smposium on popular participation in manpower and
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SMPOSIUM ON POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN MANPOWER AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT
April 29-May 1 1970
Washington DC
Conducted by
THE INTERNATIONAL MANPOWER INSTITUTE
Under sponsorship of
Agency for International Development
i the
US t nent of Labor
INTRODUCTION
The International Manpower Institute for- Training and Education of the Manpower Administration conducted a Symposium on Popular Participation in Manpower and Employment Development April 29-May 1 1970 sponsored by the Department of Labor and the Agency for International Development
Title IX of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1966 and the various provisions amending it in subsequent legislation stress the importance of assuring maxishymum participation in the task of economic development on the part of the people of the developing countries through the encouragement of democratic private and local governmental institutions This statement expresses the belief that the People of the developing nations should participate more than they do in the decisions that allect their lives in the implementation of developshyment and in the fruits of economic growth These goals are to be achieved through utilizing a wide variety of democratic institutions at all social and political levels
Title IX established as a general principle the objective of popular particishypation in the development programs of the developing countries It did not specifically define the nature and scope of popular participation nor did it indicate how to accomplish this goal The purpose of this Symposium is to attempt to provide some more specific ideas on the nature of popular participashytion and on how it might be achieved through the exchange of ideas and discussion of relevant aspects of popular participation as they relate to mainshypower and employment programs in developing countries
In particular the Symposium was oriented toward review and discussion of the US manpower programs in order to determine how they could be appropriately adapted for use in developing countries to obtain popular particishypation The problems of manpower and employment development embrace all
sectors of the population It therefore can be one important means of developshying popular participation among all sectors of the population Manpower and
employment programs are vital elements in any plan of development The goals
of these programs are mutually reinforcing and interdependent Togetlher they
constitute an active manpower policy which is concerned with enhancing the welfare of workers by maximizing their skills and the quantity and quality of
their employment opportunities This Symposium was the first relating to popular participation in the
manpower and enployment aspects of economic development It is hoped that
through the discussions of this Symposium suggestions and ideas will be proshyvided for use by the Agency for International Development and others conshycerned with international assistance on how to encourage and expand citizen participation in the development process of a developing country
Several of the chairmen of the panels made comments which were pertinent to overall or specific objectives of the Symposium These comments are sumshymarized below
MR LEO WERTS At present throughout the world societies are in the
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process of change and the dominant element of this change is the fact that youth who have been denied opportunities and who have been discriminated against are demanding a voice in the decisions that affect their lives and opportunities I should also like to refer to some of my specific experiences in overseas programs which highlight the importance of participation not only of the representatives of groups but of the membership of the groups My exshyperience in Germany after World War II indicated that an important reason why the trade union movement turned out to be an ineffective deterrent to the Nazi movement was the fact that the trade unions had been taken over largely by the bureaucrats in the movement and therefore there was a minimum of participation by the union members Similarly in Pakistan which economists have used as an example of a great growth model there still was a revolution I believe the Pakistan situation illustrates the importance of not pinning all your development efforts on just growth in and of itself In pursuing this singleshyminded approach the welfare and dignity of the workers were overlooked and the workers primarily helped topple the Government I believe these examples underscore the fact that to have a vigorous and healthy society there must be real participation of its citizens
MR EDWIN COHN Efforts to create employment opportunities in deshyveloping countries present a crucial problem Experience to date indicates that in countries which are trying to modernize there is overcrowding in the cities because people are leaving farms and migrating to the urban areas in the search for jobs but industrial expansion has not been proceeding at a suffishyciently rapid pace to provide the jobs needed to absorb the surplus population from the rural areas To solve this problem there is the need for increasing employment opportunities on the land both in agriculture and in agriculturalshyrelated activities as well as for creating more employment opportunities in the industrial sector There is also a general question relating to the relevance of US experience to the outlook in developing countries because there are I believe a number of significant differences in the experience and problems of these countries First Government plays a miuch larger role in most developing countries both in setting and implementing development policy and in undershytaking ind running operating enterprises Conversely the private sector instishytutions both business enterprises and farms are less active and less fully developed
MR JOHN F HILLIARD Wemight get important answers as to how to develop popular participation in developing countries by making a careful examination of our own national experience over the past 50 years I recall that in the relatively rural areas of our country 50 years ago there were comshymunities which had very little of the present convenience facilities such as running water electricity or sanitary facilities Moreover there were no farm to market roads scientific agriculture or agricultural mechanization as well as no cooperatives or market systems In the educational sector there were still only two-room schools Moreover the only service that was performed by the US Government was primarily mail delivery How did these communities imshyprove their circumstances To expand the educational facilities the people in the community built them Similarly to have specific agricultural buildings or bridges the men of the community built these structures as a joint effort This is not to suggest that the less developed countries should attempt to replicate our experience but what I am suggesting is that we never would have reached the point where we could develop and manage institutions on a large scale for the development of the whole economy and society if there had not been this
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upswelling of initiative experience determination and common sense at the grass-roots level Through this process the importance of the individual in his social economic and political development was understood on a very wide scale before there was anything approaching the State or natidnal identity or national system we now have to help us in our enterprises
Also when one looks at the employment problem of 50 years ago in most of America one finds there were relatively few wage-paying jobs in large segments of our society Employment was essentially a subsistence affair with certain payoffs for seasonal crops But the function of people in society was not viewed as a purely economic plhenomerion Employment was thought of also as a useful function of society As a result men women children the aged and even the handicapped had a role in society that was understood and respected In the less developed countries therefore we should not lose sight of the fact that the role in society which is useful and important to the individual playing it is one of the important goals that we are trying to achieve Achievement of this goal can give meaning color and substance to that society although a countrys economic progress may not be up to what we may believe it hould be
Popular participation should be directed towards identifying and developshying the opportunities for people in their own habitat to live better and more fruitful lives because they create their environment and opportunities and apply themselves to the purposes of society without regarding their importance in terms of whether they get regular paychecks In my judgement no country can really become a cohesive society or a nation State unless essentially this concept of development is pervasive accepted and respected by a majority of the people of the country
MR EALTON L NELSON Popular participation in -he strengthening of job market mechanisms and institutions and the removal of barriers to the matching of jobs and workers is an idea that has existed in planning and operashytions in the manpower field for a considerable time It goes back to the Wagner-Peyser Act of 1933 Thus for 37 years in the legislative process there has been a statutory provision in each State as well as the Federal Government to proshyvide consultation through an advisory council
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
These proceedings were prepared by Gabriel Cherin University of Houston The Symposium was planned by Morris Pollak under the supervision of Joe White Acting Director of the International Manpower Institute
VII
SYMPOSIUM ON POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN MANPOWER EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT
AND
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS V
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Wednesday April 291970
Morning Session Chairman Leo R Werts Assistant Secretary for Adminshy
istration US Department of Labor
KEYNOTE ADDRESS POPULAR PARTICIPATION DEVELOPMENT
Princeton N Lyman Chief Title IX Division Office of Program amp Policy Coordination Agency for International Development Discussion
AND
POPULAR PARTICIPATION AND MANPOWER AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT
Charles D Stewart Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Affairs Bureau of International Labor Affairs US Department of Labor
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TITLE IX AND MANPOWER PROGRAMS OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Burnie Merson Chief Planning and Evaluation Division Office of Labor Affairs Agency for International Development
Afternoon First Session Chairman Harold Wool Director Office of the Assistant
Secretary for Policy Evaluation and Research US Deshypartment of Labor
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SEVEN SIGNS FOR THE 1970s Seymour Wolfbein Dean School of Business Administration
Temple University Afternoon Second Session
Chairman Edwin J Cohn Title IX Division Office of Program and Policy Coordination Agency for Internashytional Development
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MOBILIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF INSTITUTIONS TO ASSIST IN EXPANDING THE POTENTIALS FOR GREATER EMPLOYMENT COMMUNITY AND PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS ROLE IN JOB CREATION
JOB CREATION IN AGRICULTURE Thomas F Carroll Agricultural Economic Section
American Development Bank Intershy
19
UNITED STATES EXPERIENCE WITH UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDEREMPLOYMENT
William Batt Consultant on Manpower Development Office of Economic Opportunity
24
ROLE OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BUSINESSMEN IN JOB C REATIO N
William Haas Vice President in Charge of Operations National Alliance of Businessmen
go
PRIVATE INVESTMENT AND JOB CREATING POSSIBILITIES Harriet S Crowley Director Office of Overseas Private Programs
Agency for International Development
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Thursday April 30 1970
Morning First Session Chairman John F Hilliard Director Office of Education
and Human Resources Technical Assistance Buseau Agency for International Development
DEVELOPING ABILITIES THE LINK BETWEEN POPULAR PARTICIPATION AND INSTITU-TIONS INVOLVED IN EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT
POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN THE UNITED STATES
Samuel M Burt Director Understanding Program American University
IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION Business Council for International College of Continuing Education
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TAIWAN AND KOREAN EFFORTS IN MANPOWER DEVEL-OPMENT THROUGH SCHOOL AND INDUSTRY COOPER-ATION
James D Murray Vocational Education Advisor Agency for International Development
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Morning Second Session Chairman Kenneth J Kelley Deputy Director Office
Labor Affairs Agency for International Development of
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10R AND MANAGEMENTS SOCIAL POLICY INTERESTS IN TRAINING
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES WITHIN PRI-VATE INDUSTRY 9
Clayton J Cottrell Deputy Regional Manpower Administrator Atlanta Georgia US Department of Labor
Discussants J Julius F Rothman President Human Resources Development
Institute AFL-CIO Richard L Breault Manager Community and Regional Develshy
opment Group US Chamber of Commerce
Afternoon First Session Chairman Ealton L Nelson Manpower Advisor Planning
and Evaluation Division Office of Labor Affairs Agency for International Development
MATCHING WORKERS AND JOBS POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN STRENGTHENING OF JOB MARKET MECHANISMS AND INSTITUTIONS
NEW CONCEPTS OF THE EMPLOYMENT SERVICE ROLE TO MEET THE CHALLENGE OF THE 1970s 45
Malcolm R Lovell Jr Deputy Assistant Secretary for Manshypower and Manpower Administrator Manpower Administrashytion US Department of Labor
CREATION OF A CONSOLIDATED MANPOWER DELIVERY SYSTEM DECENTRALIZED TO THE STATES AND METRO-POLITAN AREAS-A WAY OF ACHIEVING INCREASED PAR-TICIPATION RESPONSIVE TO LOCAL NEEDS 49
Cyril D Tyson Deputy AdministratorCommissioner Manpower and Career Devciopment Agency New York City
Discussion 51
THE PROBLEM OF EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNI-TIES FOR W OM EN 53
Grace Farrell Chief oC the Labor Law Branch Womens Bureau US Department of Labor
Afternoon Second Session Chairman Ealton L Nelson
CASE STUDY-JOBS FOR PROGRESS Inc (OPERATION SER) 55 Seymour Brandwein Acting Associate Director Office of Research
and Development Manpower Administration US Departshyment of Labor
Discussion 58
Friday May 1 1970
Morning First Session Chairman Thomas E Posey Policy Planning and Evalushy
ation Staff Office of International Training Agency for International Development
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NEW DIRECTIONS FOR POPULAR PARTICIPATION TO DEAL WITH PROBLEMS ON MANPOWER UTILIZATION
PARTICIPATION OF THE WORKING POOR-UTILIZATION OF HUMAN RESOURCES IN ANTI-POVERTY PROGRAMS 61
Philip J Rutledge Director Department of Human Resources District of Columbia
COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN LATIN AMERICA LEAD-ING TO SOCIAL CHANGE AND INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOP-MENT RELATED TO MANPOWER 65
William F Whyte Professor Department of International and Comparative Labor Relatic s New York School of Industrial Relations Cornell University
Discussion 67 Morning Second Session
Chairman John E Blake Deputy Manpower Administrator for Employment Security Manpower Administration US Department of Labor
MOBILIZING THE PARTICIPATION OF YOUTH IN MAN-POWER AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT-A UNIVER-
SAL CHALLENGE 69 William Mirengoff Director JOB CORPS Manpower Adminisshy
tration US Department of Labor
MANPOWER AND YOUTH PROGRAMS IN THE DEVELOP-ING COUNTRIES OF AFRICA 77
Max R Lum Jr JOB CORPS Manpower Administration US Department of Labor
Discussion 78
Afternoon Session Chairman John E Dillon Chief Program Coordination
Division Office of Labor Affairs Agency for International Development
PARTICIPATION IN EFFORTS TO INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY AND TO PROMOTE THE WELFARE OF WORKERS
THE ROLE OF TRADE UNIONS AND EMPLOYER ORGANI-ZATIONS IN THE EFFICIENT UTILIZATION OF MANPOWER 81
Everett M Kassalow Professor of Economics University of Wisshyconsin
D iscussan ts 84 Paul Fisher Chief International Staff Office of Research and
Statistics Social Security Administration Department of Health Education and Welfare
Leonard Sandman Labor Advisor Bureau Near East and South A-la Affairs Department of State
LABOR PARTICIPATION IN SOCIAL SECURITY 87 Paul Fisher
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OUJAAJ PARTICIPATION AND DEVELOPMENT
Princeton N Lyman
Title IX of the Foreign Assistance Act calls upon the Agency for International Development (AID) to encourage the growth of democratic private and local government institutions in carrying out its programs of assistance This paper briefly reviews the considerations being given and the things that are being done by the AID to carry out this injuncshytion Before proceeding with this review however several comments need to be made on the attitudes developing regarding local participation among other groups interested in development and on the nature and status of AIDs efforts in this area at this time I believe it liighly significant that there is growing recognition of the problems of particishypation and the need for their solution among orshyganizations concerned with development as well as within the AID There is increasing awaireness in many countries of the world that the problems of participation are not problems that can be put off until a certain higher level of modernization is achieved ever though this belief may seem (or seemed so a few years ago) an easier or more pracshytical path to development
With regard to AIDs activities we are not yet as deeply involved in the probleams of popular particishypation as we would like to be We are still searchshying for practical answers to these questions (1) How should popular participation be defined (2) How should it be applied and (3) What should AIDs role be in increasing local participation in the development process in general as well as in the manpower areaThese are difficult questions to anshyswer and I hope that the discussions during this conference will be helpful in developing answers to them
The concept of participation is a highly complex one We recognized this and appreciate the coMshyplexity of the concept in our attempt to think through the meaning of Title IX Is it political deshyvelopment or a new twist to the community develshyopment emphasis in economic aid Or just peopleshy
to-people programs What does this Title involve We chose quite specifically to emphasize the concept of participation because it is so broad The advanshytage of choosing a concept like participation is that it cuts across economic social and political factors It is probably the only concept that does cut across all these facets of the development process Not only that but we are convinced that the type of participation the degree of participation and the nature of participation that will be taking place in the development process in different countries is going to have to be decided by those societies based on the conditions that they face There are potenshytial trade-offs between economic participation and
political participation There are societies in which people are willing to accept some degree of authoritarianism for substantial economic benefits
There are other societies where that simply is not true people are most interested in owning a
piece of their own land than in higher wages as tenants or agricultural laborers These are probshylems that the society of a country will themselves have to think and argue through and then come up with a concept of participation The decision therefore should not be directed from the US preshydisposed point of view but from the point of view of that society We can appreciate the problems of
participation for developing societies by simply looking at otir own society where we have had a relatively large degree of participation However the growth in participation has been gradual and often difficult
If you look at the history of the United States since independence you can see that there have been gradual increasing waves of participation Each wave has been a difficult one for the United States to absorb even with its wealth its relatively stable democratic institutions How much more then is the problem of participation in countries which have very meager resources extraordinarily crowded conditions on the land and are desper-
I
ately concerned with obtaining even the basic reshysources for development These are problems that simply cannot be swept under the rug by general rhetoric about democratic institutions or principles or about participation Yet the interesting thing about the Title IX or perhaps the most dramatic and challenging thing about it is that it enjoins us to find ways of assisting in the development procshyess that will allow for greater participation earlier rather than later in the development process What Title IX says is that you cannot accept the simple doctrine that participation is a luxury of the develshyoped countries or of the richer countries or of tle more advanced modernizing countries None of the
people of the developing countries will accept it nor does it inake sense in terms of modern developshyment as opposed to whatever experience the Euroshy
pean countries and the United States may have gone through
Carrying through these objectives of Title IX is a challenge and it is not an easy one but I think it is terribly important and a dramatic one and I think a viable one We are capable if we set our minds to it to find development strategies which allow small farmers as well as large farmers which allow landless laborers as well as land owners unshyskilled as well factory workers to have some sense of participation and see some place for themselves in the development process economically socially and politically It is when we get down to the techshynical details when we get down to manpower training prograns thlat the real problems face us One of the things that I tiink is interesting about the problems in tile field of man power development is that it presents a lot of related problems Let me touch on just a few It seems to me that one of the
problems is clearly the question of relationship beshytween wages capital investnent and employment ft is a real symbolic and ideological problem It is a real problem in the senise tiat many countries are planning or are already developing by taking adshyvantage of developing industry In some cases they are taking advantage of the low cost labor in agrishyculture and particularly in relation to export prices However tlhese countries and some of their AID donor agencies are terribly concerned about the effect of rising wages on this pattern of developshyment at least in the short run This condition is reflected in most of the countries int uneasiness about labor organization and furtherance of labor unions For the AI) donors the problem arises beshycause whenever wages seem to go ip or threaten to
go up there is the temptation to shift to more capishytal intensive industries which is precisely where the AID resources are available Foreign exchange from AID will finance much of the capital investshyment but it is domestic resources whichi must finance labor costs and thus AID donors are faced with tile making of a difficult decision do they or do tile) not provide the foreign exchange for inshyvestment in capital This is becoming particularly serious in agriculture where such investment may displace mal) workers Even if this is only a prob lem in the short run-or as some may argue emshyployment in the tertiary sector will rise and offset the loss in agriculture-it still is a very big one for
people who are out of work because the siort rtuni for them is their lives today tomorrow and maybe for the next year A second dilemma it seems to me is the types of manpower training that we go into or that the countries that we assist are going into One of the things that we are becoming
painfully aware of in AID is the fact that educashytion structures and the formal educational systems that we have been working on in the -ountries abroad are simply inadequate to keep up with the growth of population of school age children and tile training of older people
In some instances the growth of the school age
population outruns the growth of educational facilshyities despite tremendous bursts of expenditures on education This situation raises a lot of problems and mainy difficult choices Sonic countries would argue (and you call see this in the development
pattern of many countries) tiat there is simply nothing tile) cal do about it They believe they have to concentrate on training those people who are going to go to the top those people who are to be administrators the managers the industrial elite all the way down to tile middle level It is not
possible for them they feel to be responsible not in this decade or generation for the training or giving of any kind of really meaningful education to the majority of people in the country Some peoshy
ple believe the latter is the only choice There is however an alternative approach which is fraught with all kinds of com 1plexities but attracts many people and that is to move much more heavily into what is called Informal Systems of Education These are systems of education that do not rest on the formal schoolhouse system or the trained colshylege-educated teacher or which are even related to training persons to take their place in the elite role What this system can do is to give people the
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ability to cope with the situation that is changing around them or to have some sense of ability to cope with their immediate environment Now these programs whether carried out by labor unions by priests by cooperatives or by innovative educators are very experimental They are also highly controshyversial because when you systematically go at trainshying a mass of people to have a share in a society in which they are not the elite you are challenging sometimes the very social structure of that society
I would take some issue with the position held by some regarding the dangers of more participashytion I think there are dangers in mass participashytion that could lead to frustration and violence But on the other hand participation is not only a means to an organized end it is very often the sum and substance of a mans dignity his ability to say I am a man that I have some part of control over my own destiny Even if he does not have the right technical solution his right to have someshything to say about how those technical solutions are applied gives him dignity How we blend that technical information with that dignity is an exshytremely difficult challenge for all of us who are soshycalled professionals in the development field The fact that people demand that element of parshyticipation or that element of control and that they have to demand it often in very dramatic ways to wake us up to the fact of how little they control their own destiny is perhaps a good thing
We are unquestionably in a very controversial difficult and perhaps dangerous area and yet parshyticipation and the injunction upon us to become inshyvolved in participation carries us purposefully into that area
I would like to touch on one other subject that I think is perhaps somewhat underplayed in our disshycussions of manpower and that is the question of rural manpower Very often when we talk about manpower training and labor we talk about the urban or perhaps the semi-urban groups However I just recently reviewed a number of papers on land reforms and land tenure and from this mateshyrial it becomes increasingly obvious that one of the great manpower problems facing most of the develshyoping countries is rural manpower It is not just a question of dividing up the land because in some countries there simply is not enough land to divide up (I say this as a strong advocate of land redistrishybution) We cannot even if we support land reform avoid the fact that there is another class of people that needs to be dealt with as well-the vast
amount of landless laborers tenant farmers or tiny landowners who need to be given some sense of efshyficacy and ability to participate in the development process
Organizing rural manpower giving them some stake in society has proven extraordinarily diffishycult even for the revolutionaries who go out into the countryside to organize the rural workers as well as for the more moderate or conservative reshygimes when they try to find some path to give those workers a stake in as well as a ieason to purshysue agricultural modernization I think this is a task which all of us have neglected too long and one that is going to be upon all of us in the develshyopment business in the next decade Moreover as the Green Revolution spreads accompanied by high yield varieties of crops which will change the
pace of agricultural production in many developshying countries it will become an increasing and most vexing problem
AID is also deeply concerned with the question of the organizations and institutions needed in deshyveloping countries to bring all or as many persons as possible into meaningful participation roles This question is especially important since one thing we have done about Title IX so far is to give it a straight people-to-people approach What Title IX is really all about is getting participation down to the little man the individual farmer or the individual village However we also know that the present AID programs are not reaching nor are the developing countries capable of reaching on a pershyson-to-person basis the hundreds of millions of
people we are talking about To persons in the manpower field I do not have to dwell on the imshyportance of the organizational and institutional factors that must be faced to accomplish this goal In the whole area of labor-both urban and ruralshythese factors are vital ones
I might also note in connection with the labor field that labor unions should be able to play an important role in broadening the participation base
Clearly labor unions play a very critical role in defining openess in political society However we also have some indications though still vague that labor unions may play an even more important role in such matters in the early stages of modernishyzation I think that it is terribly important that this matter be looked into much more deeply There are of course other institutional and organishyzational questions in the manpower area which are
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beyond the scope of the labor unions which must be considered These include rather broad but still significant questions concerning the general nature and scope of over-all manpower development on how to reach organize and provide access to reshysources for vast numbers of people These as well as the other problems I raised in this paper are some of the challenges of applying participation in the manpower area
Discussion
Question from the floor This comment is in reshygard to the problem you noted concerning capital imports from donor countries and their possible adverse effects on employment opportunities in the developing country Has any consideration been given to the development of guidelines by the AID for use in the analysis of the impact of public works construction in developing countries which would allocate the cost of labor using a shadow cost formula for determining the feasibility or desirashybility of importing capital equipment versus using local labor If there is unemployment in the counshytry local labor costs could be considered as zero for determining economic and social feasibility of imshyporting capital equipment
Mr Lymans comment Your suggestion is inshyteresting but it raises certain practical problems In most cases the cost of labor for a project has to come out of domestic resources of the country Thus large labor intensive projects will require substantial amounts of such resources which most developing countries simply do not have or are not too willing to mobilize for such purposes They prefer therefore to find a combination which reshyduces the burden on domestic resources and places the larger burden upon the capital side which will be financed by the AID donor The AID donor also tends to look upon such financing favorably beshycause the financing of capital expenditures usually is done in the form of financing export of US equipment
Question from the floor I should like to make the following comment with respect to participashytion particularly in Latin or Central America There is a degree of participation in these counshytries far beyond that which we reL gnize For exshyample certainly in the universities of Latin Amershy
ica there is substantial participation of the students and faculty in decisions regarding university polshyicy Also in the rural areas of some of the Latin American countries and in the health programs of these countries there is a considerable amount of participation of the local population It seems to me that the degree of participation in most of the Latin American countries has been related to the resources available for such participation If you do not have resources your extent of participation is going to be rather limited it seems rather futile to spend time discussing a new well or developing new labor supply or new jobs if the resources are not available to support these programs These are really comments rather than any criticisms or quesshytions regarding your talk
Mr Lymans comment I think your comment is highly relevant to development strategy If you are trying to devise a practical approach to participashytion and development you have to try to deal with increasing ways of participation as they are going to be generated or should be generated by the stages of development
Question from the floor For some time the Farmers Union International Development Services has been involved in participation programs throughout Latin America We have found that in the agricultural field problems of clearance with the mission may develop which sometimes seriously restrict our efforts because the programs that we are conducting are offset by counterproductive official programs which are supported by the AID mission
Mr Lymans comment Your points are well taken I think one of the really difficult practical problems for AID agencies and the US in popular participation is that we are caught between the fact that we are a US government agency dealing with the host governments which as you point out may or may not be sympathetic with the participation of peasants unions or rural workers However it is a problem that is now recognized I believe in the recent legislation establishing the Inter-American Social Development Institute which is designed by Congress to set up a social development institute separate from the regular AID program and which will operate as relatively autonomous in the areas of social change
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TOIPULAR PARTICIPATION AND MANPOWER AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT
Charles D Stewart
As I understand my task in this symposium I am supposed to provide the linkage between the aspirashytions of Title IX which I suppose are intended for domestic consumption as well as export and the more workaday objectives of manpower policy All of this I take it is within a framework of ecoshynomic policy namely for economic development in the LDCs and full employment without inflashytion in the developed countries Hopefully I will succeed in lihking social participation and the obshyjectives of manpower policy (called manpower and employment development by the sponsors of the symposium)-and do so without trying you and myself particularly with a repetition of the verities of our trade (ressed up in the mantle of social parshyticipation
If I may be excused I will take my text for the day not from Title IX or the original statement or introduction for this symposium which I agree with almost entirely but find somewhat heady Inshystead I will take my text from William Fellner in his 1969 presidential address to the American Ecoshynomic Association-wrenched perhaps somewhat outof context but I think suggestive for our purshyposes
Fellner attempted to sum up the pros and cons of what has come to be known as the Residual Factor or Investment in Education or Knowledge-to apshypraise the differential yield of what he calls progshyress-generating inputs (for education and knowlshyedge) that produce additional output indirectly via their effect upon conventionally defined producshytion functions relative to ordinary investment I extrapolate to include social investments in particishypatory democracy as progress-generating inputs Fellner argues that public decisions of a non-marshyket variety depend for viability upon how well in the West the political mechanism is capable of bridging the differences in subjective evaluations of competing groups My text is his final sentence
Is it realistic to expect that the propensity to reach compromises can be increased by making the bargaining parties aware of the fact that the joint payoff on reaching an agreement is high
I was tempted by an alternative text whose aushythor I dont know You cant move the Phillips curve to the left in a country that is going to the right Its a nice quip but not true insofar as manshypower policy in a market economy can remove imshyperfections in knowledge and competition and orshyganization to achieve a better functioning labor market Yet even so the final outcome could deshypend on willingness of workers to participate in soshycial decisions-my extrapolation of Fellners quesshytion in bargaining theory
What I intend to do using this as a jumping off point is to examine the question of social particishypation as it has been raised in manpower policy (much to the credit of our fraternity) in the conshytext of economic stabilization in the North and ecshyonomic development in the South How critical is social participation for success of economic policy in the two worlds
Now I know ivhat with increasing disappointshyment in the economic payoff of development plans in the LDCs commonly blamed on the economists in charge or at large it is increasingly popular to say that development is not simply increasing ecoshynomic production but also achieving fundamental social objectives-as President Caldera of Venezuela said in opening the recent ILO Conference in Cashyracas This is essentially the same as in the North where it is now popular to say that quantitative gains in GNP are not the end of economic policy
If I may return -lefly to Title IX it is one of the virtues of that leclaration of American foreign assistance policy nat it conceives of social particishypation not only as an end but as an instrument of economic development I have said earlier that I
5
find much of what has been said in praise of Title IX somewhat heady-a new expression of American missionary zeal more praised abroad than perhaps at home and somewhat naive with respect to the political dynamics or implications of social transshyformation of backward if not corrupt political reshygimes The cultivation of social participation on the labor market called industrial democracy by an earlier generation may no doubt contribute in time-if we have a long enough time perspectiveshyto the toppling of reactionary political and social structures But success is more likely in a society where social participation finds expression in a countrys constitutional structure It would have been difficult if I may illustrate to have imagined the gains in collective bargaining in the United States in the thirties an adventure in social parshyticipation if there ever was one without the conshystitutional presuppositions of the American system (which in other countries may exist only in intershynational declarations of human and trade union rights) Even so one must hurry to say there was much that was fortuitous in the American developshyment much that would never have happened withshyout self-help on the labor markets much that was not quite yet legal that transformed American law and American society
I suppose there is no need to push my argument to the point of the obvious Any political system is a system of social participation It may be more demshyocratic or less democratic It may have more or less of a market economy It may rely less on legislative means and more on rules for the labor market worked out by the social partners on the labor marshyket and then extended or reinforced by legislation as to some degree in the French and German sysshytems It is perhaps a matter of taste or culture or circumstance or relative efficiency whether a counshy-fry may favor a welfare system in which benefits are handed down or favor the socialization of sectors or processes by means of cooperatives or trade unshyions or codetermination or new forms of public corporations or instrumentalities for active as against passive participation in a political democshyracy It is also a matter of tactics and the stage of development how the disadvantaged or disposshysessed in any society can organize their strength for social and economic advancement and status
What is not guaranteed by Title IX or by any transformation of the political or social structure by land reform by cooperation by collective barshygaining by industrial democracy-is economic sucshy
cess Whether economic success is simply a matter of time or some elements of capitalist spirit or trashydition of entrepreneurship or a free market still has to be tested I wish only to note that there is an essential tension between social participation and a market-oriented and motivated economy which is critical both for economic growth and for social deshymocracy both in the North and the South
Now I will try to be concrete and incidentally strive to cover part of the ground that the managshyers of this symposium hope will contribute to some kind of systematic survey of social or popular parshyticipation in the attainment of manpower and emshyployment development Since my specific topic is identical with that of the symposium as a whole I may be forgiven if I touch some matters I think most suggestive while leaving to others including my discussant what they are better prepared than I to discuss Fortunately for me and perhaps for you it has been suggested that it might be useful if I bring into focus some of the experience of the North as it may be relevant by my intuitions to the problems of developments in the South
To do this in the most concrete way I wish to use Sweden and France as two case studies-beginning as it were with the idyll of the Garden of Eden and going on perhaps to things which must come to pass shortly in the Apocalypse of the Western world
To Americans Sweden has been thought of since at least the publication of Marquis Childs Sweden the Middle Way as the perfect example of a participatory democracy There was not only the popular participation of ordinary people in the cooperative movement which Childa thought of as the heart of the Swedish way there was also the broad-based trade union movement that carried over to the political scene and completed the trilshyogy in a government responsive to its power base in the trade unions and cooperative movement
But the institutionalization of social participashytion in Sweden didnt stop with these achieveshyments One leading Swedish economist Lindbeck writing a brief history of economic thought and ecshyonomic policy in postwar Sweden itemized the two historic developments as (1) the adoption of modshyern fiscal monetary policy at the macro level and (2) the adoption of Rehns conception of an active manpower policy at the micro level I will not stop here to elaborate the connection between the two except to say that an active manpower policy preshysupposed if it were to succeed a carefully managed
6
general demand policy holding short of full emshy
ployment in order to avoid inflation suppleshymented by selective demand and labor market supshyply policies in order to maintain stable levels of full employment
These economic presuppositions of Swedish polshyicy since the late Fifties have been no more or less fulfilled than in other countries and Swedish acshytive manpower policy has had to engage in fireshyfighting operations and has not always been equal to the task of overcoming mistaken demand polshyicies But these matters are not our immediate conshycern
What is relevant to our purposes are two things (1) the social environment that made possible the formulation of an active manpower policy-by the trade unions it so happened-as a means of comshybating postwar inflation in order to escape authorishytarian wages and incomes policy that would have in the view of the LO undermined a free trade union movement and a policy of free collective barshygaining with employers on the labor market and (2) the creation of a tripartite Labor Market Board
What I want to say about the first-the social enshyvironment in Sweden-brings me back to my text from Fellner Nowhere perhaps is there a greater propensity to reach compromises and to do so beshycause of an awareness that the joint payoff of an agreement is high
What I want to say about the second point-the creation of a multipartite labor market boardshygives me a chance to cover some of the ground that the managers of this symposium had in mind in constructing the symposium But I will try to do this without touching all the bases in literal fashshyion I trust my umpire will he indulgent
I must concede that the social participation repshyresented by active tripartite management of the Labor Markct Board is a compromise between
popular participation and efficient administration I really dont know how much of a New England town meeting a Parent Teachers Association a community swimnuing pool organization a housing cooperative a stibiiban civic association or Group Health let alone a community action agency is inshyvolved in what appears to be a well-organized articshyulation of community interests via the tripartite Labor Market Board
But the fact is that the administration of Swedshyish labor market policy and programs is not solely in the hands of a government bureaucracy with adshy
visory committees but is in the hands of what we would call a quasi-public organization from the top in Stockholm down to every provincial labor marshyket board The Board and the boards play an essenshytial role in the economic planning process longshyterm and conjunctural and in actual administration of the labor market If the constituencies of the three parties have any complaints which I suppose they do remedies presumably lie within the rules of the trade unions the employer organizations and the Rikstag but I cant quite imagine a mass demonstration
On substantive matters the Board and the local boards deal wih all of the problems of human reshysources development employment creation mobilshyity and relocation There is of course the usual difficulties of coordination between the school aushythorities and the vocational authorities and pershyhaps some doubts as Sweden moves in the direction of the American nonvocationally oriented high school Otherwise the business of the Labor Marshyket Board is (1) to facilitate the restructuring of the Swedish economy which involves fortunately for Sweden chiefly the movement of workers from the low-productivity forest-based activities of the North to the modern technology of the South and (2) to minimize cyclical fluctuations in the economy
We need only note the new emphasis which may be siuimarized by saying that aside from the wellshyknown mobility features of the program the aim is to provide a combination of training requirements involved in the restructuring c the economy and at the same time furthcr human resource developshyment by providing constructive substitutes for tinshyemployment in recession The result is that trainshying and quasi-training activities rise a5 the demand for employment declines and-in the recession of 1966-68-rose more than the rise in unemployment
But is all right in the Garden of Eden Does the social participation represented by th e tripartite Labor Market Board the friendly collaboration of the unions and the employer associations the discishypline of world competitioi on wage and price polshyicy the continued success of the popular based Soshycial Democratic party at the polls-does this sophistishycated form of social participation satisfy the needs of popular participation It may be only a trivial
phenomenon but the worrisome question in Sweden is how to explain wildcat strikes by workers with few economic complaints who feel neglected by their trade union and political represhysentatives
7
Even before this little breach in paradise Charles De Gaulle anticipated what was to become in France the explanatory factor-the Events of May in 1968 For many years De Gaulle intishymated the need for social participation of workers in what lie conceived to be some kind of a comshypromise with a capitalist society What he meant was never too clear but some specifics touching on profit sharing worried French businessmen and never aroused much enthusiasm in the trade unshyions or support within the party or the bureaucshyracy But De Gaulle must be credited with some kind of intuition of the dissatisfaction of workers with their role in French society and n economic life Profit-sharing codetermination industrial deshymocracy were not anything new but I think it was De Gaulle and the Events of May that brought the need for social participation to the forefront in the North in much the same way as the proponents of Title IX had done in American AID policy at about the same time
What was the situation in France that accounted for De Gaulles solitary premonitions France was viewed by many as almost the perfect model of the welfare state I remember Patrick Moynihans inshyterest in family allowances when lie visited France while Assistant Secretary of Labor He did see povshyerty in St Denis but responded Well at least everyshybody is at work But as the Events of May were to demonstrate in 1968 what matters is not simply full employment (there was of course a little reshycession in 1966-67) or levels of living or family alshylowances in the welfare state or pretty regular gains in real living (although there had been some disappointments on this score as a result of stabilishyzation policy in France during those years) What mattered in France way underneath was the feelshying of French workers that they had no influence in French policy or French society-not only that they were not sharing fairly in the gains of French economic policy (a point which is arguable)
I may recall that the student and worker demonshystrations brought France to the verge of collapse in May of 1968 De Gaulle left the country and reshyturned only after he had secured the support of the French military abroad The alienation of the stushydents was to be explained in no small part by their dissatisfaction with French educational and manshypower policy vhicli they thought was designed to allocate them to slots in the staffing pattern of a capitalist French society Neither the young nor the older generation were enthusiastic about the
new economic society of the Fifth Plan Despite some interconnections the workers demonstrated on their own and wished to have nothing to do with the students Their gripe was their isolation at the plant level from the machinery the goals and the preoccupations of their unions and their national union leadership
Most French workers probably never heard of codetermination in Germany probably had little idea what De Gaulle meant by social participation probably knew or cared little about the niceties of French planning or economic policy and probably didnt want to run their companies businesses To understand their feeling of isolation I need only to mention that French unionism is fragmented along political and religious lines the so-called Workers Councils are legislative creations and generally unshyused at most plants for grievance or other purposes There is ordinarily little union organization at the plant level even where most workers belong to one political union or another Wage levels are genershyally above the negotiated national or regional rates and are set largely by employers in response to marshyket factors and not by negotiation In brief the union is not preeminently an instrument for setshyting wages or settling grievances
At the Labor Ministers office on the Rue de Greshynelle the then Prime Minister Mr Pompidou neshygotiated the Grenelle Agreement in the final days of May 1968 with representatives of the French emshyployers and trade unions who running scared sat together for the first time took steps to raise real wages promote plant unionism and to appease French workers who at the very moment were takshying things into their own hands at their work places The results subsequently on the labor marshyket have been quite creditable The government also capitulated to the university s adents who are now again in 1970 demonstrating at Nanterre against the very university self-government that Faurd was villified for having forced the Assembly to accept in 1968
What then can we say is the experience of the North that may be relevant to maximizing popular participation as a means-in the language of Title IX-for sustained economic and social progress What is the role of manpower and employment policy in the process of social democratization
We have seen clearly in recent years that manshypower policy has an essential complementary role to economic policy-for human resource developshynient and more particularly for training to meet
8
the opportunities and needs of the labor market and for solving the structural problems involved in the continuous restructuring of the modern econshyomy which means both concern for the producshytivity and for minimization of unemployment
But this limited conception of manpower and employment policy is I think it fair to say someshywhat neutral with respect to social goals In authorshyitarian societies it is possible to imagine an efficient manpower and labor market policy quite inconsistent with a democratic society But even in Western societies we have more than a few intishymations that economic progress can be frustrated by frustrations of workers who feel alienated from soliety who feel they have no responsible role no share in decision-making no recognition no social status
The problem of the LDCs is more difficult and I must defer to those with more experience in these
special probleis As implied in Title IX the task is to develop democratic social institutions where they dont exist and where they may be in fact reshysisted by the beneficiaries of the old order I supshy
pose the experience of the North is that it is a slow process Nonetheless the democratic institutions of the North have evolved out of self help in the
creation of instruments of self governance not only in civil arrangements of local government and the political state but in the productive process and on the labor market We should not ignore or undershyestimate the democratic aspects of a free labor marshyket of a market economy or a capitalist society even if we dont wish to press the historic connecshytions between a market economy and political deshymocracy in the West
It is the special virtue of the policy expressed in Title IX that while trying not to impose our preshyconceptions on others we take a long view and fosshyter those elements of education training cooperashytivism land reform and trade unionism that are instruments for self help for both the political and economic man
To come back to my text it is a slow proCess but the only prospect for responsible bargaining the essence of the political process in a democracy is for the dispossessed to become possesse(l to have a stake-and to know the payoff is high-in the viashybility of the economy and the political state Which means to have confidence in their own strength and a sense of responsibility and participashytion in the adjustment processes of society Rememshyber Sweden and remember Francel
9
TITLE IX AND MANPOWER PROGRAMS OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
by Burnie Merson
The goals of Title IX of the Foreign Assistance planning level nationally regionally and locally of Act are stated in general terms These goals are to workers farm and employer organizations in deshydevelop citizen participation in the creation of the velopment of policy and programs to achieve full goods and services needed for economic develop- prodtctive freely chosen employment These and ment and their participation in the fruits of the in- other regional eriployment and manpower planshycreased produictivity resulting from economic ning programs have set the basic structure of world growth However before it is possible to develop and regional manpower plans which stress not the required policies and programs to achieve the only full employment but freely chosen employ objectives of Title IX it is necessary to clearly de- nient fine what is meant by citizen participation and to The achievement of popular participation restate the objectives of Title IX in more specific through productive and freely chosen employment terms will be limited without the opportunity on the
Restatement of Title IX in terms of specific ob- part of the labor force of all ages youth as well as jectives with respect to manpower would relate to adult workers for further educational and occupashycitizen participation in the development process of tional training Also to widen the employment op a country through such matters as job developshy portunities of the workers there must be a broadenshynuent skill development increased worker produc- ing of the occupational choice available to the tivity and improvement of the labor market mech- labor force Qualified jo) seekers may be barred anism This paper briefly discusses the major kinds from available job openings as a result of a number of manpower programs and objectives which I be- of factors These include improper functioning of lieve will help meet the objectives of Title IX It the labor market which impedes matching of men also discusses some of the activities of the interna- and jobs discrimination because of race creed tional and regional organizations which are related color an( unreal educational standards which go to these programs far beyond the needs of the job
One basic element of popular participation The above impediments -are found in virtually should be the development of prpductive jobs every developing country in which I have had some Provision of both full and productive employment experience and in all cases these impediments lead enables those seeking work to have the opportunity to frustrations To cite several examples illtistratshyto obtain remunerative jobs which are essential not ing these impediments to matching of men and only to enable the workers to obtain income jobs In one country because of family structure needed for basic food shelter and clothing but certain good jobs are only available to those who also to permit them to participate in the benefits of conie from the right families In another country any increased outitput of goods and services in the tnless you have the right diplomas front the right country university you are barred from jobs at certain lev-
Another basic element of popular participation els in the government This is so despite the fact is the idea of workers freely choosing their employ- that there are often highly competent people who ment The International Labor Office Basic Con- get education training and experience on-the-job vention 122 the Ottawa Plan for Resource Devel- and are quite qualified for these other jobs Yet opment the Asian plan and the Jobs and Skills they cannot move up to them because they do not program for Africa call for the participation at the have theproper credentials
11
There also can be important impacts on popular participation in the development process through tie minimum wage and social security programs
Minimum wages appropriately administered and
established can play a significant role in establishshy
ing levels of staldards of living consistent with the
objectives of welfare and ians dignity However the minimumn wage levels if raised too high can
have significant adverse effects on employment pro)spects for certain segments of the p pIlation
For example youths seekiiig summer jobs -nd pershysons with low skills and inadequate training may be priced out of the job market Social security simishy
larly can have an important and valuable impact on the standard of living of a country However its value depends upon the incidence of the tax and
how it results in the redistribution of the fruits of production to various segments of the population
The workers sense of participation in the develshyoping process is significantly enhanced if there is
participation through the trade union Trade unshyions can be important not only because of direct
participation in the economic development of a
cotintry but also because they van develop cooperashytion with other sectors of the p 2ation as represhyselited by employer associations and farm groups Similarly the government in its operations through ilh labor miiinistries is an important factor
inl deveiopinent of the institutioinal capabilities for matching men and jobs and developing skills as well as establishiig safety and labor standards And there also is the whole gamut of government reshy
lated institutions which help bring the workers in
closer con tact with tlie government and with the
developmenclt process
The programs aid objectives of the various inshy
ternational orgainiatiolis such as the 110 Convenshy
tion 122 and the Declaration of Cundinamarca
have in my judgment important goals consistent
with the objectives of Titll IX For example the Declaration of Cundinamarca notes that there
Can be no effective cconoinmic and social developshy
ment unless the legitimate rights of labor are recshy
ognized aind the aopirations of the workers are
expressed in terms of concrete achievements involvshy
ing wages eliployimieit working con(ditions social
security health housing and education In accomshy
plishing these tasks the Ministries of Labor have a
vital role to play They should be the ones to take
appropriate steps toward the establislument in each
of their coiintries of a National Council of Human
Resources at the highest level This Council should
be structured to conform with the constittition of the particular country The participation of a wide number of groups should he contemplated includshying universities representatives of employers minshyistries of education vocational training centers national planning offices bureaus of statistics nashytional productivity (cliters and other pertinent agencies that may exist in a given country The Declaration had particularly strong recommendashytions regarding the inclusionl of re 1 resentatives of democratic trade unions employer organizations aud ministries of labor to study and evaluate tile degree of trade union freedom and participation of the workers in the formulation and execution of national development programs
Any) popular participation on the international scene is represented by the ILO and OAS resolushytion predate Title IX of the Foreign Assistance Act In some respects the tying of the manpower program to a broad participation policy is easier than in other fields Manpower has always had a wide or horizonital iniput into almost all sectors of the economy It is it only coicerned with the varshyious industrial sectors-agriculture nonagriculture
bti also public adm inistration edtication health and military sectors This may often be forgotten becatise depending upon specific needs one may look at manpower solely from a single sectorial
stanlpoint Also it is difficult to handle and to look at manpower as ani interrelated system For examshy
ple an emiiployieit service Imay runia teacher
placelelit scrvice a farm placement service and services to the private andillpblic sectors It may also be concenlied with occupational safety both in the public and private sectors Also when an agency attem pts to measure uinemploymen t it usually covshyers all sectors of the population it does not ignore one or aiiot her if possible
Finally a comninet is required on the possibility of developing participation of various groups ill maiipower programs My experience in Korea and Taiwan iidicates that it is possible to do So with considera ble success In developilng plais for mallshy
power we enlisted the consmtiiers of the output of vocational schools anid the various trailing agenshycies as well as the public aul private sector groups We brought together people from the educatioial sector government in general as well as business
an(d commerce with tle vocatiollal and technical training agencies Of course for special problems arising out of the nature of the country and their social and political customs there was cooperation
12
both in providing indication of the nature of their needs as well as providing in some irstances finan-cial support In other instances industry provided shop teachers and brought foremen in from plants in order to show teachers the way things were done in industry
Rcview of the current international manpower
activities in my judgment indicates that in this syea there is at least tle beginning of programs and
actions which can help bring into fruition thc obshyjcdvcs of Title IX if thcy are broadened and dishyrcid more specifically towards the goals of full citizen participation in thcountrys development programs
13
SEVEN SIGNS FOR THE 1970s
by Seymour Wolfbein
In many years of study of manpower developshyments in the United States I have found that one can single out certain trends and changes in the economy which are highly significant as signposts or directional signs for probable future developshyments I would like to submit that there are a handful of such trecnds on which we can concenshytrate as playing sig~nificant roles in the manpower developments over the next decade Although these developments may have different importance and different values for devcloping countries I would also submit that they are of sufficient importance to be given serious consideration in any nalysis of manpower developments in the developing counshytries The following lists the seven developments that I believe are of greatest importance at present
1 Tcchnological change
2 Industrial an(d occupational change
3 Geographic change
4 Educational change
5 Population change
6 Manpower change
7 Disaggregation
Technological change Although the various items are not listed according to their relative imshyportance I would say that it is not possible to talk about moving ahead in any discussion of manshy
power or economic development without first conshysidering the problem oi technological change and its impact upon not only manpover but all aspects of life In the United States over the last 25 years output per man hour has been going ill) at about
the rate of 3 a year Thus over this period outshyput in the United States per man hour has doushybled Over the long run this is really only a blink of time A number of rather startling examples of the impact of such change in the United States can be found Let us look at agriculture for example
In that sector for the last 20 years in a row the United States has lost 200000 jobs per year off the farm Yet farm output over the period has inshycreased by more than 40 It was also during this
period that we were able to land a man on the l11OO1i
Industrial and occupational change Developshyments in the industrial-occupational area is one that most certainly cannot be ignored when conshysidering problems of popular participation Even in the United States most people are startled when it is pointed out that two out of every three people who work for a living in the United States produce services rather than goods As a result of these changes the number of professhysional workers now outnumber all of the skilled workers-one out of three persons who work for a living in the country are either professional personshynel or they are clerical workers such as secretaries stenographers and typists These conditions are also reflected in the dynamics of the working popushylation with the result that the proportion of the working population organized by the trade union movement has been going down since the end of World War II This trend apparently seems to be continuing It is therefore to be expected that in the next several years the major industrial relations actions will be going On in the service-producing side
Geographic change We are all aware that there has been tremendous migration out of the rural areas and tremendous growth in urbanization in this country since World War II The scope of these developments may be more fully understood when it is noted that three States in the United States (California Texas and Florida) account for one out of every six jobs Moreover these States in 1969 accounted for one-fifth of all the personal inshycome as neasured in the Gross National Product acounts With such concentrations of population
