Sunrise or sunset? NEWTECHNOLOGY Scout Lithgow shipyards no the Lower Clyde and the eventual employment levels in Scotland. Scotland, however, need nor fear industrial decline and decay, according to the Scotrish 'Tr is indicative of the Scottish nature that a country which shipbuilding is now at the forefront of new technologies. Today. for many internationally renowned electronics companics, The skills which once triumphed in the days of heavy engineering THE RECENT announcement of a further 1,500 joh losses at the acceptance of mass redundancies at Caterpillar are the latest in a serics of major blows to traditional industrics and consequently for ycar led the world in the beavy industrics of steel work and after 30 years of research and development, Scotland is the base Development Agency (sps):
wealth is a crucial factor in the economic regeneration of Scotland and its development is therefore a fundamental compo- The she presenis a picture of extensive job creation, have been redirected into the areas of semiconductors, informa- tion systems, defence and industrial electronics... The Agency believes that the capacity of the clectronics industry to create neat of our strategy:'
• Subcontracting and consumer electronics invulve small. defence sector. In recent years rapid technological change has affected the role of skilled craftspenple by promoting moves The industrial, commercial and telecommunications sector employment levels Have fallen substartially with automation. Skill levels vary, with women a large proportion of the Information systems and semiconductors are dominated by large (mainly US) companies, and it is in this sector that we see many of the alternatives to traditional mangement practices and industrial relations. Skills have become more divided in recent employment levels. With the possible exception of semiconductors and subcontracting, cach of the sectors is on a 1970. The most widely quoted figures rell us thar 42,000 people are employed in alectronics in Scorland, that is. 9.996 of all contains a mix of British and foreign owned companics, and older and newer firms, altough older firms predominato; years. between programmers and designers on one hand, and mainly Scottish firms, carrying out mostly semi skilled assembly However, most of the sectors have one feature in common: downward trend in employment from a peak of 49,000 jobs in SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 2 July/August 19B7 movement. JANE McCORMACK argues that many semi-skilled - mainly women — workers on the othor The rise of the electronics industry in Scotland workers in particular as part of a strategy for unions must attend to the needs of women poses new challenges for the labour the industry. falling employment levels: towards multiskilling: over the clectronics industry's ability to provide new jobs in Since today's dectronics industry irself is the destination of much of its own most sophisticated production, we must look at the possible effects of changes in technologies on employment similar characteristics is • Defence clectronics dates back to the establishment of Fer-: for is dominated by a few large British companies (for obvious workers — consequently bere are few women workers in the technologies from overscas multinationals; yer there are doubts: significant numbers or even to sustain existing jobs. Worse. sperous sectors of the industry, which are dominated by large. great emphasis on the flexibility. criticiams of trade union activities; on the contrary, many con- cven where that has meant the breaking down of traditional craft demarcation in the quest for flexibility, acceptance of the use of secondary labour (on the promise of prorection for the Electronics appears to be the home of the 'new realism' in industrial relations in Scotland — a far cry from the traditional image of Red Clydeside Electronics companies certainly play ticularly jobs for women, but what are the facts behind the hype of the development agencies? Trade unions with workers direct- ly or indirectly employed in the industry, should be aware of the In many respects, the very idea of the electronics industry ranti in Edinburgh shortly after the second world war, This sec- rcasons), and is similar in many respects to many parts of tradi- tional manufacturing industry. The work requires a large pro- portion of skilled designers, engineers, programmers and craft upgraded skill levels and transfers of stare of the art there is little evidence of any great upgrading of skills within the industry, and there is little indication that Scouish firms are making any inroads into thie more advanced, high-rech and pro- reliability and co-operation of the Scorish workforce, arguing that there are few labour problems in Scottish electronics. Yet nany companies in the industry do not recognise trade unions, and are under no pressure from the agency to do so Workers' problems are highlighted by the fact that according to the sne those companies which do recognise trade unions have few an important role in providing employment in Scotland, par- panies have welcomed the co-operation of the trade unions — misleading. The industry roughly splits up into six scorors: Semi-conductors and other components, 17.5% primary labour), short term working and so forth. Fach of these sectors is quite distinctive: as a cohesive whole exhibiting Telecommunications, 25.0% Information systems, 22.5% Industrial, Commercial and Defence Electronics, 25.05 levels, skills and unionisation. direction of its development. also place Subcontract, 7.5% multinational capitals: Consumer, 2.5% The sDA 32
unions to organise them. However, the less favourabic terms and conditions they offer provide potential opportunities for On the other hand, the large American companies involved in computer and chip production have been in many respects: successful in buying off, unionisation. They rend to operate a no lay-off policy where possible, pay higher wages and salaries than other firms in the arca, offer substantial financial and non financial benefirs, offer single starus working conditions (same needs of the workers (or employees, as they prefer to call them). On many issues, these companies are willing to offer in excess pf for alternative employment exist, particularly employment which offers the same pay and conditions, most workers will nor A purcly wages-and-conditions approach to recruitment on toilets and canteens for management and workers), and en- courage management to be more flexible and responsive to the what the trade unions are able to gain. Where few opportunities mock the boat by struggling for trade union recognition NEWTECHNOLOGY not only die to new electronics employnient, but also due to dustries. In the decade from 1970 to 1900 empinymenr in the in- dustry fell by more that 10:000, 4 met decrease 0Г 22%. This was nor solely a Scottish phenomenon — job losses occurred in The growth in employment from the carly 1980s onwards is manufacturing employment However, we must be cautious • Electronics has inercased as a proportion of manufacturing decreases in employment in traditional manufacturing in- the industry in Brica as a whole and in Europe. Rationalisa- tion, alonyside a general cronomic recession and a world over- production nf miero-circuits were a stringent reminder thar cler- manly due to the influx ofserniconductor fabrication companies like Motorola and National Semiconductors, However, even • All published figures come from the sit and the Scotrish Offer, and given their interest in selling the industry abroad. tronics is not exempt from technological and market changes. about these figures for two reasons: they are likely to be optimistic;
