Evening star., 1941-10-22
3O9o Output Increase
Seen Within Ability Of
Labor, Management
O.P. M. Officials Trace
Lag to Failure to
Make Concessions

Americas defense output can be
! speeded at least 30 per cent any
/ time labor and management car
agree that an all-out national effort
is worth self-Sacrifice, o. P. M
officials asserted today.
For facts on unused productive
capacity in the United States, they
turn no further than recent study
of shift operations in key defense
industries made by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics at the request OF
the o. P. M.
These industries are the life blood
Of defense: Aluminium. ammunition
brass. bronze and copper products
chemicals, electrical machinery and
supplies. engines Cother than air.
craft. explosives. firearms, machine
tools and accessories, shipbuildlng,
and smelling and refining.
Yet during week chosen at ran
dom for survey of nearly 500 plants
employing more than $4,000 per-
sons. it was found that tine bulk OF
operations in these plants was car
ried out on one main shift, where
nearly three -fourthS of the total
wage earners were employed"
Secondary Shifts Low.
While most of the plants reported
employment of workers on a two or
three-shift basis. the survey poinred
out that comparatively few of the
multi-shift plants have built up
their second or third shifts to the
point where maximum utilization OF
their facilities is being achieved.
- The distribution of workers IN
all the plants showed Y per cent
employed on the first shift, 20 per
cent on the second shift and eight
per cent on the third shift"
No one maintains that second and
third shifts should be fully as large
as the first shift. The first shift, IN
MANY instances. includes repair and
maintenance workers needed on only
one shift each 24-hour day. And
there are some industries in which
three full shifts would be only
slightly more productive, If at all.
than two shifts.
But o. P. NJ. SpokeSmen insist that
in the overall defense industry
picture, fullest utilization of three
shifts-without regard to possible
ineffciencies-wo would increase pro-
duction capacity considerably. Ad-
mittedly, there would be inefficlen-
cies that would not be tolerated eX-
cept under emergency operating
conditions. But defense authorities
think some of this country's vital
industries have come to the point
where emergency operating condi-
tionS are necessary.
Concessions Spur Production.
No one knows just how much more
American defense plants could turn
out if they went on emergency
schedules. But the o. P. M. knows
that the British, who thought they
had been producing at maximum
in the first year of the war, jumped
their output about 80 per cent after
Dunkerque. Management and la
Dor alike made concessions that. be-
fore that time of grave national
peril. had seemed too great.
Defense officials here believe that
such a unified approach to produc-
ton problems in this country would
result in even more than the 80 per
cent upswing noted in Britain, be-
cause of our greater resources in
man power and in materials.
They do not contend that all
plants or all industries could be
stepped up 80 per cent or better: 1t
is the net result, the total effort
that would be pushed forward 1t
is noteworthy that, although there
is difference of opinion as TO how