15
what does it do to the problem of job creation How does one handle this kind of dynamics in reshylation to this problem To further complicate the matter there is this tremendous intracity migration ie exodus to the suburbs Thus the geographic parameter of job development in itself is an amazshying phenomena
Educational change Formal education in this country has expanded substantially to the point where at present some 60 of the persons three to 31 years of age are formally registered in school When one looks at the so-called professional pershysonnel one finds that for the group as a whole the median years of school completed is seventeenshythat is equivalent to a masters degree Remember this is the median We must also remember that the professional category includes beauticians and opticians as well as physicians and physicists Thus even with ccrtaii occupations which require relatively few years of schooling the median is still 17 years But the most important factor here is that there is a world of difference betwcen median years of school completed and educational achievement The real question is what is the quality and the nashyture of the output to be obtained from these years of schooling Is the schooling being directed toshywards those occupations and activities which will be most needed in the 1970s It is estinatel by the Department of Labor that in the 1970s we are going to need as much manual talent as academic talent but will we be getting it
Will our vocational training program be realistishycally geared to meet the current needIs or to conshytinue as some of them are to provide training that is of little relationship to the industrial world of today
Population change We have experienced in the United States as in iost other countries since World War II a phenomenal rise in (he populashytion The birth rate in the United States showed sul)stantial increases until recently and has now deshyclined substantially But it lutist be noted that this lower birth rate is being applie(l as the demograshyphers say to an increasing number in the cohort of females of child-bearing age Therefore although the rate of births may be low the number of births is still high The growth in population since 1915 in this country for example has been such that in this 25 years half of the population of the United States was horn-a little over 100 million Accordshying to the 1970 population preliminary estimates the population at present is some 205 million as
compared to 170 million in 1960 or an increase over the decade of over ten liercent Another way of looking at it is that one out of every three people alive today in the United States was not born yet fifteen years ago We are already aware of the growth in the youth population and the problems that developed in connection with youth but it would seen that this problem may be further inshytensified
Manpower change The Labor Department proshyjections for the 1970s indicate that we may expect a 22 increase in the labor force during this decshyade This is an unprecelented and unparalleled inshycrease in the labor force never experienced before in the United States Most important of course in this increase is what it will do to the composition of the labor force Two changes come to mind readshyily First despite the so-called population and labor force explosion there is a decline in the popshytilation age group 35 to 44 We know that the soshycalled manpower profile in the Unitd States looks like an hour glass-there is a big batch of young people coming tip and a big batch of older
people It has vital implications for manpowertraining and for employers who wish to hire people in the age group that has had some work experishyence or career development This sector of the popshyulation is declining The second factor of equal importance is that one out of seven new workers coming up in the 1970s is going to be black
Disaggregation For the lack of finding a better term I use disaggregation By that I mean that it is necessary to look at the previous six developshyments and to consider them in some specific kinds of detail The point that is of particular imporshytance in the context of population participation and of job creation is that these six trends could be very beneficial for economic development But there is a large part of the population not only in the United States but in many other countries of the world which have not benefited from these trends and it is with these groups that in the imshymediate years ahead the problens will be greatest in terms of job creation and job development The
question will be bow to get the various parts of the
population together and to participate in these particular tasks
It may very well be right to say as I did preshyviously that we are now a service-producing econshyomy that we are a white collar group but in terms of the problems to be faced in connection with parshyticipation we must recognize the fact that a subshy
16
stantial part of the population even in the United States is not part of these what we have called mainstream developments Let us turn to some specific illustrations of what I mean For example the fact of the matter is that over 25 of all Negro males who work in this country are in one
occupation group while almost 50 of all Negro women are in one occupational group The males
are conacentrated in the operatives group occupashytion this is the occupation in this country which it
is anticipated will be declining in terms of employshyment opportunities in the 1970s Negro womens employment is concentrated in the service occupashytions
Let us disaggregate another general figure that is given continual attention-the unemployment rate In May (1970) the aggregate unemployment rate
was 50 seasonally adjusted But when one looks at nonwhite teenage males we find that the unemshyploymnent rate for this group ranges between 25 and
30 more than five times higher than the aggreshygate rate We can i am sure find many other exshyamuples of instances where certain groups of the population have benefited from the latest developshyments
To turn to the developing countries where in many instances the kinds of development we have discussed in the United States have not reached the same levels I would say that if in these countries they do not have the same discrete and distinguishshyable movements in the direction that the Western World has gone they will not have the kind of growth we are attempting to stimulate and foster
Certainly we will have dismally failed to learn from our own experiencc if we do not attempt or recognize that rts must be made as the developshying countries groi and as these basic trends imporshytant to growth begin to become more apparent to continuously watch the developments to determine if there are any groups in society who are not parshyticipating and benefiting from the trends and are falling by the wayside If it is at all possible we should be trying to bring these people in at the earliest stages of the developiment rather than wait until there are wide disparities among various paris of the population such as have developed in the Western World In this sense the purpose of
participation is vital in that if the idea is accepted and developed in the developing countries it should avoid what occurred in the Western World
17
JOB CREATION IN AGRICULTURE
by Thomas F Carroll
This paper presents what might be called a posishytion of agricultural fundamentalism with respect to policy for employment creation-deliberate employshyment creation in the developing countries
Up to very recently development economists and developers in general have been emphasizing growth theories that stress global GNP growth It is only now that questions on how GNP is distribshyuted and on how various groups in the developing countries benefit from development are becoming increasingly asked The employment and income distribution issue is becoming a fashionable foreshyfront topic among development planners This is reflected in such material as the Pearson Report Professor Myrdals report on Asia and the Peterson Report and one that is about to appear on Latin America by Professor Prebisch
We have had a great deal of theorizing and of practice from developing countries which can be characterized as the trickle down theory of deshyvelopment that has left those who are most able to use resources to develop them The AID organization and in particular the World Bank have followed this approach of putting resources where in the short run they will produce the largshyest output and then let the governments tax or otherwise acquire some of the surplus and redistribshyute it among the poorer urban and rural sectors
It is an attack on the whoe trickle down theshyory of development that I see now among developshymentalists It appears that in many recent studies this trickle down theory does not seem to work because even if some of the surplus can be captured for injection into education social welfare and other low-income support programs there is a gross inefficiency in the process Since government takes such a predominant place in managing these reshysources these inefficiencies are very noticeable
Since my recent work has been particularly strong on Latin America my illustrations and emphasis are on that particular continent
A great deal of the surplus gets stuck at the middle and upper level consumption patterns which increasingly are modeled on the consumpshytion patterns of the middle classes in the developed countries Thus if you go to a Latin American city you will find that the middle classes consume about the same basket of commodities-automobiles teleshyvision sets gadgets of all sorts-as we do in US suburbia This has put an enormous pressure on the developing countries infant industries and also on the balance of payments because a great deal of these products had to be imported
Another reason why the trickle down theory has not worked is that it ignored the labor potenshytials of an overwhelming proportion of the populashytion In such countries as Brazil or India 50 to 70 percent of the population is in the underdeveloped portion of the population in the urban and rural sectors the most important resource in this type of country is the labor resource This labor resource is very poorly utilized under the trickle down theshyory of development In the US and other develshyoped countries only a fraction of the labor force and population is in this poor range
I shall not dwell in length upon the inadequacies of industrial and urban jobs to absorb significant amounts of the migrant rural population There is increasing evidence that industry is becoming more capital intensive The types of industry that have been developing especially after the import substishytution drive has been satisfied offer very few jobs The lower productivity service sector while genershyally absorbing more labor than manufacturing has expanded in a very inadequate fashion and much of it has been disguising very large amounts of semi-employed people
Hence it is desirable to think not only of overshyall economic policies of development which are more labor-absorbing but it is desirable to have
specific rural policies that absorb productively
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rural people so as to reduce migration to the urban areas
With respect to Latin America with a very high population growth-somewhere between 3 and 3 12 percent-in the late sixties the rural labor force is estimated to grow at the rate of about I million people annually even after assuming somewhat speeded-up migration rates Moreover there are no policies to productively absorb these people in agrishyculture On the contrary recent policies have beshycome increasingly capital intensive and the whole development strategy is generally strongly biased toward a rather labor extensive type of agricultural development as well
Let me briefly mention some of the policy defishyciencies that we have found not only in Latin America but Africa and Asia as well There is an overemphasis on commodity targets and balance of payment considerations in development planning There is very little attention to manpower planshyning in the various planning agencies and the tarshygets that are listed for development are very heavshyily oriented toward output-global macro-economic output-and commodity targets rather than institushytional targets which would involve human reshysource planning and income targets
There is a great deal of encouragement for capital intensive production techniques in public investment We see this in the development banks where much of the investment takes place in indusshytries with lines of pi oduction that offer very few jobs Perhaps the lending process itself with its emshyphasis on the project approach encourages this capshyital intensive bias
There is a strong urban bias in providing social services which encourages the out-migration from rural areas and which places great difficulties in the way of attracting and retaining qualified civil servshyants and leaders in rural areas There is a bias in the provision of social services jobs schools and other conditions that encourage not only job-wise but living level-wise the selective out-migration of competent rural people and prevents the return-mishygration of competent government officials teachers and others needed for the development of the rural areas
With respect to Latin America there is a lack of agrarian reform which is a fundamental defect in job creation in rural areas (This is not so true of Africa which has a more tribal and peasant-orishyented rural sector) There is very little recognition of the segmented nature of agriculture in developshy
ment planning They treat agriculture as a monoshylithic sector I can distinguish at least three differshyent sectors within agriculture such as the plantation sector which is export-oriented and for which deshyvelopment and employment policies will have to parallel the industrial planning techniques There is the semi-modern sector which is producing comshymodities for the market and has to some extent also a self-sufficient subsector And there is finally a really self-sufficient sector of a vast number of peasshyants who market very little and whose livelihood is within the traditional villages I think the developshyment policies and of course employment generashytion programs will have to be quite different for each of these sectors
Finally there is a strong emphasis on labor-reshyplacing types of technology particularly mechanizashytion that is imported intact from the developed countries wlere it serves a very good purpose A great deal of the pricing taxing subsidy policies as well as the activities of machinery companies are detrimental to a kind of development that would emphasize a slower transition from primitive agrishyculture to a very mechanized type of agriculture
Now to turn to policy recommendations let me briefly list certain suggestions for using simple iabor intensive labor absorbing techniques in deshyvelopment planning One of these is the recognishytion that in research and development on which we spend a great (eal of money and which developshying countries are just beginning to recognize as an investment item increasing stress should be placed on what many people are beginning to call intershymediate technology There is a great deal of reshysearch needed on micro-level agricultural developshyment ratier- than ihicro-level development and work of field economists anthropologists socioloshygists manpower planners is very much needed
There should be inter-disciplinary approaches to these micro-planning techniques and here I would like to enter a plea for not only technological planshyning but integrated social scince planning and research in the field of employment generating techshyniques I would emphasize very strongly developshyment of rural cooperatives and cooperative-like institutions in the rural areas that have the capashybility of mobilizing local people and to achieving economies of scale in development that normally individual type programs do not achieve These inshystitutions would be particularly valuable in such fields as credit marketing some types of producshytion and in machine services Also stronger emphashy
20
sis has to be placed on rural unions and syndicates particularly in Latin America This -is a very touchy problem because it is linked with the politishycal power structure
I also would like to point out the importance of decentralized agro-industrial planning I do not think we have touched upon the potentials of bringing jobs to rural people not only in agriculshyture but in agriculturally-related enterprises loshycated in or near urban areas This is something into which very little talent imagination and efshyfort and money has gone You will find that most of the industries are located in the large urban censhyters Very little is done to process agricultural prodshyucts or to create industrially-related enterprises
around primary production centers such as forests
pasture lands and crops which can be industrialshyized In this connection also I think there is a
great deal of learning to be done in stimulating
part-time and full-time industrial and semi-inshyclustrial employment opportunities in conjunction
with rural development programs A final point which needs to be strongly emphashy
sized I believe that it is not necessary to separate
or set up hardline criteria to distinguish between wealth-creating jobs and welfare (or income-subshy
sidy) jobs Acceptance of this dichotomy results in directing investment towards the activities with relatively high output potential Those of us who have been running agricultural credit programs find that among the small farmers we have the best credit risks We have farmers who have incredibly small businesses and repay their loans regularly while the larger landowners are always in arrears
Recent studies have repeatedly pointed out the big advantages of small irrigation works rather than big dams Studies have pointed out that entershyprise based on small peasant units is also highly productive because they utilize the peasants labor They are able to create wealth from work and to stimulate people to develop
I think that we have to take another look and a great deal of effort should go into the discovery of this middle ground where development projects particularly rural development or rurally-oriented deveopment projects can be both productive and socially satisfactory and at the same time soak up during the next few decades the surplus employshyment that is threatening not only the rate of growth but the basic political stability of many countries
21
UNITED STATES EXPERIENCE WITH UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDEREMPLOYMENT
by William Batt
We have no greater capital investment in any country in the world than we have in this country but we also have wide disparities in income It is true that we have more of a middle class than most developing countries but we still have dreadful problems of misdirection of funds For example if one looks at the national income data for all secshytions of the United States the District of Columbia appears as one of the wealthiest areas of the counshytry yet right in the middle of this city we have a section with desperate unemployment and tindershyemployment We have areas in the United States with unemployment rates as high as 25 to 30 pershycent
Although unemployment is an important ecoshynomic indicator it is not a particularly meaningful measure of economic conditions in rural areas beshycause of the problem of underemployment The data on unemployment developed in the 1950s by the Department of Labor focused attention on that 1roblem of depressed areas more effectively than had ever been done before And in recent studies concerned with ghetto unemployment attention was focused on the unemployment in the central cities as was national policy But it appears that we do not have similar extensive studies focused on the rural underemployment problem in the United States
We have this (lesperate rural underemployment in the United States today It exists in Eastern North Carolina and will probably worsen because of the automation in the tobacco industry This deshyvelopment will start immigrition by totally unpreshypared people to the cities of the North Among parts of ouir Indian population the unemployment data also reveal desperate poverty which even makes the Mississippi Delta look prosperous by comparison
When I read advertisements in the international edition of the New lork Times placed by developshy
ing governments such as Come put your factories in Nigeria or Come put your factories in Colomshybia or Uruguay I realize that the depressed areas of the world want the same thing that deshypressed areas in the United States want They want more job opportunities they want more industry so that there will be enough jobs there for which
people could train A study sponsored by the Area Redevelopment
Administration on what Western Europe was doing in the area of development indicates that they are ahead of us I believe that we might get more ideas from Western Europe to help South America than we do from the United States For exshyample Italy is investing 10 percent of its total inshycome in trying to make southern Italy more viable so that everybody in southern Italy does not have to leave the country to make a living I think that some combination of what the Italians are doing is what we also ought to be doing to a greater extent Of course the countries of Africa and the Southern Hemisphere do not have that tremendous inshydlustrial potential of northern Italy but the princishypIe is not invalid The principle is to help make these regions that are now depressed become ecoshynomically viable
The coal and steel community in Europe is doing a beautiful job for a very limited group It seems to me that the coal and steel community is doing ver-y well what we are doing not well at all in North Carolina Southern Italy is also doing things rather better than we are
The Secretary of Defense has announced an exshyceptionally large number of jobs are going to be cut in defense It seems to me that we must be able to figure out some better way than laying off people in aircraft companies in different parts of the counshytry When I was connected with economic developshyment work in Detroit many layoffs occurred every third year When I was running the Labor and Inshy
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dustry Department in Pennyslvania one of the reshycessions in the 1950s cost us $400 million in unemshyployment insurance Thus the costs of doing nothing are pretty phenomenal
We are trying to do something to reduce these fantastic barriers to employment that keep people in an expanding economy from sharing the benefits of that economy We have classic cases in the public sector of jobs going begging by the hundreds because of absurd and irrelevant prereqshyuisites to employment To be a dog catcher in one city and they need a number of such workers you have to have a high school diploma and two years experience handling animals
I strongly agree with the following statement that if development does not produce more jobs and a fuller role in society for the working man (and I hope by the working man is meant someshybody besides the dues-paying member of unions) it can disrupt the world we know instead of buildshying a new one Improvements in GNP and exports investments have little meaning for the hundreds of millions who continue to live in conditions of barest subsistence squalor disease and despair Inshydeed in such circumstances the term developshyment would seem to be a serious misnomer if not a cruel delusion You may be leading people up the garden path and creating more problems than you are solving
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ROLE OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BUSINESSMEN IN JOB CREATION
by William Haas
The National Alliance of Businessmen (NAB) was created in the manpower message of President Johnson to Congress on January 23 1968 He asked the private sector of the economy to take on the reshysponsibility of meeti major national challengeshyfinding jobs and providing job training for the hard core unemployed and under-employed
In response to this request the NAB was orgashynized by concerned leaders of the business comshymunity When President Nixon took office one of his first acts was to pledge his administrations comshy
plete and unqualified support to the NAB In fact the role of the business community and that of the NAB has been made even more important than beshyfore by President Nixons proposal for extensive changes in the national welfare and manpower training programs
The Presidents proposed plan is aimed directly at getting people off the welfare roles and onto payshyrolis and this puts the responsibility squarely on businessmen They must prove that the private secshytor of the economy with the appropriate governshyment assistance to cover the extra costs of hiring and training unskilled disadvantaged workers can provide the job opportunities that will make the Presidents program work
Orgainiationally the National Alliance of Busishy
nessmen is tinique It is an independent nonprofit corporation The Executive Board is composed of topflight businessmen from each geographic region of the nation Tiis lBoard established overall polshyicy The Executive Vice Chainn is responsible for the operations of NAB similar to that of a presshyident of a corporation and the Chief Executive Ofshyficers are from the ten regional offices across the nashytion
We are now expanding from 131 metropolitan offices to 200 metropolitan offices since we are now going nationwide and these offices are staffed by volunteers from industry and officials on loan from
government with approximately three people at each regional level and five at the metropolitan level In addition literally thousands of volunteers from business assist in carrying out the mission for which NAB was formed
The question may be asked Why should busishyness take on this challenge of finding jobs and job training for the unemployed and upgrading opporshytunities for under-employed people The most imshy
portant reason is that basically six out of every seven jobs in our country are in the private sector of the economy The businessmen are the ones who have the jobs
Businessmen are also the ones who know best what a worker should learn in order to do a job
properly If we can place the unemployed and unshyderemployed in meaningful jobs teach them how to (10 these jobs znd keep them employed we will have made a major inroad on poverty in our nashytion We will be giving new hope for productive lives to many people We will be helping our young people including many Vietnam veterans reshyturning to civilian life to build satisfying lives in their own home community
Bringing the unemployed into the mainstream of outr economy is not humanitarianism It pays off in dollars and cents for the company who gains a worker It pays off for the government by both savshying on welfare costs and gaining a taxpayer
The propran of the NAB is called JOBS which stand for Job Opportunities in the Business Sector As the title indicates this program is dishyrected towards the hiring training and retraining and upgrading meni and women for jobs in the prishyvate sector of the economy Out- initial goal was to
place 100000 hard core unemployed in meaningful jobs by July I of 1969 and that was more than met The new nationwide target for July 1 1971 is to
place 611000 hard core unemployed in productive jobs Against this objective approximately 25000
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employers have already hired sonic 432800 persons Of this total hired approximately 305700 were hired by 21000 companies participating in the non-contract portion of the JOBS program and 127100 were hired by approximately 4000 compashynies participating under a NAB JOBS contract Of the 432800 persons hired about 228400 have reshymained on the job
We have also obtained the characteristics of the employee trainees from the simple hiring card emshyployers participating in the JOBS program are asked to submit This information shows that 73 percent of the trainees are male 27 percent are female About 75 percent of the workers aie beshytween 19 and 44 years of age 21 percent are under 19 and 4 percent over 45 or an average age of 247 years Also about 70 percent of the trainees are Negro 21 percent are white 6 percent Mexican-American 2 percent Puerto Rican and I percent of other origin The average family size of employee trainees is 36 persons Their education attainment averages about 10 12 grades of school They were unemployed an average of 212 weeks in the last year Their annual family income was approxishymately $2505
Hiring training retraining and upgrading the disadvantaged is not an easy task nor do we preshytend that it is When we ask a businessman to join with us in this program we do not want him to unshydertake a task under any illusions about the diffishyculties of the task
This is not any ordinary industry-hiring proshygram To aid us in these efforts the Department of Labor offers specific types of assistance programs These programs are designed to provide practical ways for all employers large and small to train inshyexperienced new employees without losing money on the cost involved in bringing these workers up to an average level of productivity
In response to the current economic slowdown NAB is giving increased emphasis to the upgrading portion of the JOBS program Employers particishypating under the contract part of the NABs job entry and upgrading program are compensated by the government for extraordinary training expenshyses to provide such support services as orientation basic job-related education special counselling and on-the-job training skills
If the employer believes that he does not have the in-house capability to provide these support services he can subcontract this phase to professhysional companies However the on-the-job skill training cannot be subcontracted This must be provided by the employers
Other areas that may be compensated include extra administrative and overhead costs supervishysory andl human relations training medical and dental services child care assistance and transporshytation assistance
The NAB JOB efforts in my opinion is one of the best manpower programs It offers real advanshytages to employers and job applicants
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PRIVATE INVESTMENT AND JOB CREATING POSSIBILITIES
by Harriet S Crowley
I interpret private investment to mean any kind of private investment which has a payoff whether it is for profit or social reasons This rather broad definition of private investment is necessary for two reasons when related to job creating possibilishyties First since private profit investment area per se is a fairly limited one in the less developed counshytries its job creating effects will also be limited Secondly I believe that at present the private techshynical assistance program will be a more important source for job opportunities
I would like to diaw a backdrop with respect to investment n developing countries against which manpower planning and employment as well as the many other fields of development have to be considered A landimark which has gone pretty much unnoticed is that for the first time in the history of the international development effort the flow of private and public resources is about equal For the I year coniesUnited States about $2 billion a from the government and SI 12 billion is from private investment in profit-making enterprises Much of tlie latter is still in the extractive fields but increasingly more is in the manufacturing and service fields and in private technical assistance Proshygrams We now therefore do have a different set of flows of resouices than in earlier years
Anot her important backgrotnd factor is the fact that we are in a period of change in the United States ill altitludes toward the AID program The Peterson Report is an excellent example of this change Pat of the recommendations of that report is already in being tle creation in last years legshyislation of a new instrument for private investment to manage and conduct lie incentive programs and to get ioie private investment into the less develshyoped comiti ies This is now known as the Overseas Piivate I nvestment Corporation (OPIC) which will runt tle progranis of guarantees (extended risk guarantees) as well as surveys and related activishyties The formet programs are in operation and are
writing half a billion dollars worth of insurance a year roughly one-third of the total flow of private investment capital
The two other recommendations of the Peterson Report which probably affect most of the programs that we are interested in are the creation of a bank and the creation of the technical institute What is clearly implied by these changes is that there will be a reduced official presence overseas and that the US policy of development is going to be more reshy
sponsive and less aggressive and carried out to at least sonic extent within the framework of the multilateral analytical base and guidelines
Congress is not expected to act on any new proshy
posal uintil next year sometime The specific legislashytion is scheduled to be before Congress shortly after tihe first of the year There will clearly be a transishytion period between the enactment of that legislashytion and any new structures of organization There may be a period of almost two years in which peoshyple are not going to know whether they can comshymit funds for long range programs Durng this peshyriod it seems to metle private field should become More important partly because it is time for it to play a greater role and because there is going to be this vacuum In the manpower field it seems to me that all opportunity is being created for us to test sone of the programs which we have been supportshying at least partially if not completely For examshy
ple in tie case of cooperatives it should be possible to test their usefulness now in moving into this vacuum Can they with their modest amount of public funds attract private resources in addition to those they are beginning to put into their projshyects from others such as labor
Now to turn to the activities of private business One can find estimates of job creation of private investment ranging from $300 per manyear of emshy
ployment u) to about $7500 according to the Nashytional Industrial Conference Boards exercise in this field Clearly the record of employment vis-ashy
27
vis direct private investment is not very great Figshyures available for Latin America only show that in 1957 private investment of US private subsidishyaries were supposed to have created 830000 jobsshywhile in 1966 roughly ten years later the number of such jobs rose to 1230000 It had not even doulshybled in ten years
I think we do not know enough about the intanshygible results of direct private investment We have attempted on several occasions to get from corporashytions their social overhead spending in less develshyoped countries by their affiliates Estimates of 2 to 7 percent of their annual direct investment have been arrived at )) a variety of means including a Senate Subconunittee and special research projects This could really represent a tremendous amount of jobs in the aggregate
Aside from the training which individual corposhyrations carry on all the time there is a good deal of other social overhead investment in housing in edshytication healthi community development and conshytributions to things like the National Development Foundation Peace Corps projects and Voluntary Agency projects But we (o not know enough about these activities and about the results of cooperashytive efforts and credit unions in terms of job creashyion
There has been a movement in the last year or so in what for want of a better term I call the mini-investment field This is the very small capshyital investmient kind of a project with usually a very quick turiover They are springing out genershyally from non1-profit programs overseas which have reached a plateau in their normal technical assistshyance activities They ale recognizing that they can go no further witlouit somel productive capacity input into their programs whatever they may be There have appeae(l on the scene tlini gs like Tech noserve-a nonrlofit institution supported by the chirrclies Tlhey do feasibility studies to find small lprojects anI then they raise the needed capishytal They have had prezty good luck at such activities so far There ate also emerging small inshyvestment corporations stpported by Protestant reshy
ligiotis grams The Mennonites for several years have had such an investment corporation and have maintained porifolios between $300000 and s100000 overseas all the time This group puts it
in one project and takes it out perhaps in a couple of years sometimes even less and then puts it in another one They are able to (1o this bccause of their own people overseas who see these opportunishyties and who generally either have the skills needed for the project or know where to get a volunteer with the needed skills to give the technical assistshyance that may be necessary
Joint ventures are another set of activities that are just starting The Pan-American Development Foundation has been doing this in the small loan business for a while and I think it has quite a good record
Another one is Kodel which was started up by the Catholics but now has broadened to membershyship of a good sized number of other religious and non-religious groups This is a trend toward conshysortia action on the part of the private agencies all of whom jealously like their independence and their own identity That has been a very hard block for them to overcome but they are overcomshying it and they are putting together their varied resources to direct them into major projects I think this is very encouraging because all of these
projects are at the grass roots small in nature pershyhaps but if there are enough of these they begin to expand and spread
Some 80 of these registered voluntary agencies are operating programs of around $600 million three-quarters of which is their own and the rest is from government support
In conclusion I should like to make two brief comments regarding our activities in the private sector First we are very happy to go out and use
private organizations for contract purposes often as substitute for direct hire-a better substitute in many cases This is something we should be able to do These are national resources and we have some responsibility it seems to me in this field However we often do not do a very good job of guidance for th~m Secondly I also believe that private organizashytions are going to have to demonstrate a much greater management capability on their own and a better ability to negotiate with those governments to implement their own programs without support services il) to now generally being offered by our missions and embassies
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POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES
by Samuel H Burt
Among the major distinguishing features of the American public education system is the fact that its schools have always been considered as belongshying to the public as being in the service of the public and to be served by the public on a volunshyteer basis as a matter of civic and communityr reshysponsibility The desire to be involved in puiblic education stems in part from the special status prestige and power accorded to educated persons as well as to persons connected with education in any way In many communities the chairman of a local board of education has more prestige than the elected mayor
The current furor unrest and criticism of our public schools is proof that the American publicshyor rather the many publics which comprise Amershyica-still demand a high degree of responsiveness to their need from public education administrators and professional staff In the finest tradition of our democratic society these various publics have eishyther voluntarily organized citizens school commitshytees or been organized by school administrators to serve on Volunteer advisory committees in order to help improve one or more aspects of public educashytion
The major rationale for such service is that our public schools are seen as societys major vehicle for tralsimitting to youth those precepts concepts and traditions on whi h our society has flourished in the past and must depend upon for continuing growth and success in the future
There is also a growing recognition that the problems of public education are basic central to and inextricably intertwined with other major problems of modern society-housing urbanization crime inlustrialiation civil rights jobs for mishynorities narrow professionalization and all the other factors which make or break the American Dream for each individual in our nation
Among all the publics comprising our national
life none has been more aware of the critical role and potential of public education than businessshymen manufacturers labor leaders and employers in agriculture and the professions-hereinafter reshyferred to in the aggregate as industry Motivated by the need for a continuing flow of well-educated and well-trained youth industry has voluntarily asshysisted schools to enrich expand and improve those
programs in the public schools directly related to industrys manpower needs-vocational and technishycal education For over 50 years industry has been involved in a variety of activities and services deshysigned to gear vocational education to industrial
operations But it is upon the same 20000 formally orgashy
nized industry-education cooperating and advisory committees composed of some 100000 volunteer industry representatives that sophisticated vocashytional educators depend for sustained and meanshyingful involvement in the schools It is this orgashynized involvement which is credited with making vocational education programs relevant to the needs of students and employers While there are
many authorities in the field of vocational educashytion who would argue this responsiveness there is general agreement that proper and effective utilishyzation of industry-education cooperating and adshyvisori y committees could indeed achieve this goal
So strong and pervasive is this belief that by 1965 every state had either passed a law or issued regulashytions requiring public schools to utilize volunteer advijory committees for all vocational programs in the schools Despite the fact that such laws have been honored more in the breach than in practice the 1968 Amendments to the Vocational Education Act of 1963 mandated the establishment of a Nashytional Advisory Council on Vocational Education
and State Advisory Councils on Vocational Educashytion for each state receiving federal vocational edushy
cation funds These Councils are composed of volshy
29
unteer representatives from the general public inshydustry and education As a consequence vocational education has become the only field of public edishycation which by law must utilize volunteer coMshymittees of interested citizens at the national state and local levels There has been an abiundance of voluntcers to serve on these committecs One reashyson for such service was discussed earlier ie the prestige which accrues to volunteer service in public education A second motivating factor is rooted in the hope that involvement in a vocashytional education program will not only help imshyprove that program hut will abo serve as a direct source of trained manpower supply for those comshypanics working with the school people There are also such motivational factors as the desire of adults to help young people in starting their cashyreers to receive 1 ublic recognition (personally and for the company) as a concerned citizen to be acshyknowledged as an expert and leader in ones field and to be considered altruistic and even philanshythropic by ones friends business associates and family circle through volunteer involvement in edshyucation
It is because people (o respond to organized appeals to these motivational factors that it has been possible for vocational educators to deshyvelop in the US a national system of cooperating and advisory commitcees and councils to forge an industry-education partnership in cooperation with government-for the purpose of developing manshypower skills creating jobs and the matching of workers with jobs
This system is as yet but dillily perceived and litshytle understood Our remaining discussion will cenlshyter around the roles responsibili ties and relationshy
ships of the various levels of these committees and councils as they are currently being utilized for achieving popular participation in public vocashytional education
1 The National Advisory Council on Vocashytional Education
The 1968 Amendments to the Vocational Educashytion Act of 19(33 established a National Advisory Council on Vocational Education composed of 21 leading national representatives from industry edshy
For a disrcusion of legisiation affecting vocational eiicashytion advisory conunitlies e Sanmnel Mf Burt 7ndustry and floratIionalTehil Iuration York McGraw-HillI lltit (New Book Co 1967) ant Smnnutl N1 Burl The Sate Advifory Councils on Iawational Eduration (Kalamizoo The W E Upjohin Institute for Employment Research 1968)
ucation and the general public Members are apshypointed by the President of the US Functions of the Council are broadly stated in the Act as to
(a) Advise the US Commissioner of Educashytion concerning the administration of preparashytion of general regulations for and operation of vocational education programs receiving federal funds
(b) Review the administration operation and effectiveness of vocational education proshygrams make recommendations thereto and publish reports of its findings and recommenshydations to the Secretary of the Department of Health Education and Welfare for transmittal to Congress
(c) Conduct independent evaluations of voshycational education programs and publish and distribute reports of such evaluations
(d) Review possible duplications of vocashytional education programs and publish and distribute reports and recommendations to the Secretary of HEW
The Act also provides funds for staff to be emshyployed by the National Council in conducting its activities and carrying out its t esponsibilities
While the National Council has no operational nor administrative responsibilities for the conduct of vocational education programs its independent status and legislative authority for review and evalshyuation does give it strong investigatory powers Furthermore since its findings and recommendashytions are required to be published and distributed the ouncil can be expected to have considerable impact on Congressional deliberations concerning all facets of vocational education at the national level
Although tlie relationship established by the Act between the National Council and tle State Advisshyory Councils on Vocational Education is one of reshyceiving reports from the State Councils as deshyscribed below the National Coumicil carly opted to work closely with tle State Councils As a matter of fact at the requcest of the State Councils the Nashylional Council is providing a considerabie degree of leadership to the State Councils It appears that much of the voik of the National Council will be based on reports submitted by the State Councils The National Council ii also serving as a clearing hdouse of imiforIuationl and conununiilications for tie various State Councils includinug conduct of speshycial studies for use by the Staic Councils in the deshyvelopment of their activities
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2 The State Advisory Councils on Vocational 3 Local Advisory Committee on Vocational Ed-Education ucation
In addition to establishing the National Advishysory Council the 1968 Amendments to the Vocashytional Education Act of 1963 also mandated the establishment of a State Advisory Council on Vocashytional Education by every State receiving federal funds for vocational education Members of the State Councils are appointed by the Governor or in those states in which State Boards of Education are elected members of the Advisory Council are appointed by the Board
The functions of the State Councils as specified by the Act are to
1 Evaluate the effectiveness of the vocational education programs services and activities throughout the state
2 Assist the State Board through consultation initiated by the Board in preparing the State Plans for Vocational Education
3 Advise the State Board on the development of
policy matters arising in the administration of vocational education programs
4 Prepare anid submit through the State Board to the US Commissioner of Education and the National Advisory Council on Vocational Education an annual evaluation report of voshycational cducation programs with recommenshydations for such changes as may be considshyered appropriate and warranted
The Act also provides funds for staff to be emshy
ployed by the State Councils While tile State Councils have no administrative
or operating responsibilities they are independent of albeit advisory to the State Boards of Educashytion amid to the State Departments of Education Ilici published reports an( recommendations can I)e expected to not only have an impact on vocashytional education decisions of state governors and state legislators State Boards and Departments of Education but also on the US Office of Education and the National Advisory Council on Vocational Education It is still too soon to determine how successful the State Councils will be in functioning independently of and at the same time interdeshy
pendently with the established bureatucracy of the State Departments of Education and other state agencies dealing with vocational education trainshying and manpower development
Within the states the use of advisory committees of industry people by vocational educators is manshydated in every state either by state law or by rules an(d regulations issued by State Departments of Edshyucation Except for a few states advisory commitshytees are required only for occupational education
programs conducted in a school receiving federal funds Requirements are usually met by the school listing the names of the advisory committee memshybers when requesting funds from the State Departshyment of Education Rarely is provision made by the state for special staff to service the committees or to promote industry-education cooperation Guidelines provided by the State Departments of Education stress the advisory nature of the commitshytees and warn the educators not to allow the comshymittees to become involved in administrative or operational matters Despite the lack of positive and constructive leadership on the part of most State Departments of Education in the field of efshyfective utilization of industry committees at the local levels sophisticated vocational educators and industry groups have developed various types of non-legally required advisory committees as effecshytive instrumentalities and strategies for involving industry and vocational education It is these nonshymandated committees which when added to the leshygally required committees provide the characterisshytics and format of the nationally organized system discussed in the paper
(a) The School System General Advisory Comshymittee
A number of large school systems throughout the country have appointed General Advisory Comshymittees on Vocational Education to serve in an advisory capacity to the Director of Vocational Edshyucation the superintendent of schools and occashysionally to the Board of Education This type of committee is used in helping plan long-range school system policy and objectives for vocational educashytion and to help determine relative emphasis and
priorities that should be given to various elements of the program at any particular time Once policy and priorities have been agreed upon the commitshytee may engage in activities to obtain public supshyport and any needed legislation and funds These activities of course go beyond the advisory stashytus which marks the planning and policy determishynation assistance functions for which the commitshytee was established
31
Membership in these committees is usually drawn from the ranks of top level management in the community and includes leaders of community and industry groups economic development agenshycies and government agencies concerned with manshypower development Appointment is usually made by the school superintendent sometimes by the chairman of the school board The Director of Voshycational Education usually serves as secretary to the committee
(b) The School General Advisory Committee Many large area vocational schools technical inshy
stitutes and community colleges have established general advisory committees on vocational educashytion to assist in formulating general plans and polshyicies for the school These committees have proven invaluable in helping determine what programs should be offered by the schools priorities to be asshysigned in initiating and expanding programs and in obtaining industry-wide and public support for the school Membership is usually composed of pershysonnel directors plant superintendents vice-presishydents of large companies owners of medium size businesses trade association and labor organizashytions minority groups representatives and represhysentatives of economic development agencies and government agencies concerned with manpower deshyvelopment The assistant president dean of inshystruction or assistant director of the school usually serves as secretary to the general advisory commitshytee Since the committee is established to serve a
particular institution it is rare unfortunately for the committee to become involved in or knowlshyedgeable about what other similar institutions are doing or what other vocational education and training programs are being offered in the geoshygraphic area generally served by the school
(c) Departmental Advisory Committees
If a vocational school is offering several related industry courses eg bricklaying carpentry and construction electricity these courses may be orgashynized into a Construction Technology Department supervised by a department head and perhaps served by a departmental advisory committee
Membership of a departmental advisory commitshytee usually consists solely of representatives of the industry for which the courses are being offered The major responsibility of the departmental adshyvisory committee is to make certain that the school provides for and properly supports the educational and training program needed by the industry The
departmental advisory committee not only serves in an advisory capacity to the department head but also supports him in any requests to his supervisors for program improvement and expansion The committee may also meet with the several occupashytional cooperating committees serving the instrucshytors within the department
(d) Occupational Cooperating Committees Practically all discussions literature laws and
regulations dealing with vocational education adshyvisory committees are concerned with the concept and practices of the occupational committee insistshying that such committees are advisory only Despite such statements these committees function in fact as instrumentalities for achieving cooperation beshytween education and industry rather than as a deshyvice for educators to obtain advice from industry This dichotomy between theory and practice is the source of considerable confusion among both vocashytional educators ahd industry people Nevertheless these occupational cooperating committees have been and are responsible for the bulk of industry people voluntarily involved in vocational educashytion and for annually contributing millions of dolshylars and even more millions of hours in the service of vocational education
School officials look to membership on these comshymittees from frontline supervisory staff owners of small companies and representatives from unions and trade associations connected with a particular occupation Members of the committees are usually those individuals in a company who are directly reshysponsible for hiring and training new employees
Over 30 specific cooperative service activities have been identified as being offered by occupashytional committees They can be classified under the headings
1 Engaging in student recruitment selection and placement activities
2 Improvement of instructional program offershyings through evaluation and enrichment
3 Providing assistance to teachers for personal and professional growth
4 Providing prizes financial aid scholarships and other forms of honors to outstanding stushydents
5 Engaging in industry and public relations support of the school program
The occupational cooperating committees are the foundation and strength of the national advishy
32
sory committee system described in this discussion They provide the opportunity for industry people and vocational educators to engage in cooperative action and involvement at the local community levshyel-where the real action takes place-in the schools
Summary
In a society in which a persons work is a prishymary determinant of his personal and social status there is ar obvious relationship between the world of school and the world of work This relationship calls for a high degree of compatability and coopershyation between industry and school people to make vocational education relevant to the manpower needs of the economy and to make industry responshysive to the mission and needs of vocational educashytion
In pursuit of these mutually beneficial goals inshydustry and education in the US have developed over a period of some 50 years the concept and practice of a national system of formally organized advisory and cooperating committees at the nashytional state community school and individual
program levels At each level we find different groups of leading citizens involved because of difshyfering demands from and services to be provided For example a general advisory committee to a local school system calls for representation from community minority groups but an advisory-coopshyerating committee for an occupational program in a school requires representation from front-line sushypervisors directly engaged in hiring and training new employees While this national system is far from being fully recognized and fully utilized a framework-established by law-does exist and the potential is perceived by mur nations leaders in both industry and education
Laws written by professional administrators and lawyers concerning utilization of volunteer citishyzens can and do leave yt to be desired Despite the fact that many professional educators are disshytrustful of volunteer citizen participation in such a complex field as public education so many benefits have accrued to youth adults schools industry local communities and our nation as a result of inshydustry-education cooperative partnerships as to warrant efforts to increase such cooperation manyshyfold
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TAIWAN AND KOREAN EFFORTS IN MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT THROUGH SCHOOL AND INDUSTRY COOPERATION
by James D Murray
Although the skilled labor force of a country is developed in a number of ways the public and prishyvate vocational schools play a very important role The primary purpose of this part of the educashytional program is to prepare the student for useful employment Vocational education means more than training for specific job skills It develops abilities understandings attitudes work habits and appreciations which contribute to a satisfying and productive life This breadth of training makes it possible for the graduates of the vocashytional schools to adjust to rapid technological changes in their fields and advance quickly on the job In due time those graduates with leadership abilities can achieve supervisory positions Vocashytional education also has the responsibility of proshyviding supplementary training in occupational skills and related technical knowledge to make emshyployed adults more productive This is usually accomplished through an evening program
This paper discusses my experiences (using Taishywan as an example) in developing school and inshydustry cooperation through advisory committees in designing realistic vocational educational programs geared to the manpower needs of a developing conitry The paper also comments on the use of skill contests and participation in the Skill Olymshy
pics (with particular reference to Korea) to gain acceptance for vocational education and to build status for the skilled workers
The Taiwan Program
In the Taiwan program I worked with the Vocashytional Teacher Training Institution eight technishycal high schools and the Institute of Technology which is a post-high school in most respects With regard to the Institute of Technology my assignshyment to reorganize this old established institution to properly equip it and train the faculty provides a good example of the nature of problems involved
in developing a meaningful and iiseful advisory committee
The first step in this undertaking was to have the
president of the school and the faculty obtain an understanding of what an advisory committee should do and how it should operate I was fortushynate in being able to obtain the full cooperation of the president of the school It was therefore possible for me to put before the president of the Institute material from the many US pamphlets on how to organize a school industry advisory committee which I adapted as best I could to (he local situashytion He in turn gave it to his department heads they read it we discussed it and I thought I would run -t little check and do a little role playing with the president of the Institute calling the meeting going through all the procedures including writing of invitations to prospective members of the comshymittee
We got off to a reasonably good start but then additional progress became difficult We could see that the true understanding of what an advisory committee should do and how it should operate was not getting through Fortunately (not by inshytention) I made the comment during a meeting that in this assembled group was perhaps the most knowledgeable group on how a school industry adshyvisory committee should be organized and opershyated This group is perhaps the most knowledgeashyble in Taiwan Therefore would it not be to our advantage (and to the advantage of the country) to make this available to others who perhaps are not so well acquainted with this advisory commitshytee concept by translating the information I had developed into Chinese The group agreed to this
proposal We went through the whole procedure line by line It took a lot of time but when we got through the group understood the need for and
purposes of an advisory committee It was now possible to proceed with the organizashy
35
tion of the General Advisory Committee for the institution We brought in the public sector prishyvate sector large medium and small industries also some things that we would not include in the US such as the Ministry of Education Provincial Deshypartment of Education and the military It was successful we were able to assemble a very fine committee The committee brought forth to the institute things which I could very well have said but it was much more meaningful coming from their own people than from an outsider
The process of actually organizing the committee was a bit slow I worked with the president with the departmnt heads and we madle calls on indusshytry gave them a little pamphlet explained how the committee should operate
At the first meeting the members were informed about the purpose of the reorganized institution the type of equipment it would have the type of
buildins planned for the future and that they were going to be involved in the planning of this reorganization
Subsequent to this niceting we proceeded to the organization of the craft committees again bringing n the military and some of our AID
people in various specialties The committees were organized and committee members sat in on the planning of the courses of study The school would prepare the plai and send it out to the adshyvisory committee beforehand The committee havshying been exposed to the plain would then offer comshyments and criticism it worked beautifully Since this i rocedureiworketi so well for the Institute we
thought we would niow see what could be done for the eight technical high schools Here we practiced what we talked about in the Institutes industry adshyvisory commititees regarding the organization of the comm it tee If we just send an educator to work with the schools for this purpose we have the picshyture from one side Therefore why not have one person from the industry side as well as a person from the school side And we dlid this
The Taiwan Power Company furnished their director of training and the provincial governshyment brouight ill ole of their school-indlist ry coorshydinators They worked with each of time eight vocashytional schools in reorganizing their school industry advisory committee We chose electricity as the first committee to organize because each of the eight schools had the school industry advisory committee and we happened to get this mai from Taiwan Power Company Also the Taiwan Power Coishy
pany had an office in each of these eight cities with which we were working
A final interesting comment regarding the Taishywan experience-after four meetings attended by the coordinator from the provincial department of education and the training director from the Taishywan Power Company they issued a report which contained useful suggestions which took into acshycount the local situation
A few of the suggestions made to the schools in this report incluied the following Planned visits and in-plant practice should be arranged for the graduating class mathematics related to the ocshycuipation should be taught shop practice of gradshyntitig students to be based on Taiwan Power
Company regulations a safety boo issued by the Quason Training Center schools foi reference
The Korean Program
In Korea basically similar procedures were used in developing industry advisory committees As in Taiwan procedires were developed and accepted regarding establishment of national provincial and school advisory conumittees These are conshytained in the by-laws promulgated in June 1963 of the Industrial Education Advisory Committee Adshyvisory comnittees are operating in Korea they are operating even thoughlithey are not as sophisticated as the ones in the United States Effective advisory committees were also established for the agriculshytural program
It Korea as in many other countries the advishysory committees lead to other participation proshygrais One exaimple is the school industry cooperashyive program where the student spends part time in
school and part time iworking in industry The proshygrais are operating quite siccessfully
Other programins which I believe particularly imshyportant as a means of fostering popular participashytion are tihe National Skill Contests and the Skill Olympics which art described in the section that follows
National Skill Conitests and the Skill Olympics
The National Skill Contest In 1963 USAID asshysisted the Ministry of Education and the Korean Technical Edunication Association in tie organizashytion and operation of the First National Technical High School Skill Contest The objectives of this activity were to encourage the students and teachshyers to strive for better workmanship to gain public
acceptance of vocational education and to improve
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the image of the skilled worker in society The conshytest is similar to an athletic tournament but in this activity the students from participating high schools compete with each other for honors in the various trades Suitable contest problems and projshyects are prepared by a committee representing inshydustry and education and the contest is conducted under very strict supervision The completed conshytest projects are evaluated in terms of precision finish working speed logical procedure economishycal use of materials and proper use of tools Ilie winners are given appropriate awards and pibshylicly honored Since the program was started in 1963 five contests have been held and each year he test problems have become inucreasingly difficult and the judges more severe in their evaluation
The National Technical High School Skill Conshytests were quite successful and generated considerashyble interest within education circles as well as in the public and private industrial sectors However a group of imaginative and aggressive Koreans were not satisfied and begaii to explore ways to expand and improve this program Ini 1966 they heard about the International Vocational Training competition which is connionly referred to as the Skill Olympics andldecided to seek admittance into this internaiionial event
The Interinational focational Trainig Compeshytition The International Vocational Training Competition originated in Spain shortly after World War II It began as a national skill conshytest similar to the national skill contests that were condicteld in tie Republic of Korea The colipetition in Spain proved to be so successful that the Spainish invited their neighliboing cotutry Portugal to coipete in the Madrid conitest The joint conitests ield in Madrid ini 1950 and 1951 were atteirlded by iany meinlbers of the diplomatic
rls Twy weie imiipressed with the spirit of comshy)Ctitioni atnd the healthy xc lanige of training ideas