fruitfal avenues for advance, not least in terms of collective The unions may be better rewarded if they stress their Canada, gains in organising electronics workers have been tal evidence exists that electronics production involves the use of high levels of carcenogenic substances, which cause shurt There is another Important issuc which must be tackled if There are more In many big electronics companies, employer represenration and grievance and disciplinary procedures are representation role futhor; and also if they take up some major issues which they appear to have ignored: In the usa and made around lights on health and safery. In Scotland, fights on health and safety are noticeable by their absence. Yet subsran- amons are to make any advances in Scottish clectronics. As pointed our earlier, many semi-skilled electronics workers are women Some of then have been far from passive, as the oc- lelt to individuals, with the workers having little support in any term illnesses and can be fatal in the long term. the parr of the unions holds little attraction. conflict with mangement- represenration. lead to fewer jobs than similar expansion would have brought a few years ago, and since 1985 there have been reports of a ween the design and development jobs (mily held by men) larue increases in investment in semiconductor production will slowdown in semiconductur production, with Taynfts, redundan: cies and complusory shutdowns taking place in the un and in What is tost common across all of the sectors is the trend inwards the replacement of labour by automated production, bringing lurtlier loss of both jobs and skills. Mangement argue of course that in order to compere in the world marker it is con timually necessary to keep up with "state of the art technology. Whatever that may cost in ferms of jobs losses and skills, Conse Further, in many companies there is a tread towards put- ting out peripheral, less skilled activities to subcontractors. keeping only highly skilled core functions within the parcot plant. The savings arise because suhcontract companics tend to quentiy, in many coniperies there is a conflict of interest bet and the mainly fernale production or assembly jobs. Brirain.
However, many companies seek out young women with no campaign for their retraining in the necessary skills ar the com- previous industrial experience in order to pre-empt trade union mir themselves to the needs of women workers. This means al break from the past as one trade union official pointed out: It's harder to organise women, they don't go to the pub at lun- chtime and talk about terms and conditions.' Maybe the unions The unions must face up to new problems too: while ing created, mainly as technicians, If semi-skilled women are to have any access to these jobs, they need their trade union to This: means opposing any management at- tempis preferentially to allocate these johs to men, most ob- viouslv the time-served craftsmen whose skills are becoming in- creasingly redundant in the industry: This could mean a real To overcome this, the unions must actively com- employment in electronics is falling, there are some new jobs be cupation of the Plesscy plant in Bathgate in 1981 showed. should be recruiting outside Tesco's ar lunch breaks? pany's expense: On reflection, this is nor so surprising — one quarter of offer wages and conditions which are vastly inferior to those of lered for the same work in the large companies: Large producers are thus able to redier their own employmcar costs while pur- Until recently, many people assumed that the cicetronics industry was a barren area for trade union recruitment. Recent research, however, has shown a rarber differos picture. Whale only a small number of electronics plants are unionised (which is also true for Britain as a whole), almost two thirds of the wurkforce in Scottish electronics work in companics where trade unions ane recognised. This figure is roughly similar to that for Hectronics employment is in defence, which has beco (up until Similarly, many of the plants which are now classed as elec- tended to be unionised, and which in the transition from electro- now ar Icast) dominated by unionised, skilled crafiworkers. tronics plants were once mechanical engincering firms, which chasing the same product ar a lower prico elsewhere. LK manufacturing as a whole.
33 The unions have failed to present any coherent response to the challenges of the industry. While in principle other unions #TEl, they can sec few alternatives. Most have adopted the semi-skilled production jobs are rapidly being automated our of form of collective working class resistance, The jobs which are achieved recognition rights, do something for their members. If the unions wait too long, the problem will be solved for them. are unhappy with the collaborationist strategy adopted by the •Wairing for a Labour government' strategy — as if this would existence, with job losses unchallenged in most cases by any lefi will be even more difficult to unionise. The problem is not only nue of recruitment — it requires that the unions, having and the opportunity for labour to influence the future develop- ment of what is and will continue to be a crucially important in- Of course, the straregy is suspect in another respect — conflict between potential or actual union members. do anything to resolve the crisis of the industry: dustry will have disappeared. e the challenges of the industry. Have retained The split between unionised and non unionised plants 1s also relaced to the nationality of companies and the date of their The bastions of non-umonis are the semiconductor ladustry (which is Us-dominated and non-union worldwide), large American producers in the Information systems sector (like HM and Hewlet-Packard) and the smaller Scottish companies involved in suh-contracting and component These sectors present major problems for the labour move- ment. Not only are their current employees not unionised, but employment in the non-unionised plants is growing three times ment problem is likely to be exacerbated in the future rather tlian overcome, unless serious attempos are made to organise these plants. The smaller size and more recent establishment of the Scottish companies has affected the ability and desire of faster than employment in the unionised plants. mechanical to electronic production processes, SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 2 July/August 1987 location in Scutland worldwide), large union recognition. production: