British Columbia Federation of Labour

A silicon chip the size of a cornflake will have more impact on society than any other technological change to date. Almost every occupation will be affected. Most studies agree women working at the traditional female jobs in clerical, service and trades will be most profoundly affected. Two thirds of all working women work in these areas. Colin Norman, in "Microelectronics at Work: Productivity and Jobs in the World Economy" states, "...if, as most experts are predicting, the chief impact of microelectronics is felt in offices, women workers are the ones who will bear the brunt of the new technology".

The impact, stated more specifically, indicates that low or unskilled occupations and those classed as middle-management will be affected by high rates of unemployment. The examples following are the most commonly cited:

- 30 percent of the jobs of clerical banking and insurance industry workers of France will be lost in the next 10 years because of automation.

- Simens, a German electronics firm, estimates 40 percent of present office work will be done by computerized equipment in the next ten years.

- German trade unions estimate two million of Germany's five million clerical workers are threatened.

- Statistics Canada reports that following a huge increase in the rate of employment of clerical workers during the early seventies, clerical employment is now declining.

- A British study predicts 25 percent unemployment in clerical work by 1990.

- It is estimated the word processor will reduce secretarial jobs in Canada by 1.5 - 2 million.

- New electronic telephone switchboards require 30-50 percent fewer employees while 30,000 clerical jobs in telephone companies are in jeopardy in Canada.

- The International Labour Organization estimates 25-30 percent of office jobs in the private sector and 38 percent of public sector jobs will be fully automated.

- Bell Canada, since 1969, has reduced its staff from 13,600 to 7,400 in 1979.

Alarming as these figures appear, women are still being channelled into these occupations. There are many reasons to ignore the future. During the sixties and seventies there was a large increased rate of employment of clerical workers. Few realize that figure is now declining. Moreover, during the early stages of automation in a company, the employment rate generally increases and jobs are eliminated. Changes are happening so quickly, few have time to analyze the impact.

Word processors, data processors, data banks, automated tellers, electronic funds transfer systems, electronic cash registers, and optical scanners are only a few of the growing multitude of electronic information machines. The speed at which new equipment is being developed is indicated by the fact that many new machines are already out-of-date by the time they reach retail markets. The full impact of this new age will be felt by the end of this decade, if not before.

Precise information on the benefits and disadvantages are not yet readily available. Many companies do not keep track of the numbers of displaced employees. Most in-depth studies have been carried out in Europe while in the United States and Japan, where most of the machines are produced, little research has been done on employment effects.

The list of advantages or benefits for companies interested in investing in these machines is impressive.

- low cost.

- increased productivity.

- increased efficiency.

- more services.

- more information available at the press of a button.

Externally, the ripple effects start with a corporation taking over the services of a small business and end with world-wide implications. The importance of international competition means that stopping the new technical changes will be impossible.

While most advantages to a company are evident almost immediately, the effects on employment can only be examined over the long term. Heather Menzies in her book "Women and the Chip" examines the process of acquiring the new technology of our large businesses: a large corporate head office, a major insurance company, chartered banks and supermarkets. Each went through three or four stages in expansion. It is the first stage where many of the advantages to the new technology are most evident to the employees. Employment increased, boring repetitive jobs disappeared, workers performed more services and more became specialized. Generally, workers were happy with the changes.

As the company passed through the next stages, however, jobs became more specialized, professionals increased their employment while overall employment dropped. In this book and other research, long lists of warnings are often repeated:

- Women will become more isolated, segregated by their job functions and physical rearranging of companies.

- Physical and job function segregation will create a wider gap between the unskilled and skilled jobs.

- Job mobility will become a more serious problem.

- Jobs will become more specialized leaving no room for the low or unskilled worker.

- Shift work will increase.

- Part-time work will increase.

- Overtime work will increase.

- Unemployment, already more severe for women, will increase as workers lose their jobs through attrition, transfer or demotion.

- Few of the existing workers in a company experiencing technological change will be retrained for the new jobs.

- Workers will be expected to provide their own job space and more and more work from their own homes, in effect returning to cottage industries, more isolation, less unionization. Women with families, in particular, will be encouraged to take this direction.

- Women, the least organized now, will be more difficult to reach in union organizing drives.

- Workers will be under more stress as the use of computerized work monitors increases.

- New health problems will appear. Eye strain, stress, headaches, fatigue, indigestion, poor sleep, varicose veins, problems related to pregnancy are some of the proven or alleged effects of new technology now being studied.

The tendency to receive this information as a one-sided pessimistic view is reinforced by the lack of available data in this country today. Many point to the fact that new technology during the fifties and sixties actually increased employment, products, and services. However, major researchers point out that this is a new age of technological change. They emphasize this age is already 10 years old, and what has happened during these last 10 years is only the beginning. These dire warnings should make us all sit up and take notice.

The Women's Rights Committee would like to recommend the following:

1. That the union movement insist counsellors employed by government and education institutions provide information as to the diminishing job opportunities in the traditional female occupations.

2. That the Education committee insist existing employment training and counselling programs for women be retailored promoting jobs with a future in the labour market.

3. That all union people make themselves aware of the growing trend toward the return to cottage industries and the effects of this trend on union organizing efforts.

4. That the B.C. Federation of Labour, perhaps through the Education Committee, investigate the possibility of providing a computer literacy program for union members, particularly contract negotiators.

5. That implementation of existing B.C. Federation of Labour policies on technological change become a priority with all unions.

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