which took place at the contest As a coise(ulience they indi crd the training agencies inl their respecshytive couiitries to joili inl the coimpetition In auldi tion to Spain the list of nations now participating is (Iuite imtipiessive Atistiia lelgium Deninark West Germlanity lolland Ireland Italy ILuxeishyburg Portugal Switverland United Kingdom Japan and Koiea The first six international conshytests were held in Spain but since 1958 the contest has been held in various Eiiopeaii countries
The member co(nries may choose their particishy
pants for tie International Vocational Training
Competition in any manner but it is usually done through a national skill contest The International Vocational Training Competition lasts about three weeks During the first week the technical represhysentatives and experts make the necessary preparashytions select test items and prepare the necessary bltieprints At the end of the first week the contesshytants arrive and the competition starts the second week The testing time may be as much as 35 hours Judging is completed in the third and final week after which the winners are awarded medalsshynormally a gold silver aiid bronze medal for each trade
Korea Eners the Skill Olympics The Korea Committee-International Vocational Training Competition (IVTC) was organized in 1966 to preshy
pare for entrance ini the 1967 Skill Olympics Using the experience gained in the organization of the National Technical High School Skill Compeshytition five regional elimination contests were held thn rotighou t Korea with the winners meeting in the Ntional Contest in Seoul The competitors (1300) came from technical high schools aid industry The maxintin age limit set by international regushylations is 19 years (not to have readied 20th birthshyday) Extetlding tile cotipelitiont to include young skill workers from industry has provided crossshyfertilization of training techniques between school and industry anl entrance into international comshy
petition has escalated the standards of evaluation Korea sent niine contestants to the 1967 Skill
OlyIipirs which was held inl Spain July 10 to July 17 Tlieie were 231 coimpetitors front 12 countries com11peting inl 31 different tracles Korea won gold
niedals in tailoring and shoemaking a silver nedal in wood patern making and bronze medals in sheet metal and sign painting Uponl their reshytin to Scoul these winiels were given an enthuishysiast ic welcomie at the airport and later a recognishytion ceremotiy was held inl Citizenis IHTall The Prime Minister was the principal speaker and preshysented each winner with appropriate awards Later Ilie President of Korea personiall) congratulated the group onl their success Inl the past high level govshyernment officials have participated ini the National Teciial High School Skill Competition activishyties but Iris event far exceeded any previous occashy5100is
The success of the Korean contestanits in the
19ti7 Skill Olympics spread throughout tie country motivating more young craftsmen and students to compete for the honor of representing their coutishy
37
try in the international competition The Korean team that competed in the 1968 Skill Olympics in Switzerland was even more successful than its
predecessors Korea-Taiwan Cooperation Inspired by the
Korean and Japanese success in the Skill Olympics the Republic of China decided to improve and exshypand their Vocational Industrial High School Skill Competition Taiwan has held annual skill conshytests for vocational high school students for the
past 15 years and in 1967 they decided to prepare
for entrance into the Skill Olympics An exchange of information and technical assistance was arshyranged with the Korea Committee for Inernashytional Vocational Training Competition As a reshystilt of this cooperative effort Taiwan conducted their First National Vocaiional Training Competishytion in Novenber of 1968 The competition was very siccessful and the Chinese Government is now
considering entering the International Vocational Training Competition in 1970
38
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES WITHIN PRIVATE INDUSTRY
by Clayton J Cottrcll
Two urgent needs have met each other within our society during the last 15 years The first is the need of industry for skilled and semiskilled workers The second is the need for poor people for both jobs and the opportunity for better jobs We cannot freeze _to pernlan2nce the existence of two Americas the one rich and the other poor sepashyrate and unequal Our whole society is responding to these needs
State and federal programs have been expanded an( many new oies started to bring the indi vidtishyals and the jobs together In many US communishyties the problenms of cliage in urban life have been attacked by local government school systems colshyleges church groups neighborhood grou ps and civic organiatiolns Conicern has grown ald still is
growing that the future and even the safety of an urban industrial society depends on solving the problem of getting iiore people gainfully eishyployed
All these goals and problems come together at a single point That point is the absorption by inldu1sshytry of the hard-core ulnemploye( who are for historshyical reasons mostly meibers of mi nority racial groups Federal state and community efforts are necessary to deal with many aspects of the problem But the heart of the matter liesin our factories where maln lnees job and1 relates to it well or badly As one who has spent his adult life in indusshytry I can siuinnarie what indlistry call do and is doing The why the how the what anil the who
Let us look at the situnation through the eyes of a persol who sees hiimself inl relation to his personial problem and as lie thiinks it through
I quit school before I learned a trade lie says I now have a family I have bills to pay kids to clothe and I want to be better off next year than I am right iiow To get eiiough income I will work two jobs and maybe oie or two unskilled jobs or part-time jobs for the wife But even this work will
not bring in enough money to provide for the famshyily There must be another way
There is another way The Labor Department has created many opplortulities through such onshyilie-job traiing programs as National Youth Corps Model Cities and others But what about
private industry The typical American community today has a straige pattern of buildings both busishyness an1d resident ial in the middle of the city surshyrounidied by a ring of mediumn-age residential-inshydnustrial arear which in turn is surrounded by more industrial and residential suburbs The irner city in a Europeian city is kept up through periodic reiiewal programs it remains the heart of the city Whenu it deteriorates soimueth ing is dlone about it We inl America are only beginning to follow that
patternl In a single community we may find an available
1)001 of labor on one side of town while the availashyble jobs are in another part of the area Yet there may he the problem of labor shortage inl this comshy
ni it) because the available workers and jobs though right beside each other were not brought together )oes induistry briniig thei together More aiid lmore industry is doiig just that It has to today if it wants to stay in business Titere is also anohllir imiotve husiniessllel especially manageshyment rightly feel responisible toward the economy aid the lationi They also want to solve their own
probleii of eiarging an(1 improviig the labor force ald they walt to solve tlie liations problem of brinmgiig the hard-core iiieiployed inmto the mailnstreall of our iatiolnal life ManIaigemeut knows it is to its advantage to hell the chronically uineiployed aind that with a lot of help and pashytieice they will help themselves
Vhat happens whenllan automobile manufacturer accepts an obligatioi to hire 750 of the hard-core inemployed and make them into productive em-
Ilayees First these people have to be brought up
39
to an acceptable level of literacy A number of peoshyple who sign up for programs never show up This is disappointing frustrating and even demoralizshying for the people in industry who are trying to make a success of a training program Is it reasonashyble to conclude that these pcople do not want to work The car manufacturer did a follow-up study and some startling things came to light People who cannot read cannot read the destination signs on buses The company now has follow-up men to show the trainees how to catch the right bus and how to transfer cnroite
There was also the problem of tardiness Only one in five had alarm clocks Why They had never before had to be at any particular place at any parshyticular time Once these hard-core people knew how and why to come to work their attendance and tardiness record was 500 percent better than the average of all other employees
There were far fewei hopeless cases than had been expected The nonperformers are now pershyforming and performing well and are devoting hours of their own time to company-conducted sesshysions after work oi things like personal hygiene and efficient maniagement of their money
We went through a similar experience in anshyother company in Rochester New York where we worked with an industry-supporued employment agency Rochester Jobs Incorporated to recruit apshyplican ts from the inner city We found that a high number of hard-core people cannot pass physical examinations Out of 635 applicants during an eight-week period as many as 220 failed physicals
There was a big proportion of rejects and dropshyouts Only about 170 of the original 635 comshy
pleted the training and got permanent jobs A large aiount of tinie and money was spent in inshyterviewing examining and training people who never became employed with the result that the cost per person hired was far greater than in norshymal hiring We nevertheless consider it a worthshywhile program for we were convinced of the need to create new job opportunities for the unemployed of the inner city of Rochester and to assist them to qualify for these jobs Everyone who can and will work deserves the opportunity
In both cases the story is the ame management felt the same obligation to deal with a large social
problem many tribulations were involved in hanshydling the proLlems but management emerged conshyvinced not only of the obligation but also of the conclusion that the in-house development of
human resources was definitely good business It is good business because it produces good workers In similar programs at other companies the broadest conclusion of all was that management learned more than the trainees did more about people more about motivation and training more about minority groups
Management learned other things too First they learned that trainees require an enormous amount of attention to financial family and vocational
problems which interfere with learning Second one way to insure built-in motivation is to hire heads of households They learned that tests are not always good predictors of success The will to sucshyceed is just as necessary on the part of management as it is on the part of the hard-core trainee In each case an economic social and psychological cripple is transformed into a whole man or woman
The transformation of these people is not the only training problem which confronts industry today Members of minority groups are not the only people in our country who require attention and merit concern Every member of the industrial working team has something to learn about his own job that lie ought to learn in his best interests This is recognized by indtustry for there are many seminars and university courses many high-level management study groups especially set up for top and middle management In the factory laboratory the drafting room and in the office training reshymains an ongoing and virtually necessary activity
One teaching technique used by industry known as programmeld slides helps employees to improve their skill right on the job It takes advantage of the fact that four-filhs of all learning is visual It makes each lesson part of a practically subconscious reflex pattern like driving a car and painlessly trains the memory in the way that it should go
Let me state a paradox which like many parashydoxes also happens to he true Industry should alshyways leave the path open for an employee to upshygrade his ability and move up in relation to his growing skill and productivity but industry must not make perpetual upgrading a condition of emshy
ployment There are such things as plateaus levels of acshy
complishment on which a person temporarily or
permanently comes to a rest It is unfair and unshywise to pretend that an employee must visibly be climbing higher if lie is to continue to be useful but it is equally unfair and unwise to close off or fail to provide an upward path for employees who
40
want to follow it Small companies are plagued by the dilemma of forcing the level of performance upshyward at too fast a pace versus letting the level of performance stay flat for too long They cannot afshyford many mistakes in personal selection and trainshying What can they do Part of their question has been answered by the US Departinent of Labor but another part of their answer may come from joining locally sponsored training institutions to do the job for them
Community colleges which are usually oriented toward the needs of local industries are natural places for training to take place Small companies help to insure their own future when they help to support the institutions and when their executives and engineers help to run them Community colshyleges serve a need magnificently to an extent that all too oftn goes unrecognized because its results are not spectacular
Summing up then I return to where I began American industry needs workers and more producshytive workers in greater numbers all the time and this trend will continue Many Americans are there for the seeking ready and able to supply the work when properly trained and motivated Industry has developed the ability to do this job industry is also improving its ability to keep career opportunishyties open for average men as well as the excepshytionally talented Industry is using and continuing to use its in-house capabilities for the development of hunan resources In short industry really is doing a job and after all what else is industry for
DISCUSSANT Julius F Rothman
In the 1960s Americans learned that the key to any stuategy against poverty was a program that ofshyfered jobs at decent wages with an opportunity for advancement For those living in poverty the deshyspair of the ghetto is rooted in unemployment unshyderemployment and in being less than a full parshyticipant in the society It is clear that the way out of poverty for the disadvantaged of our society is through training in skills that will prepare them for the job market
Today there is general agreement that our manshypower policies must be integrally related to our over-all economic planning and policies
The nations manpower policies as they have evolved over the past eight years have moved from a central concern for the needs of the technologishycally displaced worker to a much broader and more basic concern with the unemployed underemshy
ployed and disadvantaged worker In this process they have had substantial impact on programs reshylated to welfare poverty and the urban crisis Planshyning for manpower policies and programs has in a real sense moved to center-stage in economic decishysion-making
It is also generally recognized that a realistic manpower policy can only be developed within the framework of a national economy that is growing rapidly enough to provide job opportunities for all
persons who are able to work and seeking employshyment This in effect means a full employment economy with unemployment rates somewhere beshytween 2 and 2 12 percent With the unemployment rate at 14 percent it is clear that new approaches to the utilization of manpower must be considered
There are several essential elemcnts that must go into a national manpower policy if we are to preshy
pare the disadvantaged unemployed for the work force
(1) There is a need for a coordinated and comshyprehensive manpower policy The absence of such a
policy has led to a proliferation of manpower proshygrams many of them inadequately funded and freshy
quently failing to meet the needs of the workers for whom they were intended
(2) For those who cannot be absorbed into existing jobs and who desire to work either in the
private or public sectors of the economy there must be a large-scale public service employment and training program subsidized by the Federal Government
(3) To effectively implement national manshypower policies and programs the US Employment Service should be federalized Until this is achieved the fifty state employment services need to be strengthened and upgraded
(4) Greater emphasis must b- placed on upshygrading programs that provide workers with the opportunity to achieve greater skills larger inshycomes and dded status
(5) The federal minimum wage should be raised to at least $200 an hour and the Fair Labor Standards Act be extended to cover all workers
While about one million people per year are helped by current manpower programs this is but a fraction of those who require help An expansion of existing programs through the creation of addishytional training opportunities in private industry is clearly indicated but it has been demonstrated that the private sector has not met the job and training needs of all of the disadvantaged
41
The AFL-CIO has long maintained that public service employment provides the best avenue for those who cannot find a place in the private sector of our economy At least three studies have amply documented the sulbtantial number of job openshyings in the public sector that could be filled if sufshyficient funds were made available to the local and state governments Nor are these jobs of the leafshyraking variety Opportunities exist in such areas as anti-pollution enforcement educational institushytions general administration health and hospitals highway and traflic control libraries police fire recreation and sanitation
The Commission on Technology Automation and Economic Progress estimated in 1966 that 53 million new jobs could be created through public service employment An Office of Economic Opporshytunity study by Greenleigh Associates suggested the
possibility of 43 million such jobs And a 1969 study by tihe Upjohn Institute indicated that the mayors of 130 cities with populations over 100000 could use another 280000 persons on their municishy
pal payrolls iminediately If America is to help the working poor and find
jobs for the uneniployed why not use federal funds to improve the quality of essential community services
In a period of rising unemployment increased emphasis should be placed on upgrading the skills of those who are currently employed Upgrading programis would perform a twofold purpose They would provide a ladder for presently employed workers seeking advancement from low-paying enshytry-level jobs and at the same time would provide entry-level openings for the unemployed who could also look to future upward mobility
In the past too much emphasis has been directed towards placing workers in enury-level low-wage jobs which require little or no formal training In too many instances manpower activities have been viewed as a substitute for welfare programs with the result that neither manpower nor welfare needs are adequately met The main thrust of training must be directed toward helping individuals deshyvelop their maximum potential skills for employshyment opportunities that actually exist in the job market This means training for skills beyond the entry-level
There is currently a great deal of talk about reorshyganizing the existing manpower programs and placshying the operating responsibility in the hands of the
states The AFL-CIO is convinced that placing major responsibility for the unemployment probshylems of the poor and the disadvantaged in the hands of the States is a serious mistake The
problems of employment and unemployment are complex and national in scope The individual states have no mechanisms for coping with these
problens The work force is highly mobile Joblessshyness and underemployment require national solushyiLOns not fifty diflerent approaches
Those who advocate this approach would make the key operating mechanism the State Employment Agency The past record of most of these State agenshycies does not suggest they will aggressively press for either job placeient or job development for the
poolr or members of minority groups What is needed to create an effective manpower
training system was stated succinctly by the Nashytional Manpower Policy Task Force in a report reshyleased early this year which said available
manpower services should be provided on the basis of need not impeded by diverse eligibility requireshyments varying administrative practices or competshying agencies The separate programs must be fused into a single comprehensive federal manpower proshygram--providing a variety of services in varying mixes depending upon national conditions and local need preferably funded by a single federal source
Manpower programs are a crucial component of any broad strategy for the elimination of unemployshyment and poverty As long as we have some 45 milshylion unemployed and some 15 million underemshy
ployed-who together with their dependents acshycount for most of the 25 million who live in povershyty-there is an urgent need to move rapidly toward the creation of effective manpower policies and
programs The 1960s was a period of innovation and exshy
perimlentation in the manpower training field Many programs were tried some failed and others met with varying degrees of success The net result was something less than a coordinated and compreshyhensive approach to manpower training We now have the opportunity to streamline existing manshy
power programs into a coinpreliensive program and to add to our manpower policies those elements which past experience has indicated are essential to meet the needs of the disadvantaged
To this end the AFL-CIO proposes that any changes in manpower policy be measured against the following criteria
42
(1) Consolidate existing job training programs into a single flexible program which can be taishylored to the needs of the unemployed and to the labor market in which they live
(2) Create a completely new upgrading program designed to encourage employers to develop upshygrading programs either within a company or within an industry and at the same time to fill job vacancies at the entry-level
(3) Establish a system of public service employshyment with State or local government and private nonprofit agencies operating under federal conshytract which would undertake to absorb those who have not been placed in private employment or training in the performance of community imshy
provemen projects in health education public safety recreation bIeatitification etc
We lelieve that these policies if followed would put the United States on the high road toward elimshyinating the unemployment that exists in our slums and urban ghettos and would bring the disshyadvantaged into the econonic mainstream
The Employment Act of 1916 said All Amerishycans able to work and seeking work have the right to useful reuninerative regular and full-time emshyployment and it is the policy of the United States to assure the existence at all times of sufficient emshyployment opportunities to enable all Americans to freely exercise this right
The rhetoric of the 1940s must become the realshyity of the 1970s
DISCUSSANT Richard L Breault
The National Chamber of Commerce for a numshyber of years has been promoting among its menishybers the importance of creating in their own comshymunities a process for bringing together diverse groups that need to become involved in dealing with community problems These probleis might range from pollution to poverty and even to ecoshynomic developmlenti The latter although at a local level I gather relates to the In-pose of Title IX of the Foreign Aid Act We have developed guideshylines for such community action projects which are being used by some of our members
There are in the United States some rather intershyesting conuiiiuity-wide projects that have brought together a wide variety of )articipants For examshyplc in Rochester Minnesota literally h1undreds of citizens are involved in looking at the goals for the community and determining priorities and alternashytive ways these objectives and priorities may be achieved The Goals for Dallas project is an exshy
ample in a much larger city where a rather difficult yet feasible process has been worked out to get thousands of persons involved in determining what Dallas should be now and in the next ten or fifteen years where it should go and what needs to be done to get where they want to go There are a number of examples of other cities that also are supporting such programs to a greater or lesser exshytent
There also have been some excellent examples of
puillic participation in specific manpower proshygrams in addition to other broad community efshyforts such as in Rochester and Dallas The whole manpower outreach program to poverty areas that many businessmen are now using is an example They will go to local organizations and ghetto groups and literally ask them to go out and help find the people who can benefit from training and
jobs The cooperative efforts in the buddy system are an example of individuals becoming involved In this effort one person assumes the responsibility to be a friend and advisor to a disadvantaged per-Soil
In some cities local Chambers of Commerce have been organizing neighborhood recruitment centers right in the ghetos manned by people from these areas In each of the cities the success of the proshygram depends upon the degree to which the key leadership elements of the community are inshyvolved You literally have to start with one two or three persons to get a system of this kind working I would certainly say that here in the United States the businessman particularly through his orgashynized channel of communication which in most cases is a local or a State Chamber of Commerce is indispensable As one looks around the country at this sort of back to people involvement and parshyticipation one finds that where failures have ocshycurred it has been because some of the key eleshyments-business labor the churches ethnic groups or the political part of the community-were left out
It is often noted that it is difficult to get the
pieces of a community together to do a job We have found this to be true in our work
There is a natural fragmentation among comshymunity groups in this country The labor groups may not talk too often to the businessmen the buisinessmen might miot get along too well with sonic other group and so on There is also the fear that getting together in a cooperative project may result in some loss of independence as an organizashy
43
tion or as an individual Compromises would have to be made which one would just as soon not have to make Difficult as this process may be in the US I imagine that it would probably be even more difficult in developing countries In the US the communication media are intensively develshyoped enabling one to reach out to people In many of the developing countries one would not expect to have these media as well developed
The Chamber of Commerce has prepared an adshydition to a publication we call Where the Action Is This pamphlet is a compilation of brieflyshy
stated examples of projectsthat involve cooperative efforts with business and other groups in the comshymunity usually taking a major role It is divided into a number of categories such as education manpower crime housing and minority business enterprise In each case the name is given of a pershyson who may be contacted to obtain more informashytion about that particular project This material
put together with the guidelines we provide our members gives at least the basic steps that are necesshysary to get people to cooperate in a community These guidelines could also work for others
44
NEW CONCEPTS OF THE EMPLOYMENT SERVICE ROLE TO MEET THE CHALLENGE OF THE 1970s
by Malcolm R Lovell Jr
Recently there has been in the United States a good deal of criticism of the Employment Service Such criticism may have resulted in part from the fact that more has been expected of the Employshyment Service than it could produce The problem has been that we have never set realistic goals for the Employment Service Its broad charter is to serve all people in manpower programs with funds which may appear substantial but are still limited when considered in terms of the cost of a program required to meet the needs of all the people
Some changes are taking place however One is the growing recognition that manpower programs can play a very significant part in overall economic progran and in fighting poverty and discriminashytion Therefore I believe that this nation is preshypared to put more resources into the manpower area than ever before
What are the nature and extent of the resources required to do an effective job Currently some 16 billion dollars have been allocated for training and other assistance to the disadvantaged These proshygrams are serving approximately a million people We estimate that the universe of need according to current poverty criteria is about ten million peoshyple These are the people in serious need of manshypower services if they are to realize their own poshytential in the labor market And they also are the people who are currently at substandard incomes
Of course if you take into consideration non-disshyadvantaged people in need of manpower services the spectrum can broaden out to all of the people in the labor market soae eighty million But asshysuming ten million people are in need our serving one million people is just scratching the surface
Probably the most important breakthrough that is on the horizon is the Family Assistance Plan (FAP) that was proposed by President Nixon last year This plan in my judgment is probably one of the most far reaching pieces of social legislation presented to Congress since the 1930s
The implications of the FAP program are treshymendous The proposed bill would require the Emshyployment Service to serve 29 million people startshying with some 425000 the first year after passage of the bill However those that would be mandatorishyally included in the program are about three milshylion people And then there ate another three milshylion people that have the option of obtaining the manpower services provided in the program Thus the bill contemplates the rendering of manpower services to roughly six million people
This is a sizeable proportion of the estimated universe of need of ten million In addition I would hope that through the proposed Manpower Training Act (NITA) we would be able to help a large part of the remaining individuals who are not eligible under the Family Assistance Plan This group would include for example certain 3ingle people individuals without dependents and youth over a certain age without dependents I beshylieve therefore that we are beginning to see the posshysibility over tle next five years of serving a major segment of our population who are in most drastic need of manpower services
How do you go about organizing a progam of such a magnitude It may properly be compared with the operation of our medical system We need hospitals to deal with medical problems We recogshynize that people can be put in the hospitals with a variety of administrative procedures The Medishycare program allows people to go into the hospitals and it pays the costs Medicaid is similar There is also a large private insurance program which pershymits people to have the hospital cost paid There are of course other patients who must pay their own hospital costs What must be emphasized howshyever is that all of these people are treated in the same hospital regardless of the program financing them
Manpower services are becoming so complex as to require that specific institutions be identified as
45
providing certain basic services similar in nature as the hospitals do In the manpower area there is no institution that is as prepared and qualified to provide these services as the Employment Service The kinds of broad services which I believe should rest with the Employment Service are of the nature which may in general terms be described as covershying the functions connected with the process of matching people to jobs and providing and arrangshying for services which an individual may need in order to become employable This definition of the Employment Services responsibility includes a vashyriety of services The following briefly reviews some of them
Serving the FAP Th2 Employment Service should have responsibility for serving persons who are eligible under the FAP program The eligible individuals as defined by the law will have to preregister at Social Security offices Thus the ES will have a waiting list of persons to work on of roughly 3 million-the number of estimated preshyregistrants
It would seem to me that the system which will have to be set up to provide the required manshy
power services to this group of persons should also be the system used as the hospitals are to serve other individuals who are in need of manpower services This would mean oireach into areas not covered by the FAP as well as to people eligible for assistance but who for some reason have not been willing to come in by themselves
Occupational Choice The Employment Service should also be responsible for assisting individuals in making occupational choices The person himshyself however has to make the final decision on what ie wants to do Once the occupational judgshyment has been made by the individual the Emshyployment Service should make arrangements for the worker to receive appropriate instruction or on-the-job training Upon the completion of trainshying he should be referred to a job We however do not expect the Employment Service to do the trainshying
Job Information It is more important now than ever before that the ES be the resting place for inshyformation on job opportunities as well as containshying data on the individual seeking employment or training A number of the new federal programs will create a substantial number of job opportunishyties within the ES itself as well as among other public employers There will also be a substantial
number of training opportunities available as a reshysuilt of these programs For these programs to funcshytion effectively and efficiently it is essential that there be a central point where these jobs can be tabulated and put on a computer and where the inshydividuals know they can go to be exposed to the kinds of work opportunities and training opporshytunities available
Cooperation with Others We see the possibility of Employment Service contracts for services The
programs under the jurisdiction of ES may be of such a magnitude that without subcontracts the ES may not be able to properly perform its responsibilshyities Such contracts may be to community groups or private nonprofit institutions There are a numshyber of functions that are measurable and controllashyble so that theii performances can be watched and
properly monitored
Organization of the Employment Service
One of the problems of the Employment Service is the fact that in terms of social institutions of today it is a relatively old institution-some thirty years old The leadership of the organization has been in the hands of those who joined the organishyzation during the 1930s and most of them have been white Civil Service rules as well as other obshystacles to change have made it difficult for the Emshy
ployment Service to get the kind of minority represhysentation that we think it should have Currently minority groups account for about 14 percent of the Employment Service staff Although this proshy
portion does not appear to be too bad when viewed in terms of the population mix of the country we think it is bad when you consider the nature of the work involved Now Stite agencies have to submit
plans toward achieving a staff racial mix goal which reflects the population the local employment offices serve Each agency is going to set target goals and develop plans on how to achieve these goals
We have also found that the local offices are orshyganized in much the same way that they were thirty years ago except for a change made eight years ago This change unfortunately tended to reshyduce the responsiveness of the ES to the needs of the disadvantaged since it set up a system of speshycialized offices conceived to serve the employer rather than the candidate for employment
A study is now being conducted in eleven oflices directed towards changing that organizational structure and developing a structure which can more effectively serve the disadvantaged As a
46
model we are using the employability team concept developed and used in the Work Incentive Proshygram (WIN) and which also will be used in the Family Assistance Plan
We have found that the attitudes of the State Agencies which have long been reported as an obshystacle to effectively participating in modern manshypower efforts have been changing One of the things that we think has been influential in this change is a greater interest on the part of mayors and governors in manpower programs A year ago we funded and offered opportunities to every govershynor to have some manpower staff attached to the manpower programs in his State This action has substantially increased interest in the manpower organizations of the StateWe just recently have ofshyfered a similar opportunity to the mayors of 150 citshy
ies As part of the Presidents new federalism conshyceptwe plan through the Manpower Training Act to involve mayors and governors to an even larger degree The involvement of these public officials in the basic judgments of how Employment Service assets will be used will in our opinion have a very useful effect and will vigorously help in speeding up the changes already taking place in the organishyzational structure
We are investing considerable resources in the Employment Service system We will be expecting performance on the part of the State agehciesectW are proceeding on this road with the assumption that we will have some opposition Those that have distrusted the Employment Service in the past need to be shown by actual achievement of the goals that have been set We hope to achieve them
47
CREATION OF A CONSOLIDATED MANPOWER DELIVERY SYSTEM DECENTRALIZED TO THE STATES AND METROPOLITAN AREAS-
A WAY OF ACHIEVING INCREASED PARTICIPATION RESPONSIVE TO LOCAL NEEDS
by Cyril D Tyson
This paper presents a model manpower delivery system developed for New York City which is releshyvant to the problems of the major urban areas The major cities in many instances have had to develop their own administrative mechanisms to deal speshycifically with the problems of the city and over and above Federal and State resources allocate city reshysources to that effort
At the municipal level New York City to my knowledge has the only comprehcnsive nan)ower
program in the country When the present Manshy
power and Career Development Agency was set up there were sonie 85 different manpower programs in the city Some of these manpower agencies were run by the city and some by nonprofit corporashytions resources came from the Federal Government the State and the city No one could determine how the resources were allocated how many people were trained with these resources and what hapshypened to people after training
In recognition of these and related problems we attempted to set up a manpower agency in a new and unique way The first determination made was that it was necessary to set up a comprehensive manpower system to meet our responsibility to tie together those agencies man(ated by legislation to some aspects of manpower as well as other agencies or groups who have been in this field de facto but were doing a creditable job We wanted to bring together all of these instititions whiile maintaining their own individual institutional identity and their own internal liies of administration In efshyfect we wanted to define ourselves as the manager of the manpower system and the determiner of the kind of specifications that these institutions would have to utilize in order to develop adequately the pruduct produced by this system and which would
have to be marketed in the free enterprise system I was not interested in becoming directly involved in operating specific training or educational agenshycies nor in developing a manpower bureaucracy I thought of myself as a businessman with a $45000000 budget and a company that would deshyvelop the appropriate kinds of tools to insure that the product produced was marketable and that there were effective kinds of returns I wanted also to develop accountability in order to identify the cause of ineffectiveness Finally I wanted to define the objectives of the agency in terms of the unishyverse of need and in terms of the kind of resources available
In the City of New York 45 agencies andor orshyganizations have been tied together into a compreshyhensive manpower system In the community parshyticipation area this means there are 26 poverty areas or 26 community action agencies The smallshyest poverty area has a population the size of most normal cities and the largest has more people in it than Newark Each of these 26 community action agencies funded with both City and OEO money administers Neighborhood Manpower Servshyice Centers (NMSC) No training goes on in those Centers they are the intake points the testshying and counselling points and the points of detershymination of the educational andor vocational
plans of individuals All of the resources in the City are available to these NNISCs We have Cityshywide training programs and as appropriate proshygrams inl specific regional opportunity centers so that a person may go close to home for training People are given an option for the first time We are thus beginning to provide interest options so that a person participates in a program because that is where lie belongs and not to fill program quotas
49
We believe we have the only program and the first in tie country in which an institution of highcr education is an integrated part of a manshypower system The City University of New York and all of its junior colleges one in each borough provides the major portion of the educational coishyponent and the skilled training component within our system This educational component includes English as a second language basic education edushycation related to skilled training and preparation for high school equivalency
In addition the Board of Education provides basic education and English as a second language in a number of the I I regions which encompass the 26 poverty areas The State Dep-rtment of Vocational Rehabilitation alo is tied into that system Prior to their involvement they had only one office in New York City while they now have a staff in every one of our regional opportunity centers The) are beginning to relate their activities in a more releshyvant way to the popuilation that comes under their jurisdiclion In addition (hie Stale Employment
Service is a part of this system in New York City Ve informed the State Employment Service that
we wantied their staff inl all of lie 11 regions and that we would make city futds available so they could hire the Peronnel to staff the counselling fuinctions in these training facilities In tis procshyess the Stae Eiployment Service wotild become more relevant to tlie needs of the community and in tle process of expansion tle) (ould hire people who aie reflective of the community they serve
The Opportunities Industrialization Center and aI number of other institutions and organizations are involved in the progran Fifty percent of the
people who pailiipate are former welfare recipishyents We have over 300 people who started in public service career plograis in college and we provide for release Itimne funds to insure that people in ptiblic service carees cani pursue higher educashytion related to tle job they have or will tilimately have
The whole recruitment mechanism is contracted out to antipoverty agencies Also contracted out are the skilled training tile educational component and the counselling component This raised the question about wiat is needed to insure accountashybility We have used a ceitral data processing censhytet belonging to an antipoverty agency with terinishynals into all of our NMSCs A person is interviewed tested and lie intake form is filled out If it is deshyterinied that tie person is ready for a job the
counsellor or the person at that terminal provides basic kinds of infoniation to match tlhis person with a job If theie is an appropriate job in seven seconds the name of lie company the hourly rate location etc come over the terminal For a year and a half we have been placing people in jobs through direct on-line access against a batch-match system
Training opportunities are also on the comshyputer Wheni we allocate the training resources of the city into tie communities they also have access to time information tile) need from the computer All of our job developers and counsellors are placed on the computer by code This enables us to obtain information for example on number and kind of people and jobs handled on any one day This brings accointability into the process We know who is getting what kind of job at what rate and the relevancy of those jobs to the people we are serving
We have also developed a management informashylion system ours will be tihe first Intitiicipal agency ini New York City to have a completely computershyized management information system With this system we will be able to cross the program inforshymation with the fiscal information and do cost benshyefit analysis
Our tiniverse of need consists of the five most difshyficult categories in the labor market welfare recipishyents chronically unemployed Iigh school dropshyouts minority underemployed an(l employable handicapped Ve now understand that most of liese people need itraining of one kind or another
only a small proportion can go directly on to jobs We Ilust consider how best to train these people low do )oui traini people inl the community to
provide service to themselves I low do you train those people for example in a way ini which they can begin to handle sophisticated information sysshytems We canl tell you inl oir system who is in what kind of training prograi ini what agency in what area what their reading levels are thei age range tleir job development activity the activity of the Neighborhood Manpower Centers including whet her tiey are late ini the flow of that informashytion through that system With otit regional system maliagers and the related staff inl our regional censhyts who imatnage not only that aclivity and the inshy
stittitions that are part of it but also the contract of the Neighborhood Manpower Ceiters we are in a position to tal in specific terms about what the
problems are and how they can be eliminated
50
When you make a commitment to involve comshymunity people in the process of any service you should be prepared to provide them the tools Those tools have to be designed at a level of the people who are participating in that system in
order to make their participation relevant For Cxshyaiple we developed a processing and procedural
mautial and flow chart so that any onie at any part of that system knows his responsibility inl that sysshyten as far as the Neighborhood 11anpower Centers ale COnceied
The iaini objective is to involve tie Community so that they develop whole sets of new tools and skills that make it possible for then to intersect our econoimy at another lcvel When we involve coimshymn1lity people we build up a set of skills for them that has applicability within a broader context of our society At the sanie timie that we are providing
manpower services we help the conunity develop a certain orider of technology that to ily knowledge does not exist in any other Connility in the counshy
try If we are coniceriel about the rational use of reshy
solices inl this couitriy we muiiistfind ways in which to iiilie those resources ms way in which they have a multiplier effect There will never he elnough miolley to solve somne of the iost pressing
problems that we have uinless We beginl to redesign olr insituiions begin to create linkages by the inshy
volvement of the City Univeisity of New York for example ill imianpower In the future probably any
pelsol in a imanpower pjrograil who has received a high school equivalancy in that process will have access to a college education at City University In effect by linking (ity University of New York into the systciim we are forcing a certaini ortder of intershynal institutional ianige
We want to lie degree possible to maximize the participation of the people who need the serviees in tile process of pirovidiiig the services for themshyselves It is possible to do hat It is possible to get institutions even ill the context of history that iight have been slightly recalci irani to conie toshy
gether in ieii of a larger scheiiata as long as we are prepared to help them in very real kinds of ways to master the new kinds of technology in order to run a more effective and efficient system
Discussion
Question from the floor One of the major purshy
poses of thiis Symposium is to extract fron Amerishycan experiences the aphplicability of popular particshyipation in a less developed economy These discusshysions have pointed out that there are underlying
principles which can be applied one being a coinshymitment to invlve those people left out of the iainstreain back into society Title IX of the Forshy
eign Assistance Art says that people in the develop mng countries nust he given a sense of participation in development of their country in order to achieve fle basic goals of political stability social progress and growth
What do you think are the basic underlying
principles for bringing about (lie involvement of
people in theircountrys development plocess
Mr Trvons ronments I think this is a relevant question and I am going to make the formulation
in power terms We like to feel in a detiocratic soshytiety that power is negotiated Certain institushytional arrangenients are set ill) that make it possishyble for those in power to negotiate with others in ain exchange People who have no power and thereshyfore no participation in pr1ograns have to be orgashynized
flow uslit inust bepeople le organized They organized into instittitional arrangenients because in the fiial analysis tlie iransfer of power is done in institutional ways People who are out of the mainshystream imiiust in in which theybe organied a way caii express their (oncern within the context of an institution that they either contirol or play a major role in
Also if this is to be a viable situation we must equip thei with tools tech hiq ies methodology and resoirt es so that when tile) negotiate there is soimnetliIng to iiegotiate about The strategy in our agelnty was to provide tools of a ceitain order of technology in aiiinstiititional context so that these tools could be used as leverage against a whole set of other inst itutions Therefore you use the tools and the technology as an instruieint of changing
powver and resource ielationships The people onut of thei mainstreani must be
trained amd given adequate resources and approshypriate technology If a poor person is put ol a polshyicy board and is not taught the difference between policy and adi in istration lie should not be blamed for failure They must understand their reshysponsibility in terms of policy
51
THE PROBLEM OF EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN
by Grace Farrell
We hear a great deal in the United States today about the need for equal employment opportunity But it is often forgotten that the equal employment opportunity principle applies regardless of sex as well as inl the more customary areas of race crced color anid national origin
Women have come a long way in tie world of work In the US they make up an extremely signifshyicant part of the labor force about 30 million or 38 percent of the labor force Today it is expected that nine out of ten women will work at some point in their lives and for most of them for a considerable period of time The employment pattern for women is no longer that of out of high school or college alul into an ofllice for a couple of years until they marry and then to usually leave the labor force perimaien tly
The greater participation of women in the work force however is not reflected cither in the kind of work they do or in the pay they receive This tindershyitilization of a substantial body of workers constishy
tutes one of tile greatest wastes of our manpower resources today Women need not only the opporshytiility for employment but of course to get into and participate in tile training programs that lead to elliploymeint
In the 19fiWs a imtilliber of laws were passed to
help solve some of these pioblems Anilg tile Fedshy
cral laws was the Equpal Pay Act of 1963 which
prohibits ain cimployer froill discriminating in tile
payment of wages based on sex for all of his emshy
ployces who are subject to the ilinilltim wage provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act Also the Fair Labor Standards Amendment of 1966 whicl illcreased the Federal illinilium wage also
broadened the coverage of the Equal Pay Act Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibshy
its discrimination ill all phases of employment by employers employllent agencies and certain trainshying committees The discrimination prohibited is
tilat based on sex as well as race religion color or national origin Although not strictly speaking a law Executive Order 11375 amended an early Ex ecutive Order which prohibited discrimination by government contractors and subcontractors and federally assisted construction contracts to include discrimination against women Alany states have elacted similar laws also This is very important because it seems that no law is passed without a nillber of exceptions exemptions or exclusions This is true of the Federal laws that I have just enumerated as it is of much other legislation
One of the problems often occurs when the
public employment service is attempting to place women in jobs and relates to such factors as not being able to refer a woman out to work in a facshy
tory because the job requires her to work sixty hours a week and there is a State law which says women can only work forty-eight hours a week Similarly tilroulgh tile years originally for some rather good purposes there were eiacted by the States protective labor legislation which limited womlens hours of work or being in jobs which reshy
quire lifting more thalln iwelty-five pounds With
respect to the latter a mother will often tell you
this is ridiculous because ler baby at the age of
two weighed more than 25 pouinids Such laws are still oil the books in most cases These laws were a
major problem in applying sections of the Federal laws As a result last August the Equal Employshynient Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a revised Sex-Discrimination Guideline which states that State protective legislation including laws which limit womens oturs prohibit her from
working nights restrict her occupation or restrict tie weights they may lift now act as a barrier to
equal employment opportunity and are superseded
by the sections of the law under which the EEOC operates
Since thou about a half dozen States have indishy
53
cated that they will not contest this ruling They agreed that in order to achieve equal employment o0)lx)0rtillities for woien they will no longer enshyforce their protective labor laws There also have been several court decisions which have held siniishylarly
I think nhimately this whole problem will reach a higher court than it has now and it may be solved through a combination of State action and court action EEOC s position remains however in a State regardless of what a State labor department or the equivalent agency has held that labor laws
and hours laws may not be used as a defense to an otherwise illegal employment practice The EEOC has issued a number of decisions on a State-by-State basis on this point
All of these Federal laws and regulations are a step in the right direction and I think it is an imshy
portant one But what they are really getting at is a change in attitude which hopefully changes in laws will help to bring about Not only is a change in attitudes toward the working woman needed but also an understanding of her competence and abilshyity
54
CASE STUDY-JOBS FOR PROGRESS TNC (OPERATION SER)
by Seymour Brandwein
Operation SER (the Spanish word to be) was created as a self-help instrument designed to solve the most pressing manpower problems of the Mexishycan-Anierican population It is run by an organizashytion called Jobs for Progress sponsored by two of the largest civic organizations of Mexican-Amerishycans the League of United Latin American Citishyzens (LULAC) and the American GI Forum Its central staff is financed by the Federal Government Jobs for Progress is operating in five states in the Southwest The administrative structure consists of a regional board which sets the policy for a reshygional office under which local boards and local
projects areguided and monitored There is a maxshyinum of conununity self-involvement and the local
projects are free to adapt themselves to community needs within established guidelines for recruitment and development
This paper traces the development of this effort in an over-simplified and selective form Unnecesshysary details are avoided in order to illustrate clearly some of the special issues and problems of
popular participation in government manpower programs
There are some ten million Mexican-Americans in the Southwest This minority largely bilingual and bicultural has a disproportionately large share of the unemployment and poverty The new manpower programs initiated in the 1960s were frequently criticized by Mexican-Americans The criticism was sometimes merited sometimes uninshyformed However it was also quite clear that some of the programs run by the public agencies hadldifshyficulty with this minority group because of lanshyguage and cultural differences and problems of inshysensitivity of the non-Nlexican-American staff There were also problems of trainee attitudes toshyward government and particularly toward Anglo staff
The Labor Departments Experimental and Demonstration staff jointly with the Office of Ecoshy
nomic Opportunity (OEO) undertook an experishymental program to determine whether it was feasishyble and useful to bring into the manpower proshygrams some of the strengths feelings and cultural sensitivities of the minority group We visualized this also as an opportunity to convert protest acshytivity into constructive program action and as a way to develop understanding of and participation
in program development The following briefly deshysci ibes the way this program was developed
The first question that required an answer was who represents this minority We began with the major national organizations already active in soshycial civic affairs LULAC GI Forum and the Comshymiinity Service organization-a California-based orshyganization-which later withdrew from the Board We recognized the limitations in turning to thes groups since their membership did not include many of the very poor Each organization had limshyited resources and organizational skills But they were broad-based and they were an available strucshyture They had responsible records Their leaders were widely respected even though they might not be speaking for the total community A LULAC Chapter had already run an employment center in Houston with a volunteer staff
In late 1965 meetings were held with representashytives of these groups to encourage them to set up an organization and staff (which we would finance) to develop mianpower programs It took some months to develop agreement on appropriate relative represhysentation of the several groups on the governing board It was also agreed that the initial efforts should be concentrated in eleven major areas of Mexican-American population in the Southwest rather than dispersed over that region or the nashytion
At first there was over-emphasis on structure More time was devoted to charts of -everal layers of boards and to job descriptions and to relationships than any serious consideration of what specifically
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should be done We knew that there would be problems but we went along with their own prefershyences We were concerned that the Mexican-Amerishycan leaders involved looked upon this as getting their share of the money and as a matter of dealing with Washington in spite of what was said about working with State and local agencies Before the initial funding we brought together the Mexican-American leaders regional and State agency officials of tile Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) Department of Health Education and Welfare and the Labor Department to explain the objectives of tile program and to allow them to raise their concerns and to have them start dealing with Mexican-Americans It was also our purpose to give the Mexican-Americans an awareness of the nature of the Federal-State relationship and its conshystraints the ainouint of resources tie limits on the resources and how decisions were nade on their alshylocation In this way the State and SER leaders were forewarned of the many technical and intershyagency relationship difficulties
The program was launched in mid-1966 We disshycussed types of staff needed and SER leaders cited the names of four possible executive directors Each had considera)le background and stature and were all acceptable Each of the four declined and a pershysonnel committee selected as executive director a young man from one of the organizations and a deiputy from one of the other organizations There was disagreement about tile choice of a person to be staff head We had to explain to the top leaders that neither they nor we could permit the selection to be a patronage activity and that the man seshylected while hie was promising oil paper and might be very good as a local project director simply was unequipped to work with regional and state govshyernment officials They reluctantly accepted this aid selected a man with some experience who in retrospect turned out to be the tower of strength in technical direction that was needed in the initial years in the effort Tile staff assemlbled by the new chief were young and willing Despite cautions from us the new staff rushed ambitiously to draft the proposals for large-scale new programs to give to Washington The proposals were in general terms and were justified simply as being needed They did not take into account the complex probshylems and lead-in time requirements inherent in the launching of any comprelensive programn For exshyample there was one proposal for an Employment Center in one State to be financed by $37 million
at a time when the total allocation for this entire State for Manpower training was approximately $25 million We had to explain in a quite turbushylent session that such funds were not available that the programs had to be linked with others of the State and local manpower agencies and that speshycific account had to be taken of operational probshylems of building up a sizeable scale program Thus through the hard way the staff became familiar with funding and operational constraints under manpower agencies and what was meant by develshyoping a program
The next problem we focused on was the quesshytion of separate SER programs versus programs jointly run with public agencies We identified apshy
proximate suis that we thought we could obtain1 from uncommitted resources in Washington We also made clear to the SER staff and to the State agency that such funds would be provided over and beyond the funds regularly allocated to the States if the programs were jointly developed if the State agencies would conduct certain functions requirshying their technical skill and if SER would be given authority and responsibility for operating acshytivities for which bilingual staff and Mexican-American sponsorship would be particularly useful The SER staff was now able to begin to examine
program specifics to proceed oil the technical tasks involved and find out what was literally involved in manpower development programs Issues did arise The SER staff came to us with questions about some State agency procedures We offered inshyformation and illade suggestiolls but with a couple of rare exceptions we did not intervene We told them they would have to work it out themselves
In the spring of 1968 new SER training projects with agencies in five States were funded with apshy
proximately $5 million There were 2500 trainees in the target areas where there were high proporshytions of Mexican-Americans unemployed The projshyects varied by locality but generally tile SER was responsible for or directly involved in recruitment and selection of trainees counseling pre-job orienshytation basic education relations with employers to obtain jobs for trainees and in coaching of trainshyees during training and after placement particushylarly where Spanish-speaking capability was reshyquired The State employment services did testing counseling job placement work and the State voshycational education agencies conducted or arranged for the formal skill training
We now graduated to a new level of problems
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We moved from proposal development planning relations with State agencies and mastering of funding procedures to the specifics of program opshycration staff development technical assistance and linking to other programs These proceeded reasonshyably well in comparison to the earlier public
agency programs There were problems but a dedishycated enthusiastic staff was assembled and there was a clear affirmative response in the Mexican-American community and among potential trainshyces The State igencies respond(ed responsibly
But several types of problems are wortn noting There were questions of authority between the overall SER Board and the local SER Board and between the local Boards authority as against that of the staffs to which they were giving policy direcshytion I take particular credit for the fact that we reshysisted the temptation to be the big bosses We took the position that SER had to resolve its internal reshylations or be discredited in the eyes of the Governshyment and the public If they were serious about
private minority ability to decide and stand on their decisions
Another problen was that as the staff gained in capability t became the only identifiable major center of organized lexican-American program acshytivity and was pulled toward other potential activishyties such as housing minority entrepreneurship and education Universities and government agenshycies wanted to see how they could get Mexican-American involvement through SER We took a middle course There has been OEO funding in
part that has permitted this relatively easy stance But we insisted that there be primary and overshywhelming concentration on the manpower activishyties for which they were funded
On another front we had hoped that the initial Board would serve as a base for broader participashytion by drawing in additional Mexican-American groups Its example has provided some impetus for generating and developing various other activities at the local level by locally organized Mexican-American groups
To conclude I think it would be useful to note without overdramatizing several results that have become apparent during this fourth year of activshyity I think beyond question the program has heightened not only the interest but the undershystanding of miany Mexican-American leaders both of the potential and of the limitations of manshy
power programs-how they function and how they
can be used to meet the problems of unemployed Alexican-Americans
The programs have developed a knowledgeable Mexican-American staff who whatever their limishytations initially are now on a basis quite comparashyble to that of public agency staffs and are equipped to participate constructively in program planning development and operations In addition in the
process of negotiating with the public agencies they have influenced and generated some changes in program development to take more rational acshycount of unique problems of Mexican-Americans And for the first time on any scale they have led agencies in the manpower field into a direct sharshying a direct partnership of operating responsibility with minority organizations to the mutual benefit of both
One of the initial criticisms was that the areas we were concentrating in were urban areas and that we were not paying any attention to the Mexishycan migrants The observation was sound but it was our judgment that until a capability developed in a difficult enough area there was little sense in releasing another set of factors in the exceedingly complex and dispersed migrant problem
In the most recent years programs hive broadened SER is now conducting basic edtucationI programs for Mexican-American migrant in sevshyeral areas with financial support from OEO Beshy
yond the funds that we arranged over and above State resources as some initial ability was develshyoped the group was turned to for on-the-job trainshying contracts and to take on responsibility for certain functions in so-called Concentrated Employshynent Programs Also there has begun to be a drawshymig on this capability without regard to funds conshying directly from Washington For example a skills baink operation which accounted for some very large numbers of placements is probably the most significant of these activities
Beyond getting from the participation of the mishynority groups some of the special strengths it had
to offer particularly bilingual capability and a bishy
cultural understanding the SER program has
