Evening star., 1943-04-19

other VINO programs, Mr.. Harper
said, the United States Employment
Service is the main operating arm.
Already, he added, vast backlog Of
exemption requests from the 49,
hour week has piled up because
USES is undermanned. He laid the
weakness Of the USES at the door
Of Congress, which denied Mr.. Nc
Nuts request for more than $4,000
600 dollars to build up the agency.
In addition to operating the sta
bilization programs which are ex-
pected to be spread widely through
out the country, USES will give out
Statements of availability" where
employers refuse to do SO or where
job-seeking employe from an area
not covered by stabilization plan
needs such a statement to get a job
in an area covered by a plan, ac-
cording to Mr.. McNutt.
Many Tasks Cited.
USES also has to recruit for in
dustry and agriculture, keep civilian
industry supplied, place workers let
out because of the 4S-hour week,
promote the transfer of workers in
non- essential activities to essential
activities (Which is encouraged un-
der the new regulations) and find
essential work for men on the non-
deferrable list.
Strengthening USES is one of the
major unsolyed problems of the War
Manpower Commission. Others are
labor boarding, labor turnover, con-
troll of migration, selling Congress a
college training program for civilian
workers, meeting the demands OF
the armed forces, agriculture and
industry simultaneously by some
means other than shifting the labor
force with threats of draft induc-
ton from one kind of job to another,
and making full use of minority
groups.
Only starting is the VINO pro-
gram against labor boarding. Mr..
Harper disclosed that several in
vestigations of large plants are now
under way. He described these
investigations as the first inten-
sive project" of the VINO Labor
Utilization Bureau.
Slow in Getting Started.
That bureau has been slow, in
getting started he said, because of
the difficulty of finding the hun
dreds of labor utilization consult
ants needed. In the first place, he
explained, they must be men with
engineering and personnel expert
ence and in the second place, the
Senate must confirm the high pay
appointments and a number of
qualified men don't want their
names discussed on Capitol Hill.
Job analysts are aiding the bureau
by going over the manning tables
submitted by large plants, he said.
AS a result of these analyses, he ex-
planned, the new bureau gets a basis
of comparison so that if one plant is
using SO per cent women and a
plant doing similar work is using
only Is per cent women, the labor
utilization consultants can insist
| that the second plant double its use
| OF woman WOTkerS.
Mr.. Harper said he had q "distinc,
| feeling there is still . lot Of labor
boarding going on"
In his progress report, Mr.. Harper
| also cited figures to illustrate the
shift Of procurement agencies from
tight labor markets to surplus
labor" areas. .t
One large procurement agency, he
said, awarded 14.2 per cent Of its
contracts in August and September
in areas Of adequate or surplus labo,
supply. After VINO established it,
list Of critical shortage areas, Mr.
Harper said, the same procurement
agency in December boosted its con-
tracts in surplus labor areas to I'll
per cent. Another agency increased
Its contracts in surplus labor areas
from 8 per cent in August and Sep.
tember to 1877 per cent In December
he added.
4,5oe, ~ Receive Training.
To halt labor migration, Mr.. Har.
per disclosed, regional directors have
been instructed to include q pro-
| vision In their stabilization plan.
that Ill workers coming into ar
area under Z stahili1ation plan mus
be hired through the United Statel
Employment Service.
/ Through its fve training agencies
Mr. Harper reported In answer Il
questions On the training program
4 - - 49, -