Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - April 21, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press tuesday april 7 focus automation Job threat to women by Heather Menzies special to the free press unless policy makers move to head off current trends up to one million Canadian women could be unemployed by 1990. The trends include the automation of clerical and related information work which is consistently and substantially reducing labor requirements in areas where women Are most heavily concentrated. For instance women represent Over 90 per cent of tellers Telephone operators and clerk typists yet Auto mation is reducing or is threatening to reduce employment by Between 30 and 40 per cent in these occupations. In parallel with this trend computer based technology is upgrading and possibly increasing the More professional information work where few women Are represented analysing interpreting making decisions and otherwise responding to the information that is increasingly processed and manipulated by the computer. The third trend is that the skills difference Between the two occupation Levels is widening and could soon be come unbridgeable except through extraordinary and undoubtedly costly measures. Unless occupational mobility policies Are implemented to increase women s entry into the More professional occupational Levels through continuous employment women risk massive unemployment As they become increasingly redundant in the clerical occupation Levels. The upgrading and automation of information work Are made possible by computer technology s incredible versatility increasing compactness and decreasing Cost. The combination is effectively sparking a Complete trans formation of the work place. The of fice of the for instance includes word processing equipment with automatic retyping filing addressing and typesetting capabilities As Well As electronic mail messaging and Agenda planning on systems with on line communications links. Computer based systems also include computer modelling analysis and other sophisticated aids for research planning and decision making. The systems Are heralded As the office s key to much needed productivity improvements. It has been estimated that office costs doubled during the 1970s to represent As much As 50 per cent of some organizations overhead yet office productivity Rose a Mere four per cent compared to an 80 per cent improvement in the productivity of manufacturing due to automation innovations there during the late 1960s and 1970s. Reinforcing the push toward the office of the future the Federal government has devoted millions of dollars toward building a Canadian presence in the burgeoning electronic information office systems Industry. The government was embarrassed at last year s Trade deficit of Over billion in computer based office and other equipment. Committed though it is to the office of the future the government has All but ignored its social implications. The productivity increases Are in fact there and Are readily documented. So far they Are concentrated in the Cleri Cal employment As Well As the clerical component of information work being done. In an insurance company for in stance the clerical work of preparing a policy has been reduced to typing the client s name address and other per Sonal data into a pre programmed word processor. The machine using boilerplate Stock paragraphs stored in its memory plus the personal data inserted does the rest of the work. In a Bank on line data processing allows the Teller to enter a customer s transaction directly into the Bank s Central computer thereby truncating the Cleri Cal Steps involved from three and one supervisory to one and thereby also bypassing the clerical worker at the Bank s data Centre. The automatic Teller machines currently being introduced across Canada hand Over to the customer that last clerical function thereby bypassing the Teller As Well. In the information systems depart ment of a Large and diversified Canad an company office of the future equip ment has been added to the Basic computer communications system that the department developed Over the years while meeting the company s data processing needs. Now the Cleri Cal workers represent 45 per cent of employment compared to 80 per cent in the Early 1970s. Clerical employment dropped by 130, while professional technical employment Rose by 110. Equally significant Only two of the 130 displaced clerical workers were promoted into the technical profession Al ranks. The others were Given lateral transfers into other departments or in some cases demoted. Part of this is due to what one personnel official referred to As a quantum leap in the talents and skills required. Instead of people to process information and follow proce dures the department needed people to invent new ways of processing and applying processed information and to create new procedures for computers to follow. Part of the disparity could also be attributed to attitude. For instance one of the two secretaries remaining in the department the other 48 top personnel have a computer terminal instead of a Secretary which they use for electronic memo writing and relaying messages now spends up to 50 per cent of her time searching data Banks for information and doing other research work. Yet her Boss cannot see her As a potential management trainee. You can t make a doctor out of a he says. Meanwhile clerical employment is being eroded however silently. As one indication in the e insurance Industry which has among the most advanced electronic information systems Cleri Cal employment dropped by 11 per cent or Between 1975 and 1980 All through attrition. Analysing these trends it is possible to foresee that 30 per cent of the two