served as the resource for staff to enter the public
agencies so that by now perhaps a third of the initial group are working in State agencies and have brought within the public programs in other
areas and types of activities some of the special mishynority capability which was lacking at the outset of this program
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Discussion
Question from the Floor What are the qualifishycations required for board members How are they selected or elected What was the background of some of the early staff including the staff director
Mr Brandweins comments On qualifications of the national board members we left the selection wholly to the organizations involved Similarly at the local level we made that matter the business of the local SER Boards Two problems in the initial years arose out of that practice where it was clear that we were not intervening and that it was not a matter of handpicking of members by the Governshyment The first problem was that as some of the novelty wore off as age crept up some of the boards original leaders replacements moved down to a more limited level and background Secondly we had an unusually sharp distinction between the board and the staff The board members were lawshyyers middle-level lower-income businessmen or real estate agents professional men in the communshyity The staff as a result of the first struggle in which we undertook to make clear that we would not proceed on a patronage basis were largely men in their twenties with college training and backshyground in sonic social activities In short order even at modest pay levels $12000-$1l1000 we had a problem of staff twenty years the junior of the board members earning higher incomes and chalshylenging the board members with lack of knowledge of program detail That has presented and continshyties to present friction For staff selection we have relied on two sets of procedures One is a wide cirshyculation of notice of vacancies to Mexican-Amerishycan organizations and the second is insistence on a fairly broad based selection committee in the boards themselves All things considered I think these procedures have worked out reasonably well
Question from the Floor What were the specific qualifications of the man who ultimately was seshylected as staff director
Mr Brandweins comments The man selected as staff director was a regional compliance officer with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commisshysion He had been consulted in the preparation of this was familiar with agency structures and had a record of active participation in one or both of the national organizations We focused on a cross reshygional basis and thus attracted capable leaders so
the original board operations were on the level of the most able leadership in this community The language element happened to be a particularly identifiably useful one here Also our focus was on the major metropolitan areas where we had greater access to potentially able young staff with a broader base from which to select
Question from the Floor How does a less develshyoped country take a small amount of money and conduct experimental activities to find out if they work and if they do to get a fair share of the reshysources of that country in order to mount larger
programs At what level did MDTA start and to what level has it now grown
Mr Brandweins comments I think I would
like to build on what you raise two ways Implicit
in all I said was a certain attitude of government Now governments are the people who are in them
The shepherding for MDTA was in a unit which everyone recognized had some flexibility reaching for examples of what might be done and it genershyated an element of let us try let us see what the
next steps will bring We also helped generate through this attitude somewhat different attitudes to government Thus irrespective of the amount of resources what resources there were were applied with some sense of We are not sure of what the
best way is This is the beginning We are going to build but we have the opportunity and where else can we go We were breeding through this type of combined public-private activity some developshyment of private group assertiveness understanding and self-generated expansion of activities We were also developing flexibility on the part of the public agencies to go further with available resources I believe these are potential products of any effort to combine public and private activity
Question from the Floor Why was on-the-job training chosen rather than training beforehand
Mr Brandweins comments There are two
points to make in answer to this question What we might have wanted to do was limited by the conshystraints of what we could do Therefore half by deshysire and half by necessity we relied on a learn-asshyyou-go basis What we undertook to do is to make available and insist on specific times and places for reassessment of what we did learn and I think this was the tool that we consciously relied on most This was very costly and at the periodic Board
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meeings staff were brought together and State re- brought together promoted a high degree of intershygional and Federal agency officials were also in- change In addition there were realistic timetables vited Workshops in which project staff were of development
PARTICIPATION OT THE WORKING POOR-UTILIZATION OF HUMAN RESOURCES IN ANTI-POVERTY PROGRAMS
by Philip J Rutledge
The last several years we have seen in this counshytry a rather unusual development of programs parshyticularly in ghetto communities aimed at a kind of uplifting of these communities The efforts really are not completely new antipoverty efforts have a long history Certainly many of the best traditions of our philanthropy have grown up out of attempts to do something about and for those persons who have been less fortunate in the competitive struggle in our system
We have however developed a tradition that says organized private philanthropy may be good but the Government doing it is not so good In fact the Governments assistance to individuals who can not make it is inappropriate because if these individuals had any ambition any skills or tried to develop themselves they could make it on their own We have not had this type of tradition however about helping either private enterprise or the farmers or many other groups in the country as long as they were not identified with certain other
personal characterisitcs some of which have had distinct ethnic and racial identification
During the late fifties many of the private founshydations began to take a little different approach to human resources and community development These efforts were sometimes called antipoverty deshyvelopments Some rather comprehensive and wideshyspread efforts were funded which were concerned with changing things and opening doors of opporshytunity not only through outside help but also by stimulating people in groups to take actions someshytimes even disruptive and offensive action to change the nature of their situation Many of our more respected foundations funded such programs Also in the 1960s we have seen a spate of programs to assist the disadvantaged started by the Office of Economic Opportunity and Manpower Administrashytion and to some extent through efforts of the Manshypower Development and Training Act The latter
in my judgment was not really directed to any sigshynificant extent toward the disadvantaged and the occupants of the ghetto until relatively recently
I have spent much of my working career in the public health field particularly in the area of public health education It was our job to organize persons who may be concerned with immunization or x-ray programs and to get them involved in conshyvincing other people to come in for x-rays and imshymunizations These were really efforts in retroshyspect to use the people of these ghetto communities to achieve certain goals which we had in mind and which we knew-and I think with some validityshywere good for them However it never occurred to us while we were doing this that perhaps the peoshyple might have some other ideas about whether it was good for them or not
There has been I would suggest in whatever area we have used citizen involvement community involvement or the inexpert in our program activishyties a kind of tension between what might be an elitest approach in whieh -a group would say Now these are the facts I know how it -ought to be done and all I want you to do is come over and help me do it and get some of those others to come and help do it Or This subject or this area is just too complicated for you to understand so you just go and do it the way I want you to do it Sometimes such a position was valid
On the other hand we have had coming along at the same time in this country another approach which might be entitled egalitarian This apshyproach suggests that Well maybe they do have some ideas about some of these areas Maybe they do know something about how we ought to proshygram and organize in their community Maybe they do know something about training persons in manpower programming or the kind of skills or the kinds of materials that ought to be prepared
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But what must we do to prepare them or indoctrishynate them into our particular philosophy
The efforts to accommodate these two apshy
proaches I think has created most of our probshylems The movements in this area in the early sixshyties changed the conditions a little bit because many of the persons who were being organized chose to make political instruments rather than soshycial instruments out of the organization techshyniques They tried to use their power of organizashytion for control and redirection of the resources that were being made available Such conditions made it difficult for the Government who wanted to involve -sidents particularly residents of the ghettos in vast social prograims The Government unlike sonic of the private philanthropic agencies and social work agencies that have been involved in this area in the past has other constituencies-it has a responsibility to the overall citizenry and above all responsibilities to the Congress and to the taxpayers
Thus we have seen in the sixties a great upsurge of interest in popular participation in a variety of
programs including manpower And now we have reached a point in our history where there is a tendency to back off fromn this concept by the Govshyernment I do not regard this backing off as necesshysarily an evil conspiracy on the part of the adminisshytration that happens to be in power It is perhaps one of the natural things that occurs when a new concept appears It grows and expands to one point reaches a plateau and falls back a little bit while liome retrenchment and redevelopment takes place Then after a while it moves on to another plashyteau In any process of change progress is not alshyways continuous
We are only now at a point where we are beginshyning to look for a different theoretical basis for
participation The concept of participation in
public and in private programming that we have been using has been largely an upper middle class one Therefore we accept the fact that there has not been any significant input or contribution from the class that we are trying to help Having worked in this area a long while I am not sure that we know enough about how to change this concept I think it is appropriate that we take not only the concept of participation but the concept of social programming in the ghetto back to the drawing board and take another look at them Some things have not worked some things have worked in spite
of what we were doing and some things just hapshypened accidentally
In the area of citizen participation I think it is rather significant that such groups as the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) and its professional offshoot the National Academy of Public Aministration (NAPA) are now beginning to take hard and serious professional looks at where we are in terms of government programming in utilizing citizens particularly disadvantaged resshyidents of the ghetto in our public programs The National Academy of Public Administration for example recently held a special conference on this problem of participation
A paper by John Strange of the ASPA which looked at citizen participation in programs funded through the Economic Opportunity Act found that the purposes in terms of the participants in these social programs-manpower and the like-included such goals as (1) the creation of a sense of group identity solidarity and power based on ethnicity economic class status and the use of Government programs or services and (2) to overcome a sense of powerlessness enhance life opportunities and to publicly affirm individual worth or to provide a job Ih terms of affecting the participants the purposes were (1) to train and educate and inform them of Government programs (2) to educate parshyticipants in the way the Government system works and develop political or administrative skills and (3) to alter social behavior in order to establish conditions for effective individual and family life
Another objective noted by Strange relating to participants which needs to be emphasized is that an institutional device must be provided which will enable the participants to settle for less than they want One of the important mechanisms that has held the American society together-holds all socieshyties together-is finding some means to compromise potentially incompatible differences and bringing into the decision-making process people who have different value systems and objectives This often provides an institutional device to enable them to settle for less
I also believe we have to take another look at the way we are redistributing power in our public proshygrams Certainly citizen participation community control of schools police precinct projects and other programs are basically ways of redistributing the power Whether we are talking about manshypower programs social programs educational sysshy
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tems or what have you the major consideration bashysically is how can we redistribute the power so that the people in that system feel that they can yield it and use it as they believe best This feeling is someshytimes more important psychologically than the job itself
There are a number of ingredients needed to achieve meaningful and successful citizen particishypation but in summary I wish to note two which are of particular importance The first is the tendshyency in this country and perhaps in foreign areas as well to back off from assisting people if they do not seem to appreciate adequately what we are doing for them Second I do not think that we can develop in the ghettos which I am familiar with
and I doubt if we could develop that kind of popushylar participation in similar areas in foreign counshytries if we think that participation is simply going to be a means of promoting stability and promotshying a maintenance of the existing situation
I believe the nature of our society today is changed and in this country as well as developing nations citizen participation and community orshyganizations and popular involvement can provide as John Strange has suggested that mechanism for compromise and change if it is used properly If we give them some victories this might be more imshyportant than any other thing we might be able to do to keep our system and that of other countries together
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COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN LATIN AMERICA LEADING TO SOCIAL CHANGE AND INSTITUTIONAL
DEVELOPMENT RELATED TO MANPOWER
by William F Whyte
The Peruvian government has a massive and amshybitious social and economic change program going on and there are opportunities to observe very inshyteresting changes and possibly to help these proshygressive changes to come about
This paper discusses changes in two rural sectors of Peru One is the Sierra Hacienda which has in the past been run very much like the feudal manor of the Middle Ages the peasants largely of Indian extraction served very much as serfs tied to the land owing labor services to the patron the hacenshydado The second sector is the coastal plantations which are quite a different style of operation from the Sierra where the haciendas have been pretty much in the subsistence economy with very small surpluses The coastal plantations have been enshygaged in large scale modern agriculture sugar cane cotton etc largely for the export market These large agro-industrial enterprises are either Peruvian owned or foreign owned
Unions have been rather effective on the coast due to the cohesive organization that exists there In the Sierra there have been sporadic peasant movements but the cohesive organization is lackshying
To properly provide technical assistance to the change processes occurring in these two sectors or anywhere else you should know what really is going oin I therefore must first try to knock down what seems to me a false image of the peasant which I call the myth of the passive peasant This is the notion that the peasant is bound by trashydition he is conservative and he sticks to his old customs So if anything is going to change on the country side it will be from some kind of outside intervention either by community developers supshy
This paper is based on field studies in Peru undertaken in collaboration with Dr L Williams of Cornell University and the Institute of Peruvian Studies of Peru
ported by AID or by political agitators or revolushytionists
In Peru the younger social scientists differ in what the long-run objectives are but they do agree in accepting what I quite dogmatically call a myth-the myth that it you do not get out there you middle-class intellectuals and guide the peasshyants or stir them up they will just sit there and nothing will happen
Changes have been observed some slow but some quite rapid and dramatic in various parts of rural Peru where the government has not intervened and where there has been no planned intervention from the outside The peasants have joined toshygether and learned how to manipulate the power structure and have achieved in some cases basic transformations Those peasant families who have been living on haciendas as serfs have managed to combine together to oust the landlord to take over the lands and to operate their own farming entershyprises
We have been trying to observe how this takes
place Visualize what we call the baseless triangle where the hacendado the landlord is at the apex of the triangle and the peasants are at the bottom all linked to the apex by lines coming down from the landlord And when we say the baseless trishyangle we have an image of a lack of interconnecshytion among the peasants horizontally This is a vershytical system and the hacendado has done his best in the past to keep this that way and it means that anything that the peasants need in the economic system and the political system and any wants they have they have had to try to fulfill by acting through the landlord who has been quite unrecepshytive to their initiatives which have always been on an individual basis That is you would ask the landshylord for a favor to you and your family but there would not be concerted organized action The landshy
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lord was the gatekeeper between you and the outshyside society
When we find this structure changing we find more or less simultaneously new links are formed links across the base of the triangle which we call the closing of the triangle base But this is not enough We find that the peasants begin to estabshylish independent connections with politicians maybe there are competing political parties which they can use to advantage
In some cases the landlord has outstanding loans with the agricultural development bank which he has not been repaying The peasants discover this and with the assistance perhaps of lawyers apshy
proach the bank to see if they can take over the loan and therefore take over the estate
In other cases the peasants discover that the landshylord has been required by law to provide educashytion for their children and lie has not complied or has just done so in a token way So the peasants apshy
peal to the Ministry of Education they offer to build a schoolhouse if they can get help The procshyess of transformation and development therefore involves not only the banding together of the peasshyants to close the base of the triangle but the develshyoping of upward links with power figures in society
As this process takes place the hacendados posishytion becomes more difficult and lie is likely to have
problems himself in the decline of his agricultural operations especially if lie has been an absentee landlord letting someone else run the operations Frequently there are legal fights among the hacenshydado group for the control of land When the old man dies his sons are likely to fight for control then the peasants at times can move in and take OVer
This seems to have one implication for developshyment and for training needs The process of popushylar participation aJparently requires the developshyment by the peasauts of direct links with bankers
politicians and people in the field of education If this is so it seems to mie the technical assistance process ought to be oriented to some extent around helping peasants understand how this world outshyside their little estate works and how to establish connections and deal with these power figures indeshy
pendent of the landlord or boss Then there is a second phase that is likely to
arise and present another set of problems When you first look at the typical Sierra hacienda you have a picture of the landlord being at the top and the pcasants all at the same level at the bottom but
this is not always the case The landlord maintains his control not only by dealing with each peasant individually but by having his favorite There are certain itidividual peasants certain families that he feels are particularly loyal to him and they get the breaks which means different treatment in the distribution of land that the peasant is able to work for his own family So you frequently find sitshynations where a small minority of peasants under this hacendado has two or three times as much land or even more under their own immediate conshytrol than the rank and file
Now when this hacienda system breaks up when the peasants are able to unite against the hacendado and are successful in ousting him an interesting issue arises This issue relates to whether the part of the hacienda directly under the immediate conshytrol of the landlord should be divided among the
peasants or whether the whole estate shall be redishyvided Those who have had the greater amounts of land feel that they have worked hard improved the land and built their houses on it and that they have earned the land So they prefer to maintain the existing distribution The rank and file leaders counter with the point that this is inequitable disshytribution and everyone should start from the same
base line It was not until the present military govshyernment came into power that there was no longer any difference of opinion on this matter between the Executive and Congress This solution was achieved by dismissing the Congress and then it was finally possible to settle the distribution of land issue
This type of problem involving peasant solidarshyity and intergroup conflict is going to become more
prevalent Yet most of the persons working on agrarian reform are assistance and agricultural production specialists with no knowledge or backshy
ground about social organization or processes
about intergroup conflicts and negotiation
How do you handle a situation that involves basic differences of interest that have to be fought out negotiated mediated or arbitrated Some unshyderstanding on that front should be provided or
our technical assistance efforts will go awry
Another possible training focus involves comshymunity development In Peru there is a long tradishy
tion of community self-help buildings schools roads and so forth However there is also a long history in which these communal efforts lead to inshy
creased wealth at one particular time but the
problem of maintenance is not handled That is
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you build a school and the initial cost is taken care of then there is the problem of supplying teachers maintaining the school and so on So you can readshyily have a situation in which the more successful the community development program the more the expense burden falls upon the national governshymient which is alost the only supplier of tax money Work has been started but more needs to be (lone to develop the community revolving fund concept The idea is to tie together the impulses of conunities to build physical improvements to make investments in their community with sonic continuing commitment of the community to assess itself to maintain this particular facility
It seems to me that technical assistance training can be very helpful in exploring possibilities of linking the community development effort to the development of local government
On the coast there is a quite different transforshyimation problem than in the Sierra Technology and scientific knowledge are used much more on the coast Greater division of labor and more union organization exists on the coast
The Peruvian government objective is to transshyform the haciendas of the Sierra into self-governing
peasant communiities really dividing the land up among the peasants but also trying to maintain a communal organization for mutual help On the coast the government recognizes this is not practishycal You can not just divide the sugar estates and the cotton plantations into small farmer plots so the approach has been to transform the agro-industrial complex into a producers cooperative This inshyvolves a major structural transformation which will also have an impact on the workers In the first stage the goverinment administrators have been running everything It is just a transfer of power from private land owner to government But the ideology is to have the peasants take over Here you run into political questions because on the coast of Peru the unions have generally been organized by another political party and the government is very leery of doing anything to encourage this political group it would rather (10 the opposite
The social scientists feel that something could be worked through the already existing union strucshyture This cannot be (lone automatically because the Peruvian unions do not aict in quite the same way that the unions do in the US The unions in Peru tend to be more centralized there is less activshyity at the lower levels On the other hand you do
have a degree of mobilization of workers around the unions The Peruvian government therefore has to determine whether or not it can build on this established organization the development of
producers cooperatives Peru is trying to carry out a structural transforshy
mation in these coastal haciendas for which there is no parallel in history It is not just a question of communicating what is a cooperative the officers needed and- what do they do but drastic changes
in peoples roles have to be developed and a new type of organization has to be established A signifshyicant social and cultural transformation is inshyvolved a change with which our best experts on
producers cooperatives and agriculture are not familiar
I am also not suggesting that sociologists such as myself should provide the technical assistance However I do think it is important to shift our
priorities here and say that a major transformation
process has been launched and is going to be going on for a long time with some successes a lot of failshyures many difficulties and that maybe the best help we can provide is some assistance on the reshysearch side to study and try to understand what is going on and feed this information back to Peshyruvian agrarian reform programs
The nature of this process is to develop training materials which can be used to train present and future administrators on these estates It can train incipient peasant leaders so that they will become able to deal with the complexities technical as well as social of the new type of organization
In this connection I think outside help can be useful to Peru but in financial form rather than direct investment in research talent because I have found that Peru has very able social scientists who understand what is going on much better than most experts in this field who could be imported Instead of thinking simply in terms of experts to go in and tell people what ought to be done about manpower and related problems we recognize the complexity of these problems and try to learn about these transformations as they are taking
place so that out of this learning process can be
provided teaching materials for training programs for work in the colleges and universities that will
give Latin Americans a much more realistic picture of the problems of social reforms and development than they camn obtain from the US models that are ordinarily imposed on them
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Discussion
Questions from the floor How can free and unshytrammeled research in the field of power relationshyships be placed in a military regime which may feel itself rightly or wrongly threatened as for example in the program of land reform How do you collashyborate with these free researchers in Peru in raisshying these questions
Mr Whyte comments We have so far had no difficulty at all under the present government in doing research and in publishing But the time may conic particularly as we try to publish more and more studies on land reform because what we have been doing so far has helped to highlight the evils of the preexisting system that the government is committed to change If we do get into studiesshy
as we are hoping to-of the governments present efshyforts of land reform in certain areas I am sure we are going to run into a problem ie the governshyment has intervened and knocked out the preshyexisting power ligures and starts to undertake the transformation of society from the top down We think not only we in the US but also our Peshy
ruvian social science associates that there are limishytations to this approach It is going to break down
in certain predictable ways When we get to the
point of observing these breakdowns and reporting
on them analyzing them we will then face the
problem you have raised by the question We have
been completely free so far but when we look at
the impact of the present government in certain
areas we are getting into something much more
delicate
68
MOBILIZING THE PARTICIPATION OF YOUTH IN MANPOWER AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT-A UNIVERSAL CHALLENGE
by William Mirengoff
I am rather intrigued by this Symposiums emshyphasis on popular participation in manpower proshygrams although I must confess I find the term a little ambiguous Just what do we mean by popular
participation Does it mean the involvement of state and local
officials as the democratically elected representashytives of the populace
Or does it mean the direct involvement of that segment of the populace to whom the program is directed independent of the local political strucshyture indeed sometimes challenging the elected power structure
And if we mean the latter how do we bring this
participation about There are some rather broad philosophical issues
involved here For the purposes of todays discussion I view
participation as three-dimensional
1 Participation in the fruits of the program-as recipients This is essentially a passive role and the results can be quantified in terms of people served and benefits received
2 Participation in decision-making This is esshysentially an active role-helping to determine program policies and targets
3 Participation in implementing the program and delivering the services This is a manashygerial and administrative role
I Trend Toward Popular Participationin Manshypower Programs
One of the lessons we have learned over the last decade is that the Federal Government bureaucracy alone despite all its resources cannot guarantee soshylutions to all of the complex problems facing our nation Rather experience has shown that deep inshyvolvement by all the sectors of the society affected
by a particular problem is essential This not only includes involvement by orgnizations that can conshytribute resources and services but also full particishypation in program development and decision-makshying by the very people for whom the programs are being provided
The Economic Opportunity Act embodied the clearest expression of popular participation by reshyquiring the maximum feasible participation of the poor in its program The Community Action Agencies went out and organized the poor so that they could participate effectively in detision-makshying In some areas insistence of program clients on a voice in activities affecting their welfare was viewed as a threat to established power structures In general however involvement of the poor led to a healthy exchange of ideas and combination of efshyforts that fostered creative programs
Building on the experience of the Economic Opshyportunity Act the Model Cities Program also reshyquires the direct involvement of the population in the target area
Manpower Administration programs stress this too-particularly the involvement of staff from the client group and the target area In addition there has been a clear trend toward decentralization which strengthens participation in administration at the local level
It may be of some interest to trace the evolution of popular participation in the manpower and reshylated human resources programs I think of this evolution as passing through three stages-Prolifershyation Cooperation and Consolidation
1 ProliferationWe started with the Area Reshydevelopment Act of 1961 then the Manpower Development Training Act of 1962 then an explosion of manpower programs-The Neighshyborhood Youth Corps Operation Mainstream New Careers the JOBS Program etc-based
69
on the Economic Opportunity Act Later came the WIN Program Public Service Careers and other programs
Unrelated fragmented programs proliferated each with its own organizational structure funding eligibility requirements and apshyproaches
But in the last analysis programs all take place on some piece of real estate-in a state city or community They all converge on the people in an area with a minimum of planning and coordination competing for local resources for local clients for public attention and support
2 CooperationRecognizing the need for rationshyalization and coordination below the Fedshyeral level major efforts were made to achieve cooperation among the individual programs We tried joint funding-with independent
programs joining voluntarily in combined efshyforts We tried to pull the Department of Labor programs together in the Concenshytrated Employment Program-a coordinated effort to focus available services on specific low-income areas We tried to bring together all human resource programs of all governshyment agencies plus non-government involveshyment through the CAMPS program--essenshytially a system of local planning and coordishynation through a network of state and local interagency committees
All of these efforts had a measure of success but all were hampered by a timeless adminisshytrative problemi-the suspicions and cautious protectiveness of centrally operated program agencies that are asked to yield some autonshyomy in the interests of a cooperative effort and greater involvement by people at the local level
3 Consolidation We are now at the third stageshyconsolidation This stage is best epitomized by the proposed Manpower Training Act (MTA) This legislation is currently before the Congress where it has bi-partisan supshyport
We are firmly committed to the MTA which will be a milestone in the development of manshypower policy in this country It will
Decategorize our present fragmented programs
Decentralize the planning and delivery system for manpower services
Move programs toward maximum participashytion by state and local governments-Govershynors Mayors and other popularly elected repshyresentatives
The MTA would supersede the Manpower Deshyvelopment and Training Act (MDTA) and manshy
power sections of the Economic Opportunity Act Under the ITA most of the individual manpower programs that are currently operated from Washshyington as highly centralized separately adminisshytered activities would be merged into one overall manpower effort Program categories such as MDTA Neighborhood Youth Corps the Concenshytrated Employment Program Operation Mainshystream and others would lose their identities in the consolidated effort Responsibility for planning and administering the new comprehensive manshy
power program would be delegated to a large exshytent to the Governors of the States and to local
prime sponsors (primarily Mayors and other heads of local governments)
Each year the prime sponsors would be required to prepare comprehensive manpower plans for their areas proposing manpower services tailored to the
special needs of local problem groups The Govershynors would be responsible for submitting consolishydated manpower plans for their states State and local advisory and planning bodies composed of representatives of business labor welfare groups agriculture education local and state government agencies and other community elements are to play key roles in developing the plans Upon approval of the state plans by the federal governshyment the Governors and local prime sponsors would assume major responsibilities for impleshymenting approved programs
As you can see unification and decentralization of programs under the MT are directly related to the principle of fuller particilition by non-Federal groups The MTA would mobiii e the experience and resources of ou- pluralistic network of local governments and commununity interests to support all states of manpower activity
II Need For Youth Manpower Programs
I would like now to turn specifically to youth
programs to explore how the principle of particishy
pation is being applied in manpower services for young people As most of you know there has been
70
a mounting interest in youth manpower problems in this country Many new programs for young peoshyple entering or preparing for the labor force have been introduced during the last decade At present youth accounts for well over one-third of the enshyrollment and expenditures in Federally assisted manpower activities
In large part this emphasis represents a growing awareness of the alienation and frustration of
many young people who are unable to participate effectively in the labor market We are faced with
the rejection of prevailing values youthful cynishycism and sucli symptoms of social disorganization as caipus unrest high crimc rates racial tensions and drug abuse
In the US probleis encountered by youth in the labor market reflect basic population labor force and educational trends
A Population Upsurge There has been a sharp
increase in the youth population during the last decade as the post-World War II baby crop came to maturity Between 1960 and 1969 the number of youths aged 11-24 increased by 12 million from 27 to 39 million Thuis fl4 increase was four times larger than the rate for the population as a whole Ten years ago only one out of seven people were 1-1-24 years old today close to one oit of five Is it any wonder that this sharp upsurge of youth reachshying employable age has created stresses in the labor market stresses in the school system stresses in the
streets for those who are not in school or in jobs and stresses throughout our social fabric
Most tragic of all in my opinion is the collapse of the school system in the inner-city Inundated by waves of disadvantaged youth faced with shortages of teacliers and facilities burdened with problems inherited ftoni fainily economic and governmental institutions groping for ways to overcome the handicaps of low-income youngsters-the inner-city school system faces a major challenge
B Ulnemploynent Although the economy has shown marked strengii in absorbing most of the new job seekers unemployment among young peoshyple particularly disadvantaged youths who are most in need of steady jobs and incomes is a signifshyicant problem Among youths 16-21 who are in the labor force
1 12 or about 1300000 were unemployed in February of 1970 compared to a 45 rate for the labor force as a whole
2 Among nonwhites the rate was even highershy20
Unemployment rates are still higher in some
pockets of urban and rural poverty
To a large extent the substantial unemployment rate reflects diminishing opportunities for jobs with low skill requirements Such jobs have tradishytionally served as an entree into the labor market for many youngsters Recently however low skilled jobs have become scarcer as labor requirements in agriculture dropped off and as l-abor needs in inshydustry shifted from manual workers to highershyskilled technical occupations As the country turned the corner from a goods-producing to a servshyice-oriented economy a strong back and willingshyness to work no longer were adequate tickets to a job
C Labor Force Entrants Without Adequate Voshycational Skills A significant number-perhaps as many as one-third-of our young people enter the labor force without adequate job skills They face
special problems in a job market with rising skill requirements
The problem may be expressed in this paradox
The US keeps a larger proportion of its population in school longer than any other country-to ensure their preparation for lifeshytime activity
Yet the unemployment rate among youth is far higher than in any other nation and has been rising rapidly over the last four decades
And this paradox persists in the face of unushysual prosperity high levels of employment and skill shortages
Students who do pot complete at least a high school education encounter special difficalties In 1968 almost one million youth 14-17 were not enshyrolled in school Dropouts aged 16-21 had a 15 unemployment rate during that year-twice the rate of comparable high school graduates For nonshywhite dropouts the unemployment rate was 25 Even those who complete high school are not necesshysarily prepared for a vocation There is a disparity between educational credentials and performance levels with many high school graduates unable to read write work or reason properly
Manpower programs can be viewed as repair shops for those young people who have come out of the school system without adequate preparation for the world of work We get the toughest casesshy
71
the rejects This poses a major challenge in deshyveloping creative techniques for rebuilding the skills interests and character traits of the disadvanshytaged youngsters
All of this gives you some idea of the dimension of the problem-the universe of need Now I would like to turn to our response to these needs
III A Conprehensive Program of Manpower Servshyices to Meet Youth Needs
To what extent (o youth participate in manshypower programs as recipients-as an example of popshyular participation in the benefits of public proshygrains
In the last decade the US has reached out to the youth population with an array of innovative and creative programs to alleviate labor market probshylems These programs are designed to help youth find worthwhile jobs at decent wages to experience a sense of fill participation in our productive life and to develop their personal potentials so as to avoid frustration and to maximize their contribushytions to society
A major feature of the comprehensive manpower effort is recognition of the significant differences among the categories of youth who need assistance
1 Many out-of-school unemployed young people simply require help in obtaining vocational trainshying in a good school setting For these the Manshy
power Development and Training Act passed in 1962 provides classroom training opportunities supplemented by subsistence allowances to help the trainee support himself and his family Last year about 35000 youths under 22 received this MDTA institution training-28 of all MDTA institushytional trainees
2 Recognizing that many youngsters are having difficulty in adapting to vocational training in a school setting and aware of the school dropout
problem the Congress authorized a program of training and experience in a work setting for jobshyless youth in the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 Currently termed the Out-of-School composhynent of the Neighborhood Youth Corps the proshygram helps youths aged 16-18 to prepare for steady employment In Fiscal Year 1971 the NYC Out-of-School program is expected to serve 36500 youths at a cost of $125 million
3 To reduce the dropout problem among poverty-stricken youngsters the Neighborhood Youth Corps In-School and Summer Programs
provide part-time employment and earnings opporshytunities for needy youngsters who are still attending school In FY 1971 these components are expected to serve almost 500000 youths aged 14-21 at a cost of $235 million
4 What about young people who simply cannot adjust to vocational training in a formal classroom setting or even in a setting of routine work experishyence Included in this category are young people whose social and physical environments are so unshyfavorable that their capacities for training and job seeking are severely curtailed As our experience with youth manpower services has expanded it beshycame evident that this group can be helped by reshymoval from adverse school and home settings to a new residential environment where training methshyods and stipl)portive services can be adapted to their
special needs This group is the target population for the Job
Corps The Job Corps provides occupational trainshying remedial education and a wide variety of charshyacter-building and supplemental services geared to the special needs of disadvantaged youngsters 16-21 in residential centers around the country Enrollshyrment in Job Corps Centers has also proven useful for many youths who come from rural areas where alternative local manpower development facilities are not available The unique aspect of this proshygran is its raidential character its provision of truly comprehensive services (from health care to clothing from vocational training to monthly alshylowances) and its effort to combine all necessary manpower services (from initial selection of enrolshylees to final placement of graduates on the job) into an integrated manpower delivery system
In FY 1971 the Job Corps expects to accommoshy(late 25000 youths at a tinre in 75 centers at a cost of $180000000
5 Of course prevention is the best cure for the
problenis of youth in the labor market The greatshyest priority must be given to improvement of vocashytional education in the regular school system where the majority of young people are expected to
prepare adequately for the world of work The schools niust redirect some of their effort from endshylessly preparing pupils for more schooling to preshy
paring tie average youngster for the demands of tire working world
The Vocational Education Act amendments of 1968 represent an advance in meeting the needs of school youth for quality vocational preparation
72
As amended the Act greatly strengthens vocational training in local secondary schools providing asshysistance for better equipment teachers and facilishy
ties and for gearing courses realistically to todays cormiplex occupational requirements In FY 1971 the Federal Government will invest over
$300000000 in this program State and local govshyerninents will contribute one billion dollars in matching funds
6 Many other programs are components of the
comprehensive manpower effort for youth Among the most important may be
a Efforts to increase opportunities in apprenticeshyable trades for minority group youths
b Efforts to help young military dischargees make the transition to civilian life eg pre-disshy
charge training in Project Transition and post-disshycharge school benefits for veterans
c Opportunities for youths in broad-gauge proshygrams which serve both youths and adults eg the Concentrated Employment Program the JOBS Proshy
gran the Public Service Careers Program Last year more than a third of the CEP enrollees and
almost one-half of all JOBS enrollees were under
22 years of age
d Expansion of programs to train prison mshy
mates for post-release employment-a major contrishybution to efforts to rehabilitate young offenders
Together these forward looking measures constishytute a comprehensive manpower program for youth They will be significant achievements in bridging the discontinuity between school and work strengthening the participation of youth in
the economic process and combating alienation and frustration attributable to labor market probshy
lems
IV Expanding Participation in Decisionmaking
Having discussed the quantitative or passive asshy
pects of popular participation ie participation of youth as beneficiaries of program services I would like now to turn to the qualitative or active aspect
of participation This involves direct participation in decision-making-in the actual planning of proshygrams by the very persons they are designed to serve
We have learned that young people like everyshyone else want to be directly involved in decisions affecting their welfare Moreover experience shows that such participation results in more effecshy
tive and realistic programs As a result a major efshyfort has been made to give enrollees a voice
In the Job Corps for example all training cenlshyters are required to organize student governments The enrollees take these governments very serishyously and so (10 the center staffs Constitutions generally written by the enrollees themselves deshyscribe the responsibilities and organization of the student government duties of officers and election and removal procedures They provide for student councils and other officers usually elected at sixshymonth intervals who legislate rules for dress conshyduct grievance-handling and other aspects of group life in a residential setting Also the center constitutions usually establish a judicial system for
judging and penalizing mi nor offenders Center administrators meet with the student
councils at least once each week to plan improveshyments in the training program enrollee activity schedules and center procedures Some councils have jurisdiction over special funds maintained for recreational or welfire purposes Often they set up subconumittees on such subjects as instruction comshyplaints recreation community relations and food Service
Qualifications for election to the student offices vary Most centers have minimum residence reshy
quiremlents In at least one center candidates for election are required to attend special classes in center government for one week
V Participationin Adninistering Programs
Let me now turn to the third form of popular
participaitioii-pamrticipatioii in day-to-day adminisshytration of programs This aspect of manpower proshygrams has also received substantial emphasis Mainly it has taken two forms (a) use of disadshyvantaged persons as staff members and (b) involveshynient of sectors of ou- society other than the Federal Government I would like to say a word about each of these in turn
A Utilizing disadvantaged persons as staff nenbers As social work counseling teaching emshy
ployment services and other helping professions have beconie more and more professionalized there have developed significant communication barriers between the professional and his disadvantaged client The accumulation of professional skills and insights has been accompanied paradoxically by difficulties in establishing rapport and influencing the very people who require assistance To overshy
73
come this problem Community Action Agencies manpower programs housing programs and others serving disadvantaged people have found that comshymunication can be restored through the employ ment of target group members to serve their disadshyvantaged neighbors The new employces working as para-professional aides under skilled professional people are able to gain the confidence of the clients to explain prograims to discuss the advanshytages and disadvantages of participation and to enlist support in language and actions that disadshyvantaged clients can understand At the same time the aides are in a position to feed back to the proshyfessionals the problems and needs of the inarticushylate masses of people who are to be served
Involvement of target group members on the staffs of agencies serving the disadvantaged has
proven beneficial for the professionals the aides
and program clients alike
B Broader Comm unity Involvement The secshyond form of popular participation in administrashytion of youth manpower programs is the deep inshyvolveient of non-government organizations
At an early stage of the development of our comshyit became clearprehlensive manpower program
that Federal Government action alone could not
provide all solutions for the problems of youth Training for jobs without involvement of emshyployers and labor unions would be unrealistic Dushy
plication of facilities and other services already available in the community would be wasteful and time-consuming Manpower programs therefore have drawn upon the skills and resources of an array of community groups
1 The Business Sector Private industry has been heavily involved not only in an advisory cashy
pacity but also in direct operation of employment and training programs In the case of the JOBS
program and the Sununer Youth Campaign for exshyample industry has provid ed leadership in direct training and placement of hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged people Experience has clearly shown that jobless young people trained in a realshylife work setting for jobs and employers identified in advance are most likely to succeed at their trainshying and employment In the Job Corps industry has applied its mnanagement and technical skills to the actual operation of Job Corps Centers
2 Labor Unions Unions are participating in expanding employment opport unities for disadvanshy
taged people and providing vocational and pre-voshycational training
In the Job Corps five building trades unions are
presently playing a major role in training at Civilshyian Conservation Centers These unions are curshyrently training about one-fourth of the youths in such centers and are cooperating in having their graduates placed into the building trades apprenshyticeship programs Great stress is being placed on this activity for completers are almost guaranteed a job in well-paid shortage occupations and the
program is helping minority group youths move into occupations in which their numbers have trashyditionally been low
3 Nonprofit Community Organizations A wide variety of community organizations which have specialized knowledge and contacts with respect to
particular disadvantaged groups are participating heavily in youth manpower programs These groups may be involved in programs to recruit counsel and arrange job and training opportunishyties for low-income youngsters or in pioneering new ways of training and orienting disadvantaged
people in numerous cities around the country Other groups are providing special youth services for the physically or mentally handicapped rural
people dropouts and other categories with special needs Also some residential centers of Job Corps are managed directly by nonprofit groups
Related to work with nonprofit organizations is our extensive community relations program In the Job Corps it is mandatory for every center to take the initiative in establishing a Community Relashytions Council These Councils include local comshymunity leaders in business labor education the church welfare recreation and government as well as Job Corps Center enrollees and staff They consider matters of ntitual concern In many areas outstanding examples of community-Center coopershyation occur eg use of Center gymnasium and shop facilities for community needs participation of enrollee volunteers in child care clean-tip and other community tasks participation in parades and fairs and use of community volunteers as tushytors entertainers and other helpers in Center proshygrams
4 Universities Broad involvement of universishyties in research and evaluation of programs has been the rule from the beginning of the manpower effort There is a continuous give and take of ideas between the university researcher and the living
74
program laboratories In the Job Corps universishyties have also been actively involved in the operashytion of training centers
VI Conclusion The stability of our society will depend upon the
strong sense of involvement felt by the younger generation in government activities affecting their welfare In the new arsenal of manpower programs for youths we have tried to implement this princishy
ple by providing services that will reduce the alienshyation of youth by providing opportunities to parshyticipate more fully in the benefits of our economic system by involving youth in decision-making and by using them in the delivery of services
In addition Federal youth programs are increasshyingly operating on the principle that the non-govshyernment sector and our local and State governments must be mobilized to expand and strengthen Fedshyeral efforts Decentralization community relations cooperation with business and labor-these are corshynerstones of our comprehensive manpower policy The Administrations support of the proposed Manpower Training Act underscores its commitshyment to this approach
I hope that this summary of our experience will
prove useful to you and can be applied with realisshytic adaptations to the needs of other countries with similar problems
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MANPOWER AND YOUTH PROGRAMS IN THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES OF ERICA
by Max R Lum Jr
Many of us assume that pe alar participation is a right For example the youth in the Job Corps assume as a right participation in the control of certain monies that are removed from their pay as fines for minor violations of the rules They have a student government control over these funds Howshyever from discussions at the ILO-sponsored youth conference in Geneva (from which I have just reshyturned) it appears that participation of youth in manpower programs as a right is still an open quesshytion at least among the African countries This Poshysition was reflected by the type of resolutions that came out of the African caucus at the conference
One resolution stated that the manpower proshygrais for youth should be of the kind that facilishy
tate the contribution of youth to development and
to insure that their efforts are directed to feasible
ends which are a relevant and integral part of the total development plan The integral part of a development plan of course can be something that is superimposed from above in the decision-making
process A second resolution (which infers volunshytarism) related to the need to strengthen the motivashytion of young people to participate and contribute to the programs of self-help and mutual assistshyance (They appear to have the same problems we do regarding motivation) Another resolution of the caucus (which seems at least in part to contrashydict the first listed above) stressed the necessity to
protect young people from exploitation and excesshysive participation in development schemes Howshy
ever this resolution appears to be in response to
the fact that in Africa some countries are withshydrawing certain mechanized systems because of the serious surplus labor conditions among the youth Whether this nicans that a youth has to enter the work force at 13 because lie is available or whether he participates at a later age is not clear The withshyholding of mechanized programs to take advantage of this surplus labor also raises a question about
the extent to which youth participation resulting from such action is voluntary
Now to turn to the major purpose of this paper a report on my visit to Africa to look at what the National Youth Services in these countries were doing particularly with respect to what kinds of programs were being developed to let youth particishy
pate in the decision-making process Nineteen African countries have National Youth
Services although in some countries they may have another title For example in Ghana and the Ivory Coast they are called Pioneers Emphasis of these services may be on rural development or multipurshy
pose schemes such as vocational andor general edshyucational training or it can be a centralized trainshying-program geared to accomplish a single purpose
I also found that there were certain problems or questions which were fairly common to all of the prograins In all programs there is concern about
participation of youth-about how much control thc youth themselves should have over the system in which they are operating Similarly there is the need felt in all of the programs (which we share with them) for the development of a specific list of objectives that should be or need to be accomshy
plishied during the period the youths are in the
program this is particularly difl_ult in Africa Anshyother coinnion problem cccurs in those programs that are divided in terms of tribal or sectional groups there are gaps among these programs which need to be filled in order to make them more comshy
parable and to build some kind of national idenshytity among these groups Finally the youth in Afshyrica represent great pools not only of resources but of political power For example they were imporshytant factors in the downfall of the government in Sudan and they almost brought down the Seneshygalese government Youth also had direct participashytion in the new constitution for Ghana
The specific youth programs in the African counshy
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tries vary widely as may be seen from the followshying examples Nigeria for example is building a huge program of vocational training This program is directed towards taking some of the military pershysonnel and giving th2m vocational training before they are released to find civilian jobs In Zambia on the other hand there is a broader program The Zambia job corps although it is a large centralized camp is definitely a voluntary service It takes youth from all over the country into this center In determining whether the youth would participate in agricultural or in vocational training programs it takes into account the government needs as well as the youths needs When this determination is made they are sent to specific camps to be trained The agricultural graduates when they finish their program which may last as much as two years are given plots of land to develop The entire first twoshyyear graduating class (graduation actually occurred while we were there) was drafted into the army beshycaue of the need Zambia feels to defend its border The program therefore in practice appears to have been a pre-military training program However when the youngsters muster out of the army they will be we were informed given plots of land and in other cases given additional training to be
placed in vocational programs While we were in Tanzania where it appears
they are going their own way in youth planning the biggest controversy among the youth-a very centralized group-was the mi ni-skirt controversy The African youth feel this is an important issue The discussions regarding the length of mni-skirts actually were being addressed to the Europeans who were wearing mini-skirts shorter and shorter The mini-skirt apparently became an issue in Zamshybia also
In the Ivory Coast where there is a particushylarly encouraging program the youth come to one camp in one area of the country and then exshychanges occur within the youth camps to mix the
population and to give it some uniformity of trainshying In Ghana there is another type of programshythe Young Pioacer Gliding Schools Some three or four hundred youths (Young Pioneers) will be given special training in flying gliders for fun The National Youth Group of the country which is sepshyarate from the government but government financed is taking over this school and actually using the facility for a residential training proshygram
On the basis of what I have observed and the opshy
portunity I had to talk with various persons at the Geneva meeting where there must have been some 15 proposals from youth groups within Africa for aid both technical and administrative as well as for actual financial aid for the development of furshyther youth services there appears to be no question but that the development of youth services is going to be highly important in Africa Moreover unless the problem of youth services within these counshytries is solved within a short time there can be imshy
portant impact upon the future political developshyment of many of the African countries
Discussion
Question from the floor Title IX of the Forshyeign Assistance Act states that emphasis shall be placed on assuring maximum participation in the task of economic development on the part of the people of developing countries through the encouragement of democratic private and local governmental institutions This mandate would indicate that the type of youth programs we should support should be ones in which their objectives are obtained without the element of coercion or forced labor Yet it appears that in some African programs there are work brigades-coercion compulsion no choice Furthermore some of these programs may be underwritten by the US through our surplus agshyricultural connodities under the Food for Work program Since the youth programs in the US and Africa appear to have essentially the same objecshytives how in your opinions Mr Mirengoff and Mr Lum is it possible to achieve these objectives without the element of compulsion Do you give freedom of choice on the recruitment side or on the training side Do you use some elements of compulsion for a limited perod of time in order to prepare the youth to move on a free choice basis into a world of work
Mr Mirengoffs comments I can only give part of the answer to this question as it relates to the Job Corps program It is a voluntary program Nobody is coerced into Job Corps They come in of their own free will From our point of view this is good Those who come into Job Corps have a sense of motivation and a sense of purpose which is reshyflected in what they do once they get in Job Corps as contrasted to a situation where they have to be in public school until the age of 16 whether they like it or not In the latter situation when they do
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not like it there is trouble Our whole premise is based upon voluntarism which we hold very near and dear
In a voluntary program popular involvement has meaning In a controlled society it has no meanshying I wish there was someone who could explain the philosophy or develop the concept of popular involvement in a totalitarian country I cannot do it
Mr Lums comments Certainly in some African countries the youth programs are not fully volunshytary and may often also include political indoctrishynation In other countries the programs are really voluntary although they may be run in a military manner
The question of actual forced labor is a real and difficult issue at least in the expressed opinions on the African youth problem These youth want to say that we should live up to the ILO and the UN conventions to end forced labor but we have tremendous pools in some of the countries of 12 to 15 years olds roaming the streets and we do not know what to do about then One solution for exshyample has been to organize them in a nonvolunshytary system to build roads I do not know what this trains youth to do but maybe it brings them up to a point where eventually they are able to enter volshyuntary training programs This is an area in which it appears the African youth themselves have not yet really reached a final decision
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THE ROLE OF TRADE UNIONS AND EMPLOYER ORGANIZATIONS IN THE EFFICIENT UTILIZATION OF MANPOWER
by Everett M Kassalow
Dealing with the problem of trade unions and manpower planning and other forms of economic planning in the context of the less developed counshytries is especially difficult All of us who have grown up in and around the American trade union movement and around trade union movements generally in the Western world have done so in a certain setting and atmosphere which I would call (for want of a better word) conflictive in characshyter
Trade unions and the American unions are a classic example have always been in a certain sense outside of the mainstream of economic developshyment The unions have been beating against the development process in order to protect their memshybers They are almost driven to conflictive posishytions because they were reacting to a process which was doing damage or making dislocations in the lives of people
This kind of reactive trade unionism was successshyful in the Western World But such unionism does not lend itself immediately or too directly as a model or mechanism for learning about what trade unions canl or should do in connection with the
problemn cf shaping and implementing developshyment policy However I also believe that trade unshyions in any but a totalitarian society or a highly authoritarian society will always have to perfori tihe reactive and conflictive role of protecting their workers against the impact and the plocess of inshydustrialization However if trade unions are to play a more positive role or more participating role in the development process we do have to reexamshyine the nature of the function and the character of trade unionism in the light of the kinds of things trade unions can should or might do in the less developed countries
