THE BREMERTON METAL TRADES LEGAL LUNCHBOX
Vol. 1, #3 Wednesday, July 31, 1974 ATTITUDE
TO: METAL TRADES COUNCIL STEWARDS
FROM: LEGAL COUNSEL
The last meeting was nearly enjoyable for me. The difference? It is clear to me that your interest and participation makes all the difference in the world. Why? Because you are, each and all, humans, and that is what LABOR is all about, humans. We are the representatives of the humans at the shipyard; management represents the. money. Which is more important? What a man (or person) values tells you quite a bit about them. Some people forget that the shipyard, itself, exists solely to serve humans.
GOOD-MANAGEMENT recognizes the superior right of humans - that, indeed, money is best served by seeing that the humans are happy and well informed. Supervisors and management who are unable to boost morale, to keep humans happy, and to level with all the true information, are poor at their jobs. They are incompetent, but, since they are humans, it is our job to help educate them. That is what we in labor are doing.
Abraham Maslow was an unusual psychiatrist. He studied people who were well. It was' an unusual twist, since most psychiatrists had merely studied people who were distorted or ill, and, therefore, fore, came up with some pretty frightening facts. Well, Maslow, began a process resulting in his book, Eupsychian Management, of looking at the lives, at home and at work, of people who enjoyed life, did well, were happy, and, were excellent workers. Maslow's findings were applicable to PSNS and our effort to educate ourselves, our fellow workers, and, most of all, management and supervision:
1. Humans did well or poorly, at work and in their personal lives, largely depending upon the, skills and personal and emotional security of those managing and supervising them;
2. Employees did well and were productive at work when they were working with 'supervisors and managers who were able to maintain a healthy assumption that the employees were able to be trusted; employees who were under those not able to trust, became less trustworthy - thus showing that poor managers bring about self-defeating results;
3. Employees were found, to do well in proportion to their being supplied sufficient facts to understand the why's and wherefore's of their jobs - and did poorly when asked to follow dumb, blind obedience, without question;
4. Employees did well in relation directly to the managers or supervisors own awareness of being able to give praise when praise is due and express honest appreciation;
5. Employees do poorly and perform poorly in jungle like atmosphere or in authoritarian settings, for the long run; that concepts on inequality, rank, dominance and subordination, master and servant, produces poor relations;
6 . Employees do better when provided interesting work, and the ability of management to make workers feel happy and an important part of things, rather than as meaningless cogs will determine if things go well.
We see, time and again, the blind and wasteful refusal to face the reality that poor work is the result of poor management. For instance, Rear Adm. R.W. Burk, chief of shipyard management, recently told Congress (The House Armed Services subcommittee) that shipyards were threatened because of high salaries to blue-collar workers. He refused to face the fact that what really threatens shipyards is incompetent shipyard management, causing repressed hostility, apathy, unhappiness, misinformation and frustration.
RADIATION POISONING
A worker in Shop 972 has raised a question of remedies for all PSNS workers due to high hazard of radiation, All workers are allowed to be exposed to over three (3) times the safe private level of radiation, we are told. Under the negotiated agreement, this is a grievable matter. We are further advised that over 4000 workers are daily endangered by radiation and should get at least the 8% high hazard differential. Among the possible remedies, besides grieving, and following through internally or to arbitration, is a court suit, This will be discussed today.
WILFRED J. LA FRANCE, of the Machinist's Union, was finally rewarded for perseverance and persistence, in face of odds that would have stifled lesser men. As a father of six, he was seriously injured December 26, 1971; 'a rather famous shipyard doctor advised him it was all in his head. Wilfred was forced to work in agonizing pain and to endure untold suffering. Yet, in one week, the following all happened:
a . on appeal, we reversed his denial of Civil Service disability, overruling the shipyard doctors;
b. OPEC granted him full disability, total, and permanent, at 75% of salary, with all medicals, allowing for a very serious back operation;
c . a new hearing examination was ordered at the Univ. of Washington, because two (2) specialists disagreed with Dr. Carlson's report of inconclusive loss.
La France doesn't give up. He was recently made Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus, although constantly in obvious pain. He beat the OPEC against taking his naval pension out of his pay, and together we managed to get Civil Service to raise, for the entire Seattle region, gas allowance, from $.05 to $.11 a mile. As a BMTC steward, Wilfred promises to stay active in Council affairs, even though his main concern now is to start college on the OPEC rehabilitation program. We are happy to see a main live life so fully.
Lee A. Holley
Suite 101, IBEW Building
2700 First Avenue
Seattle Washington 98121
(206) 623-1241