million women who Are expected to be employed or looking for work As Cleri Cal workers by 1990, according to pres ent labor Force trends could be unemployed by 1990. The scenario is grim for women and for the Economy As a whole. Over the last 20 years women have become an increasingly prominent and permanent feature of the Canadian labor Force. According to a 1979 report by the National Council of welfare 60 per cent of women work because they have no Choice. They Are either single single parents or married to someone earn ing less than a year. In esses where both spouses work it has been estimated that if the wife were to lose her Job the number of Canadian families living below the poverty line would increase by 50 per cent. Women cannot afford to become redundant As automation takes Over clerical work and upgrades the scope of professional work. Nor can the govern ment afford to ignore their employment adjustment needs for the Economy needs women As never before. Most of the labor Force growth through the 1980s is forecast to derive from the increased participation rates of women specifically women Over the age of 25 who Are already in the work Force but planning to stay in Dur ing child bearing years or else return after Only a Short absence. This Means that As Industry strives to fill its burgeoning demand for technical and professional information workers these women very people in the Job ghettos currently being reduced by of fice automation will constitute the major source of Supply. As things now stand it is unlikely that these women will be Able to meet the skills demand. They need training programs Ide ally provided in the workplace gain the necessary computer skills and Basic computer concepts. As Well occupational bridging affirmative action agreements and other occupational mobility strategies Are needed to place women in the occupations where the work is becoming More demanding and Complex because of the computer tools being made available but where employment is also growing. Once they have gained Access to these occupation areas these women will be Able to Rise with the advances in the technology. If they Are left in clerical Job ghettos however they will be left farther and farther behind perhaps finally becom ing unemployable. Heather Menzies is author of women and the Chip published by the inst research on Public policy. How serious Are politicians about inflation by Anthony Westell Toronto Star Syndicate Ottawa Reading the Exchange of messages Between Premier William Davis and prime minister Trudeau about the proposal to hold a Federal provincial Summit on the state of the Economy it is hard to decide which is getting the better of the joke. Davis Tel exed Trudeau on March 11 expressing his great concern about the rate of inflation and urgently suggest ing a conference to agree on a Federal provincial economic strategy. This from the head of a government which in the past has not merely rejected Ottawa s economic leadership but threatened actively to oppose it that is to use Ontario s economic muscle to de feat Federal initiatives. It was Mere coincidence no doubt that Davis sent his message to Trudeau just a week before election Day in Ontario at the Peak of a Campaign in which he was seeking to answer opposition charges that he had made a mess of the provincial Economy. Had the message been published at the time it would have been a Way of demonstrating Premier Davis concern about the Economy and of shifting the responsibility for what ails Ontario on to Trudeau s shoulders. But Trudeau has Learnt a Little about politics and instead of rising to Davis bait and replying so that the Exchange could be made Public he put the pre Mier s urgent message in his Pend ing Basket and waited a month until Well after the Ontario election to answer. His reply is not without touches of his own dry humor. He explains at length to the impatient Davis that the Federal government already has an economic strategy the one set out in the budget last october. That was the budget in which finance minister Allan Maceachen said he was rejecting advice from extremists to intervene less in the Economy and instead was going to wait for things to get better he hoped. In a Churchil iian phrase he was resolved on a policy of Drift. As if that were not enough Trudeau advises Davis that he will be meeting the Heads of government of the six other major Industrial Powers in Ottawa in july and having settled with them the Fate of the world he May be prepared to meet the premiers to de cide How to implement those great decisions. Wonders will never cease but the chances that the big seven will actually make any serious decisions about economic policy is slim. They have not at summits in past years and this year anyway Trudeau plans to turn Atten Tion from such simple matters As inflation and unemployment in the Western world to the really challenging prob lems of North South relations. In Short if Davis had his Tongue firmly in his political Cheek when he proposed a Federal provincial Confer ence on inflation Trudeau has gone one two or three times better in in venting reasons for says no at this time. The Exchange of messages should Appeal to connoisseurs of Federal provincial one up Manship. The messages would be even funnier if they did not confirm a bankruptcy of economic policy making at Queen s Park and in Ottawa. If Davis had any real idea on what to do about inflation and recession he would be doing it or at least telling Ottawa what to do instead of proposing yet another Confer ence. If Trudeau had any ideas he would be announcing them rather than recycling last year s do nothing budget and hoping that lighting will strike at the july Summit. Inflation has been getting worse rather than