When I say can should or might do I am satshyisfied to use those words I am satisfied that one can approach the development process in a new society
with a sense of trying to change things and to conshyceive of new combinations because they are going to be new These societies are not going to develop the way American or European society has develshyoped or hopefully not the way Soviet society has developed There are going to be different roles to be played different emphasis different compulshysions in the situation
As we try to reconstruct the role of trade unions for these purposes a large part of Western trade unionism may not be directly relevant For exshyample in the post World War II period one can begin to see the emergence of a new kind of trade union posture to some extent in the United States but more clearly in Western Europe which did put the trade union into a more participative role and thus placed it in the mainstream of ecoshynomic and social policy making As a result of broad historical social and economic changes the trade unions are now more fully but not comshy
pletely integrated into their own societies in Westshyern Europe and to an important extent in the United States than has ever been true before
Bargaining has not ceased nor has the role of adshyvocacy which a trade union must play in negotiashytion disappeared in either Western Europe or in the United States This role however is increasshyingly added to the positive role of sharing in the key economic and social policy imaking decisions An example in the US is the Iole which has slowly alshymost painfully emerged for the AFL-CIO and some of its constituent unions in the last 10 or 15 years on nationlal conmnissions such as those on aushytomatiotn juvenile delinquency or foreign trade
In assuming these new roles the US trade union movement has not cast off its old role It has attempted to suppleiment what it was doing in the way of its militant advocacy at the job level or the industry level with this additional set of functions It is not easy when you have spent a lifetime being
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on the outside to suddenly step into the middle of things and have to take the role of policy advocate This kind of new responsibility is not at all easy and yet this is happening
In relating Western trade union experience to the developing countries it is essential to recognize that process of economic development will be difshyferent from that in the West Capitalism and inshydustrialization in the United States and in Western Europe grew unplanned for the most part spontashyneously one step tumbling upon another Growth of industrialization and moderization in Asia and Africa will not be spontaneous A large part of the process will be guided and conditioned Under these circumstances it seems pretty clear that unshyionism as a purely reactive force simply will be unacceptable It will have that role to play but inshyevitably it will be called upon (it seems to me shoild be called ulpon) to play a participatory role and a more integrated role almost from the beginshyning of the industralization process In this sense it is difficult I believe for American trade unionists especially to take a full measure of the problems which confront a less developed countrys trade unshyions
What kinds of experience am I considering when I say that one can look to new roles and a new posshyture for trade unionism in the less developed socishyeties What kinds of experience are relevant in the West What experience has there been in the less developed countries which bears upon this probshylem
Well in the West if you look at Western Europe there is a whole series of activities that Western European trade unions engage in which seem to me are relevant to the question of union participashytion in manpower training manpower developshyment economic development and social developshyment in the less developed countries
There have sprung up for example in the last few decades a uilber of so-called national ecoshynomic and social councils such as those of the Netherlands and France (and in Austria if one wants to include lie so-called chambers of labor and chambers of industry which are semi-governshymental in character) The trade unionists and the trade union movement are called upon to play a role sitting in national bod ics with consultative powers and sometimes with decision making powshyers in the case of the Netherlands and to some exshytent in the case of France
Some people are inclined to dismiss this role of
making of national social and economic policy They say that the unions have just been there as a kind of front in the various levels of the French planning process whether it was the Economic and Social Council or the commissariat and the same charge is made of the unions in the Nethershylands It seems to me this is a rather short-sighted view of the unions experience in this function It is so new and since to some extent runs against what has been the conflictive tradition and the pure advocacy of a particular point of view of the trade union movement that it would have been a miracle to have expected the trade unions overshynight to have made major contributions to ecoshynomic and social planning in these societies of Western Europe
My own feeling is that as these processes growshyand I think they will grow because traditional parliamentary bodies no longer seem adequate to deal with these top level social and economic decishysions that have to be made in society-planning bodies different in each country will grow and the trade unions will increase their sophistication in these roles and will increasingly measure up to these tasks and opportunities
In any event in somewhat different circumshystances similar bodies are already being created in a number of the African countries Trade unions have representation oin all kinds of planning bodshyies It was one of the heritages of the French coloshynial administration Planning and economic counshycils were established in Algeria Tunisia-down through French West Africa
In a number of these countries the trade union movement is wemk Therefore their influence in these planning councils could be expected to be limited To the extent this can be determined from the meager information currently available this apshypears to be a reasonable conclusion Unfortunately no one has gone into any of the African nations to see what has happened to these councils But if popshyular participation in development is to mean anyshything these are important experiments I would strongly recommend that the American AID agency andor the US Department of Labor as well as others take a rather (lee) interest in trying to find out what is happening in these kinds of institushytions I believe that the very nature of economic development in these countries means that these councils and these planning authorities will grow in importance and we should be looking into them
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to see what can be done and what are the lessons that can be learned
There are other lessons that we can begin to see in this broad experience ranging from Western Europe on to Africa and to some extent Asia First any union representation on social economic or national planning bodies as they may happen to be identified must be a real one In India for exshyample one of the reasons why there is almost total trade union discontent with the planning is that the trade unions have always been pretty much shut out Each time a new national plan was in the making the planning minister whether he is a soshycialist or a conservative goes through the motions of consulting on a formal basis with the trade union movement and that is the end of it
If you are to enlist the support and interest and to educate this important institution that we call trade unionism regarding the problems the possishybilities and the opportunities of economic planshyning it must be accorded a genuine role in the opshyerating machinery I know that planners are often horrified at the thought that they with their reshyfined techniques (really not so refined but they think they are) are going to have to consult with these grubby fellows who they feel have never really had enough formal education as well as to take them into their councils and give them voting rights in the setting of goals and the determining of
priorities for the society This situation is usually something the planners feel they cannot accept If this position by the planner is correct you can almost forget the whole process because unless the trade union has responsibility in the decision makshying machinery the function will usually decline or never even come to life
Success of trade union participation on planning councils I believe also re(luires some form of govshyernment aid I can think of three countries-France Austria and Great Britain (to choose three disparate examples)-where such aid is proshyvided to strengthen for example the research and economic facilities of the trade union movement In Austria for forty or fifty years now the chambers of labor have been supported by the government and they are really the most important research weapon or arm of Austrian labor
In France such effective participation as the trade unions have done recently in the planning
process and earlier in the social and economic area has been to a substantial measure due to governshyment assistance Under the urging of the US AID
mission France in the early and mid-fifties began to provide subsidies to the French trade unions to build up their research facilities
To an American this seems impossible How can a trade union take money from a government to build up its research facilities Will not such aid compromise the research Apparently it has not Apparently it is now recognized that both governshyment and unions are sophisticated enough so that once you invite a body like the trade union into the planning or development process you can afshyford them some measure of financial support withshyout compromising their independence
It must be recognized that the very fact of particshyipation in the planning pocess is in a certain sense a compromise of independence Neither labor nor management can participate in a joint
planning process unless they do so on the basis of respect of somebody elses rights and the recognishytion of some shared common gains and programs It seems to me that this notion is understood and that acceptance of financial ad to conduct research and training to help further participation is feasishyble
Legislation has been pending (and may already have been passed) in Great Britain which will iake available certain funds for research and for training assistance to the British trade union moveshyment Thus one of the oldest Western trade union movements and perhaps the most independent of governments along with the American trade union movement is now willingly increasing its acceptance of some form of financial aid to enable it to play its new role in society
The advantages to the government especially of less eveloped countries of these new roles that the trade unions can play are enormous If human reshysource institutions are critical in development as is now increasingly agreed what better vehicle or channel to exercise influence and increase popular
participation and understanding is there than the trade unions This is true even weak as they may be in many of these countries Moreover if they did not exist they ought to be created
In recognition of the importance of this human factor some governments of course have not been above creating the trade unions I can think of a number of Asian and African governments where the trade unions have been created largely with government benevolence or government assistance Even though we accept these trade unions with caution there exist present advantages They at
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least will help ensure communication and particishypation as well as other assistance to the governshyments of less developed countries which are overshyburdened with the tasks they face Most of these governments have to assume the responsibility for economic development activities including the major central planning role and allocation of critishycal investment resources (to some extent) and of foreign exchange To the extent these governments can look to trade unions or other intermediate inshystitutions to carry on many of the tasks such as training the administration of social security proshygrams and the joint encouragement of productivshyity programs they can be relieved of much of the weight which otherwise will fall on them This should help increase the viability and prospects for democracy because it is the overburdening of the whole process of government which it seems to me is one of the dangers that confront the African and the Asian nations
Trade unions therefore have this very useful vital possibility and related to this of course is the opportunity if you will of diverting what might otherwise be the all-out concentration by trade unshyions on wage and hour gains I do not mean that they should be deterred from their interest in wage and hour bargaining and gains but it could at least diffuse some of that all-out thrust which is trashyditionally all the trade unions do in the early stages of (levelopment
This change in trade union outlook it seems to me siiouild be sufficient inducement for new counshytry goverminents to take a real look at this process
Ilese issues I have discussed are tentative The experience that can be drawn upon is limited But the fact that we are calling for things that can hardly be itaglled or dreaied of in some peoples world shiotuld not (eter tis We have found to date
o b that what we know about institutions and the pr shylem of building institutions and especially subinshystittitions in developieit has not served us suffishyciently well Tlie ttIle union movement strikes me Is a most signifi ant factor if popular participaition is to imeanl someiting and if there is to be a hope for sonie kind of deomtcratic development process
DISCUSSANT Paul Fisher
Profesor Kassalows paper has very clearly stated that our preseit experience of trade unions with labor participation in various councils has been uneven to put it Mildly My experience leads to similar contclusions
What are the labor people really good at They are good when it comes to affairs which are of conshycern to them such as wages or working conditions But what have these matters to do with manpower Manpower as studied here is a very technical subshyject requiring a considerable degree of sophisticashytion in statistics mathematics and also in economshyics Now what has this to do with lets assume the German Works Council or a participation of a trade union representative in one of the other councils It has something to do because quite obvishyously the working hours working conditions and the wages have an allocative function They alloshycate labor not only the present labor but also the future labor and therefore direct people by the inshycentives offered by the system to a particular occushy
pation So in a way these people who are interested in these mundane affairs are instruments of manshy
power policy Where are the labor people not so good They
are not so good when it comes to technical subjects as for instance the economic planning mechanism the manpower mechanism the social security adshyministration details But should not we feel that the important issue in all three areas is the large decisions and the large decisions are rather easily understood and are basically political decisions Labor in all of these countries has the opportunity to influence political decisions
Employment is (tite obviously of interest to the trade union It is of interest to the workers or the sons of workers and employment is necessarily linked to the investment function As a conseshy
quence labor has an interest to participate in those governmental bodies which influence the employshyment function and the investment function Thereshyfore you find labor not only in the large bodies but the small ones as well which are based on the functioning of a specific industry a specific localshyity
Now what form does this participation take It takes the form of information or consultation and if you want co-deterinination But which is really the important fun(lion at the present time as disshytinguisled from the future Thelpresent function which is very important is information It is very useful from the viewpoilit of the body politic to have trade union leaders trade union representashylives not only participating in the decisions and therefore knowing why or how a decision is reaclhed to let us assume establish a dam in one
part of the country or an industry in another part
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but it is also useful for them to transmit this knowledge to their organization and therefore inshyfluence the wage policy and the manpower policy of the trade union itself
Consultation fulfills the same purpose Co-deter-Imiination depends on the subject but it can be said that co-determination has been a success precisely in that area where it was of immediate concern to the union representatives and to the labor director
Mr Kassalow sums it up by saying that the peoshyple who have the money to innovate normally the government make the employment and investshyment decisions in less developed countries thereshyfore it becomes important that the people do parshyticipate in those decisions of the government which really affect their lives and the lives of the organishyzations
DISCUSSANT Leonard Sandman
My experience suggests that it is not only diffishycult but may also be unwise to assign to unions in developing countries a role that diverts them friom the conflictive posture The following briefly disshycusses some of these experiences
In Korea I visited ain automotive manufacturing Company I was particularly impressed with tlhe large numbers of workers employed by the comshypany and that many of them appeared to be to say the least inefficiently utilized After touring the plant I asked tle manager about labor relations generally and the role of the union He recounted tle unions annual demands for wage increases and otherwise dismissed them as having only a nuishysance role because he could manipulate and control the union
I coiniented oi the large numbers of workers that lie employed and asked if possibly with sonie arrangement with tle union the workers could be engagedl more efficiently with the resulting savings in labor costs being distributed to the workers in tle form of hiigler wages and to the owners of the plant in tie fori of higher profits I quickly disshycovered that this was rather a naive suggestion beshycause as lie showed miie whetn various components of thiis cost and tle variables that influenced profit were considered wages were a very small proporshytioin of the cost of his production about 10 percent
With this kind of aii experience of which we see much in Asia a general lack of concern on the part of management with the efficient utiliation of commodities which are cheap and plentiful that is unskilled workers and often semi-skilled workers is
to be expected Obviously under such conditions little concern is to be expected on the part of the unions with the problem of how unions can coopshyerate with management to effect a more efficient utilization of workers I believe it is only when unshyions are successful in raising wages that is in pursuing their conflictive roles that management is compelled to use manpower more efficiently and then become concerned with productivity And this perhaps is one of the most effective ways that unions contribute to the efficient use of manpower
Experience in India with union participashytion in management also illustrates the difficulty of assigning to unions a role that diverts them from the conflictive posture The Minister of Labor who pioneered the program of labor particishy
pation had the feeling that if only we could give the workers a sense of management a sense of idenshytification with the industry the fact that their wages were so low would beconie less intolerable (I guess this could be called psychic income) Joint labor management councils were formed in a number of private and public sector plants Their experiments in union participation with manageshymient were getierally failures For the most part the discussions in the joint councils which were supshyposed to center on ways of increasing efficiency imshyproving management or improving the productivshyit) of the plant were centered generally on items of wages gi ievances and related interests They dushyplicated the collective bargaining function
Even with centralized planning in many of the Asian countries the unions there have generally
played atn indirect role if any in the basic quesshytions of settingpriorities determining targets and devising the strategies of employment After all ecshyonotnic development programis often represent a strategy of staying in power to the government Where unions have political influence the governshy
nient development plans may concein themselves seriously with employment and with income distrishybution problems but where they lack such influshyence development plans tend to place low priorishyties oi funding programs which promote the human goals of development
I think that popular participation should be a goal of every society It no doubt provides a system for the soundest kinds of economic and social deshyvelopment but the political realities of how growth gets distributed cannot be ignored Hence diverting union energy away from the conflictive
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roles should be examined very carefully so that we ment having a formal role rather than substance in do not end up with union participation in develop- participation
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MAIOR PARTICIPATION IN SOCIAL SECURITY
by Paul Fisher
The history of social security started off with mutual aid societies in Europe which were in esshysence trade union societies-societies of workers They had their origin in medieval German associashytions Out of this tradition developed a participashytion of trade unions of workers in the administrashytion of individual social security funds
It was important to know about how much sick pay the worker would get what would be the unshyemployment benefit that could be expected from this particular group and what would be the fushyneral grant Later as Social Security developed it became important to have some say in income sysshytems as a whole in sickness systems because they affected productivity
It is true that social security covered more than the workforce in industry and commerce It covshyered the total population The trade union represhysentative took on a new role and became not only the representative of the workers (the workers he organized and those for which he spoke) but he becane the representative of the popilation at large a very interesting goal which fits very well in the concept of a trade union as it exists in many countries developed and under-developed
What has all this to do with manpower Social security seems to be a transfer payment which you exact between one generation of workers and the next one between the healthy and the sick or beshytween the people who have small families and those who have large families
The interesting part is that many of these things have something to do with deferred wages In a way a social security contribution an individual makes today is a deferred wage which he will touch when he reaches the retirement age and this has been very well understood by the trade unions all around the globe and as a consequence it was the trade unions that fought for the advances in Social Security in this country as well as in other counshytries
The famous labor uprising in May 1968 in France was a revolution against some of De Gaulles attempts to reduce benefits De Gaulle was forced into the attempts because he felt the social security system which has very meager old age benefits was paying too much money in sick beneshyfits Labor in Franc was successful in its revolution The reform measures of Mr De Gaulle were largely discarded The same thing happened in Italy Labor as a whole has an interest in social security because it considers the social security benefits as nothing more than a part of total lifetime earnings from work
What form has it taken The usual form which has been an advisory function The advisory funcshytion is very well expressed in the United States
What is then the effectiveness of the participashytion of labor and the Social Security Administrashytion The effectiveness is quite interesting It deshypends upon the political strength and the economic strength of the labor movement If the labor is forceful it will yield results which surpass the reshysults of any other interest group
Who gets something out of it The first one who gets something out of it is quite obviously the union because the union can gain power The union can gainposts The union can occasionally see that funds which are accumulated in social seshycurity systems are deposited in the worker banks and worker banks become then the more powerful tool of making loans and investments where loans and investments are desirable Evidently trade union representatives can see to it that this particushylar function is not disregarded The power of the unions can also be abused and one of the famous examples is again in France in 1945 when the Comshymunist labor movement under the first De Gaulle government was able to conquer the social security administration and it took years before the purely politic-l interest of the Communist party of France
87
was eradicated or at least minimized in the French social security system
Now who else gets something out of it The public because if trade unions do not talk about the public nobody else does It is quite true that in the original French system for instance the organshyizations of large families the organization of social security beneficiaries were also represented but if you looked at the people who represented this orshyganization it would be the same people from the French trade unions which existed and appeared from the other side of the table representing their organizations
Who else gets something out of it The governshyment The government because some of the meashysures which social security imposes some of the regulations some of the rules of the game are so
complicated that unless the system has a ready mechanism for transmitting this information to the public the public will not gain anything from a social security system The trade unions and anyshybody else representing the public are a very excelshylent a far better motivated and a far more effecshytive means of having this information transmitted than any other
The last point is what has this to do with manshypower The feeling has always been that the particshyipation of the public in manpower planning and in manpower organization must be divorced from the particular aspect which is studied here It must be linked to the final goal of a manpower policy and participation can therefore be better able to coshydetermine or to influence at least the goals of a manpower policy
US GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1972 0-469-452
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INTRODUCTION
The International Manpower Institute for- Training and Education of the Manpower Administration conducted a Symposium on Popular Participation in Manpower and Employment Development April 29-May 1 1970 sponsored by the Department of Labor and the Agency for International Development
Title IX of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1966 and the various provisions amending it in subsequent legislation stress the importance of assuring maxishymum participation in the task of economic development on the part of the people of the developing countries through the encouragement of democratic private and local governmental institutions This statement expresses the belief that the People of the developing nations should participate more than they do in the decisions that allect their lives in the implementation of developshyment and in the fruits of economic growth These goals are to be achieved through utilizing a wide variety of democratic institutions at all social and political levels
Title IX established as a general principle the objective of popular particishypation in the development programs of the developing countries It did not specifically define the nature and scope of popular participation nor did it indicate how to accomplish this goal The purpose of this Symposium is to attempt to provide some more specific ideas on the nature of popular participashytion and on how it might be achieved through the exchange of ideas and discussion of relevant aspects of popular participation as they relate to mainshypower and employment programs in developing countries
In particular the Symposium was oriented toward review and discussion of the US manpower programs in order to determine how they could be appropriately adapted for use in developing countries to obtain popular particishypation The problems of manpower and employment development embrace all
sectors of the population It therefore can be one important means of developshying popular participation among all sectors of the population Manpower and
employment programs are vital elements in any plan of development The goals
of these programs are mutually reinforcing and interdependent Togetlher they
constitute an active manpower policy which is concerned with enhancing the welfare of workers by maximizing their skills and the quantity and quality of
their employment opportunities This Symposium was the first relating to popular participation in the
manpower and enployment aspects of economic development It is hoped that
through the discussions of this Symposium suggestions and ideas will be proshyvided for use by the Agency for International Development and others conshycerned with international assistance on how to encourage and expand citizen participation in the development process of a developing country
Several of the chairmen of the panels made comments which were pertinent to overall or specific objectives of the Symposium These comments are sumshymarized below
MR LEO WERTS At present throughout the world societies are in the
iii
process of change and the dominant element of this change is the fact that youth who have been denied opportunities and who have been discriminated against are demanding a voice in the decisions that affect their lives and opportunities I should also like to refer to some of my specific experiences in overseas programs which highlight the importance of participation not only of the representatives of groups but of the membership of the groups My exshyperience in Germany after World War II indicated that an important reason why the trade union movement turned out to be an ineffective deterrent to the Nazi movement was the fact that the trade unions had been taken over largely by the bureaucrats in the movement and therefore there was a minimum of participation by the union members Similarly in Pakistan which economists have used as an example of a great growth model there still was a revolution I believe the Pakistan situation illustrates the importance of not pinning all your development efforts on just growth in and of itself In pursuing this singleshyminded approach the welfare and dignity of the workers were overlooked and the workers primarily helped topple the Government I believe these examples underscore the fact that to have a vigorous and healthy society there must be real participation of its citizens
MR EDWIN COHN Efforts to create employment opportunities in deshyveloping countries present a crucial problem Experience to date indicates that in countries which are trying to modernize there is overcrowding in the cities because people are leaving farms and migrating to the urban areas in the search for jobs but industrial expansion has not been proceeding at a suffishyciently rapid pace to provide the jobs needed to absorb the surplus population from the rural areas To solve this problem there is the need for increasing employment opportunities on the land both in agriculture and in agriculturalshyrelated activities as well as for creating more employment opportunities in the industrial sector There is also a general question relating to the relevance of US experience to the outlook in developing countries because there are I believe a number of significant differences in the experience and problems of these countries First Government plays a miuch larger role in most developing countries both in setting and implementing development policy and in undershytaking ind running operating enterprises Conversely the private sector instishytutions both business enterprises and farms are less active and less fully developed
MR JOHN F HILLIARD Wemight get important answers as to how to develop popular participation in developing countries by making a careful examination of our own national experience over the past 50 years I recall that in the relatively rural areas of our country 50 years ago there were comshymunities which had very little of the present convenience facilities such as running water electricity or sanitary facilities Moreover there were no farm to market roads scientific agriculture or agricultural mechanization as well as no cooperatives or market systems In the educational sector there were still only two-room schools Moreover the only service that was performed by the US Government was primarily mail delivery How did these communities imshyprove their circumstances To expand the educational facilities the people in the community built them Similarly to have specific agricultural buildings or bridges the men of the community built these structures as a joint effort This is not to suggest that the less developed countries should attempt to replicate our experience but what I am suggesting is that we never would have reached the point where we could develop and manage institutions on a large scale for the development of the whole economy and society if there had not been this
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upswelling of initiative experience determination and common sense at the grass-roots level Through this process the importance of the individual in his social economic and political development was understood on a very wide scale before there was anything approaching the State or natidnal identity or national system we now have to help us in our enterprises
Also when one looks at the employment problem of 50 years ago in most of America one finds there were relatively few wage-paying jobs in large segments of our society Employment was essentially a subsistence affair with certain payoffs for seasonal crops But the function of people in society was not viewed as a purely economic plhenomerion Employment was thought of also as a useful function of society As a result men women children the aged and even the handicapped had a role in society that was understood and respected In the less developed countries therefore we should not lose sight of the fact that the role in society which is useful and important to the individual playing it is one of the important goals that we are trying to achieve Achievement of this goal can give meaning color and substance to that society although a countrys economic progress may not be up to what we may believe it hould be
Popular participation should be directed towards identifying and developshying the opportunities for people in their own habitat to live better and more fruitful lives because they create their environment and opportunities and apply themselves to the purposes of society without regarding their importance in terms of whether they get regular paychecks In my judgement no country can really become a cohesive society or a nation State unless essentially this concept of development is pervasive accepted and respected by a majority of the people of the country
MR EALTON L NELSON Popular participation in -he strengthening of job market mechanisms and institutions and the removal of barriers to the matching of jobs and workers is an idea that has existed in planning and operashytions in the manpower field for a considerable time It goes back to the Wagner-Peyser Act of 1933 Thus for 37 years in the legislative process there has been a statutory provision in each State as well as the Federal Government to proshyvide consultation through an advisory council
V
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
These proceedings were prepared by Gabriel Cherin University of Houston The Symposium was planned by Morris Pollak under the supervision of Joe White Acting Director of the International Manpower Institute
VII
SYMPOSIUM ON POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN MANPOWER EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT
AND
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS V
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Wednesday April 291970
Morning Session Chairman Leo R Werts Assistant Secretary for Adminshy
istration US Department of Labor
KEYNOTE ADDRESS POPULAR PARTICIPATION DEVELOPMENT
Princeton N Lyman Chief Title IX Division Office of Program amp Policy Coordination Agency for International Development Discussion
AND
POPULAR PARTICIPATION AND MANPOWER AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT
Charles D Stewart Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Affairs Bureau of International Labor Affairs US Department of Labor
5
TITLE IX AND MANPOWER PROGRAMS OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Burnie Merson Chief Planning and Evaluation Division Office of Labor Affairs Agency for International Development
Afternoon First Session Chairman Harold Wool Director Office of the Assistant
Secretary for Policy Evaluation and Research US Deshypartment of Labor
11
SEVEN SIGNS FOR THE 1970s Seymour Wolfbein Dean School of Business Administration
Temple University Afternoon Second Session
Chairman Edwin J Cohn Title IX Division Office of Program and Policy Coordination Agency for Internashytional Development
15
ix
MOBILIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF INSTITUTIONS TO ASSIST IN EXPANDING THE POTENTIALS FOR GREATER EMPLOYMENT COMMUNITY AND PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS ROLE IN JOB CREATION
JOB CREATION IN AGRICULTURE Thomas F Carroll Agricultural Economic Section
American Development Bank Intershy
19
UNITED STATES EXPERIENCE WITH UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDEREMPLOYMENT
William Batt Consultant on Manpower Development Office of Economic Opportunity
24
ROLE OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BUSINESSMEN IN JOB C REATIO N
William Haas Vice President in Charge of Operations National Alliance of Businessmen
go
PRIVATE INVESTMENT AND JOB CREATING POSSIBILITIES Harriet S Crowley Director Office of Overseas Private Programs
Agency for International Development
27
Thursday April 30 1970
Morning First Session Chairman John F Hilliard Director Office of Education
and Human Resources Technical Assistance Buseau Agency for International Development
DEVELOPING ABILITIES THE LINK BETWEEN POPULAR PARTICIPATION AND INSTITU-TIONS INVOLVED IN EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT
POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN THE UNITED STATES
Samuel M Burt Director Understanding Program American University
IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION Business Council for International College of Continuing Education
29
TAIWAN AND KOREAN EFFORTS IN MANPOWER DEVEL-OPMENT THROUGH SCHOOL AND INDUSTRY COOPER-ATION
James D Murray Vocational Education Advisor Agency for International Development
a5
Morning Second Session Chairman Kenneth J Kelley Deputy Director Office
Labor Affairs Agency for International Development of
x
10R AND MANAGEMENTS SOCIAL POLICY INTERESTS IN TRAINING
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES WITHIN PRI-VATE INDUSTRY 9
Clayton J Cottrell Deputy Regional Manpower Administrator Atlanta Georgia US Department of Labor
Discussants J Julius F Rothman President Human Resources Development
Institute AFL-CIO Richard L Breault Manager Community and Regional Develshy
opment Group US Chamber of Commerce
Afternoon First Session Chairman Ealton L Nelson Manpower Advisor Planning
and Evaluation Division Office of Labor Affairs Agency for International Development
MATCHING WORKERS AND JOBS POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN STRENGTHENING OF JOB MARKET MECHANISMS AND INSTITUTIONS
NEW CONCEPTS OF THE EMPLOYMENT SERVICE ROLE TO MEET THE CHALLENGE OF THE 1970s 45
Malcolm R Lovell Jr Deputy Assistant Secretary for Manshypower and Manpower Administrator Manpower Administrashytion US Department of Labor
CREATION OF A CONSOLIDATED MANPOWER DELIVERY SYSTEM DECENTRALIZED TO THE STATES AND METRO-POLITAN AREAS-A WAY OF ACHIEVING INCREASED PAR-TICIPATION RESPONSIVE TO LOCAL NEEDS 49
Cyril D Tyson Deputy AdministratorCommissioner Manpower and Career Devciopment Agency New York City
Discussion 51
THE PROBLEM OF EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNI-TIES FOR W OM EN 53
Grace Farrell Chief oC the Labor Law Branch Womens Bureau US Department of Labor
Afternoon Second Session Chairman Ealton L Nelson
CASE STUDY-JOBS FOR PROGRESS Inc (OPERATION SER) 55 Seymour Brandwein Acting Associate Director Office of Research
and Development Manpower Administration US Departshyment of Labor
Discussion 58
Friday May 1 1970
Morning First Session Chairman Thomas E Posey Policy Planning and Evalushy
ation Staff Office of International Training Agency for International Development
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NEW DIRECTIONS FOR POPULAR PARTICIPATION TO DEAL WITH PROBLEMS ON MANPOWER UTILIZATION
PARTICIPATION OF THE WORKING POOR-UTILIZATION OF HUMAN RESOURCES IN ANTI-POVERTY PROGRAMS 61
Philip J Rutledge Director Department of Human Resources District of Columbia
COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN LATIN AMERICA LEAD-ING TO SOCIAL CHANGE AND INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOP-MENT RELATED TO MANPOWER 65
William F Whyte Professor Department of International and Comparative Labor Relatic s New York School of Industrial Relations Cornell University
Discussion 67 Morning Second Session
Chairman John E Blake Deputy Manpower Administrator for Employment Security Manpower Administration US Department of Labor
MOBILIZING THE PARTICIPATION OF YOUTH IN MAN-POWER AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT-A UNIVER-
SAL CHALLENGE 69 William Mirengoff Director JOB CORPS Manpower Adminisshy
tration US Department of Labor
MANPOWER AND YOUTH PROGRAMS IN THE DEVELOP-ING COUNTRIES OF AFRICA 77
Max R Lum Jr JOB CORPS Manpower Administration US Department of Labor
Discussion 78
Afternoon Session Chairman John E Dillon Chief Program Coordination
Division Office of Labor Affairs Agency for International Development
PARTICIPATION IN EFFORTS TO INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY AND TO PROMOTE THE WELFARE OF WORKERS
THE ROLE OF TRADE UNIONS AND EMPLOYER ORGANI-ZATIONS IN THE EFFICIENT UTILIZATION OF MANPOWER 81
Everett M Kassalow Professor of Economics University of Wisshyconsin
D iscussan ts 84 Paul Fisher Chief International Staff Office of Research and
Statistics Social Security Administration Department of Health Education and Welfare
Leonard Sandman Labor Advisor Bureau Near East and South A-la Affairs Department of State
LABOR PARTICIPATION IN SOCIAL SECURITY 87 Paul Fisher
Xii
OUJAAJ PARTICIPATION AND DEVELOPMENT
Princeton N Lyman
Title IX of the Foreign Assistance Act calls upon the Agency for International Development (AID) to encourage the growth of democratic private and local government institutions in carrying out its programs of assistance This paper briefly reviews the considerations being given and the things that are being done by the AID to carry out this injuncshytion Before proceeding with this review however several comments need to be made on the attitudes developing regarding local participation among other groups interested in development and on the nature and status of AIDs efforts in this area at this time I believe it liighly significant that there is growing recognition of the problems of particishypation and the need for their solution among orshyganizations concerned with development as well as within the AID There is increasing awaireness in many countries of the world that the problems of participation are not problems that can be put off until a certain higher level of modernization is achieved ever though this belief may seem (or seemed so a few years ago) an easier or more pracshytical path to development
With regard to AIDs activities we are not yet as deeply involved in the probleams of popular particishypation as we would like to be We are still searchshying for practical answers to these questions (1) How should popular participation be defined (2) How should it be applied and (3) What should AIDs role be in increasing local participation in the development process in general as well as in the manpower areaThese are difficult questions to anshyswer and I hope that the discussions during this conference will be helpful in developing answers to them
The concept of participation is a highly complex one We recognized this and appreciate the coMshyplexity of the concept in our attempt to think through the meaning of Title IX Is it political deshyvelopment or a new twist to the community develshyopment emphasis in economic aid Or just peopleshy
to-people programs What does this Title involve We chose quite specifically to emphasize the concept of participation because it is so broad The advanshytage of choosing a concept like participation is that it cuts across economic social and political factors It is probably the only concept that does cut across all these facets of the development process Not only that but we are convinced that the type of participation the degree of participation and the nature of participation that will be taking place in the development process in different countries is going to have to be decided by those societies based on the conditions that they face There are potenshytial trade-offs between economic participation and
political participation There are societies in which people are willing to accept some degree of authoritarianism for substantial economic benefits
There are other societies where that simply is not true people are most interested in owning a
piece of their own land than in higher wages as tenants or agricultural laborers These are probshylems that the society of a country will themselves have to think and argue through and then come up with a concept of participation The decision therefore should not be directed from the US preshydisposed point of view but from the point of view of that society We can appreciate the problems of
participation for developing societies by simply looking at otir own society where we have had a relatively large degree of participation However the growth in participation has been gradual and often difficult
If you look at the history of the United States since independence you can see that there have been gradual increasing waves of participation Each wave has been a difficult one for the United States to absorb even with its wealth its relatively stable democratic institutions How much more then is the problem of participation in countries which have very meager resources extraordinarily crowded conditions on the land and are desper-
I
ately concerned with obtaining even the basic reshysources for development These are problems that simply cannot be swept under the rug by general rhetoric about democratic institutions or principles or about participation Yet the interesting thing about the Title IX or perhaps the most dramatic and challenging thing about it is that it enjoins us to find ways of assisting in the development procshyess that will allow for greater participation earlier rather than later in the development process What Title IX says is that you cannot accept the simple doctrine that participation is a luxury of the develshyoped countries or of the richer countries or of tle more advanced modernizing countries None of the
people of the developing countries will accept it nor does it inake sense in terms of modern developshyment as opposed to whatever experience the Euroshy
pean countries and the United States may have gone through
Carrying through these objectives of Title IX is a challenge and it is not an easy one but I think it is terribly important and a dramatic one and I think a viable one We are capable if we set our minds to it to find development strategies which allow small farmers as well as large farmers which allow landless laborers as well as land owners unshyskilled as well factory workers to have some sense of participation and see some place for themselves in the development process economically socially and politically It is when we get down to the techshynical details when we get down to manpower training prograns thlat the real problems face us One of the things that I tiink is interesting about the problems in tile field of man power development is that it presents a lot of related problems Let me touch on just a few It seems to me that one of the
problems is clearly the question of relationship beshytween wages capital investnent and employment ft is a real symbolic and ideological problem It is a real problem in the senise tiat many countries are planning or are already developing by taking adshyvantage of developing industry In some cases they are taking advantage of the low cost labor in agrishyculture and particularly in relation to export prices However tlhese countries and some of their AID donor agencies are terribly concerned about the effect of rising wages on this pattern of developshyment at least in the short run This condition is reflected in most of the countries int uneasiness about labor organization and furtherance of labor unions For the AI) donors the problem arises beshycause whenever wages seem to go ip or threaten to
go up there is the temptation to shift to more capishytal intensive industries which is precisely where the AID resources are available Foreign exchange from AID will finance much of the capital investshyment but it is domestic resources whichi must finance labor costs and thus AID donors are faced with tile making of a difficult decision do they or do tile) not provide the foreign exchange for inshyvestment in capital This is becoming particularly serious in agriculture where such investment may displace mal) workers Even if this is only a prob lem in the short run-or as some may argue emshyployment in the tertiary sector will rise and offset the loss in agriculture-it still is a very big one for
people who are out of work because the siort rtuni for them is their lives today tomorrow and maybe for the next year A second dilemma it seems to me is the types of manpower training that we go into or that the countries that we assist are going into One of the things that we are becoming
painfully aware of in AID is the fact that educashytion structures and the formal educational systems that we have been working on in the -ountries abroad are simply inadequate to keep up with the growth of population of school age children and tile training of older people
In some instances the growth of the school age
population outruns the growth of educational facilshyities despite tremendous bursts of expenditures on education This situation raises a lot of problems and mainy difficult choices Sonic countries would argue (and you call see this in the development
pattern of many countries) tiat there is simply nothing tile) cal do about it They believe they have to concentrate on training those people who are going to go to the top those people who are to be administrators the managers the industrial elite all the way down to tile middle level It is not
possible for them they feel to be responsible not in this decade or generation for the training or giving of any kind of really meaningful education to the majority of people in the country Some peoshy
ple believe the latter is the only choice There is however an alternative approach which is fraught with all kinds of com 1plexities but attracts many people and that is to move much more heavily into what is called Informal Systems of Education These are systems of education that do not rest on the formal schoolhouse system or the trained colshylege-educated teacher or which are even related to training persons to take their place in the elite role What this system can do is to give people the
O)
ability to cope with the situation that is changing around them or to have some sense of ability to cope with their immediate environment Now these programs whether carried out by labor unions by priests by cooperatives or by innovative educators are very experimental They are also highly controshyversial because when you systematically go at trainshying a mass of people to have a share in a society in which they are not the elite you are challenging sometimes the very social structure of that society
I would take some issue with the position held by some regarding the dangers of more participashytion I think there are dangers in mass participashytion that could lead to frustration and violence But on the other hand participation is not only a means to an organized end it is very often the sum and substance of a mans dignity his ability to say I am a man that I have some part of control over my own destiny Even if he does not have the right technical solution his right to have someshything to say about how those technical solutions are applied gives him dignity How we blend that technical information with that dignity is an exshytremely difficult challenge for all of us who are soshycalled professionals in the development field The fact that people demand that element of parshyticipation or that element of control and that they have to demand it often in very dramatic ways to wake us up to the fact of how little they control their own destiny is perhaps a good thing
We are unquestionably in a very controversial difficult and perhaps dangerous area and yet parshyticipation and the injunction upon us to become inshyvolved in participation carries us purposefully into that area
I would like to touch on one other subject that I think is perhaps somewhat underplayed in our disshycussions of manpower and that is the question of rural manpower Very often when we talk about manpower training and labor we talk about the urban or perhaps the semi-urban groups However I just recently reviewed a number of papers on land reforms and land tenure and from this mateshyrial it becomes increasingly obvious that one of the great manpower problems facing most of the develshyoping countries is rural manpower It is not just a question of dividing up the land because in some countries there simply is not enough land to divide up (I say this as a strong advocate of land redistrishybution) We cannot even if we support land reform avoid the fact that there is another class of people that needs to be dealt with as well-the vast
amount of landless laborers tenant farmers or tiny landowners who need to be given some sense of efshyficacy and ability to participate in the development process
Organizing rural manpower giving them some stake in society has proven extraordinarily diffishycult even for the revolutionaries who go out into the countryside to organize the rural workers as well as for the more moderate or conservative reshygimes when they try to find some path to give those workers a stake in as well as a ieason to purshysue agricultural modernization I think this is a task which all of us have neglected too long and one that is going to be upon all of us in the develshyopment business in the next decade Moreover as the Green Revolution spreads accompanied by high yield varieties of crops which will change the
pace of agricultural production in many developshying countries it will become an increasing and most vexing problem
AID is also deeply concerned with the question of the organizations and institutions needed in deshyveloping countries to bring all or as many persons as possible into meaningful participation roles This question is especially important since one thing we have done about Title IX so far is to give it a straight people-to-people approach What Title IX is really all about is getting participation down to the little man the individual farmer or the individual village However we also know that the present AID programs are not reaching nor are the developing countries capable of reaching on a pershyson-to-person basis the hundreds of millions of
people we are talking about To persons in the manpower field I do not have to dwell on the imshyportance of the organizational and institutional factors that must be faced to accomplish this goal In the whole area of labor-both urban and ruralshythese factors are vital ones
I might also note in connection with the labor field that labor unions should be able to play an important role in broadening the participation base
Clearly labor unions play a very critical role in defining openess in political society However we also have some indications though still vague that labor unions may play an even more important role in such matters in the early stages of modernishyzation I think that it is terribly important that this matter be looked into much more deeply There are of course other institutional and organishyzational questions in the manpower area which are
3
beyond the scope of the labor unions which must be considered These include rather broad but still significant questions concerning the general nature and scope of over-all manpower development on how to reach organize and provide access to reshysources for vast numbers of people These as well as the other problems I raised in this paper are some of the challenges of applying participation in the manpower area
Discussion
Question from the floor This comment is in reshygard to the problem you noted concerning capital imports from donor countries and their possible adverse effects on employment opportunities in the developing country Has any consideration been given to the development of guidelines by the AID for use in the analysis of the impact of public works construction in developing countries which would allocate the cost of labor using a shadow cost formula for determining the feasibility or desirashybility of importing capital equipment versus using local labor If there is unemployment in the counshytry local labor costs could be considered as zero for determining economic and social feasibility of imshyporting capital equipment
Mr Lymans comment Your suggestion is inshyteresting but it raises certain practical problems In most cases the cost of labor for a project has to come out of domestic resources of the country Thus large labor intensive projects will require substantial amounts of such resources which most developing countries simply do not have or are not too willing to mobilize for such purposes They prefer therefore to find a combination which reshyduces the burden on domestic resources and places the larger burden upon the capital side which will be financed by the AID donor The AID donor also tends to look upon such financing favorably beshycause the financing of capital expenditures usually is done in the form of financing export of US equipment
Question from the floor I should like to make the following comment with respect to participashytion particularly in Latin or Central America There is a degree of participation in these counshytries far beyond that which we reL gnize For exshyample certainly in the universities of Latin Amershy
ica there is substantial participation of the students and faculty in decisions regarding university polshyicy Also in the rural areas of some of the Latin American countries and in the health programs of these countries there is a considerable amount of participation of the local population It seems to me that the degree of participation in most of the Latin American countries has been related to the resources available for such participation If you do not have resources your extent of participation is going to be rather limited it seems rather futile to spend time discussing a new well or developing new labor supply or new jobs if the resources are not available to support these programs These are really comments rather than any criticisms or quesshytions regarding your talk
Mr Lymans comment I think your comment is highly relevant to development strategy If you are trying to devise a practical approach to participashytion and development you have to try to deal with increasing ways of participation as they are going to be generated or should be generated by the stages of development
Question from the floor For some time the Farmers Union International Development Services has been involved in participation programs throughout Latin America We have found that in the agricultural field problems of clearance with the mission may develop which sometimes seriously restrict our efforts because the programs that we are conducting are offset by counterproductive official programs which are supported by the AID mission
Mr Lymans comment Your points are well taken I think one of the really difficult practical problems for AID agencies and the US in popular participation is that we are caught between the fact that we are a US government agency dealing with the host governments which as you point out may or may not be sympathetic with the participation of peasants unions or rural workers However it is a problem that is now recognized I believe in the recent legislation establishing the Inter-American Social Development Institute which is designed by Congress to set up a social development institute separate from the regular AID program and which will operate as relatively autonomous in the areas of social change
4
TOIPULAR PARTICIPATION AND MANPOWER AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT
Charles D Stewart
As I understand my task in this symposium I am supposed to provide the linkage between the aspirashytions of Title IX which I suppose are intended for domestic consumption as well as export and the more workaday objectives of manpower policy All of this I take it is within a framework of ecoshynomic policy namely for economic development in the LDCs and full employment without inflashytion in the developed countries Hopefully I will succeed in lihking social participation and the obshyjectives of manpower policy (called manpower and employment development by the sponsors of the symposium)-and do so without trying you and myself particularly with a repetition of the verities of our trade (ressed up in the mantle of social parshyticipation
If I may be excused I will take my text for the day not from Title IX or the original statement or introduction for this symposium which I agree with almost entirely but find somewhat heady Inshystead I will take my text from William Fellner in his 1969 presidential address to the American Ecoshynomic Association-wrenched perhaps somewhat outof context but I think suggestive for our purshyposes
Fellner attempted to sum up the pros and cons of what has come to be known as the Residual Factor or Investment in Education or Knowledge-to apshypraise the differential yield of what he calls progshyress-generating inputs (for education and knowlshyedge) that produce additional output indirectly via their effect upon conventionally defined producshytion functions relative to ordinary investment I extrapolate to include social investments in particishypatory democracy as progress-generating inputs Fellner argues that public decisions of a non-marshyket variety depend for viability upon how well in the West the political mechanism is capable of bridging the differences in subjective evaluations of competing groups My text is his final sentence
Is it realistic to expect that the propensity to reach compromises can be increased by making the bargaining parties aware of the fact that the joint payoff on reaching an agreement is high
I was tempted by an alternative text whose aushythor I dont know You cant move the Phillips curve to the left in a country that is going to the right Its a nice quip but not true insofar as manshypower policy in a market economy can remove imshyperfections in knowledge and competition and orshyganization to achieve a better functioning labor market Yet even so the final outcome could deshypend on willingness of workers to participate in soshycial decisions-my extrapolation of Fellners quesshytion in bargaining theory
What I intend to do using this as a jumping off point is to examine the question of social particishypation as it has been raised in manpower policy (much to the credit of our fraternity) in the conshytext of economic stabilization in the North and ecshyonomic development in the South How critical is social participation for success of economic policy in the two worlds
Now I know ivhat with increasing disappointshyment in the economic payoff of development plans in the LDCs commonly blamed on the economists in charge or at large it is increasingly popular to say that development is not simply increasing ecoshynomic production but also achieving fundamental social objectives-as President Caldera of Venezuela said in opening the recent ILO Conference in Cashyracas This is essentially the same as in the North where it is now popular to say that quantitative gains in GNP are not the end of economic policy
If I may return -lefly to Title IX it is one of the virtues of that leclaration of American foreign assistance policy nat it conceives of social particishypation not only as an end but as an instrument of economic development I have said earlier that I
5
find much of what has been said in praise of Title IX somewhat heady-a new expression of American missionary zeal more praised abroad than perhaps at home and somewhat naive with respect to the political dynamics or implications of social transshyformation of backward if not corrupt political reshygimes The cultivation of social participation on the labor market called industrial democracy by an earlier generation may no doubt contribute in time-if we have a long enough time perspectiveshyto the toppling of reactionary political and social structures But success is more likely in a society where social participation finds expression in a countrys constitutional structure It would have been difficult if I may illustrate to have imagined the gains in collective bargaining in the United States in the thirties an adventure in social parshyticipation if there ever was one without the conshystitutional presuppositions of the American system (which in other countries may exist only in intershynational declarations of human and trade union rights) Even so one must hurry to say there was much that was fortuitous in the American developshyment much that would never have happened withshyout self-help on the labor markets much that was not quite yet legal that transformed American law and American society
I suppose there is no need to push my argument to the point of the obvious Any political system is a system of social participation It may be more demshyocratic or less democratic It may have more or less of a market economy It may rely less on legislative means and more on rules for the labor market worked out by the social partners on the labor marshyket and then extended or reinforced by legislation as to some degree in the French and German sysshytems It is perhaps a matter of taste or culture or circumstance or relative efficiency whether a counshy-fry may favor a welfare system in which benefits are handed down or favor the socialization of sectors or processes by means of cooperatives or trade unshyions or codetermination or new forms of public corporations or instrumentalities for active as against passive participation in a political democshyracy It is also a matter of tactics and the stage of development how the disadvantaged or disposshysessed in any society can organize their strength for social and economic advancement and status
What is not guaranteed by Title IX or by any transformation of the political or social structure by land reform by cooperation by collective barshygaining by industrial democracy-is economic sucshy
cess Whether economic success is simply a matter of time or some elements of capitalist spirit or trashydition of entrepreneurship or a free market still has to be tested I wish only to note that there is an essential tension between social participation and a market-oriented and motivated economy which is critical both for economic growth and for social deshymocracy both in the North and the South
Now I will try to be concrete and incidentally strive to cover part of the ground that the managshyers of this symposium hope will contribute to some kind of systematic survey of social or popular parshyticipation in the attainment of manpower and emshyployment development Since my specific topic is identical with that of the symposium as a whole I may be forgiven if I touch some matters I think most suggestive while leaving to others including my discussant what they are better prepared than I to discuss Fortunately for me and perhaps for you it has been suggested that it might be useful if I bring into focus some of the experience of the North as it may be relevant by my intuitions to the problems of developments in the South
