The CIO news. (Cumberland, Md.) 1942-????, 1943-02-01

to absentee owners, it seems, but only to the
and daughters Of toll.
It's an ism without any lists. No one believes
In 1t or proudly calls himself an absenteeist It's
practiced but never preached
Yet absenteeism is a serious drag on war pro-
duction-as we'll as a stick used by anti-labor propa
Randists to belabor the working folks.
X
To be absent from a war job when you should
be working is an obvious interference with about
production to lick the Axis
But absenteeism is not a disease that can be
cured by yelling and making faces at labor, as some
of our modern witchdoctors imagine
Still less is it due to unions and "high wages,
as they falsely claim.
It's business executives rather than workers
who take morning off for a game of golf, who
suffer from too much nightife, or who "just can't
get through the winter without a few weeks in
Florida
Workers too like to celebrate once sin awhile
just do absentee couponclippers, or soldiers,
or Sailors anti-labor propagandsts
And sometimes some of them lay off without
a iustifiable excuse, just as soldiers sometimes
AWOL.
But the organized workers particularly have a
stronger sense of their war responsibilities than
have most other Americans.
The unions work constantly to strengthen this
sense of responsibility, to shame discipline the
irresponsible, and to cut down absenteeism to an
absolute minimum.
But even if every worker were perfect, tireless
and beyond reproach absenteeism would still remain
serious problem. For its chief causes lies beyond
the individual workers control.
Government studies reveal that most absences
from work are caused by sickness, accidents, hous-
ing shortages transportation difficulties and other
similar reasons
Much sickness is caused by poor housing
crowding, lack of adequate eating facilities we'll
as by the war strains of more intense work. And
the sickness of children, under such conditions is a
frequent of absenteeism, particularly on the
part of working mothers
Housing shortages plants also mean
that many workers have to travel long distances
to their jobs Hours spent standing in packed buses
street cars, increase fatigue; and poor tires auto
breakdowns, as we'll inadequate public transporta-
ton, cause many absences from work.
Then too, when all adult members of family
are working, has to take time off for house
hold shopping; and the services of DOCTORS dentists
etc.. are often not available except during working
hours
\ \ \
Employers business as usual practices and gov
ernmental failures to plan production properly
among the worst causes of absenteesm.
The workers morale inevitably drops when they
stocks of unused materials in their plants when
work is poorly organized leaving them time on their
hands; or when they know the speedy completion
of job may layoff until the company
gets more materials another order.
Another cause of absenteeism is the long hours
worked by many skilled and key workers. Some
of them working seven days week and are
humanity bound to need more rest
X X X
Actually the CLIO and its unions are doing the
most that is being done to reduce absenteesm-not
only through their morale building activities but
also by striking at its basic causes.
The Clio from the first has taken the lead In
demanding nationwide planning of about produc-
tion-so every plant and machine may be utilized