Imperial Valley press., 1945-05-23
BASIS FOR STEADY
JOBS IS SOUGHT
(By w. L. Blair, Associate Editor,


Pasadena Star-News and Post)
Merryle 5. Rukeyser's study of the
Proctor q Gamble labor experiment of
fers the latest and mos. penetrating word
on the quest for economic security
through guaranteed employment This
subject, either under the name of guar
anteed employment or under that of
yearly wage, has come to the front promi-
nently IN the last year or two. The Proc
ter d Gamble experiment, however, is
nearly 22 years old, and consists simply
OF the promise that persons classed as
permanent employees shall receive their
wages for not less than 48 weeks of the
year regardless of fluctuations in de-
mand. Several other large companies
have operated under a similar plan, and
hundreds OF employers have stabilized
employment in their plants without the
formality of entering into an agreement
to do so.
The first fact made clear in any glance
at the subject is that to guarantee en-
ployment regardless of fluctuations in
demand, the employers greatest respon-
sibility is to pay due regard to those
fluctuations and to do all in his power
to prevent them. This was the procedure
of Proctor & Gamble in revising it's en-
tire plan of distribution and in manv
other ways planning for steady sales,
steady production and steady employ
ment.
las re-study this project" writes Mr..
Rukeyser, 81 am impressed anew with the
fundamental fact that innovations are
likely to succeed when they are based on
economic realities On the other hand,
when they run counter to the fundamen-
tai principles of human behavior, they
are destined to fail.
In setting out to relieve employees of
the chronic fear of want and unamploy-
ment, the management of this company
had no illusions about its own arbitrary
power. On the contrary, its thinking
was attuned to the fundamental fact
that business management, directing a
modern corporation, is a gO-betWeen
which in effect brings workers, with man
hours to sell, into contact with customers,
who have the desire and the means to
buy products and services. The customers
for the most part are other workers.
Thus, modern business is mechanism
through which specialized workers, in
effect, give employment to other workers
through inter-changing the products Of
their hours of labor.
The basic fact is to recognize that it is
the customer, who in the final analysis
provides the employment Continuity of
employment hinges on continued ability
on the part of the producer to turn out
goods of a quality, design and price
which pleases the customer and induces
him to buy
Obviously, the guaranteed employment
plan is not equally applicable to all in
dustries. What, then, is its meaning to
employers in general. Mr.. Rukeyser's
answer is:
In the first place, it is challenge for
self-searching by executives to determine
whether any trade practices are need
lessly exaggerating instability and fluc-
tuations. If so, policies calculated to
mitigate such preventable swings should
be evaluated. Secondly, if the product
is outside the realm Of quickly consumed
goods for family use and if there is no
pattern of regularity in use by ultimate
consumers, then it should be apparent
that the problem Of regularizing employ
ment cannot follow the same pattern as
that evolved by a soap maker.