To do this in the most concrete way I wish to use Sweden and France as two case studies-beginning as it were with the idyll of the Garden of Eden and going on perhaps to things which must come to pass shortly in the Apocalypse of the Western world
To Americans Sweden has been thought of since at least the publication of Marquis Childs Sweden the Middle Way as the perfect example of a participatory democracy There was not only the popular participation of ordinary people in the cooperative movement which Childa thought of as the heart of the Swedish way there was also the broad-based trade union movement that carried over to the political scene and completed the trilshyogy in a government responsive to its power base in the trade unions and cooperative movement
But the institutionalization of social participashytion in Sweden didnt stop with these achieveshyments One leading Swedish economist Lindbeck writing a brief history of economic thought and ecshyonomic policy in postwar Sweden itemized the two historic developments as (1) the adoption of modshyern fiscal monetary policy at the macro level and (2) the adoption of Rehns conception of an active manpower policy at the micro level I will not stop here to elaborate the connection between the two except to say that an active manpower policy preshysupposed if it were to succeed a carefully managed
6
general demand policy holding short of full emshy
ployment in order to avoid inflation suppleshymented by selective demand and labor market supshyply policies in order to maintain stable levels of full employment
These economic presuppositions of Swedish polshyicy since the late Fifties have been no more or less fulfilled than in other countries and Swedish acshytive manpower policy has had to engage in fireshyfighting operations and has not always been equal to the task of overcoming mistaken demand polshyicies But these matters are not our immediate conshycern
What is relevant to our purposes are two things (1) the social environment that made possible the formulation of an active manpower policy-by the trade unions it so happened-as a means of comshybating postwar inflation in order to escape authorishytarian wages and incomes policy that would have in the view of the LO undermined a free trade union movement and a policy of free collective barshygaining with employers on the labor market and (2) the creation of a tripartite Labor Market Board
What I want to say about the first-the social enshyvironment in Sweden-brings me back to my text from Fellner Nowhere perhaps is there a greater propensity to reach compromises and to do so beshycause of an awareness that the joint payoff of an agreement is high
What I want to say about the second point-the creation of a multipartite labor market boardshygives me a chance to cover some of the ground that the managers of this symposium had in mind in constructing the symposium But I will try to do this without touching all the bases in literal fashshyion I trust my umpire will he indulgent
I must concede that the social participation repshyresented by active tripartite management of the Labor Markct Board is a compromise between
popular participation and efficient administration I really dont know how much of a New England town meeting a Parent Teachers Association a community swimnuing pool organization a housing cooperative a stibiiban civic association or Group Health let alone a community action agency is inshyvolved in what appears to be a well-organized articshyulation of community interests via the tripartite Labor Market Board
But the fact is that the administration of Swedshyish labor market policy and programs is not solely in the hands of a government bureaucracy with adshy
visory committees but is in the hands of what we would call a quasi-public organization from the top in Stockholm down to every provincial labor marshyket board The Board and the boards play an essenshytial role in the economic planning process longshyterm and conjunctural and in actual administration of the labor market If the constituencies of the three parties have any complaints which I suppose they do remedies presumably lie within the rules of the trade unions the employer organizations and the Rikstag but I cant quite imagine a mass demonstration
On substantive matters the Board and the local boards deal wih all of the problems of human reshysources development employment creation mobilshyity and relocation There is of course the usual difficulties of coordination between the school aushythorities and the vocational authorities and pershyhaps some doubts as Sweden moves in the direction of the American nonvocationally oriented high school Otherwise the business of the Labor Marshyket Board is (1) to facilitate the restructuring of the Swedish economy which involves fortunately for Sweden chiefly the movement of workers from the low-productivity forest-based activities of the North to the modern technology of the South and (2) to minimize cyclical fluctuations in the economy
We need only note the new emphasis which may be siuimarized by saying that aside from the wellshyknown mobility features of the program the aim is to provide a combination of training requirements involved in the restructuring c the economy and at the same time furthcr human resource developshyment by providing constructive substitutes for tinshyemployment in recession The result is that trainshying and quasi-training activities rise a5 the demand for employment declines and-in the recession of 1966-68-rose more than the rise in unemployment
But is all right in the Garden of Eden Does the social participation represented by th e tripartite Labor Market Board the friendly collaboration of the unions and the employer associations the discishypline of world competitioi on wage and price polshyicy the continued success of the popular based Soshycial Democratic party at the polls-does this sophistishycated form of social participation satisfy the needs of popular participation It may be only a trivial
phenomenon but the worrisome question in Sweden is how to explain wildcat strikes by workers with few economic complaints who feel neglected by their trade union and political represhysentatives
7
Even before this little breach in paradise Charles De Gaulle anticipated what was to become in France the explanatory factor-the Events of May in 1968 For many years De Gaulle intishymated the need for social participation of workers in what lie conceived to be some kind of a comshypromise with a capitalist society What he meant was never too clear but some specifics touching on profit sharing worried French businessmen and never aroused much enthusiasm in the trade unshyions or support within the party or the bureaucshyracy But De Gaulle must be credited with some kind of intuition of the dissatisfaction of workers with their role in French society and n economic life Profit-sharing codetermination industrial deshymocracy were not anything new but I think it was De Gaulle and the Events of May that brought the need for social participation to the forefront in the North in much the same way as the proponents of Title IX had done in American AID policy at about the same time
What was the situation in France that accounted for De Gaulles solitary premonitions France was viewed by many as almost the perfect model of the welfare state I remember Patrick Moynihans inshyterest in family allowances when lie visited France while Assistant Secretary of Labor He did see povshyerty in St Denis but responded Well at least everyshybody is at work But as the Events of May were to demonstrate in 1968 what matters is not simply full employment (there was of course a little reshycession in 1966-67) or levels of living or family alshylowances in the welfare state or pretty regular gains in real living (although there had been some disappointments on this score as a result of stabilishyzation policy in France during those years) What mattered in France way underneath was the feelshying of French workers that they had no influence in French policy or French society-not only that they were not sharing fairly in the gains of French economic policy (a point which is arguable)
I may recall that the student and worker demonshystrations brought France to the verge of collapse in May of 1968 De Gaulle left the country and reshyturned only after he had secured the support of the French military abroad The alienation of the stushydents was to be explained in no small part by their dissatisfaction with French educational and manshypower policy vhicli they thought was designed to allocate them to slots in the staffing pattern of a capitalist French society Neither the young nor the older generation were enthusiastic about the
new economic society of the Fifth Plan Despite some interconnections the workers demonstrated on their own and wished to have nothing to do with the students Their gripe was their isolation at the plant level from the machinery the goals and the preoccupations of their unions and their national union leadership
Most French workers probably never heard of codetermination in Germany probably had little idea what De Gaulle meant by social participation probably knew or cared little about the niceties of French planning or economic policy and probably didnt want to run their companies businesses To understand their feeling of isolation I need only to mention that French unionism is fragmented along political and religious lines the so-called Workers Councils are legislative creations and generally unshyused at most plants for grievance or other purposes There is ordinarily little union organization at the plant level even where most workers belong to one political union or another Wage levels are genershyally above the negotiated national or regional rates and are set largely by employers in response to marshyket factors and not by negotiation In brief the union is not preeminently an instrument for setshyting wages or settling grievances
At the Labor Ministers office on the Rue de Greshynelle the then Prime Minister Mr Pompidou neshygotiated the Grenelle Agreement in the final days of May 1968 with representatives of the French emshyployers and trade unions who running scared sat together for the first time took steps to raise real wages promote plant unionism and to appease French workers who at the very moment were takshying things into their own hands at their work places The results subsequently on the labor marshyket have been quite creditable The government also capitulated to the university s adents who are now again in 1970 demonstrating at Nanterre against the very university self-government that Faurd was villified for having forced the Assembly to accept in 1968
What then can we say is the experience of the North that may be relevant to maximizing popular participation as a means-in the language of Title IX-for sustained economic and social progress What is the role of manpower and employment policy in the process of social democratization
We have seen clearly in recent years that manshypower policy has an essential complementary role to economic policy-for human resource developshynient and more particularly for training to meet
8
the opportunities and needs of the labor market and for solving the structural problems involved in the continuous restructuring of the modern econshyomy which means both concern for the producshytivity and for minimization of unemployment
But this limited conception of manpower and employment policy is I think it fair to say someshywhat neutral with respect to social goals In authorshyitarian societies it is possible to imagine an efficient manpower and labor market policy quite inconsistent with a democratic society But even in Western societies we have more than a few intishymations that economic progress can be frustrated by frustrations of workers who feel alienated from soliety who feel they have no responsible role no share in decision-making no recognition no social status
The problem of the LDCs is more difficult and I must defer to those with more experience in these
special probleis As implied in Title IX the task is to develop democratic social institutions where they dont exist and where they may be in fact reshysisted by the beneficiaries of the old order I supshy
pose the experience of the North is that it is a slow process Nonetheless the democratic institutions of the North have evolved out of self help in the
creation of instruments of self governance not only in civil arrangements of local government and the political state but in the productive process and on the labor market We should not ignore or undershyestimate the democratic aspects of a free labor marshyket of a market economy or a capitalist society even if we dont wish to press the historic connecshytions between a market economy and political deshymocracy in the West
It is the special virtue of the policy expressed in Title IX that while trying not to impose our preshyconceptions on others we take a long view and fosshyter those elements of education training cooperashytivism land reform and trade unionism that are instruments for self help for both the political and economic man
To come back to my text it is a slow proCess but the only prospect for responsible bargaining the essence of the political process in a democracy is for the dispossessed to become possesse(l to have a stake-and to know the payoff is high-in the viashybility of the economy and the political state Which means to have confidence in their own strength and a sense of responsibility and participashytion in the adjustment processes of society Rememshyber Sweden and remember Francel
9
TITLE IX AND MANPOWER PROGRAMS OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
by Burnie Merson
The goals of Title IX of the Foreign Assistance planning level nationally regionally and locally of Act are stated in general terms These goals are to workers farm and employer organizations in deshydevelop citizen participation in the creation of the velopment of policy and programs to achieve full goods and services needed for economic develop- prodtctive freely chosen employment These and ment and their participation in the fruits of the in- other regional eriployment and manpower planshycreased produictivity resulting from economic ning programs have set the basic structure of world growth However before it is possible to develop and regional manpower plans which stress not the required policies and programs to achieve the only full employment but freely chosen employ objectives of Title IX it is necessary to clearly de- nient fine what is meant by citizen participation and to The achievement of popular participation restate the objectives of Title IX in more specific through productive and freely chosen employment terms will be limited without the opportunity on the
Restatement of Title IX in terms of specific ob- part of the labor force of all ages youth as well as jectives with respect to manpower would relate to adult workers for further educational and occupashycitizen participation in the development process of tional training Also to widen the employment op a country through such matters as job developshy portunities of the workers there must be a broadenshynuent skill development increased worker produc- ing of the occupational choice available to the tivity and improvement of the labor market mech- labor force Qualified jo) seekers may be barred anism This paper briefly discusses the major kinds from available job openings as a result of a number of manpower programs and objectives which I be- of factors These include improper functioning of lieve will help meet the objectives of Title IX It the labor market which impedes matching of men also discusses some of the activities of the interna- and jobs discrimination because of race creed tional and regional organizations which are related color an( unreal educational standards which go to these programs far beyond the needs of the job
One basic element of popular participation The above impediments -are found in virtually should be the development of prpductive jobs every developing country in which I have had some Provision of both full and productive employment experience and in all cases these impediments lead enables those seeking work to have the opportunity to frustrations To cite several examples illtistratshyto obtain remunerative jobs which are essential not ing these impediments to matching of men and only to enable the workers to obtain income jobs In one country because of family structure needed for basic food shelter and clothing but certain good jobs are only available to those who also to permit them to participate in the benefits of conie from the right families In another country any increased outitput of goods and services in the tnless you have the right diplomas front the right country university you are barred from jobs at certain lev-
Another basic element of popular participation els in the government This is so despite the fact is the idea of workers freely choosing their employ- that there are often highly competent people who ment The International Labor Office Basic Con- get education training and experience on-the-job vention 122 the Ottawa Plan for Resource Devel- and are quite qualified for these other jobs Yet opment the Asian plan and the Jobs and Skills they cannot move up to them because they do not program for Africa call for the participation at the have theproper credentials
11
There also can be important impacts on popular participation in the development process through tie minimum wage and social security programs
Minimum wages appropriately administered and
established can play a significant role in establishshy
ing levels of staldards of living consistent with the
objectives of welfare and ians dignity However the minimumn wage levels if raised too high can
have significant adverse effects on employment pro)spects for certain segments of the p pIlation
For example youths seekiiig summer jobs -nd pershysons with low skills and inadequate training may be priced out of the job market Social security simishy
larly can have an important and valuable impact on the standard of living of a country However its value depends upon the incidence of the tax and
how it results in the redistribution of the fruits of production to various segments of the population
The workers sense of participation in the develshyoping process is significantly enhanced if there is
participation through the trade union Trade unshyions can be important not only because of direct
participation in the economic development of a
cotintry but also because they van develop cooperashytion with other sectors of the p 2ation as represhyselited by employer associations and farm groups Similarly the government in its operations through ilh labor miiinistries is an important factor
inl deveiopinent of the institutioinal capabilities for matching men and jobs and developing skills as well as establishiig safety and labor standards And there also is the whole gamut of government reshy
lated institutions which help bring the workers in
closer con tact with tlie government and with the
developmenclt process
The programs aid objectives of the various inshy
ternational orgainiatiolis such as the 110 Convenshy
tion 122 and the Declaration of Cundinamarca
have in my judgment important goals consistent
with the objectives of Titll IX For example the Declaration of Cundinamarca notes that there
Can be no effective cconoinmic and social developshy
ment unless the legitimate rights of labor are recshy
ognized aind the aopirations of the workers are
expressed in terms of concrete achievements involvshy
ing wages eliployimieit working con(ditions social
security health housing and education In accomshy
plishing these tasks the Ministries of Labor have a
vital role to play They should be the ones to take
appropriate steps toward the establislument in each
of their coiintries of a National Council of Human
Resources at the highest level This Council should
be structured to conform with the constittition of the particular country The participation of a wide number of groups should he contemplated includshying universities representatives of employers minshyistries of education vocational training centers national planning offices bureaus of statistics nashytional productivity (cliters and other pertinent agencies that may exist in a given country The Declaration had particularly strong recommendashytions regarding the inclusionl of re 1 resentatives of democratic trade unions employer organizations aud ministries of labor to study and evaluate tile degree of trade union freedom and participation of the workers in the formulation and execution of national development programs
Any) popular participation on the international scene is represented by the ILO and OAS resolushytion predate Title IX of the Foreign Assistance Act In some respects the tying of the manpower program to a broad participation policy is easier than in other fields Manpower has always had a wide or horizonital iniput into almost all sectors of the economy It is it only coicerned with the varshyious industrial sectors-agriculture nonagriculture
bti also public adm inistration edtication health and military sectors This may often be forgotten becatise depending upon specific needs one may look at manpower solely from a single sectorial
stanlpoint Also it is difficult to handle and to look at manpower as ani interrelated system For examshy
ple an emiiployieit service Imay runia teacher
placelelit scrvice a farm placement service and services to the private andillpblic sectors It may also be concenlied with occupational safety both in the public and private sectors Also when an agency attem pts to measure uinemploymen t it usually covshyers all sectors of the population it does not ignore one or aiiot her if possible
Finally a comninet is required on the possibility of developing participation of various groups ill maiipower programs My experience in Korea and Taiwan iidicates that it is possible to do So with considera ble success In developilng plais for mallshy
power we enlisted the consmtiiers of the output of vocational schools anid the various trailing agenshycies as well as the public aul private sector groups We brought together people from the educatioial sector government in general as well as business
an(d commerce with tle vocatiollal and technical training agencies Of course for special problems arising out of the nature of the country and their social and political customs there was cooperation
12
both in providing indication of the nature of their needs as well as providing in some irstances finan-cial support In other instances industry provided shop teachers and brought foremen in from plants in order to show teachers the way things were done in industry
Rcview of the current international manpower
activities in my judgment indicates that in this syea there is at least tle beginning of programs and
actions which can help bring into fruition thc obshyjcdvcs of Title IX if thcy are broadened and dishyrcid more specifically towards the goals of full citizen participation in thcountrys development programs
13
SEVEN SIGNS FOR THE 1970s
by Seymour Wolfbein
In many years of study of manpower developshyments in the United States I have found that one can single out certain trends and changes in the economy which are highly significant as signposts or directional signs for probable future developshyments I would like to submit that there are a handful of such trecnds on which we can concenshytrate as playing sig~nificant roles in the manpower developments over the next decade Although these developments may have different importance and different values for devcloping countries I would also submit that they are of sufficient importance to be given serious consideration in any nalysis of manpower developments in the developing counshytries The following lists the seven developments that I believe are of greatest importance at present
1 Tcchnological change
2 Industrial an(d occupational change
3 Geographic change
4 Educational change
5 Population change
6 Manpower change
7 Disaggregation
Technological change Although the various items are not listed according to their relative imshyportance I would say that it is not possible to talk about moving ahead in any discussion of manshy
power or economic development without first conshysidering the problem oi technological change and its impact upon not only manpover but all aspects of life In the United States over the last 25 years output per man hour has been going ill) at about
the rate of 3 a year Thus over this period outshyput in the United States per man hour has doushybled Over the long run this is really only a blink of time A number of rather startling examples of the impact of such change in the United States can be found Let us look at agriculture for example
In that sector for the last 20 years in a row the United States has lost 200000 jobs per year off the farm Yet farm output over the period has inshycreased by more than 40 It was also during this
period that we were able to land a man on the l11OO1i
Industrial and occupational change Developshyments in the industrial-occupational area is one that most certainly cannot be ignored when conshysidering problems of popular participation Even in the United States most people are startled when it is pointed out that two out of every three people who work for a living in the United States produce services rather than goods As a result of these changes the number of professhysional workers now outnumber all of the skilled workers-one out of three persons who work for a living in the country are either professional personshynel or they are clerical workers such as secretaries stenographers and typists These conditions are also reflected in the dynamics of the working popushylation with the result that the proportion of the working population organized by the trade union movement has been going down since the end of World War II This trend apparently seems to be continuing It is therefore to be expected that in the next several years the major industrial relations actions will be going On in the service-producing side
Geographic change We are all aware that there has been tremendous migration out of the rural areas and tremendous growth in urbanization in this country since World War II The scope of these developments may be more fully understood when it is noted that three States in the United States (California Texas and Florida) account for one out of every six jobs Moreover these States in 1969 accounted for one-fifth of all the personal inshycome as neasured in the Gross National Product acounts With such concentrations of population
15
what does it do to the problem of job creation How does one handle this kind of dynamics in reshylation to this problem To further complicate the matter there is this tremendous intracity migration ie exodus to the suburbs Thus the geographic parameter of job development in itself is an amazshying phenomena
Educational change Formal education in this country has expanded substantially to the point where at present some 60 of the persons three to 31 years of age are formally registered in school When one looks at the so-called professional pershysonnel one finds that for the group as a whole the median years of school completed is seventeenshythat is equivalent to a masters degree Remember this is the median We must also remember that the professional category includes beauticians and opticians as well as physicians and physicists Thus even with ccrtaii occupations which require relatively few years of schooling the median is still 17 years But the most important factor here is that there is a world of difference betwcen median years of school completed and educational achievement The real question is what is the quality and the nashyture of the output to be obtained from these years of schooling Is the schooling being directed toshywards those occupations and activities which will be most needed in the 1970s It is estinatel by the Department of Labor that in the 1970s we are going to need as much manual talent as academic talent but will we be getting it
Will our vocational training program be realistishycally geared to meet the current needIs or to conshytinue as some of them are to provide training that is of little relationship to the industrial world of today
Population change We have experienced in the United States as in iost other countries since World War II a phenomenal rise in (he populashytion The birth rate in the United States showed sul)stantial increases until recently and has now deshyclined substantially But it lutist be noted that this lower birth rate is being applie(l as the demograshyphers say to an increasing number in the cohort of females of child-bearing age Therefore although the rate of births may be low the number of births is still high The growth in population since 1915 in this country for example has been such that in this 25 years half of the population of the United States was horn-a little over 100 million Accordshying to the 1970 population preliminary estimates the population at present is some 205 million as
compared to 170 million in 1960 or an increase over the decade of over ten liercent Another way of looking at it is that one out of every three people alive today in the United States was not born yet fifteen years ago We are already aware of the growth in the youth population and the problems that developed in connection with youth but it would seen that this problem may be further inshytensified
Manpower change The Labor Department proshyjections for the 1970s indicate that we may expect a 22 increase in the labor force during this decshyade This is an unprecelented and unparalleled inshycrease in the labor force never experienced before in the United States Most important of course in this increase is what it will do to the composition of the labor force Two changes come to mind readshyily First despite the so-called population and labor force explosion there is a decline in the popshytilation age group 35 to 44 We know that the soshycalled manpower profile in the Unitd States looks like an hour glass-there is a big batch of young people coming tip and a big batch of older
people It has vital implications for manpowertraining and for employers who wish to hire people in the age group that has had some work experishyence or career development This sector of the popshyulation is declining The second factor of equal importance is that one out of seven new workers coming up in the 1970s is going to be black
Disaggregation For the lack of finding a better term I use disaggregation By that I mean that it is necessary to look at the previous six developshyments and to consider them in some specific kinds of detail The point that is of particular imporshytance in the context of population participation and of job creation is that these six trends could be very beneficial for economic development But there is a large part of the population not only in the United States but in many other countries of the world which have not benefited from these trends and it is with these groups that in the imshymediate years ahead the problens will be greatest in terms of job creation and job development The
question will be bow to get the various parts of the
population together and to participate in these particular tasks
It may very well be right to say as I did preshyviously that we are now a service-producing econshyomy that we are a white collar group but in terms of the problems to be faced in connection with parshyticipation we must recognize the fact that a subshy
16
stantial part of the population even in the United States is not part of these what we have called mainstream developments Let us turn to some specific illustrations of what I mean For example the fact of the matter is that over 25 of all Negro males who work in this country are in one
occupation group while almost 50 of all Negro women are in one occupational group The males
are conacentrated in the operatives group occupashytion this is the occupation in this country which it
is anticipated will be declining in terms of employshyment opportunities in the 1970s Negro womens employment is concentrated in the service occupashytions
Let us disaggregate another general figure that is given continual attention-the unemployment rate In May (1970) the aggregate unemployment rate
was 50 seasonally adjusted But when one looks at nonwhite teenage males we find that the unemshyploymnent rate for this group ranges between 25 and
30 more than five times higher than the aggreshygate rate We can i am sure find many other exshyamuples of instances where certain groups of the population have benefited from the latest developshyments
To turn to the developing countries where in many instances the kinds of development we have discussed in the United States have not reached the same levels I would say that if in these countries they do not have the same discrete and distinguishshyable movements in the direction that the Western World has gone they will not have the kind of growth we are attempting to stimulate and foster
Certainly we will have dismally failed to learn from our own experiencc if we do not attempt or recognize that rts must be made as the developshying countries groi and as these basic trends imporshytant to growth begin to become more apparent to continuously watch the developments to determine if there are any groups in society who are not parshyticipating and benefiting from the trends and are falling by the wayside If it is at all possible we should be trying to bring these people in at the earliest stages of the developiment rather than wait until there are wide disparities among various paris of the population such as have developed in the Western World In this sense the purpose of
participation is vital in that if the idea is accepted and developed in the developing countries it should avoid what occurred in the Western World
17
JOB CREATION IN AGRICULTURE
by Thomas F Carroll
This paper presents what might be called a posishytion of agricultural fundamentalism with respect to policy for employment creation-deliberate employshyment creation in the developing countries
Up to very recently development economists and developers in general have been emphasizing growth theories that stress global GNP growth It is only now that questions on how GNP is distribshyuted and on how various groups in the developing countries benefit from development are becoming increasingly asked The employment and income distribution issue is becoming a fashionable foreshyfront topic among development planners This is reflected in such material as the Pearson Report Professor Myrdals report on Asia and the Peterson Report and one that is about to appear on Latin America by Professor Prebisch
We have had a great deal of theorizing and of practice from developing countries which can be characterized as the trickle down theory of deshyvelopment that has left those who are most able to use resources to develop them The AID organization and in particular the World Bank have followed this approach of putting resources where in the short run they will produce the largshyest output and then let the governments tax or otherwise acquire some of the surplus and redistribshyute it among the poorer urban and rural sectors
It is an attack on the whoe trickle down theshyory of development that I see now among developshymentalists It appears that in many recent studies this trickle down theory does not seem to work because even if some of the surplus can be captured for injection into education social welfare and other low-income support programs there is a gross inefficiency in the process Since government takes such a predominant place in managing these reshysources these inefficiencies are very noticeable
Since my recent work has been particularly strong on Latin America my illustrations and emphasis are on that particular continent
A great deal of the surplus gets stuck at the middle and upper level consumption patterns which increasingly are modeled on the consumpshytion patterns of the middle classes in the developed countries Thus if you go to a Latin American city you will find that the middle classes consume about the same basket of commodities-automobiles teleshyvision sets gadgets of all sorts-as we do in US suburbia This has put an enormous pressure on the developing countries infant industries and also on the balance of payments because a great deal of these products had to be imported
Another reason why the trickle down theory has not worked is that it ignored the labor potenshytials of an overwhelming proportion of the populashytion In such countries as Brazil or India 50 to 70 percent of the population is in the underdeveloped portion of the population in the urban and rural sectors the most important resource in this type of country is the labor resource This labor resource is very poorly utilized under the trickle down theshyory of development In the US and other develshyoped countries only a fraction of the labor force and population is in this poor range
I shall not dwell in length upon the inadequacies of industrial and urban jobs to absorb significant amounts of the migrant rural population There is increasing evidence that industry is becoming more capital intensive The types of industry that have been developing especially after the import substishytution drive has been satisfied offer very few jobs The lower productivity service sector while genershyally absorbing more labor than manufacturing has expanded in a very inadequate fashion and much of it has been disguising very large amounts of semi-employed people
Hence it is desirable to think not only of overshyall economic policies of development which are more labor-absorbing but it is desirable to have
specific rural policies that absorb productively
19
rural people so as to reduce migration to the urban areas
With respect to Latin America with a very high population growth-somewhere between 3 and 3 12 percent-in the late sixties the rural labor force is estimated to grow at the rate of about I million people annually even after assuming somewhat speeded-up migration rates Moreover there are no policies to productively absorb these people in agrishyculture On the contrary recent policies have beshycome increasingly capital intensive and the whole development strategy is generally strongly biased toward a rather labor extensive type of agricultural development as well
Let me briefly mention some of the policy defishyciencies that we have found not only in Latin America but Africa and Asia as well There is an overemphasis on commodity targets and balance of payment considerations in development planning There is very little attention to manpower planshyning in the various planning agencies and the tarshygets that are listed for development are very heavshyily oriented toward output-global macro-economic output-and commodity targets rather than institushytional targets which would involve human reshysource planning and income targets
There is a great deal of encouragement for capital intensive production techniques in public investment We see this in the development banks where much of the investment takes place in indusshytries with lines of pi oduction that offer very few jobs Perhaps the lending process itself with its emshyphasis on the project approach encourages this capshyital intensive bias
There is a strong urban bias in providing social services which encourages the out-migration from rural areas and which places great difficulties in the way of attracting and retaining qualified civil servshyants and leaders in rural areas There is a bias in the provision of social services jobs schools and other conditions that encourage not only job-wise but living level-wise the selective out-migration of competent rural people and prevents the return-mishygration of competent government officials teachers and others needed for the development of the rural areas
With respect to Latin America there is a lack of agrarian reform which is a fundamental defect in job creation in rural areas (This is not so true of Africa which has a more tribal and peasant-orishyented rural sector) There is very little recognition of the segmented nature of agriculture in developshy
ment planning They treat agriculture as a monoshylithic sector I can distinguish at least three differshyent sectors within agriculture such as the plantation sector which is export-oriented and for which deshyvelopment and employment policies will have to parallel the industrial planning techniques There is the semi-modern sector which is producing comshymodities for the market and has to some extent also a self-sufficient subsector And there is finally a really self-sufficient sector of a vast number of peasshyants who market very little and whose livelihood is within the traditional villages I think the developshyment policies and of course employment generashytion programs will have to be quite different for each of these sectors
Finally there is a strong emphasis on labor-reshyplacing types of technology particularly mechanizashytion that is imported intact from the developed countries wlere it serves a very good purpose A great deal of the pricing taxing subsidy policies as well as the activities of machinery companies are detrimental to a kind of development that would emphasize a slower transition from primitive agrishyculture to a very mechanized type of agriculture
Now to turn to policy recommendations let me briefly list certain suggestions for using simple iabor intensive labor absorbing techniques in deshyvelopment planning One of these is the recognishytion that in research and development on which we spend a great (eal of money and which developshying countries are just beginning to recognize as an investment item increasing stress should be placed on what many people are beginning to call intershymediate technology There is a great deal of reshysearch needed on micro-level agricultural developshyment ratier- than ihicro-level development and work of field economists anthropologists socioloshygists manpower planners is very much needed
There should be inter-disciplinary approaches to these micro-planning techniques and here I would like to enter a plea for not only technological planshyning but integrated social scince planning and research in the field of employment generating techshyniques I would emphasize very strongly developshyment of rural cooperatives and cooperative-like institutions in the rural areas that have the capashybility of mobilizing local people and to achieving economies of scale in development that normally individual type programs do not achieve These inshystitutions would be particularly valuable in such fields as credit marketing some types of producshytion and in machine services Also stronger emphashy
20
sis has to be placed on rural unions and syndicates particularly in Latin America This -is a very touchy problem because it is linked with the politishycal power structure
I also would like to point out the importance of decentralized agro-industrial planning I do not think we have touched upon the potentials of bringing jobs to rural people not only in agriculshyture but in agriculturally-related enterprises loshycated in or near urban areas This is something into which very little talent imagination and efshyfort and money has gone You will find that most of the industries are located in the large urban censhyters Very little is done to process agricultural prodshyucts or to create industrially-related enterprises
around primary production centers such as forests
pasture lands and crops which can be industrialshyized In this connection also I think there is a
great deal of learning to be done in stimulating
part-time and full-time industrial and semi-inshyclustrial employment opportunities in conjunction
with rural development programs A final point which needs to be strongly emphashy
sized I believe that it is not necessary to separate
or set up hardline criteria to distinguish between wealth-creating jobs and welfare (or income-subshy
sidy) jobs Acceptance of this dichotomy results in directing investment towards the activities with relatively high output potential Those of us who have been running agricultural credit programs find that among the small farmers we have the best credit risks We have farmers who have incredibly small businesses and repay their loans regularly while the larger landowners are always in arrears
Recent studies have repeatedly pointed out the big advantages of small irrigation works rather than big dams Studies have pointed out that entershyprise based on small peasant units is also highly productive because they utilize the peasants labor They are able to create wealth from work and to stimulate people to develop
I think that we have to take another look and a great deal of effort should go into the discovery of this middle ground where development projects particularly rural development or rurally-oriented deveopment projects can be both productive and socially satisfactory and at the same time soak up during the next few decades the surplus employshyment that is threatening not only the rate of growth but the basic political stability of many countries
21
UNITED STATES EXPERIENCE WITH UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDEREMPLOYMENT
by William Batt
We have no greater capital investment in any country in the world than we have in this country but we also have wide disparities in income It is true that we have more of a middle class than most developing countries but we still have dreadful problems of misdirection of funds For example if one looks at the national income data for all secshytions of the United States the District of Columbia appears as one of the wealthiest areas of the counshytry yet right in the middle of this city we have a section with desperate unemployment and tindershyemployment We have areas in the United States with unemployment rates as high as 25 to 30 pershycent
Although unemployment is an important ecoshynomic indicator it is not a particularly meaningful measure of economic conditions in rural areas beshycause of the problem of underemployment The data on unemployment developed in the 1950s by the Department of Labor focused attention on that 1roblem of depressed areas more effectively than had ever been done before And in recent studies concerned with ghetto unemployment attention was focused on the unemployment in the central cities as was national policy But it appears that we do not have similar extensive studies focused on the rural underemployment problem in the United States
We have this (lesperate rural underemployment in the United States today It exists in Eastern North Carolina and will probably worsen because of the automation in the tobacco industry This deshyvelopment will start immigrition by totally unpreshypared people to the cities of the North Among parts of ouir Indian population the unemployment data also reveal desperate poverty which even makes the Mississippi Delta look prosperous by comparison
When I read advertisements in the international edition of the New lork Times placed by developshy
ing governments such as Come put your factories in Nigeria or Come put your factories in Colomshybia or Uruguay I realize that the depressed areas of the world want the same thing that deshypressed areas in the United States want They want more job opportunities they want more industry so that there will be enough jobs there for which
people could train A study sponsored by the Area Redevelopment
Administration on what Western Europe was doing in the area of development indicates that they are ahead of us I believe that we might get more ideas from Western Europe to help South America than we do from the United States For exshyample Italy is investing 10 percent of its total inshycome in trying to make southern Italy more viable so that everybody in southern Italy does not have to leave the country to make a living I think that some combination of what the Italians are doing is what we also ought to be doing to a greater extent Of course the countries of Africa and the Southern Hemisphere do not have that tremendous inshydlustrial potential of northern Italy but the princishypIe is not invalid The principle is to help make these regions that are now depressed become ecoshynomically viable
The coal and steel community in Europe is doing a beautiful job for a very limited group It seems to me that the coal and steel community is doing ver-y well what we are doing not well at all in North Carolina Southern Italy is also doing things rather better than we are
The Secretary of Defense has announced an exshyceptionally large number of jobs are going to be cut in defense It seems to me that we must be able to figure out some better way than laying off people in aircraft companies in different parts of the counshytry When I was connected with economic developshyment work in Detroit many layoffs occurred every third year When I was running the Labor and Inshy
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dustry Department in Pennyslvania one of the reshycessions in the 1950s cost us $400 million in unemshyployment insurance Thus the costs of doing nothing are pretty phenomenal
We are trying to do something to reduce these fantastic barriers to employment that keep people in an expanding economy from sharing the benefits of that economy We have classic cases in the public sector of jobs going begging by the hundreds because of absurd and irrelevant prereqshyuisites to employment To be a dog catcher in one city and they need a number of such workers you have to have a high school diploma and two years experience handling animals
I strongly agree with the following statement that if development does not produce more jobs and a fuller role in society for the working man (and I hope by the working man is meant someshybody besides the dues-paying member of unions) it can disrupt the world we know instead of buildshying a new one Improvements in GNP and exports investments have little meaning for the hundreds of millions who continue to live in conditions of barest subsistence squalor disease and despair Inshydeed in such circumstances the term developshyment would seem to be a serious misnomer if not a cruel delusion You may be leading people up the garden path and creating more problems than you are solving
24
ROLE OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BUSINESSMEN IN JOB CREATION
by William Haas
The National Alliance of Businessmen (NAB) was created in the manpower message of President Johnson to Congress on January 23 1968 He asked the private sector of the economy to take on the reshysponsibility of meeti major national challengeshyfinding jobs and providing job training for the hard core unemployed and under-employed
In response to this request the NAB was orgashynized by concerned leaders of the business comshymunity When President Nixon took office one of his first acts was to pledge his administrations comshy
plete and unqualified support to the NAB In fact the role of the business community and that of the NAB has been made even more important than beshyfore by President Nixons proposal for extensive changes in the national welfare and manpower training programs
The Presidents proposed plan is aimed directly at getting people off the welfare roles and onto payshyrolis and this puts the responsibility squarely on businessmen They must prove that the private secshytor of the economy with the appropriate governshyment assistance to cover the extra costs of hiring and training unskilled disadvantaged workers can provide the job opportunities that will make the Presidents program work
Orgainiationally the National Alliance of Busishy
nessmen is tinique It is an independent nonprofit corporation The Executive Board is composed of topflight businessmen from each geographic region of the nation Tiis lBoard established overall polshyicy The Executive Vice Chainn is responsible for the operations of NAB similar to that of a presshyident of a corporation and the Chief Executive Ofshyficers are from the ten regional offices across the nashytion
We are now expanding from 131 metropolitan offices to 200 metropolitan offices since we are now going nationwide and these offices are staffed by volunteers from industry and officials on loan from
government with approximately three people at each regional level and five at the metropolitan level In addition literally thousands of volunteers from business assist in carrying out the mission for which NAB was formed
The question may be asked Why should busishyness take on this challenge of finding jobs and job training for the unemployed and upgrading opporshytunities for under-employed people The most imshy
portant reason is that basically six out of every seven jobs in our country are in the private sector of the economy The businessmen are the ones who have the jobs
Businessmen are also the ones who know best what a worker should learn in order to do a job
properly If we can place the unemployed and unshyderemployed in meaningful jobs teach them how to (10 these jobs znd keep them employed we will have made a major inroad on poverty in our nashytion We will be giving new hope for productive lives to many people We will be helping our young people including many Vietnam veterans reshyturning to civilian life to build satisfying lives in their own home community
Bringing the unemployed into the mainstream of outr economy is not humanitarianism It pays off in dollars and cents for the company who gains a worker It pays off for the government by both savshying on welfare costs and gaining a taxpayer
The propran of the NAB is called JOBS which stand for Job Opportunities in the Business Sector As the title indicates this program is dishyrected towards the hiring training and retraining and upgrading meni and women for jobs in the prishyvate sector of the economy Out- initial goal was to
place 100000 hard core unemployed in meaningful jobs by July I of 1969 and that was more than met The new nationwide target for July 1 1971 is to
place 611000 hard core unemployed in productive jobs Against this objective approximately 25000
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employers have already hired sonic 432800 persons Of this total hired approximately 305700 were hired by 21000 companies participating in the non-contract portion of the JOBS program and 127100 were hired by approximately 4000 compashynies participating under a NAB JOBS contract Of the 432800 persons hired about 228400 have reshymained on the job
We have also obtained the characteristics of the employee trainees from the simple hiring card emshyployers participating in the JOBS program are asked to submit This information shows that 73 percent of the trainees are male 27 percent are female About 75 percent of the workers aie beshytween 19 and 44 years of age 21 percent are under 19 and 4 percent over 45 or an average age of 247 years Also about 70 percent of the trainees are Negro 21 percent are white 6 percent Mexican-American 2 percent Puerto Rican and I percent of other origin The average family size of employee trainees is 36 persons Their education attainment averages about 10 12 grades of school They were unemployed an average of 212 weeks in the last year Their annual family income was approxishymately $2505
Hiring training retraining and upgrading the disadvantaged is not an easy task nor do we preshytend that it is When we ask a businessman to join with us in this program we do not want him to unshydertake a task under any illusions about the diffishyculties of the task
This is not any ordinary industry-hiring proshygram To aid us in these efforts the Department of Labor offers specific types of assistance programs These programs are designed to provide practical ways for all employers large and small to train inshyexperienced new employees without losing money on the cost involved in bringing these workers up to an average level of productivity
In response to the current economic slowdown NAB is giving increased emphasis to the upgrading portion of the JOBS program Employers particishypating under the contract part of the NABs job entry and upgrading program are compensated by the government for extraordinary training expenshyses to provide such support services as orientation basic job-related education special counselling and on-the-job training skills
If the employer believes that he does not have the in-house capability to provide these support services he can subcontract this phase to professhysional companies However the on-the-job skill training cannot be subcontracted This must be provided by the employers
Other areas that may be compensated include extra administrative and overhead costs supervishysory andl human relations training medical and dental services child care assistance and transporshytation assistance
The NAB JOB efforts in my opinion is one of the best manpower programs It offers real advanshytages to employers and job applicants
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PRIVATE INVESTMENT AND JOB CREATING POSSIBILITIES
by Harriet S Crowley
I interpret private investment to mean any kind of private investment which has a payoff whether it is for profit or social reasons This rather broad definition of private investment is necessary for two reasons when related to job creating possibilishyties First since private profit investment area per se is a fairly limited one in the less developed counshytries its job creating effects will also be limited Secondly I believe that at present the private techshynical assistance program will be a more important source for job opportunities
I would like to diaw a backdrop with respect to investment n developing countries against which manpower planning and employment as well as the many other fields of development have to be considered A landimark which has gone pretty much unnoticed is that for the first time in the history of the international development effort the flow of private and public resources is about equal For the I year coniesUnited States about $2 billion a from the government and SI 12 billion is from private investment in profit-making enterprises Much of tlie latter is still in the extractive fields but increasingly more is in the manufacturing and service fields and in private technical assistance Proshygrams We now therefore do have a different set of flows of resouices than in earlier years
Anot her important backgrotnd factor is the fact that we are in a period of change in the United States ill altitludes toward the AID program The Peterson Report is an excellent example of this change Pat of the recommendations of that report is already in being tle creation in last years legshyislation of a new instrument for private investment to manage and conduct lie incentive programs and to get ioie private investment into the less develshyoped comiti ies This is now known as the Overseas Piivate I nvestment Corporation (OPIC) which will runt tle progranis of guarantees (extended risk guarantees) as well as surveys and related activishyties The formet programs are in operation and are
writing half a billion dollars worth of insurance a year roughly one-third of the total flow of private investment capital
The two other recommendations of the Peterson Report which probably affect most of the programs that we are interested in are the creation of a bank and the creation of the technical institute What is clearly implied by these changes is that there will be a reduced official presence overseas and that the US policy of development is going to be more reshy
sponsive and less aggressive and carried out to at least sonic extent within the framework of the multilateral analytical base and guidelines
Congress is not expected to act on any new proshy
posal uintil next year sometime The specific legislashytion is scheduled to be before Congress shortly after tihe first of the year There will clearly be a transishytion period between the enactment of that legislashytion and any new structures of organization There may be a period of almost two years in which peoshyple are not going to know whether they can comshymit funds for long range programs Durng this peshyriod it seems to metle private field should become More important partly because it is time for it to play a greater role and because there is going to be this vacuum In the manpower field it seems to me that all opportunity is being created for us to test sone of the programs which we have been supportshying at least partially if not completely For examshy
ple in tie case of cooperatives it should be possible to test their usefulness now in moving into this vacuum Can they with their modest amount of public funds attract private resources in addition to those they are beginning to put into their projshyects from others such as labor
Now to turn to the activities of private business One can find estimates of job creation of private investment ranging from $300 per manyear of emshy
ployment u) to about $7500 according to the Nashytional Industrial Conference Boards exercise in this field Clearly the record of employment vis-ashy
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vis direct private investment is not very great Figshyures available for Latin America only show that in 1957 private investment of US private subsidishyaries were supposed to have created 830000 jobsshywhile in 1966 roughly ten years later the number of such jobs rose to 1230000 It had not even doulshybled in ten years
I think we do not know enough about the intanshygible results of direct private investment We have attempted on several occasions to get from corporashytions their social overhead spending in less develshyoped countries by their affiliates Estimates of 2 to 7 percent of their annual direct investment have been arrived at )) a variety of means including a Senate Subconunittee and special research projects This could really represent a tremendous amount of jobs in the aggregate
Aside from the training which individual corposhyrations carry on all the time there is a good deal of other social overhead investment in housing in edshytication healthi community development and conshytributions to things like the National Development Foundation Peace Corps projects and Voluntary Agency projects But we (o not know enough about these activities and about the results of cooperashytive efforts and credit unions in terms of job creashyion
There has been a movement in the last year or so in what for want of a better term I call the mini-investment field This is the very small capshyital investmient kind of a project with usually a very quick turiover They are springing out genershyally from non1-profit programs overseas which have reached a plateau in their normal technical assistshyance activities They ale recognizing that they can go no further witlouit somel productive capacity input into their programs whatever they may be There have appeae(l on the scene tlini gs like Tech noserve-a nonrlofit institution supported by the chirrclies Tlhey do feasibility studies to find small lprojects anI then they raise the needed capishytal They have had prezty good luck at such activities so far There ate also emerging small inshyvestment corporations stpported by Protestant reshy
ligiotis grams The Mennonites for several years have had such an investment corporation and have maintained porifolios between $300000 and s100000 overseas all the time This group puts it
in one project and takes it out perhaps in a couple of years sometimes even less and then puts it in another one They are able to (1o this bccause of their own people overseas who see these opportunishyties and who generally either have the skills needed for the project or know where to get a volunteer with the needed skills to give the technical assistshyance that may be necessary
Joint ventures are another set of activities that are just starting The Pan-American Development Foundation has been doing this in the small loan business for a while and I think it has quite a good record
Another one is Kodel which was started up by the Catholics but now has broadened to membershyship of a good sized number of other religious and non-religious groups This is a trend toward conshysortia action on the part of the private agencies all of whom jealously like their independence and their own identity That has been a very hard block for them to overcome but they are overcomshying it and they are putting together their varied resources to direct them into major projects I think this is very encouraging because all of these
projects are at the grass roots small in nature pershyhaps but if there are enough of these they begin to expand and spread
Some 80 of these registered voluntary agencies are operating programs of around $600 million three-quarters of which is their own and the rest is from government support
In conclusion I should like to make two brief comments regarding our activities in the private sector First we are very happy to go out and use
private organizations for contract purposes often as substitute for direct hire-a better substitute in many cases This is something we should be able to do These are national resources and we have some responsibility it seems to me in this field However we often do not do a very good job of guidance for th~m Secondly I also believe that private organizashytions are going to have to demonstrate a much greater management capability on their own and a better ability to negotiate with those governments to implement their own programs without support services il) to now generally being offered by our missions and embassies
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POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES
by Samuel H Burt
Among the major distinguishing features of the American public education system is the fact that its schools have always been considered as belongshying to the public as being in the service of the public and to be served by the public on a volunshyteer basis as a matter of civic and communityr reshysponsibility The desire to be involved in puiblic education stems in part from the special status prestige and power accorded to educated persons as well as to persons connected with education in any way In many communities the chairman of a local board of education has more prestige than the elected mayor
The current furor unrest and criticism of our public schools is proof that the American publicshyor rather the many publics which comprise Amershyica-still demand a high degree of responsiveness to their need from public education administrators and professional staff In the finest tradition of our democratic society these various publics have eishyther voluntarily organized citizens school commitshytees or been organized by school administrators to serve on Volunteer advisory committees in order to help improve one or more aspects of public educashytion
The major rationale for such service is that our public schools are seen as societys major vehicle for tralsimitting to youth those precepts concepts and traditions on whi h our society has flourished in the past and must depend upon for continuing growth and success in the future
There is also a growing recognition that the problems of public education are basic central to and inextricably intertwined with other major problems of modern society-housing urbanization crime inlustrialiation civil rights jobs for mishynorities narrow professionalization and all the other factors which make or break the American Dream for each individual in our nation
Among all the publics comprising our national
life none has been more aware of the critical role and potential of public education than businessshymen manufacturers labor leaders and employers in agriculture and the professions-hereinafter reshyferred to in the aggregate as industry Motivated by the need for a continuing flow of well-educated and well-trained youth industry has voluntarily asshysisted schools to enrich expand and improve those
programs in the public schools directly related to industrys manpower needs-vocational and technishycal education For over 50 years industry has been involved in a variety of activities and services deshysigned to gear vocational education to industrial
operations But it is upon the same 20000 formally orgashy
nized industry-education cooperating and advisory committees composed of some 100000 volunteer industry representatives that sophisticated vocashytional educators depend for sustained and meanshyingful involvement in the schools It is this orgashynized involvement which is credited with making vocational education programs relevant to the needs of students and employers While there are
many authorities in the field of vocational educashytion who would argue this responsiveness there is general agreement that proper and effective utilishyzation of industry-education cooperating and adshyvisori y committees could indeed achieve this goal
So strong and pervasive is this belief that by 1965 every state had either passed a law or issued regulashytions requiring public schools to utilize volunteer advijory committees for all vocational programs in the schools Despite the fact that such laws have been honored more in the breach than in practice the 1968 Amendments to the Vocational Education Act of 1963 mandated the establishment of a Nashytional Advisory Council on Vocational Education
and State Advisory Councils on Vocational Educashytion for each state receiving federal vocational edushy
cation funds These Councils are composed of volshy
