en- ployees were classified with respect to dependents, length of service and citizenship. The question of indi- vidual efficiency or workmanship did not enter into this classification.
 Copper produced to sell at 26 cents a pound has been selling at under 15 cents, and very little copper is being sold at all Practically every copper producer in the country has enormous stocks on hand, and without doubt it would be profitable in the sence of taking no loss 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 cost of living. It would obviously cause hardship to stop the work altogether and thow out of employment a large number of em- ployees who have worked Loyalty for the company for a considerable time and it would disturb thelabor sit ustion greatly by increasing the num- Der of unimployed.
 It 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 em- 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 operating work, and they have been put on de- velopment, 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 work so far ahead of actual mine operations that they could afford to stop such work for con- siderable period.
 As one of the features of it's em- ployees' representation, the Copper Queen maintains d welfare commit tee, composed of nine men, elected by the employees, who rep resent various divisions of the plant and mine. For days this committee met with the superintendent, the fore man, the employment manager and the service record clerk and studied Individually the record of every man as to his continuity of service, his citizenship and reliability With the records of every man before them, the result was careful classi- fication of all employees. Class 1 consists of all old employ ees who have been in the service of the company over two years, who nave dependents, and who are citizens ,f the United States. This class also overs old employees of the company who are nearing the time when they would be eligible for pension, with ,ut citizenship being taken into ac- .ount, for it was considered that their pension had no relation to their citi- .enship, and that it would be an in [ ustice to classify otherwise men whose long service had entitled them Q the privilege of retiring shortly .,.&b m sv,ox,oa |