better and the explosion of real estate values in Toronto and Vancou ver now edging into other cities appears to be based on much on Specula Tive expectations As on the real pressures of demand a phenomenon uncomfortably close to the hyper inflation which we have All been fearing. It will certainly create new pressures in other sectors of the Economy. Our governments do nothing much beyond exchanging self serving Mes sages. But the joke is upon the rest of Don Craik Issue has United the opposition regardless of the final results of the latest Hydro argument it has had a positive effect on the opposition As All parties have worked together in an Effort to clarify the Issue. They have managed to move a few Steps Forward and the government has been required to make a tactical Retreat. Granted the speaker has ruled out of order six attempts to establish an inquiry but As Howard Pawley warned the fight has just begun. The most recent requests for an in Quiry were inspired by a document allegedly written in Early 1979 by for Mer Hydro counsel w. Steward Martin which proposed Legal action against the Tritschler inquiry. The opposition maintained that Don Craik was involved in scuttling that proposal. Even before Jim Walding came into Possession of the document the opposition had attempted to re open the matter but those seven pages of undated unsigned criticism of the inquiry appeared to be the smoking watergate Type accusations have been rampant throughout the debate. Pawley has accused the government Sterling Lyon has accused the opposition of introducing a trumped up Issue and june West Bury has talked about the cancer spreading through the unfortunately it was continuing to spread. Early last week Pawley s at under the dome Arlene Billinkoff tempt to Call an inquiry was quashed on technical grounds. Because of his eagerness the nip Leader had failed to declare that he was speaking on a motion of privilege and the speaker ruled it to be unacceptable. Careful about his words Pawley re introduced the motion the following Day but the House Leader insisted it was against the rules to repeat the motion. Once More the speaker threw the mat Ter out. Stubbornly Walding brought in his own matter of privilege based on alleged mis statements by Craik on a television program. Because the minis Ter had referred to the document As a it was necessary to hold a Public utilities meeting in order to investigate the matter. That motion was declared out of order but when the dust cleared it was evident that some concessions had been granted. The minister admitted that he had discussed a number of grievances from Martin with the former Hydro chairman and denied that he had threatened to fire the Board but that was not enough for Pawley. He urged that Craik be replaced. The Premier rejected it noting that there was no substantive proof to uphold the allegations of misconduct. He believed it would be irresponsible to waste time on a trumped up Issue. The opposition did not buy that argument and Sidney Green presented his own matter of privilege. The pre Mier had used the term Fabrica Tion and Craik had said when referring to the document Wald ing had introduced. It was a reflection of the most serious on All members. The matter should be referred to the committee on privileges and elections. There were ways to determine who had written the document. For exam ple he had a document written by Martin in 1974, which contained hand printing identical to the one under discussion. While he was no expert he believed a committee might clarify the matter. The acting House Leader said Green had taken a devious Way to re Intro Duce a subject and the government would oppose it. Attempting to defuse the matter the speaker asked for time the study the evidence but tempers were rising. Even Pawley who was scheduled to present his reaction to the budget liked Green s motion. A full de Bate was needed he urged. It was too much for Westbury. She had not previously participated in this debate but the latest accusations appalled her. For the Good of ail she urged that the entire matter be sent to committee. In an uncomfortable position the speaker decided to take the motion under advisement but that move did not silence the opposition. In the ensuing question period Green continued to ask about calling Martin to a commit tee while Craik insisted that he had Fol Lowed the proper course of action. He intended to Send a copy of the document to the Hydro Board and ask them to identify it. Nothing More was needed. While the tories did not want to hear doonesbury anything More the opposition was not convinced and when Pawley began his two hour attack on the budget he warned that if there was any thought that we will be dissuaded from pursuing this Issue give it a second when Brian Ransom had talked about the erosion of civility in Manitoba s political life Pawley said he should have pointed at the Premier. He had politely told the opposition to go to hell when they attempted to gain information on Hydro. Stonewalling had become the practice of the Day. It was All a big deliberate the government could continue to wig Gle and offer us denials and evasive responses but they won t Suc for the moment no one had really succeeded. The government remained silent and would shift the problem to the Hydro Board while the opposition continued to Hammer away As a group. That result May make Craik regret that this entire furore began because he denied Ever hearing about Martin s displeasure. If he had acknowledged the fact at that time there would Likely have been a Brief uproar period. In Stead he provided the opposition with their Best fighting position to Date. No doubt they Are thankful. san Izhak suklya5heu. Us3 no my following someone news i ;