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unteer representatives from the general public inshydustry and education As a consequence vocational education has become the only field of public edishycation which by law must utilize volunteer coMshymittees of interested citizens at the national state and local levels There has been an abiundance of voluntcers to serve on these committecs One reashyson for such service was discussed earlier ie the prestige which accrues to volunteer service in public education A second motivating factor is rooted in the hope that involvement in a vocashytional education program will not only help imshyprove that program hut will abo serve as a direct source of trained manpower supply for those comshypanics working with the school people There are also such motivational factors as the desire of adults to help young people in starting their cashyreers to receive 1 ublic recognition (personally and for the company) as a concerned citizen to be acshyknowledged as an expert and leader in ones field and to be considered altruistic and even philanshythropic by ones friends business associates and family circle through volunteer involvement in edshyucation
It is because people (o respond to organized appeals to these motivational factors that it has been possible for vocational educators to deshyvelop in the US a national system of cooperating and advisory commitcees and councils to forge an industry-education partnership in cooperation with government-for the purpose of developing manshypower skills creating jobs and the matching of workers with jobs
This system is as yet but dillily perceived and litshytle understood Our remaining discussion will cenlshyter around the roles responsibili ties and relationshy
ships of the various levels of these committees and councils as they are currently being utilized for achieving popular participation in public vocashytional education
1 The National Advisory Council on Vocashytional Education
The 1968 Amendments to the Vocational Educashytion Act of 19(33 established a National Advisory Council on Vocational Education composed of 21 leading national representatives from industry edshy
For a disrcusion of legisiation affecting vocational eiicashytion advisory conunitlies e Sanmnel Mf Burt 7ndustry and floratIionalTehil Iuration York McGraw-HillI lltit (New Book Co 1967) ant Smnnutl N1 Burl The Sate Advifory Councils on Iawational Eduration (Kalamizoo The W E Upjohin Institute for Employment Research 1968)
ucation and the general public Members are apshypointed by the President of the US Functions of the Council are broadly stated in the Act as to
(a) Advise the US Commissioner of Educashytion concerning the administration of preparashytion of general regulations for and operation of vocational education programs receiving federal funds
(b) Review the administration operation and effectiveness of vocational education proshygrams make recommendations thereto and publish reports of its findings and recommenshydations to the Secretary of the Department of Health Education and Welfare for transmittal to Congress
(c) Conduct independent evaluations of voshycational education programs and publish and distribute reports of such evaluations
(d) Review possible duplications of vocashytional education programs and publish and distribute reports and recommendations to the Secretary of HEW
The Act also provides funds for staff to be emshyployed by the National Council in conducting its activities and carrying out its t esponsibilities
While the National Council has no operational nor administrative responsibilities for the conduct of vocational education programs its independent status and legislative authority for review and evalshyuation does give it strong investigatory powers Furthermore since its findings and recommendashytions are required to be published and distributed the ouncil can be expected to have considerable impact on Congressional deliberations concerning all facets of vocational education at the national level
Although tlie relationship established by the Act between the National Council and tle State Advisshyory Councils on Vocational Education is one of reshyceiving reports from the State Councils as deshyscribed below the National Coumicil carly opted to work closely with tle State Councils As a matter of fact at the requcest of the State Councils the Nashylional Council is providing a considerabie degree of leadership to the State Councils It appears that much of the voik of the National Council will be based on reports submitted by the State Councils The National Council ii also serving as a clearing hdouse of imiforIuationl and conununiilications for tie various State Councils includinug conduct of speshycial studies for use by the Staic Councils in the deshyvelopment of their activities
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2 The State Advisory Councils on Vocational 3 Local Advisory Committee on Vocational Ed-Education ucation
In addition to establishing the National Advishysory Council the 1968 Amendments to the Vocashytional Education Act of 1963 also mandated the establishment of a State Advisory Council on Vocashytional Education by every State receiving federal funds for vocational education Members of the State Councils are appointed by the Governor or in those states in which State Boards of Education are elected members of the Advisory Council are appointed by the Board
The functions of the State Councils as specified by the Act are to
1 Evaluate the effectiveness of the vocational education programs services and activities throughout the state
2 Assist the State Board through consultation initiated by the Board in preparing the State Plans for Vocational Education
3 Advise the State Board on the development of
policy matters arising in the administration of vocational education programs
4 Prepare anid submit through the State Board to the US Commissioner of Education and the National Advisory Council on Vocational Education an annual evaluation report of voshycational cducation programs with recommenshydations for such changes as may be considshyered appropriate and warranted
The Act also provides funds for staff to be emshy
ployed by the State Councils While tile State Councils have no administrative
or operating responsibilities they are independent of albeit advisory to the State Boards of Educashytion amid to the State Departments of Education Ilici published reports an( recommendations can I)e expected to not only have an impact on vocashytional education decisions of state governors and state legislators State Boards and Departments of Education but also on the US Office of Education and the National Advisory Council on Vocational Education It is still too soon to determine how successful the State Councils will be in functioning independently of and at the same time interdeshy
pendently with the established bureatucracy of the State Departments of Education and other state agencies dealing with vocational education trainshying and manpower development
Within the states the use of advisory committees of industry people by vocational educators is manshydated in every state either by state law or by rules an(d regulations issued by State Departments of Edshyucation Except for a few states advisory commitshytees are required only for occupational education
programs conducted in a school receiving federal funds Requirements are usually met by the school listing the names of the advisory committee memshybers when requesting funds from the State Departshyment of Education Rarely is provision made by the state for special staff to service the committees or to promote industry-education cooperation Guidelines provided by the State Departments of Education stress the advisory nature of the commitshytees and warn the educators not to allow the comshymittees to become involved in administrative or operational matters Despite the lack of positive and constructive leadership on the part of most State Departments of Education in the field of efshyfective utilization of industry committees at the local levels sophisticated vocational educators and industry groups have developed various types of non-legally required advisory committees as effecshytive instrumentalities and strategies for involving industry and vocational education It is these nonshymandated committees which when added to the leshygally required committees provide the characterisshytics and format of the nationally organized system discussed in the paper
(a) The School System General Advisory Comshymittee
A number of large school systems throughout the country have appointed General Advisory Comshymittees on Vocational Education to serve in an advisory capacity to the Director of Vocational Edshyucation the superintendent of schools and occashysionally to the Board of Education This type of committee is used in helping plan long-range school system policy and objectives for vocational educashytion and to help determine relative emphasis and
priorities that should be given to various elements of the program at any particular time Once policy and priorities have been agreed upon the commitshytee may engage in activities to obtain public supshyport and any needed legislation and funds These activities of course go beyond the advisory stashytus which marks the planning and policy determishynation assistance functions for which the commitshytee was established
31
Membership in these committees is usually drawn from the ranks of top level management in the community and includes leaders of community and industry groups economic development agenshycies and government agencies concerned with manshypower development Appointment is usually made by the school superintendent sometimes by the chairman of the school board The Director of Voshycational Education usually serves as secretary to the committee
(b) The School General Advisory Committee Many large area vocational schools technical inshy
stitutes and community colleges have established general advisory committees on vocational educashytion to assist in formulating general plans and polshyicies for the school These committees have proven invaluable in helping determine what programs should be offered by the schools priorities to be asshysigned in initiating and expanding programs and in obtaining industry-wide and public support for the school Membership is usually composed of pershysonnel directors plant superintendents vice-presishydents of large companies owners of medium size businesses trade association and labor organizashytions minority groups representatives and represhysentatives of economic development agencies and government agencies concerned with manpower deshyvelopment The assistant president dean of inshystruction or assistant director of the school usually serves as secretary to the general advisory commitshytee Since the committee is established to serve a
particular institution it is rare unfortunately for the committee to become involved in or knowlshyedgeable about what other similar institutions are doing or what other vocational education and training programs are being offered in the geoshygraphic area generally served by the school
(c) Departmental Advisory Committees
If a vocational school is offering several related industry courses eg bricklaying carpentry and construction electricity these courses may be orgashynized into a Construction Technology Department supervised by a department head and perhaps served by a departmental advisory committee
Membership of a departmental advisory commitshytee usually consists solely of representatives of the industry for which the courses are being offered The major responsibility of the departmental adshyvisory committee is to make certain that the school provides for and properly supports the educational and training program needed by the industry The
departmental advisory committee not only serves in an advisory capacity to the department head but also supports him in any requests to his supervisors for program improvement and expansion The committee may also meet with the several occupashytional cooperating committees serving the instrucshytors within the department
(d) Occupational Cooperating Committees Practically all discussions literature laws and
regulations dealing with vocational education adshyvisory committees are concerned with the concept and practices of the occupational committee insistshying that such committees are advisory only Despite such statements these committees function in fact as instrumentalities for achieving cooperation beshytween education and industry rather than as a deshyvice for educators to obtain advice from industry This dichotomy between theory and practice is the source of considerable confusion among both vocashytional educators ahd industry people Nevertheless these occupational cooperating committees have been and are responsible for the bulk of industry people voluntarily involved in vocational educashytion and for annually contributing millions of dolshylars and even more millions of hours in the service of vocational education
School officials look to membership on these comshymittees from frontline supervisory staff owners of small companies and representatives from unions and trade associations connected with a particular occupation Members of the committees are usually those individuals in a company who are directly reshysponsible for hiring and training new employees
Over 30 specific cooperative service activities have been identified as being offered by occupashytional committees They can be classified under the headings
1 Engaging in student recruitment selection and placement activities
2 Improvement of instructional program offershyings through evaluation and enrichment
3 Providing assistance to teachers for personal and professional growth
4 Providing prizes financial aid scholarships and other forms of honors to outstanding stushydents
5 Engaging in industry and public relations support of the school program
The occupational cooperating committees are the foundation and strength of the national advishy
32
sory committee system described in this discussion They provide the opportunity for industry people and vocational educators to engage in cooperative action and involvement at the local community levshyel-where the real action takes place-in the schools
Summary
In a society in which a persons work is a prishymary determinant of his personal and social status there is ar obvious relationship between the world of school and the world of work This relationship calls for a high degree of compatability and coopershyation between industry and school people to make vocational education relevant to the manpower needs of the economy and to make industry responshysive to the mission and needs of vocational educashytion
In pursuit of these mutually beneficial goals inshydustry and education in the US have developed over a period of some 50 years the concept and practice of a national system of formally organized advisory and cooperating committees at the nashytional state community school and individual
program levels At each level we find different groups of leading citizens involved because of difshyfering demands from and services to be provided For example a general advisory committee to a local school system calls for representation from community minority groups but an advisory-coopshyerating committee for an occupational program in a school requires representation from front-line sushypervisors directly engaged in hiring and training new employees While this national system is far from being fully recognized and fully utilized a framework-established by law-does exist and the potential is perceived by mur nations leaders in both industry and education
Laws written by professional administrators and lawyers concerning utilization of volunteer citishyzens can and do leave yt to be desired Despite the fact that many professional educators are disshytrustful of volunteer citizen participation in such a complex field as public education so many benefits have accrued to youth adults schools industry local communities and our nation as a result of inshydustry-education cooperative partnerships as to warrant efforts to increase such cooperation manyshyfold
33
TAIWAN AND KOREAN EFFORTS IN MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT THROUGH SCHOOL AND INDUSTRY COOPERATION
by James D Murray
Although the skilled labor force of a country is developed in a number of ways the public and prishyvate vocational schools play a very important role The primary purpose of this part of the educashytional program is to prepare the student for useful employment Vocational education means more than training for specific job skills It develops abilities understandings attitudes work habits and appreciations which contribute to a satisfying and productive life This breadth of training makes it possible for the graduates of the vocashytional schools to adjust to rapid technological changes in their fields and advance quickly on the job In due time those graduates with leadership abilities can achieve supervisory positions Vocashytional education also has the responsibility of proshyviding supplementary training in occupational skills and related technical knowledge to make emshyployed adults more productive This is usually accomplished through an evening program
This paper discusses my experiences (using Taishywan as an example) in developing school and inshydustry cooperation through advisory committees in designing realistic vocational educational programs geared to the manpower needs of a developing conitry The paper also comments on the use of skill contests and participation in the Skill Olymshy
pics (with particular reference to Korea) to gain acceptance for vocational education and to build status for the skilled workers
The Taiwan Program
In the Taiwan program I worked with the Vocashytional Teacher Training Institution eight technishycal high schools and the Institute of Technology which is a post-high school in most respects With regard to the Institute of Technology my assignshyment to reorganize this old established institution to properly equip it and train the faculty provides a good example of the nature of problems involved
in developing a meaningful and iiseful advisory committee
The first step in this undertaking was to have the
president of the school and the faculty obtain an understanding of what an advisory committee should do and how it should operate I was fortushynate in being able to obtain the full cooperation of the president of the school It was therefore possible for me to put before the president of the Institute material from the many US pamphlets on how to organize a school industry advisory committee which I adapted as best I could to (he local situashytion He in turn gave it to his department heads they read it we discussed it and I thought I would run -t little check and do a little role playing with the president of the Institute calling the meeting going through all the procedures including writing of invitations to prospective members of the comshymittee
We got off to a reasonably good start but then additional progress became difficult We could see that the true understanding of what an advisory committee should do and how it should operate was not getting through Fortunately (not by inshytention) I made the comment during a meeting that in this assembled group was perhaps the most knowledgeable group on how a school industry adshyvisory committee should be organized and opershyated This group is perhaps the most knowledgeashyble in Taiwan Therefore would it not be to our advantage (and to the advantage of the country) to make this available to others who perhaps are not so well acquainted with this advisory commitshytee concept by translating the information I had developed into Chinese The group agreed to this
proposal We went through the whole procedure line by line It took a lot of time but when we got through the group understood the need for and
purposes of an advisory committee It was now possible to proceed with the organizashy
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tion of the General Advisory Committee for the institution We brought in the public sector prishyvate sector large medium and small industries also some things that we would not include in the US such as the Ministry of Education Provincial Deshypartment of Education and the military It was successful we were able to assemble a very fine committee The committee brought forth to the institute things which I could very well have said but it was much more meaningful coming from their own people than from an outsider
The process of actually organizing the committee was a bit slow I worked with the president with the departmnt heads and we madle calls on indusshytry gave them a little pamphlet explained how the committee should operate
At the first meeting the members were informed about the purpose of the reorganized institution the type of equipment it would have the type of
buildins planned for the future and that they were going to be involved in the planning of this reorganization
Subsequent to this niceting we proceeded to the organization of the craft committees again bringing n the military and some of our AID
people in various specialties The committees were organized and committee members sat in on the planning of the courses of study The school would prepare the plai and send it out to the adshyvisory committee beforehand The committee havshying been exposed to the plain would then offer comshyments and criticism it worked beautifully Since this i rocedureiworketi so well for the Institute we
thought we would niow see what could be done for the eight technical high schools Here we practiced what we talked about in the Institutes industry adshyvisory commititees regarding the organization of the comm it tee If we just send an educator to work with the schools for this purpose we have the picshyture from one side Therefore why not have one person from the industry side as well as a person from the school side And we dlid this
The Taiwan Power Company furnished their director of training and the provincial governshyment brouight ill ole of their school-indlist ry coorshydinators They worked with each of time eight vocashytional schools in reorganizing their school industry advisory committee We chose electricity as the first committee to organize because each of the eight schools had the school industry advisory committee and we happened to get this mai from Taiwan Power Company Also the Taiwan Power Coishy
pany had an office in each of these eight cities with which we were working
A final interesting comment regarding the Taishywan experience-after four meetings attended by the coordinator from the provincial department of education and the training director from the Taishywan Power Company they issued a report which contained useful suggestions which took into acshycount the local situation
A few of the suggestions made to the schools in this report incluied the following Planned visits and in-plant practice should be arranged for the graduating class mathematics related to the ocshycuipation should be taught shop practice of gradshyntitig students to be based on Taiwan Power
Company regulations a safety boo issued by the Quason Training Center schools foi reference
The Korean Program
In Korea basically similar procedures were used in developing industry advisory committees As in Taiwan procedires were developed and accepted regarding establishment of national provincial and school advisory conumittees These are conshytained in the by-laws promulgated in June 1963 of the Industrial Education Advisory Committee Adshyvisory comnittees are operating in Korea they are operating even thoughlithey are not as sophisticated as the ones in the United States Effective advisory committees were also established for the agriculshytural program
It Korea as in many other countries the advishysory committees lead to other participation proshygrais One exaimple is the school industry cooperashyive program where the student spends part time in
school and part time iworking in industry The proshygrais are operating quite siccessfully
Other programins which I believe particularly imshyportant as a means of fostering popular participashytion are tihe National Skill Contests and the Skill Olympics which art described in the section that follows
National Skill Conitests and the Skill Olympics
The National Skill Contest In 1963 USAID asshysisted the Ministry of Education and the Korean Technical Edunication Association in tie organizashytion and operation of the First National Technical High School Skill Contest The objectives of this activity were to encourage the students and teachshyers to strive for better workmanship to gain public
acceptance of vocational education and to improve
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the image of the skilled worker in society The conshytest is similar to an athletic tournament but in this activity the students from participating high schools compete with each other for honors in the various trades Suitable contest problems and projshyects are prepared by a committee representing inshydustry and education and the contest is conducted under very strict supervision The completed conshytest projects are evaluated in terms of precision finish working speed logical procedure economishycal use of materials and proper use of tools Ilie winners are given appropriate awards and pibshylicly honored Since the program was started in 1963 five contests have been held and each year he test problems have become inucreasingly difficult and the judges more severe in their evaluation
The National Technical High School Skill Conshytests were quite successful and generated considerashyble interest within education circles as well as in the public and private industrial sectors However a group of imaginative and aggressive Koreans were not satisfied and begaii to explore ways to expand and improve this program Ini 1966 they heard about the International Vocational Training competition which is connionly referred to as the Skill Olympics andldecided to seek admittance into this internaiionial event
The Interinational focational Trainig Compeshytition The International Vocational Training Competition originated in Spain shortly after World War II It began as a national skill conshytest similar to the national skill contests that were condicteld in tie Republic of Korea The colipetition in Spain proved to be so successful that the Spainish invited their neighliboing cotutry Portugal to coipete in the Madrid conitest The joint conitests ield in Madrid ini 1950 and 1951 were atteirlded by iany meinlbers of the diplomatic
rls Twy weie imiipressed with the spirit of comshy)Ctitioni atnd the healthy xc lanige of training ideas
which took place at the contest As a coise(ulience they indi crd the training agencies inl their respecshytive couiitries to joili inl the coimpetition In auldi tion to Spain the list of nations now participating is (Iuite imtipiessive Atistiia lelgium Deninark West Germlanity lolland Ireland Italy ILuxeishyburg Portugal Switverland United Kingdom Japan and Koiea The first six international conshytests were held in Spain but since 1958 the contest has been held in various Eiiopeaii countries
The member co(nries may choose their particishy
pants for tie International Vocational Training
Competition in any manner but it is usually done through a national skill contest The International Vocational Training Competition lasts about three weeks During the first week the technical represhysentatives and experts make the necessary preparashytions select test items and prepare the necessary bltieprints At the end of the first week the contesshytants arrive and the competition starts the second week The testing time may be as much as 35 hours Judging is completed in the third and final week after which the winners are awarded medalsshynormally a gold silver aiid bronze medal for each trade
Korea Eners the Skill Olympics The Korea Committee-International Vocational Training Competition (IVTC) was organized in 1966 to preshy
pare for entrance ini the 1967 Skill Olympics Using the experience gained in the organization of the National Technical High School Skill Compeshytition five regional elimination contests were held thn rotighou t Korea with the winners meeting in the Ntional Contest in Seoul The competitors (1300) came from technical high schools aid industry The maxintin age limit set by international regushylations is 19 years (not to have readied 20th birthshyday) Extetlding tile cotipelitiont to include young skill workers from industry has provided crossshyfertilization of training techniques between school and industry anl entrance into international comshy
petition has escalated the standards of evaluation Korea sent niine contestants to the 1967 Skill
OlyIipirs which was held inl Spain July 10 to July 17 Tlieie were 231 coimpetitors front 12 countries com11peting inl 31 different tracles Korea won gold
niedals in tailoring and shoemaking a silver nedal in wood patern making and bronze medals in sheet metal and sign painting Uponl their reshytin to Scoul these winiels were given an enthuishysiast ic welcomie at the airport and later a recognishytion ceremotiy was held inl Citizenis IHTall The Prime Minister was the principal speaker and preshysented each winner with appropriate awards Later Ilie President of Korea personiall) congratulated the group onl their success Inl the past high level govshyernment officials have participated ini the National Teciial High School Skill Competition activishyties but Iris event far exceeded any previous occashy5100is
The success of the Korean contestanits in the
19ti7 Skill Olympics spread throughout tie country motivating more young craftsmen and students to compete for the honor of representing their coutishy
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try in the international competition The Korean team that competed in the 1968 Skill Olympics in Switzerland was even more successful than its
predecessors Korea-Taiwan Cooperation Inspired by the
Korean and Japanese success in the Skill Olympics the Republic of China decided to improve and exshypand their Vocational Industrial High School Skill Competition Taiwan has held annual skill conshytests for vocational high school students for the
past 15 years and in 1967 they decided to prepare
for entrance into the Skill Olympics An exchange of information and technical assistance was arshyranged with the Korea Committee for Inernashytional Vocational Training Competition As a reshystilt of this cooperative effort Taiwan conducted their First National Vocaiional Training Competishytion in Novenber of 1968 The competition was very siccessful and the Chinese Government is now
considering entering the International Vocational Training Competition in 1970
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES WITHIN PRIVATE INDUSTRY
by Clayton J Cottrcll
Two urgent needs have met each other within our society during the last 15 years The first is the need of industry for skilled and semiskilled workers The second is the need for poor people for both jobs and the opportunity for better jobs We cannot freeze _to pernlan2nce the existence of two Americas the one rich and the other poor sepashyrate and unequal Our whole society is responding to these needs
State and federal programs have been expanded an( many new oies started to bring the indi vidtishyals and the jobs together In many US communishyties the problenms of cliage in urban life have been attacked by local government school systems colshyleges church groups neighborhood grou ps and civic organiatiolns Conicern has grown ald still is
growing that the future and even the safety of an urban industrial society depends on solving the problem of getting iiore people gainfully eishyployed
All these goals and problems come together at a single point That point is the absorption by inldu1sshytry of the hard-core ulnemploye( who are for historshyical reasons mostly meibers of mi nority racial groups Federal state and community efforts are necessary to deal with many aspects of the problem But the heart of the matter liesin our factories where maln lnees job and1 relates to it well or badly As one who has spent his adult life in indusshytry I can siuinnarie what indlistry call do and is doing The why the how the what anil the who
Let us look at the situnation through the eyes of a persol who sees hiimself inl relation to his personial problem and as lie thiinks it through
I quit school before I learned a trade lie says I now have a family I have bills to pay kids to clothe and I want to be better off next year than I am right iiow To get eiiough income I will work two jobs and maybe oie or two unskilled jobs or part-time jobs for the wife But even this work will
not bring in enough money to provide for the famshyily There must be another way
There is another way The Labor Department has created many opplortulities through such onshyilie-job traiing programs as National Youth Corps Model Cities and others But what about
private industry The typical American community today has a straige pattern of buildings both busishyness an1d resident ial in the middle of the city surshyrounidied by a ring of mediumn-age residential-inshydnustrial arear which in turn is surrounded by more industrial and residential suburbs The irner city in a Europeian city is kept up through periodic reiiewal programs it remains the heart of the city Whenu it deteriorates soimueth ing is dlone about it We inl America are only beginning to follow that
patternl In a single community we may find an available
1)001 of labor on one side of town while the availashyble jobs are in another part of the area Yet there may he the problem of labor shortage inl this comshy
ni it) because the available workers and jobs though right beside each other were not brought together )oes induistry briniig thei together More aiid lmore industry is doiig just that It has to today if it wants to stay in business Titere is also anohllir imiotve husiniessllel especially manageshyment rightly feel responisible toward the economy aid the lationi They also want to solve their own
probleii of eiarging an(1 improviig the labor force ald they walt to solve tlie liations problem of brinmgiig the hard-core iiieiployed inmto the mailnstreall of our iatiolnal life ManIaigemeut knows it is to its advantage to hell the chronically uineiployed aind that with a lot of help and pashytieice they will help themselves
Vhat happens whenllan automobile manufacturer accepts an obligatioi to hire 750 of the hard-core inemployed and make them into productive em-
Ilayees First these people have to be brought up
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to an acceptable level of literacy A number of peoshyple who sign up for programs never show up This is disappointing frustrating and even demoralizshying for the people in industry who are trying to make a success of a training program Is it reasonashyble to conclude that these pcople do not want to work The car manufacturer did a follow-up study and some startling things came to light People who cannot read cannot read the destination signs on buses The company now has follow-up men to show the trainees how to catch the right bus and how to transfer cnroite
There was also the problem of tardiness Only one in five had alarm clocks Why They had never before had to be at any particular place at any parshyticular time Once these hard-core people knew how and why to come to work their attendance and tardiness record was 500 percent better than the average of all other employees
There were far fewei hopeless cases than had been expected The nonperformers are now pershyforming and performing well and are devoting hours of their own time to company-conducted sesshysions after work oi things like personal hygiene and efficient maniagement of their money
We went through a similar experience in anshyother company in Rochester New York where we worked with an industry-supporued employment agency Rochester Jobs Incorporated to recruit apshyplican ts from the inner city We found that a high number of hard-core people cannot pass physical examinations Out of 635 applicants during an eight-week period as many as 220 failed physicals
There was a big proportion of rejects and dropshyouts Only about 170 of the original 635 comshy
pleted the training and got permanent jobs A large aiount of tinie and money was spent in inshyterviewing examining and training people who never became employed with the result that the cost per person hired was far greater than in norshymal hiring We nevertheless consider it a worthshywhile program for we were convinced of the need to create new job opportunities for the unemployed of the inner city of Rochester and to assist them to qualify for these jobs Everyone who can and will work deserves the opportunity
In both cases the story is the ame management felt the same obligation to deal with a large social
problem many tribulations were involved in hanshydling the proLlems but management emerged conshyvinced not only of the obligation but also of the conclusion that the in-house development of
human resources was definitely good business It is good business because it produces good workers In similar programs at other companies the broadest conclusion of all was that management learned more than the trainees did more about people more about motivation and training more about minority groups
Management learned other things too First they learned that trainees require an enormous amount of attention to financial family and vocational
problems which interfere with learning Second one way to insure built-in motivation is to hire heads of households They learned that tests are not always good predictors of success The will to sucshyceed is just as necessary on the part of management as it is on the part of the hard-core trainee In each case an economic social and psychological cripple is transformed into a whole man or woman
The transformation of these people is not the only training problem which confronts industry today Members of minority groups are not the only people in our country who require attention and merit concern Every member of the industrial working team has something to learn about his own job that lie ought to learn in his best interests This is recognized by indtustry for there are many seminars and university courses many high-level management study groups especially set up for top and middle management In the factory laboratory the drafting room and in the office training reshymains an ongoing and virtually necessary activity
One teaching technique used by industry known as programmeld slides helps employees to improve their skill right on the job It takes advantage of the fact that four-filhs of all learning is visual It makes each lesson part of a practically subconscious reflex pattern like driving a car and painlessly trains the memory in the way that it should go
Let me state a paradox which like many parashydoxes also happens to he true Industry should alshyways leave the path open for an employee to upshygrade his ability and move up in relation to his growing skill and productivity but industry must not make perpetual upgrading a condition of emshy
ployment There are such things as plateaus levels of acshy
complishment on which a person temporarily or
permanently comes to a rest It is unfair and unshywise to pretend that an employee must visibly be climbing higher if lie is to continue to be useful but it is equally unfair and unwise to close off or fail to provide an upward path for employees who
40
want to follow it Small companies are plagued by the dilemma of forcing the level of performance upshyward at too fast a pace versus letting the level of performance stay flat for too long They cannot afshyford many mistakes in personal selection and trainshying What can they do Part of their question has been answered by the US Departinent of Labor but another part of their answer may come from joining locally sponsored training institutions to do the job for them
Community colleges which are usually oriented toward the needs of local industries are natural places for training to take place Small companies help to insure their own future when they help to support the institutions and when their executives and engineers help to run them Community colshyleges serve a need magnificently to an extent that all too oftn goes unrecognized because its results are not spectacular
Summing up then I return to where I began American industry needs workers and more producshytive workers in greater numbers all the time and this trend will continue Many Americans are there for the seeking ready and able to supply the work when properly trained and motivated Industry has developed the ability to do this job industry is also improving its ability to keep career opportunishyties open for average men as well as the excepshytionally talented Industry is using and continuing to use its in-house capabilities for the development of hunan resources In short industry really is doing a job and after all what else is industry for
DISCUSSANT Julius F Rothman
In the 1960s Americans learned that the key to any stuategy against poverty was a program that ofshyfered jobs at decent wages with an opportunity for advancement For those living in poverty the deshyspair of the ghetto is rooted in unemployment unshyderemployment and in being less than a full parshyticipant in the society It is clear that the way out of poverty for the disadvantaged of our society is through training in skills that will prepare them for the job market
Today there is general agreement that our manshypower policies must be integrally related to our over-all economic planning and policies
The nations manpower policies as they have evolved over the past eight years have moved from a central concern for the needs of the technologishycally displaced worker to a much broader and more basic concern with the unemployed underemshy
ployed and disadvantaged worker In this process they have had substantial impact on programs reshylated to welfare poverty and the urban crisis Planshyning for manpower policies and programs has in a real sense moved to center-stage in economic decishysion-making
It is also generally recognized that a realistic manpower policy can only be developed within the framework of a national economy that is growing rapidly enough to provide job opportunities for all
persons who are able to work and seeking employshyment This in effect means a full employment economy with unemployment rates somewhere beshytween 2 and 2 12 percent With the unemployment rate at 14 percent it is clear that new approaches to the utilization of manpower must be considered
There are several essential elemcnts that must go into a national manpower policy if we are to preshy
pare the disadvantaged unemployed for the work force
(1) There is a need for a coordinated and comshyprehensive manpower policy The absence of such a
policy has led to a proliferation of manpower proshygrams many of them inadequately funded and freshy
quently failing to meet the needs of the workers for whom they were intended
(2) For those who cannot be absorbed into existing jobs and who desire to work either in the
private or public sectors of the economy there must be a large-scale public service employment and training program subsidized by the Federal Government
(3) To effectively implement national manshypower policies and programs the US Employment Service should be federalized Until this is achieved the fifty state employment services need to be strengthened and upgraded
(4) Greater emphasis must b- placed on upshygrading programs that provide workers with the opportunity to achieve greater skills larger inshycomes and dded status
(5) The federal minimum wage should be raised to at least $200 an hour and the Fair Labor Standards Act be extended to cover all workers
While about one million people per year are helped by current manpower programs this is but a fraction of those who require help An expansion of existing programs through the creation of addishytional training opportunities in private industry is clearly indicated but it has been demonstrated that the private sector has not met the job and training needs of all of the disadvantaged
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The AFL-CIO has long maintained that public service employment provides the best avenue for those who cannot find a place in the private sector of our economy At least three studies have amply documented the sulbtantial number of job openshyings in the public sector that could be filled if sufshyficient funds were made available to the local and state governments Nor are these jobs of the leafshyraking variety Opportunities exist in such areas as anti-pollution enforcement educational institushytions general administration health and hospitals highway and traflic control libraries police fire recreation and sanitation
The Commission on Technology Automation and Economic Progress estimated in 1966 that 53 million new jobs could be created through public service employment An Office of Economic Opporshytunity study by Greenleigh Associates suggested the
possibility of 43 million such jobs And a 1969 study by tihe Upjohn Institute indicated that the mayors of 130 cities with populations over 100000 could use another 280000 persons on their municishy
pal payrolls iminediately If America is to help the working poor and find
jobs for the uneniployed why not use federal funds to improve the quality of essential community services
In a period of rising unemployment increased emphasis should be placed on upgrading the skills of those who are currently employed Upgrading programis would perform a twofold purpose They would provide a ladder for presently employed workers seeking advancement from low-paying enshytry-level jobs and at the same time would provide entry-level openings for the unemployed who could also look to future upward mobility
In the past too much emphasis has been directed towards placing workers in enury-level low-wage jobs which require little or no formal training In too many instances manpower activities have been viewed as a substitute for welfare programs with the result that neither manpower nor welfare needs are adequately met The main thrust of training must be directed toward helping individuals deshyvelop their maximum potential skills for employshyment opportunities that actually exist in the job market This means training for skills beyond the entry-level
There is currently a great deal of talk about reorshyganizing the existing manpower programs and placshying the operating responsibility in the hands of the
states The AFL-CIO is convinced that placing major responsibility for the unemployment probshylems of the poor and the disadvantaged in the hands of the States is a serious mistake The
problems of employment and unemployment are complex and national in scope The individual states have no mechanisms for coping with these
problens The work force is highly mobile Joblessshyness and underemployment require national solushyiLOns not fifty diflerent approaches
Those who advocate this approach would make the key operating mechanism the State Employment Agency The past record of most of these State agenshycies does not suggest they will aggressively press for either job placeient or job development for the
poolr or members of minority groups What is needed to create an effective manpower
training system was stated succinctly by the Nashytional Manpower Policy Task Force in a report reshyleased early this year which said available
manpower services should be provided on the basis of need not impeded by diverse eligibility requireshyments varying administrative practices or competshying agencies The separate programs must be fused into a single comprehensive federal manpower proshygram--providing a variety of services in varying mixes depending upon national conditions and local need preferably funded by a single federal source
Manpower programs are a crucial component of any broad strategy for the elimination of unemployshyment and poverty As long as we have some 45 milshylion unemployed and some 15 million underemshy
ployed-who together with their dependents acshycount for most of the 25 million who live in povershyty-there is an urgent need to move rapidly toward the creation of effective manpower policies and
programs The 1960s was a period of innovation and exshy
perimlentation in the manpower training field Many programs were tried some failed and others met with varying degrees of success The net result was something less than a coordinated and compreshyhensive approach to manpower training We now have the opportunity to streamline existing manshy
power programs into a coinpreliensive program and to add to our manpower policies those elements which past experience has indicated are essential to meet the needs of the disadvantaged
To this end the AFL-CIO proposes that any changes in manpower policy be measured against the following criteria
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(1) Consolidate existing job training programs into a single flexible program which can be taishylored to the needs of the unemployed and to the labor market in which they live
(2) Create a completely new upgrading program designed to encourage employers to develop upshygrading programs either within a company or within an industry and at the same time to fill job vacancies at the entry-level
(3) Establish a system of public service employshyment with State or local government and private nonprofit agencies operating under federal conshytract which would undertake to absorb those who have not been placed in private employment or training in the performance of community imshy
provemen projects in health education public safety recreation bIeatitification etc
We lelieve that these policies if followed would put the United States on the high road toward elimshyinating the unemployment that exists in our slums and urban ghettos and would bring the disshyadvantaged into the econonic mainstream
The Employment Act of 1916 said All Amerishycans able to work and seeking work have the right to useful reuninerative regular and full-time emshyployment and it is the policy of the United States to assure the existence at all times of sufficient emshyployment opportunities to enable all Americans to freely exercise this right
The rhetoric of the 1940s must become the realshyity of the 1970s
DISCUSSANT Richard L Breault
The National Chamber of Commerce for a numshyber of years has been promoting among its menishybers the importance of creating in their own comshymunities a process for bringing together diverse groups that need to become involved in dealing with community problems These probleis might range from pollution to poverty and even to ecoshynomic developmlenti The latter although at a local level I gather relates to the In-pose of Title IX of the Foreign Aid Act We have developed guideshylines for such community action projects which are being used by some of our members
There are in the United States some rather intershyesting conuiiiuity-wide projects that have brought together a wide variety of )articipants For examshyplc in Rochester Minnesota literally h1undreds of citizens are involved in looking at the goals for the community and determining priorities and alternashytive ways these objectives and priorities may be achieved The Goals for Dallas project is an exshy
ample in a much larger city where a rather difficult yet feasible process has been worked out to get thousands of persons involved in determining what Dallas should be now and in the next ten or fifteen years where it should go and what needs to be done to get where they want to go There are a number of examples of other cities that also are supporting such programs to a greater or lesser exshytent
There also have been some excellent examples of
puillic participation in specific manpower proshygrams in addition to other broad community efshyforts such as in Rochester and Dallas The whole manpower outreach program to poverty areas that many businessmen are now using is an example They will go to local organizations and ghetto groups and literally ask them to go out and help find the people who can benefit from training and
jobs The cooperative efforts in the buddy system are an example of individuals becoming involved In this effort one person assumes the responsibility to be a friend and advisor to a disadvantaged per-Soil
In some cities local Chambers of Commerce have been organizing neighborhood recruitment centers right in the ghetos manned by people from these areas In each of the cities the success of the proshygram depends upon the degree to which the key leadership elements of the community are inshyvolved You literally have to start with one two or three persons to get a system of this kind working I would certainly say that here in the United States the businessman particularly through his orgashynized channel of communication which in most cases is a local or a State Chamber of Commerce is indispensable As one looks around the country at this sort of back to people involvement and parshyticipation one finds that where failures have ocshycurred it has been because some of the key eleshyments-business labor the churches ethnic groups or the political part of the community-were left out
It is often noted that it is difficult to get the
pieces of a community together to do a job We have found this to be true in our work
There is a natural fragmentation among comshymunity groups in this country The labor groups may not talk too often to the businessmen the buisinessmen might miot get along too well with sonic other group and so on There is also the fear that getting together in a cooperative project may result in some loss of independence as an organizashy
43
tion or as an individual Compromises would have to be made which one would just as soon not have to make Difficult as this process may be in the US I imagine that it would probably be even more difficult in developing countries In the US the communication media are intensively develshyoped enabling one to reach out to people In many of the developing countries one would not expect to have these media as well developed
The Chamber of Commerce has prepared an adshydition to a publication we call Where the Action Is This pamphlet is a compilation of brieflyshy
stated examples of projectsthat involve cooperative efforts with business and other groups in the comshymunity usually taking a major role It is divided into a number of categories such as education manpower crime housing and minority business enterprise In each case the name is given of a pershyson who may be contacted to obtain more informashytion about that particular project This material
put together with the guidelines we provide our members gives at least the basic steps that are necesshysary to get people to cooperate in a community These guidelines could also work for others
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NEW CONCEPTS OF THE EMPLOYMENT SERVICE ROLE TO MEET THE CHALLENGE OF THE 1970s
by Malcolm R Lovell Jr
Recently there has been in the United States a good deal of criticism of the Employment Service Such criticism may have resulted in part from the fact that more has been expected of the Employshyment Service than it could produce The problem has been that we have never set realistic goals for the Employment Service Its broad charter is to serve all people in manpower programs with funds which may appear substantial but are still limited when considered in terms of the cost of a program required to meet the needs of all the people
Some changes are taking place however One is the growing recognition that manpower programs can play a very significant part in overall economic progran and in fighting poverty and discriminashytion Therefore I believe that this nation is preshypared to put more resources into the manpower area than ever before
What are the nature and extent of the resources required to do an effective job Currently some 16 billion dollars have been allocated for training and other assistance to the disadvantaged These proshygrams are serving approximately a million people We estimate that the universe of need according to current poverty criteria is about ten million peoshyple These are the people in serious need of manshypower services if they are to realize their own poshytential in the labor market And they also are the people who are currently at substandard incomes
Of course if you take into consideration non-disshyadvantaged people in need of manpower services the spectrum can broaden out to all of the people in the labor market soae eighty million But asshysuming ten million people are in need our serving one million people is just scratching the surface
Probably the most important breakthrough that is on the horizon is the Family Assistance Plan (FAP) that was proposed by President Nixon last year This plan in my judgment is probably one of the most far reaching pieces of social legislation presented to Congress since the 1930s
The implications of the FAP program are treshymendous The proposed bill would require the Emshyployment Service to serve 29 million people startshying with some 425000 the first year after passage of the bill However those that would be mandatorishyally included in the program are about three milshylion people And then there ate another three milshylion people that have the option of obtaining the manpower services provided in the program Thus the bill contemplates the rendering of manpower services to roughly six million people
This is a sizeable proportion of the estimated universe of need of ten million In addition I would hope that through the proposed Manpower Training Act (NITA) we would be able to help a large part of the remaining individuals who are not eligible under the Family Assistance Plan This group would include for example certain 3ingle people individuals without dependents and youth over a certain age without dependents I beshylieve therefore that we are beginning to see the posshysibility over tle next five years of serving a major segment of our population who are in most drastic need of manpower services
How do you go about organizing a progam of such a magnitude It may properly be compared with the operation of our medical system We need hospitals to deal with medical problems We recogshynize that people can be put in the hospitals with a variety of administrative procedures The Medishycare program allows people to go into the hospitals and it pays the costs Medicaid is similar There is also a large private insurance program which pershymits people to have the hospital cost paid There are of course other patients who must pay their own hospital costs What must be emphasized howshyever is that all of these people are treated in the same hospital regardless of the program financing them
Manpower services are becoming so complex as to require that specific institutions be identified as
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providing certain basic services similar in nature as the hospitals do In the manpower area there is no institution that is as prepared and qualified to provide these services as the Employment Service The kinds of broad services which I believe should rest with the Employment Service are of the nature which may in general terms be described as covershying the functions connected with the process of matching people to jobs and providing and arrangshying for services which an individual may need in order to become employable This definition of the Employment Services responsibility includes a vashyriety of services The following briefly reviews some of them
Serving the FAP Th2 Employment Service should have responsibility for serving persons who are eligible under the FAP program The eligible individuals as defined by the law will have to preregister at Social Security offices Thus the ES will have a waiting list of persons to work on of roughly 3 million-the number of estimated preshyregistrants
It would seem to me that the system which will have to be set up to provide the required manshy
power services to this group of persons should also be the system used as the hospitals are to serve other individuals who are in need of manpower services This would mean oireach into areas not covered by the FAP as well as to people eligible for assistance but who for some reason have not been willing to come in by themselves
Occupational Choice The Employment Service should also be responsible for assisting individuals in making occupational choices The person himshyself however has to make the final decision on what ie wants to do Once the occupational judgshyment has been made by the individual the Emshyployment Service should make arrangements for the worker to receive appropriate instruction or on-the-job training Upon the completion of trainshying he should be referred to a job We however do not expect the Employment Service to do the trainshying
Job Information It is more important now than ever before that the ES be the resting place for inshyformation on job opportunities as well as containshying data on the individual seeking employment or training A number of the new federal programs will create a substantial number of job opportunishyties within the ES itself as well as among other public employers There will also be a substantial
number of training opportunities available as a reshysuilt of these programs For these programs to funcshytion effectively and efficiently it is essential that there be a central point where these jobs can be tabulated and put on a computer and where the inshydividuals know they can go to be exposed to the kinds of work opportunities and training opporshytunities available
Cooperation with Others We see the possibility of Employment Service contracts for services The
programs under the jurisdiction of ES may be of such a magnitude that without subcontracts the ES may not be able to properly perform its responsibilshyities Such contracts may be to community groups or private nonprofit institutions There are a numshyber of functions that are measurable and controllashyble so that theii performances can be watched and
properly monitored
Organization of the Employment Service
One of the problems of the Employment Service is the fact that in terms of social institutions of today it is a relatively old institution-some thirty years old The leadership of the organization has been in the hands of those who joined the organishyzation during the 1930s and most of them have been white Civil Service rules as well as other obshystacles to change have made it difficult for the Emshy
ployment Service to get the kind of minority represhysentation that we think it should have Currently minority groups account for about 14 percent of the Employment Service staff Although this proshy
portion does not appear to be too bad when viewed in terms of the population mix of the country we think it is bad when you consider the nature of the work involved Now Stite agencies have to submit
plans toward achieving a staff racial mix goal which reflects the population the local employment offices serve Each agency is going to set target goals and develop plans on how to achieve these goals
We have also found that the local offices are orshyganized in much the same way that they were thirty years ago except for a change made eight years ago This change unfortunately tended to reshyduce the responsiveness of the ES to the needs of the disadvantaged since it set up a system of speshycialized offices conceived to serve the employer rather than the candidate for employment
A study is now being conducted in eleven oflices directed towards changing that organizational structure and developing a structure which can more effectively serve the disadvantaged As a
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model we are using the employability team concept developed and used in the Work Incentive Proshygram (WIN) and which also will be used in the Family Assistance Plan
We have found that the attitudes of the State Agencies which have long been reported as an obshystacle to effectively participating in modern manshypower efforts have been changing One of the things that we think has been influential in this change is a greater interest on the part of mayors and governors in manpower programs A year ago we funded and offered opportunities to every govershynor to have some manpower staff attached to the manpower programs in his State This action has substantially increased interest in the manpower organizations of the StateWe just recently have ofshyfered a similar opportunity to the mayors of 150 citshy
ies As part of the Presidents new federalism conshyceptwe plan through the Manpower Training Act to involve mayors and governors to an even larger degree The involvement of these public officials in the basic judgments of how Employment Service assets will be used will in our opinion have a very useful effect and will vigorously help in speeding up the changes already taking place in the organishyzational structure
We are investing considerable resources in the Employment Service system We will be expecting performance on the part of the State agehciesectW are proceeding on this road with the assumption that we will have some opposition Those that have distrusted the Employment Service in the past need to be shown by actual achievement of the goals that have been set We hope to achieve them
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CREATION OF A CONSOLIDATED MANPOWER DELIVERY SYSTEM DECENTRALIZED TO THE STATES AND METROPOLITAN AREAS-
A WAY OF ACHIEVING INCREASED PARTICIPATION RESPONSIVE TO LOCAL NEEDS
by Cyril D Tyson
This paper presents a model manpower delivery system developed for New York City which is releshyvant to the problems of the major urban areas The major cities in many instances have had to develop their own administrative mechanisms to deal speshycifically with the problems of the city and over and above Federal and State resources allocate city reshysources to that effort
At the municipal level New York City to my knowledge has the only comprehcnsive nan)ower
program in the country When the present Manshy
power and Career Development Agency was set up there were sonie 85 different manpower programs in the city Some of these manpower agencies were run by the city and some by nonprofit corporashytions resources came from the Federal Government the State and the city No one could determine how the resources were allocated how many people were trained with these resources and what hapshypened to people after training
In recognition of these and related problems we attempted to set up a manpower agency in a new and unique way The first determination made was that it was necessary to set up a comprehensive manpower system to meet our responsibility to tie together those agencies man(ated by legislation to some aspects of manpower as well as other agencies or groups who have been in this field de facto but were doing a creditable job We wanted to bring together all of these instititions whiile maintaining their own individual institutional identity and their own internal liies of administration In efshyfect we wanted to define ourselves as the manager of the manpower system and the determiner of the kind of specifications that these institutions would have to utilize in order to develop adequately the pruduct produced by this system and which would
have to be marketed in the free enterprise system I was not interested in becoming directly involved in operating specific training or educational agenshycies nor in developing a manpower bureaucracy I thought of myself as a businessman with a $45000000 budget and a company that would deshyvelop the appropriate kinds of tools to insure that the product produced was marketable and that there were effective kinds of returns I wanted also to develop accountability in order to identify the cause of ineffectiveness Finally I wanted to define the objectives of the agency in terms of the unishyverse of need and in terms of the kind of resources available
In the City of New York 45 agencies andor orshyganizations have been tied together into a compreshyhensive manpower system In the community parshyticipation area this means there are 26 poverty areas or 26 community action agencies The smallshyest poverty area has a population the size of most normal cities and the largest has more people in it than Newark Each of these 26 community action agencies funded with both City and OEO money administers Neighborhood Manpower Servshyice Centers (NMSC) No training goes on in those Centers they are the intake points the testshying and counselling points and the points of detershymination of the educational andor vocational
plans of individuals All of the resources in the City are available to these NNISCs We have Cityshywide training programs and as appropriate proshygrams inl specific regional opportunity centers so that a person may go close to home for training People are given an option for the first time We are thus beginning to provide interest options so that a person participates in a program because that is where lie belongs and not to fill program quotas
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We believe we have the only program and the first in tie country in which an institution of highcr education is an integrated part of a manshypower system The City University of New York and all of its junior colleges one in each borough provides the major portion of the educational coishyponent and the skilled training component within our system This educational component includes English as a second language basic education edushycation related to skilled training and preparation for high school equivalency
In addition the Board of Education provides basic education and English as a second language in a number of the I I regions which encompass the 26 poverty areas The State Dep-rtment of Vocational Rehabilitation alo is tied into that system Prior to their involvement they had only one office in New York City while they now have a staff in every one of our regional opportunity centers The) are beginning to relate their activities in a more releshyvant way to the popuilation that comes under their jurisdiclion In addition (hie Stale Employment
Service is a part of this system in New York City Ve informed the State Employment Service that
we wantied their staff inl all of lie 11 regions and that we would make city futds available so they could hire the Peronnel to staff the counselling fuinctions in these training facilities In tis procshyess the Stae Eiployment Service wotild become more relevant to tlie needs of the community and in tle process of expansion tle) (ould hire people who aie reflective of the community they serve
The Opportunities Industrialization Center and aI number of other institutions and organizations are involved in the progran Fifty percent of the
people who pailiipate are former welfare recipishyents We have over 300 people who started in public service career plograis in college and we provide for release Itimne funds to insure that people in ptiblic service carees cani pursue higher educashytion related to tle job they have or will tilimately have
The whole recruitment mechanism is contracted out to antipoverty agencies Also contracted out are the skilled training tile educational component and the counselling component This raised the question about wiat is needed to insure accountashybility We have used a ceitral data processing censhytet belonging to an antipoverty agency with terinishynals into all of our NMSCs A person is interviewed tested and lie intake form is filled out If it is deshyterinied that tie person is ready for a job the
counsellor or the person at that terminal provides basic kinds of infoniation to match tlhis person with a job If theie is an appropriate job in seven seconds the name of lie company the hourly rate location etc come over the terminal For a year and a half we have been placing people in jobs through direct on-line access against a batch-match system
Training opportunities are also on the comshyputer Wheni we allocate the training resources of the city into tie communities they also have access to time information tile) need from the computer All of our job developers and counsellors are placed on the computer by code This enables us to obtain information for example on number and kind of people and jobs handled on any one day This brings accointability into the process We know who is getting what kind of job at what rate and the relevancy of those jobs to the people we are serving
We have also developed a management informashylion system ours will be tihe first Intitiicipal agency ini New York City to have a completely computershyized management information system With this system we will be able to cross the program inforshymation with the fiscal information and do cost benshyefit analysis
Our tiniverse of need consists of the five most difshyficult categories in the labor market welfare recipishyents chronically unemployed Iigh school dropshyouts minority underemployed an(l employable handicapped Ve now understand that most of liese people need itraining of one kind or another
only a small proportion can go directly on to jobs We Ilust consider how best to train these people low do )oui traini people inl the community to
provide service to themselves I low do you train those people for example in a way ini which they can begin to handle sophisticated information sysshytems We canl tell you inl oir system who is in what kind of training prograi ini what agency in what area what their reading levels are thei age range tleir job development activity the activity of the Neighborhood Manpower Centers including whet her tiey are late ini the flow of that informashytion through that system With otit regional system maliagers and the related staff inl our regional censhyts who imatnage not only that aclivity and the inshy
stittitions that are part of it but also the contract of the Neighborhood Manpower Ceiters we are in a position to tal in specific terms about what the
problems are and how they can be eliminated
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When you make a commitment to involve comshymunity people in the process of any service you should be prepared to provide them the tools Those tools have to be designed at a level of the people who are participating in that system in
order to make their participation relevant For Cxshyaiple we developed a processing and procedural
mautial and flow chart so that any onie at any part of that system knows his responsibility inl that sysshyten as far as the Neighborhood 11anpower Centers ale COnceied
The iaini objective is to involve tie Community so that they develop whole sets of new tools and skills that make it possible for then to intersect our econoimy at another lcvel When we involve coimshymn1lity people we build up a set of skills for them that has applicability within a broader context of our society At the sanie timie that we are providing
manpower services we help the conunity develop a certain orider of technology that to ily knowledge does not exist in any other Connility in the counshy
try If we are coniceriel about the rational use of reshy
solices inl this couitriy we muiiistfind ways in which to iiilie those resources ms way in which they have a multiplier effect There will never he elnough miolley to solve somne of the iost pressing
problems that we have uinless We beginl to redesign olr insituiions begin to create linkages by the inshy
volvement of the City Univeisity of New York for example ill imianpower In the future probably any
pelsol in a imanpower pjrograil who has received a high school equivalancy in that process will have access to a college education at City University In effect by linking (ity University of New York into the systciim we are forcing a certaini ortder of intershynal institutional ianige
We want to lie degree possible to maximize the participation of the people who need the serviees in tile process of pirovidiiig the services for themshyselves It is possible to do hat It is possible to get institutions even ill the context of history that iight have been slightly recalci irani to conie toshy
gether in ieii of a larger scheiiata as long as we are prepared to help them in very real kinds of ways to master the new kinds of technology in order to run a more effective and efficient system
Discussion
Question from the floor One of the major purshy
poses of thiis Symposium is to extract fron Amerishycan experiences the aphplicability of popular particshyipation in a less developed economy These discusshysions have pointed out that there are underlying
principles which can be applied one being a coinshymitment to invlve those people left out of the iainstreain back into society Title IX of the Forshy
eign Assistance Art says that people in the develop mng countries nust he given a sense of participation in development of their country in order to achieve fle basic goals of political stability social progress and growth
What do you think are the basic underlying
principles for bringing about (lie involvement of
people in theircountrys development plocess
Mr Trvons ronments I think this is a relevant question and I am going to make the formulation
in power terms We like to feel in a detiocratic soshytiety that power is negotiated Certain institushytional arrangenients are set ill) that make it possishyble for those in power to negotiate with others in ain exchange People who have no power and thereshyfore no participation in pr1ograns have to be orgashynized
flow uslit inust bepeople le organized They organized into instittitional arrangenients because in the fiial analysis tlie iransfer of power is done in institutional ways People who are out of the mainshystream imiiust in in which theybe organied a way caii express their (oncern within the context of an institution that they either contirol or play a major role in
Also if this is to be a viable situation we must equip thei with tools tech hiq ies methodology and resoirt es so that when tile) negotiate there is soimnetliIng to iiegotiate about The strategy in our agelnty was to provide tools of a ceitain order of technology in aiiinstiititional context so that these tools could be used as leverage against a whole set of other inst itutions Therefore you use the tools and the technology as an instruieint of changing
powver and resource ielationships The people onut of thei mainstreani must be
trained amd given adequate resources and approshypriate technology If a poor person is put ol a polshyicy board and is not taught the difference between policy and adi in istration lie should not be blamed for failure They must understand their reshysponsibility in terms of policy
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THE PROBLEM OF EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN
by Grace Farrell
We hear a great deal in the United States today about the need for equal employment opportunity But it is often forgotten that the equal employment opportunity principle applies regardless of sex as well as inl the more customary areas of race crced color anid national origin
Women have come a long way in tie world of work In the US they make up an extremely signifshyicant part of the labor force about 30 million or 38 percent of the labor force Today it is expected that nine out of ten women will work at some point in their lives and for most of them for a considerable period of time The employment pattern for women is no longer that of out of high school or college alul into an ofllice for a couple of years until they marry and then to usually leave the labor force perimaien tly
The greater participation of women in the work force however is not reflected cither in the kind of work they do or in the pay they receive This tindershyitilization of a substantial body of workers constishy
tutes one of tile greatest wastes of our manpower resources today Women need not only the opporshytiility for employment but of course to get into and participate in tile training programs that lead to elliploymeint
In the 19fiWs a imtilliber of laws were passed to
help solve some of these pioblems Anilg tile Fedshy
cral laws was the Equpal Pay Act of 1963 which
prohibits ain cimployer froill discriminating in tile
payment of wages based on sex for all of his emshy
ployces who are subject to the ilinilltim wage provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act Also the Fair Labor Standards Amendment of 1966 whicl illcreased the Federal illinilium wage also
broadened the coverage of the Equal Pay Act Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibshy
its discrimination ill all phases of employment by employers employllent agencies and certain trainshying committees The discrimination prohibited is
tilat based on sex as well as race religion color or national origin Although not strictly speaking a law Executive Order 11375 amended an early Ex ecutive Order which prohibited discrimination by government contractors and subcontractors and federally assisted construction contracts to include discrimination against women Alany states have elacted similar laws also This is very important because it seems that no law is passed without a nillber of exceptions exemptions or exclusions This is true of the Federal laws that I have just enumerated as it is of much other legislation
One of the problems often occurs when the
public employment service is attempting to place women in jobs and relates to such factors as not being able to refer a woman out to work in a facshy
tory because the job requires her to work sixty hours a week and there is a State law which says women can only work forty-eight hours a week Similarly tilroulgh tile years originally for some rather good purposes there were eiacted by the States protective labor legislation which limited womlens hours of work or being in jobs which reshy
quire lifting more thalln iwelty-five pounds With
respect to the latter a mother will often tell you
this is ridiculous because ler baby at the age of
two weighed more than 25 pouinids Such laws are still oil the books in most cases These laws were a
major problem in applying sections of the Federal laws As a result last August the Equal Employshynient Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a revised Sex-Discrimination Guideline which states that State protective legislation including laws which limit womens oturs prohibit her from
working nights restrict her occupation or restrict tie weights they may lift now act as a barrier to
equal employment opportunity and are superseded
by the sections of the law under which the EEOC operates
Since thou about a half dozen States have indishy
53
cated that they will not contest this ruling They agreed that in order to achieve equal employment o0)lx)0rtillities for woien they will no longer enshyforce their protective labor laws There also have been several court decisions which have held siniishylarly
I think nhimately this whole problem will reach a higher court than it has now and it may be solved through a combination of State action and court action EEOC s position remains however in a State regardless of what a State labor department or the equivalent agency has held that labor laws
and hours laws may not be used as a defense to an otherwise illegal employment practice The EEOC has issued a number of decisions on a State-by-State basis on this point
All of these Federal laws and regulations are a step in the right direction and I think it is an imshy
portant one But what they are really getting at is a change in attitude which hopefully changes in laws will help to bring about Not only is a change in attitudes toward the working woman needed but also an understanding of her competence and abilshyity
54
CASE STUDY-JOBS FOR PROGRESS TNC (OPERATION SER)
by Seymour Brandwein
Operation SER (the Spanish word to be) was created as a self-help instrument designed to solve the most pressing manpower problems of the Mexishycan-Anierican population It is run by an organizashytion called Jobs for Progress sponsored by two of the largest civic organizations of Mexican-Amerishycans the League of United Latin American Citishyzens (LULAC) and the American GI Forum Its central staff is financed by the Federal Government Jobs for Progress is operating in five states in the Southwest The administrative structure consists of a regional board which sets the policy for a reshygional office under which local boards and local
projects areguided and monitored There is a maxshyinum of conununity self-involvement and the local
projects are free to adapt themselves to community needs within established guidelines for recruitment and development
This paper traces the development of this effort in an over-simplified and selective form Unnecesshysary details are avoided in order to illustrate clearly some of the special issues and problems of
popular participation in government manpower programs
There are some ten million Mexican-Americans in the Southwest This minority largely bilingual and bicultural has a disproportionately large share of the unemployment and poverty The new manpower programs initiated in the 1960s were frequently criticized by Mexican-Americans The criticism was sometimes merited sometimes uninshyformed However it was also quite clear that some of the programs run by the public agencies hadldifshyficulty with this minority group because of lanshyguage and cultural differences and problems of inshysensitivity of the non-Nlexican-American staff There were also problems of trainee attitudes toshyward government and particularly toward Anglo staff
The Labor Departments Experimental and Demonstration staff jointly with the Office of Ecoshy
nomic Opportunity (OEO) undertook an experishymental program to determine whether it was feasishyble and useful to bring into the manpower proshygrams some of the strengths feelings and cultural sensitivities of the minority group We visualized this also as an opportunity to convert protest acshytivity into constructive program action and as a way to develop understanding of and participation
in program development The following briefly deshysci ibes the way this program was developed
The first question that required an answer was who represents this minority We began with the major national organizations already active in soshycial civic affairs LULAC GI Forum and the Comshymiinity Service organization-a California-based orshyganization-which later withdrew from the Board We recognized the limitations in turning to thes groups since their membership did not include many of the very poor Each organization had limshyited resources and organizational skills But they were broad-based and they were an available strucshyture They had responsible records Their leaders were widely respected even though they might not be speaking for the total community A LULAC Chapter had already run an employment center in Houston with a volunteer staff
In late 1965 meetings were held with representashytives of these groups to encourage them to set up an organization and staff (which we would finance) to develop mianpower programs It took some months to develop agreement on appropriate relative represhysentation of the several groups on the governing board It was also agreed that the initial efforts should be concentrated in eleven major areas of Mexican-American population in the Southwest rather than dispersed over that region or the nashytion
At first there was over-emphasis on structure More time was devoted to charts of -everal layers of boards and to job descriptions and to relationships than any serious consideration of what specifically
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should be done We knew that there would be problems but we went along with their own prefershyences We were concerned that the Mexican-Amerishycan leaders involved looked upon this as getting their share of the money and as a matter of dealing with Washington in spite of what was said about working with State and local agencies Before the initial funding we brought together the Mexican-American leaders regional and State agency officials of tile Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) Department of Health Education and Welfare and the Labor Department to explain the objectives of tile program and to allow them to raise their concerns and to have them start dealing with Mexican-Americans It was also our purpose to give the Mexican-Americans an awareness of the nature of the Federal-State relationship and its conshystraints the ainouint of resources tie limits on the resources and how decisions were nade on their alshylocation In this way the State and SER leaders were forewarned of the many technical and intershyagency relationship difficulties
The program was launched in mid-1966 We disshycussed types of staff needed and SER leaders cited the names of four possible executive directors Each had considera)le background and stature and were all acceptable Each of the four declined and a pershysonnel committee selected as executive director a young man from one of the organizations and a deiputy from one of the other organizations There was disagreement about tile choice of a person to be staff head We had to explain to the top leaders that neither they nor we could permit the selection to be a patronage activity and that the man seshylected while hie was promising oil paper and might be very good as a local project director simply was unequipped to work with regional and state govshyernment officials They reluctantly accepted this aid selected a man with some experience who in retrospect turned out to be the tower of strength in technical direction that was needed in the initial years in the effort Tile staff assemlbled by the new chief were young and willing Despite cautions from us the new staff rushed ambitiously to draft the proposals for large-scale new programs to give to Washington The proposals were in general terms and were justified simply as being needed They did not take into account the complex probshylems and lead-in time requirements inherent in the launching of any comprelensive programn For exshyample there was one proposal for an Employment Center in one State to be financed by $37 million
at a time when the total allocation for this entire State for Manpower training was approximately $25 million We had to explain in a quite turbushylent session that such funds were not available that the programs had to be linked with others of the State and local manpower agencies and that speshycific account had to be taken of operational probshylems of building up a sizeable scale program Thus through the hard way the staff became familiar with funding and operational constraints under manpower agencies and what was meant by develshyoping a program
The next problem we focused on was the quesshytion of separate SER programs versus programs jointly run with public agencies We identified apshy
proximate suis that we thought we could obtain1 from uncommitted resources in Washington We also made clear to the SER staff and to the State agency that such funds would be provided over and beyond the funds regularly allocated to the States if the programs were jointly developed if the State agencies would conduct certain functions requirshying their technical skill and if SER would be given authority and responsibility for operating acshytivities for which bilingual staff and Mexican-American sponsorship would be particularly useful The SER staff was now able to begin to examine
program specifics to proceed oil the technical tasks involved and find out what was literally involved in manpower development programs Issues did arise The SER staff came to us with questions about some State agency procedures We offered inshyformation and illade suggestiolls but with a couple of rare exceptions we did not intervene We told them they would have to work it out themselves
In the spring of 1968 new SER training projects with agencies in five States were funded with apshy
proximately $5 million There were 2500 trainees in the target areas where there were high proporshytions of Mexican-Americans unemployed The projshyects varied by locality but generally tile SER was responsible for or directly involved in recruitment and selection of trainees counseling pre-job orienshytation basic education relations with employers to obtain jobs for trainees and in coaching of trainshyees during training and after placement particushylarly where Spanish-speaking capability was reshyquired The State employment services did testing counseling job placement work and the State voshycational education agencies conducted or arranged for the formal skill training
We now graduated to a new level of problems
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We moved from proposal development planning relations with State agencies and mastering of funding procedures to the specifics of program opshycration staff development technical assistance and linking to other programs These proceeded reasonshyably well in comparison to the earlier public
agency programs There were problems but a dedishycated enthusiastic staff was assembled and there was a clear affirmative response in the Mexican-American community and among potential trainshyces The State igencies respond(ed responsibly
But several types of problems are wortn noting There were questions of authority between the overall SER Board and the local SER Board and between the local Boards authority as against that of the staffs to which they were giving policy direcshytion I take particular credit for the fact that we reshysisted the temptation to be the big bosses We took the position that SER had to resolve its internal reshylations or be discredited in the eyes of the Governshyment and the public If they were serious about
private minority ability to decide and stand on their decisions
Another problen was that as the staff gained in capability t became the only identifiable major center of organized lexican-American program acshytivity and was pulled toward other potential activishyties such as housing minority entrepreneurship and education Universities and government agenshycies wanted to see how they could get Mexican-American involvement through SER We took a middle course There has been OEO funding in
part that has permitted this relatively easy stance But we insisted that there be primary and overshywhelming concentration on the manpower activishyties for which they were funded
On another front we had hoped that the initial Board would serve as a base for broader participashytion by drawing in additional Mexican-American groups Its example has provided some impetus for generating and developing various other activities at the local level by locally organized Mexican-American groups
To conclude I think it would be useful to note without overdramatizing several results that have become apparent during this fourth year of activshyity I think beyond question the program has heightened not only the interest but the undershystanding of miany Mexican-American leaders both of the potential and of the limitations of manshy
power programs-how they function and how they
can be used to meet the problems of unemployed Alexican-Americans
The programs have developed a knowledgeable Mexican-American staff who whatever their limishytations initially are now on a basis quite comparashyble to that of public agency staffs and are equipped to participate constructively in program planning development and operations In addition in the
process of negotiating with the public agencies they have influenced and generated some changes in program development to take more rational acshycount of unique problems of Mexican-Americans And for the first time on any scale they have led agencies in the manpower field into a direct sharshying a direct partnership of operating responsibility with minority organizations to the mutual benefit of both
One of the initial criticisms was that the areas we were concentrating in were urban areas and that we were not paying any attention to the Mexishycan migrants The observation was sound but it was our judgment that until a capability developed in a difficult enough area there was little sense in releasing another set of factors in the exceedingly complex and dispersed migrant problem
In the most recent years programs hive broadened SER is now conducting basic edtucationI programs for Mexican-American migrant in sevshyeral areas with financial support from OEO Beshy
yond the funds that we arranged over and above State resources as some initial ability was develshyoped the group was turned to for on-the-job trainshying contracts and to take on responsibility for certain functions in so-called Concentrated Employshynent Programs Also there has begun to be a drawshymig on this capability without regard to funds conshying directly from Washington For example a skills baink operation which accounted for some very large numbers of placements is probably the most significant of these activities
Beyond getting from the participation of the mishynority groups some of the special strengths it had
to offer particularly bilingual capability and a bishy
cultural understanding the SER program has
served as the resource for staff to enter the public
agencies so that by now perhaps a third of the initial group are working in State agencies and have brought within the public programs in other
areas and types of activities some of the special mishynority capability which was lacking at the outset of this program
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Discussion
Question from the Floor What are the qualifishycations required for board members How are they selected or elected What was the background of some of the early staff including the staff director
Mr Brandweins comments On qualifications of the national board members we left the selection wholly to the organizations involved Similarly at the local level we made that matter the business of the local SER Boards Two problems in the initial years arose out of that practice where it was clear that we were not intervening and that it was not a matter of handpicking of members by the Governshyment The first problem was that as some of the novelty wore off as age crept up some of the boards original leaders replacements moved down to a more limited level and background Secondly we had an unusually sharp distinction between the board and the staff The board members were lawshyyers middle-level lower-income businessmen or real estate agents professional men in the communshyity The staff as a result of the first struggle in which we undertook to make clear that we would not proceed on a patronage basis were largely men in their twenties with college training and backshyground in sonic social activities In short order even at modest pay levels $12000-$1l1000 we had a problem of staff twenty years the junior of the board members earning higher incomes and chalshylenging the board members with lack of knowledge of program detail That has presented and continshyties to present friction For staff selection we have relied on two sets of procedures One is a wide cirshyculation of notice of vacancies to Mexican-Amerishycan organizations and the second is insistence on a fairly broad based selection committee in the boards themselves All things considered I think these procedures have worked out reasonably well
Question from the Floor What were the specific qualifications of the man who ultimately was seshylected as staff director
Mr Brandweins comments The man selected as staff director was a regional compliance officer with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commisshysion He had been consulted in the preparation of this was familiar with agency structures and had a record of active participation in one or both of the national organizations We focused on a cross reshygional basis and thus attracted capable leaders so
the original board operations were on the level of the most able leadership in this community The language element happened to be a particularly identifiably useful one here Also our focus was on the major metropolitan areas where we had greater access to potentially able young staff with a broader base from which to select
Question from the Floor How does a less develshyoped country take a small amount of money and conduct experimental activities to find out if they work and if they do to get a fair share of the reshysources of that country in order to mount larger
programs At what level did MDTA start and to what level has it now grown
Mr Brandweins comments I think I would
like to build on what you raise two ways Implicit
in all I said was a certain attitude of government Now governments are the people who are in them
The shepherding for MDTA was in a unit which everyone recognized had some flexibility reaching for examples of what might be done and it genershyated an element of let us try let us see what the
next steps will bring We also helped generate through this attitude somewhat different attitudes to government Thus irrespective of the amount of resources what resources there were were applied with some sense of We are not sure of what the
best way is This is the beginning We are going to build but we have the opportunity and where else can we go We were breeding through this type of combined public-private activity some developshyment of private group assertiveness understanding and self-generated expansion of activities We were also developing flexibility on the part of the public agencies to go further with available resources I believe these are potential products of any effort to combine public and private activity
Question from the Floor Why was on-the-job training chosen rather than training beforehand
Mr Brandweins comments There are two
points to make in answer to this question What we might have wanted to do was limited by the conshystraints of what we could do Therefore half by deshysire and half by necessity we relied on a learn-asshyyou-go basis What we undertook to do is to make available and insist on specific times and places for reassessment of what we did learn and I think this was the tool that we consciously relied on most This was very costly and at the periodic Board
58
meeings staff were brought together and State re- brought together promoted a high degree of intershygional and Federal agency officials were also in- change In addition there were realistic timetables vited Workshops in which project staff were of development
PARTICIPATION OT THE WORKING POOR-UTILIZATION OF HUMAN RESOURCES IN ANTI-POVERTY PROGRAMS
by Philip J Rutledge
The last several years we have seen in this counshytry a rather unusual development of programs parshyticularly in ghetto communities aimed at a kind of uplifting of these communities The efforts really are not completely new antipoverty efforts have a long history Certainly many of the best traditions of our philanthropy have grown up out of attempts to do something about and for those persons who have been less fortunate in the competitive struggle in our system
We have however developed a tradition that says organized private philanthropy may be good but the Government doing it is not so good In fact the Governments assistance to individuals who can not make it is inappropriate because if these individuals had any ambition any skills or tried to develop themselves they could make it on their own We have not had this type of tradition however about helping either private enterprise or the farmers or many other groups in the country as long as they were not identified with certain other
personal characterisitcs some of which have had distinct ethnic and racial identification
During the late fifties many of the private founshydations began to take a little different approach to human resources and community development These efforts were sometimes called antipoverty deshyvelopments Some rather comprehensive and wideshyspread efforts were funded which were concerned with changing things and opening doors of opporshytunity not only through outside help but also by stimulating people in groups to take actions someshytimes even disruptive and offensive action to change the nature of their situation Many of our more respected foundations funded such programs Also in the 1960s we have seen a spate of programs to assist the disadvantaged started by the Office of Economic Opportunity and Manpower Administrashytion and to some extent through efforts of the Manshypower Development and Training Act The latter
in my judgment was not really directed to any sigshynificant extent toward the disadvantaged and the occupants of the ghetto until relatively recently
I have spent much of my working career in the public health field particularly in the area of public health education It was our job to organize persons who may be concerned with immunization or x-ray programs and to get them involved in conshyvincing other people to come in for x-rays and imshymunizations These were really efforts in retroshyspect to use the people of these ghetto communities to achieve certain goals which we had in mind and which we knew-and I think with some validityshywere good for them However it never occurred to us while we were doing this that perhaps the peoshyple might have some other ideas about whether it was good for them or not
There has been I would suggest in whatever area we have used citizen involvement community involvement or the inexpert in our program activishyties a kind of tension between what might be an elitest approach in whieh -a group would say Now these are the facts I know how it -ought to be done and all I want you to do is come over and help me do it and get some of those others to come and help do it Or This subject or this area is just too complicated for you to understand so you just go and do it the way I want you to do it Sometimes such a position was valid
On the other hand we have had coming along at the same time in this country another approach which might be entitled egalitarian This apshyproach suggests that Well maybe they do have some ideas about some of these areas Maybe they do know something about how we ought to proshygram and organize in their community Maybe they do know something about training persons in manpower programming or the kind of skills or the kinds of materials that ought to be prepared
61
But what must we do to prepare them or indoctrishynate them into our particular philosophy
The efforts to accommodate these two apshy
proaches I think has created most of our probshylems The movements in this area in the early sixshyties changed the conditions a little bit because many of the persons who were being organized chose to make political instruments rather than soshycial instruments out of the organization techshyniques They tried to use their power of organizashytion for control and redirection of the resources that were being made available Such conditions made it difficult for the Government who wanted to involve -sidents particularly residents of the ghettos in vast social prograims The Government unlike sonic of the private philanthropic agencies and social work agencies that have been involved in this area in the past has other constituencies-it has a responsibility to the overall citizenry and above all responsibilities to the Congress and to the taxpayers
Thus we have seen in the sixties a great upsurge of interest in popular participation in a variety of
programs including manpower And now we have reached a point in our history where there is a tendency to back off fromn this concept by the Govshyernment I do not regard this backing off as necesshysarily an evil conspiracy on the part of the adminisshytration that happens to be in power It is perhaps one of the natural things that occurs when a new concept appears It grows and expands to one point reaches a plateau and falls back a little bit while liome retrenchment and redevelopment takes place Then after a while it moves on to another plashyteau In any process of change progress is not alshyways continuous
We are only now at a point where we are beginshyning to look for a different theoretical basis for
participation The concept of participation in
public and in private programming that we have been using has been largely an upper middle class one Therefore we accept the fact that there has not been any significant input or contribution from the class that we are trying to help Having worked in this area a long while I am not sure that we know enough about how to change this concept I think it is appropriate that we take not only the concept of participation but the concept of social programming in the ghetto back to the drawing board and take another look at them Some things have not worked some things have worked in spite
of what we were doing and some things just hapshypened accidentally
In the area of citizen participation I think it is rather significant that such groups as the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) and its professional offshoot the National Academy of Public Aministration (NAPA) are now beginning to take hard and serious professional looks at where we are in terms of government programming in utilizing citizens particularly disadvantaged resshyidents of the ghetto in our public programs The National Academy of Public Administration for example recently held a special conference on this problem of participation
A paper by John Strange of the ASPA which looked at citizen participation in programs funded through the Economic Opportunity Act found that the purposes in terms of the participants in these social programs-manpower and the like-included such goals as (1) the creation of a sense of group identity solidarity and power based on ethnicity economic class status and the use of Government programs or services and (2) to overcome a sense of powerlessness enhance life opportunities and to publicly affirm individual worth or to provide a job Ih terms of affecting the participants the purposes were (1) to train and educate and inform them of Government programs (2) to educate parshyticipants in the way the Government system works and develop political or administrative skills and (3) to alter social behavior in order to establish conditions for effective individual and family life
Another objective noted by Strange relating to participants which needs to be emphasized is that an institutional device must be provided which will enable the participants to settle for less than they want One of the important mechanisms that has held the American society together-holds all socieshyties together-is finding some means to compromise potentially incompatible differences and bringing into the decision-making process people who have different value systems and objectives This often provides an institutional device to enable them to settle for less
I also believe we have to take another look at the way we are redistributing power in our public proshygrams Certainly citizen participation community control of schools police precinct projects and other programs are basically ways of redistributing the power Whether we are talking about manshypower programs social programs educational sysshy
62
tems or what have you the major consideration bashysically is how can we redistribute the power so that the people in that system feel that they can yield it and use it as they believe best This feeling is someshytimes more important psychologically than the job itself
There are a number of ingredients needed to achieve meaningful and successful citizen particishypation but in summary I wish to note two which are of particular importance The first is the tendshyency in this country and perhaps in foreign areas as well to back off from assisting people if they do not seem to appreciate adequately what we are doing for them Second I do not think that we can develop in the ghettos which I am familiar with
and I doubt if we could develop that kind of popushylar participation in similar areas in foreign counshytries if we think that participation is simply going to be a means of promoting stability and promotshying a maintenance of the existing situation
I believe the nature of our society today is changed and in this country as well as developing nations citizen participation and community orshyganizations and popular involvement can provide as John Strange has suggested that mechanism for compromise and change if it is used properly If we give them some victories this might be more imshyportant than any other thing we might be able to do to keep our system and that of other countries together
63
COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN LATIN AMERICA LEADING TO SOCIAL CHANGE AND INSTITUTIONAL
DEVELOPMENT RELATED TO MANPOWER
by William F Whyte
The Peruvian government has a massive and amshybitious social and economic change program going on and there are opportunities to observe very inshyteresting changes and possibly to help these proshygressive changes to come about
This paper discusses changes in two rural sectors of Peru One is the Sierra Hacienda which has in the past been run very much like the feudal manor of the Middle Ages the peasants largely of Indian extraction served very much as serfs tied to the land owing labor services to the patron the hacenshydado The second sector is the coastal plantations which are quite a different style of operation from the Sierra where the haciendas have been pretty much in the subsistence economy with very small surpluses The coastal plantations have been enshygaged in large scale modern agriculture sugar cane cotton etc largely for the export market These large agro-industrial enterprises are either Peruvian owned or foreign owned
Unions have been rather effective on the coast due to the cohesive organization that exists there In the Sierra there have been sporadic peasant movements but the cohesive organization is lackshying
To properly provide technical assistance to the change processes occurring in these two sectors or anywhere else you should know what really is going oin I therefore must first try to knock down what seems to me a false image of the peasant which I call the myth of the passive peasant This is the notion that the peasant is bound by trashydition he is conservative and he sticks to his old customs So if anything is going to change on the country side it will be from some kind of outside intervention either by community developers supshy
This paper is based on field studies in Peru undertaken in collaboration with Dr L Williams of Cornell University and the Institute of Peruvian Studies of Peru
ported by AID or by political agitators or revolushytionists
In Peru the younger social scientists differ in what the long-run objectives are but they do agree in accepting what I quite dogmatically call a myth-the myth that it you do not get out there you middle-class intellectuals and guide the peasshyants or stir them up they will just sit there and nothing will happen
Changes have been observed some slow but some quite rapid and dramatic in various parts of rural Peru where the government has not intervened and where there has been no planned intervention from the outside The peasants have joined toshygether and learned how to manipulate the power structure and have achieved in some cases basic transformations Those peasant families who have been living on haciendas as serfs have managed to combine together to oust the landlord to take over the lands and to operate their own farming entershyprises
We have been trying to observe how this takes
place Visualize what we call the baseless triangle where the hacendado the landlord is at the apex of the triangle and the peasants are at the bottom all linked to the apex by lines coming down from the landlord And when we say the baseless trishyangle we have an image of a lack of interconnecshytion among the peasants horizontally This is a vershytical system and the hacendado has done his best in the past to keep this that way and it means that anything that the peasants need in the economic system and the political system and any wants they have they have had to try to fulfill by acting through the landlord who has been quite unrecepshytive to their initiatives which have always been on an individual basis That is you would ask the landshylord for a favor to you and your family but there would not be concerted organized action The landshy
65
lord was the gatekeeper between you and the outshyside society
When we find this structure changing we find more or less simultaneously new links are formed links across the base of the triangle which we call the closing of the triangle base But this is not enough We find that the peasants begin to estabshylish independent connections with politicians maybe there are competing political parties which they can use to advantage
In some cases the landlord has outstanding loans with the agricultural development bank which he has not been repaying The peasants discover this and with the assistance perhaps of lawyers apshy
proach the bank to see if they can take over the loan and therefore take over the estate
In other cases the peasants discover that the landshylord has been required by law to provide educashytion for their children and lie has not complied or has just done so in a token way So the peasants apshy
peal to the Ministry of Education they offer to build a schoolhouse if they can get help The procshyess of transformation and development therefore involves not only the banding together of the peasshyants to close the base of the triangle but the develshyoping of upward links with power figures in society
As this process takes place the hacendados posishytion becomes more difficult and lie is likely to have
problems himself in the decline of his agricultural operations especially if lie has been an absentee landlord letting someone else run the operations Frequently there are legal fights among the hacenshydado group for the control of land When the old man dies his sons are likely to fight for control then the peasants at times can move in and take OVer
This seems to have one implication for developshyment and for training needs The process of popushylar participation aJparently requires the developshyment by the peasauts of direct links with bankers
politicians and people in the field of education If this is so it seems to mie the technical assistance process ought to be oriented to some extent around helping peasants understand how this world outshyside their little estate works and how to establish connections and deal with these power figures indeshy
pendent of the landlord or boss Then there is a second phase that is likely to
arise and present another set of problems When you first look at the typical Sierra hacienda you have a picture of the landlord being at the top and the pcasants all at the same level at the bottom but
this is not always the case The landlord maintains his control not only by dealing with each peasant individually but by having his favorite There are certain itidividual peasants certain families that he feels are particularly loyal to him and they get the breaks which means different treatment in the distribution of land that the peasant is able to work for his own family So you frequently find sitshynations where a small minority of peasants under this hacendado has two or three times as much land or even more under their own immediate conshytrol than the rank and file
Now when this hacienda system breaks up when the peasants are able to unite against the hacendado and are successful in ousting him an interesting issue arises This issue relates to whether the part of the hacienda directly under the immediate conshytrol of the landlord should be divided among the
peasants or whether the whole estate shall be redishyvided Those who have had the greater amounts of land feel that they have worked hard improved the land and built their houses on it and that they have earned the land So they prefer to maintain the existing distribution The rank and file leaders counter with the point that this is inequitable disshytribution and everyone should start from the same
base line It was not until the present military govshyernment came into power that there was no longer any difference of opinion on this matter between the Executive and Congress This solution was achieved by dismissing the Congress and then it was finally possible to settle the distribution of land issue
This type of problem involving peasant solidarshyity and intergroup conflict is going to become more
prevalent Yet most of the persons working on agrarian reform are assistance and agricultural production specialists with no knowledge or backshy
ground about social organization or processes
about intergroup conflicts and negotiation
How do you handle a situation that involves basic differences of interest that have to be fought out negotiated mediated or arbitrated Some unshyderstanding on that front should be provided or
our technical assistance efforts will go awry
Another possible training focus involves comshymunity development In Peru there is a long tradishy
tion of community self-help buildings schools roads and so forth However there is also a long history in which these communal efforts lead to inshy
creased wealth at one particular time but the
problem of maintenance is not handled That is
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you build a school and the initial cost is taken care of then there is the problem of supplying teachers maintaining the school and so on So you can readshyily have a situation in which the more successful the community development program the more the expense burden falls upon the national governshymient which is alost the only supplier of tax money Work has been started but more needs to be (lone to develop the community revolving fund concept The idea is to tie together the impulses of conunities to build physical improvements to make investments in their community with sonic continuing commitment of the community to assess itself to maintain this particular facility
It seems to me that technical assistance training can be very helpful in exploring possibilities of linking the community development effort to the development of local government
On the coast there is a quite different transforshyimation problem than in the Sierra Technology and scientific knowledge are used much more on the coast Greater division of labor and more union organization exists on the coast
The Peruvian government objective is to transshyform the haciendas of the Sierra into self-governing
peasant communiities really dividing the land up among the peasants but also trying to maintain a communal organization for mutual help On the coast the government recognizes this is not practishycal You can not just divide the sugar estates and the cotton plantations into small farmer plots so the approach has been to transform the agro-industrial complex into a producers cooperative This inshyvolves a major structural transformation which will also have an impact on the workers In the first stage the goverinment administrators have been running everything It is just a transfer of power from private land owner to government But the ideology is to have the peasants take over Here you run into political questions because on the coast of Peru the unions have generally been organized by another political party and the government is very leery of doing anything to encourage this political group it would rather (10 the opposite
The social scientists feel that something could be worked through the already existing union strucshyture This cannot be (lone automatically because the Peruvian unions do not aict in quite the same way that the unions do in the US The unions in Peru tend to be more centralized there is less activshyity at the lower levels On the other hand you do
have a degree of mobilization of workers around the unions The Peruvian government therefore has to determine whether or not it can build on this established organization the development of
producers cooperatives Peru is trying to carry out a structural transforshy
mation in these coastal haciendas for which there is no parallel in history It is not just a question of communicating what is a cooperative the officers needed and- what do they do but drastic changes
in peoples roles have to be developed and a new type of organization has to be established A signifshyicant social and cultural transformation is inshyvolved a change with which our best experts on
producers cooperatives and agriculture are not familiar
I am also not suggesting that sociologists such as myself should provide the technical assistance However I do think it is important to shift our
priorities here and say that a major transformation
process has been launched and is going to be going on for a long time with some successes a lot of failshyures many difficulties and that maybe the best help we can provide is some assistance on the reshysearch side to study and try to understand what is going on and feed this information back to Peshyruvian agrarian reform programs
The nature of this process is to develop training materials which can be used to train present and future administrators on these estates It can train incipient peasant leaders so that they will become able to deal with the complexities technical as well as social of the new type of organization
In this connection I think outside help can be useful to Peru but in financial form rather than direct investment in research talent because I have found that Peru has very able social scientists who understand what is going on much better than most experts in this field who could be imported Instead of thinking simply in terms of experts to go in and tell people what ought to be done about manpower and related problems we recognize the complexity of these problems and try to learn about these transformations as they are taking
place so that out of this learning process can be
provided teaching materials for training programs for work in the colleges and universities that will
give Latin Americans a much more realistic picture of the problems of social reforms and development than they camn obtain from the US models that are ordinarily imposed on them
67
Discussion
Questions from the floor How can free and unshytrammeled research in the field of power relationshyships be placed in a military regime which may feel itself rightly or wrongly threatened as for example in the program of land reform How do you collashyborate with these free researchers in Peru in raisshying these questions
Mr Whyte comments We have so far had no difficulty at all under the present government in doing research and in publishing But the time may conic particularly as we try to publish more and more studies on land reform because what we have been doing so far has helped to highlight the evils of the preexisting system that the government is committed to change If we do get into studiesshy
as we are hoping to-of the governments present efshyforts of land reform in certain areas I am sure we are going to run into a problem ie the governshyment has intervened and knocked out the preshyexisting power ligures and starts to undertake the transformation of society from the top down We think not only we in the US but also our Peshy
ruvian social science associates that there are limishytations to this approach It is going to break down
in certain predictable ways When we get to the
point of observing these breakdowns and reporting
on them analyzing them we will then face the
problem you have raised by the question We have
been completely free so far but when we look at
the impact of the present government in certain
areas we are getting into something much more
delicate
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MOBILIZING THE PARTICIPATION OF YOUTH IN MANPOWER AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT-A UNIVERSAL CHALLENGE
by William Mirengoff
I am rather intrigued by this Symposiums emshyphasis on popular participation in manpower proshygrams although I must confess I find the term a little ambiguous Just what do we mean by popular
participation Does it mean the involvement of state and local
officials as the democratically elected representashytives of the populace
Or does it mean the direct involvement of that segment of the populace to whom the program is directed independent of the local political strucshyture indeed sometimes challenging the elected power structure
And if we mean the latter how do we bring this
participation about There are some rather broad philosophical issues
involved here For the purposes of todays discussion I view
participation as three-dimensional
1 Participation in the fruits of the program-as recipients This is essentially a passive role and the results can be quantified in terms of people served and benefits received
2 Participation in decision-making This is esshysentially an active role-helping to determine program policies and targets
3 Participation in implementing the program and delivering the services This is a manashygerial and administrative role
I Trend Toward Popular Participationin Manshypower Programs
One of the lessons we have learned over the last decade is that the Federal Government bureaucracy alone despite all its resources cannot guarantee soshylutions to all of the complex problems facing our nation Rather experience has shown that deep inshyvolvement by all the sectors of the society affected
by a particular problem is essential This not only includes involvement by orgnizations that can conshytribute resources and services but also full particishypation in program development and decision-makshying by the very people for whom the programs are being provided
The Economic Opportunity Act embodied the clearest expression of popular participation by reshyquiring the maximum feasible participation of the poor in its program The Community Action Agencies went out and organized the poor so that they could participate effectively in detision-makshying In some areas insistence of program clients on a voice in activities affecting their welfare was viewed as a threat to established power structures In general however involvement of the poor led to a healthy exchange of ideas and combination of efshyforts that fostered creative programs
Building on the experience of the Economic Opshyportunity Act the Model Cities Program also reshyquires the direct involvement of the population in the target area
Manpower Administration programs stress this too-particularly the involvement of staff from the client group and the target area In addition there has been a clear trend toward decentralization which strengthens participation in administration at the local level
It may be of some interest to trace the evolution of popular participation in the manpower and reshylated human resources programs I think of this evolution as passing through three stages-Prolifershyation Cooperation and Consolidation
1 ProliferationWe started with the Area Reshydevelopment Act of 1961 then the Manpower Development Training Act of 1962 then an explosion of manpower programs-The Neighshyborhood Youth Corps Operation Mainstream New Careers the JOBS Program etc-based
69
on the Economic Opportunity Act Later came the WIN Program Public Service Careers and other programs
Unrelated fragmented programs proliferated each with its own organizational structure funding eligibility requirements and apshyproaches
But in the last analysis programs all take place on some piece of real estate-in a state city or community They all converge on the people in an area with a minimum of planning and coordination competing for local resources for local clients for public attention and support
2 CooperationRecognizing the need for rationshyalization and coordination below the Fedshyeral level major efforts were made to achieve cooperation among the individual programs We tried joint funding-with independent
programs joining voluntarily in combined efshyforts We tried to pull the Department of Labor programs together in the Concenshytrated Employment Program-a coordinated effort to focus available services on specific low-income areas We tried to bring together all human resource programs of all governshyment agencies plus non-government involveshyment through the CAMPS program--essenshytially a system of local planning and coordishynation through a network of state and local interagency committees
All of these efforts had a measure of success but all were hampered by a timeless adminisshytrative problemi-the suspicions and cautious protectiveness of centrally operated program agencies that are asked to yield some autonshyomy in the interests of a cooperative effort and greater involvement by people at the local level
3 Consolidation We are now at the third stageshyconsolidation This stage is best epitomized by the proposed Manpower Training Act (MTA) This legislation is currently before the Congress where it has bi-partisan supshyport
We are firmly committed to the MTA which will be a milestone in the development of manshypower policy in this country It will
Decategorize our present fragmented programs
Decentralize the planning and delivery system for manpower services
Move programs toward maximum participashytion by state and local governments-Govershynors Mayors and other popularly elected repshyresentatives
The MTA would supersede the Manpower Deshyvelopment and Training Act (MDTA) and manshy
power sections of the Economic Opportunity Act Under the ITA most of the individual manpower programs that are currently operated from Washshyington as highly centralized separately adminisshytered activities would be merged into one overall manpower effort Program categories such as MDTA Neighborhood Youth Corps the Concenshytrated Employment Program Operation Mainshystream and others would lose their identities in the consolidated effort Responsibility for planning and administering the new comprehensive manshy
power program would be delegated to a large exshytent to the Governors of the States and to local
prime sponsors (primarily Mayors and other heads of local governments)
Each year the prime sponsors would be required to prepare comprehensive manpower plans for their areas proposing manpower services tailored to the
special needs of local problem groups The Govershynors would be responsible for submitting consolishydated manpower plans for their states State and local advisory and planning bodies composed of representatives of business labor welfare groups agriculture education local and state government agencies and other community elements are to play key roles in developing the plans Upon approval of the state plans by the federal governshyment the Governors and local prime sponsors would assume major responsibilities for impleshymenting approved programs
As you can see unification and decentralization of programs under the MT are directly related to the principle of fuller particilition by non-Federal groups The MTA would mobiii e the experience and resources of ou- pluralistic network of local governments and commununity interests to support all states of manpower activity
II Need For Youth Manpower Programs
I would like now to turn specifically to youth
programs to explore how the principle of particishy
pation is being applied in manpower services for young people As most of you know there has been
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a mounting interest in youth manpower problems in this country Many new programs for young peoshyple entering or preparing for the labor force have been introduced during the last decade At present youth accounts for well over one-third of the enshyrollment and expenditures in Federally assisted manpower activities
In large part this emphasis represents a growing awareness of the alienation and frustration of
many young people who are unable to participate effectively in the labor market We are faced with
the rejection of prevailing values youthful cynishycism and sucli symptoms of social disorganization as caipus unrest high crimc rates racial tensions and drug abuse
In the US probleis encountered by youth in the labor market reflect basic population labor force and educational trends
A Population Upsurge There has been a sharp
increase in the youth population during the last decade as the post-World War II baby crop came to maturity Between 1960 and 1969 the number of youths aged 11-24 increased by 12 million from 27 to 39 million Thuis fl4 increase was four times larger than the rate for the population as a whole Ten years ago only one out of seven people were 1-1-24 years old today close to one oit of five Is it any wonder that this sharp upsurge of youth reachshying employable age has created stresses in the labor market stresses in the school system stresses in the
streets for those who are not in school or in jobs and stresses throughout our social fabric
Most tragic of all in my opinion is the collapse of the school system in the inner-city Inundated by waves of disadvantaged youth faced with shortages of teacliers and facilities burdened with problems inherited ftoni fainily economic and governmental institutions groping for ways to overcome the handicaps of low-income youngsters-the inner-city school system faces a major challenge
B Ulnemploynent Although the economy has shown marked strengii in absorbing most of the new job seekers unemployment among young peoshyple particularly disadvantaged youths who are most in need of steady jobs and incomes is a signifshyicant problem Among youths 16-21 who are in the labor force
1 12 or about 1300000 were unemployed in February of 1970 compared to a 45 rate for the labor force as a whole
2 Among nonwhites the rate was even highershy20
Unemployment rates are still higher in some
pockets of urban and rural poverty
To a large extent the substantial unemployment rate reflects diminishing opportunities for jobs with low skill requirements Such jobs have tradishytionally served as an entree into the labor market for many youngsters Recently however low skilled jobs have become scarcer as labor requirements in agriculture dropped off and as l-abor needs in inshydustry shifted from manual workers to highershyskilled technical occupations As the country turned the corner from a goods-producing to a servshyice-oriented economy a strong back and willingshyness to work no longer were adequate tickets to a job
C Labor Force Entrants Without Adequate Voshycational Skills A significant number-perhaps as many as one-third-of our young people enter the labor force without adequate job skills They face
special problems in a job market with rising skill requirements
The problem may be expressed in this paradox
The US keeps a larger proportion of its population in school longer than any other country-to ensure their preparation for lifeshytime activity
Yet the unemployment rate among youth is far higher than in any other nation and has been rising rapidly over the last four decades
And this paradox persists in the face of unushysual prosperity high levels of employment and skill shortages
Students who do pot complete at least a high school education encounter special difficalties In 1968 almost one million youth 14-17 were not enshyrolled in school Dropouts aged 16-21 had a 15 unemployment rate during that year-twice the rate of comparable high school graduates For nonshywhite dropouts the unemployment rate was 25 Even those who complete high school are not necesshysarily prepared for a vocation There is a disparity between educational credentials and performance levels with many high school graduates unable to read write work or reason properly
Manpower programs can be viewed as repair shops for those young people who have come out of the school system without adequate preparation for the world of work We get the toughest casesshy
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the rejects This poses a major challenge in deshyveloping creative techniques for rebuilding the skills interests and character traits of the disadvanshytaged youngsters
All of this gives you some idea of the dimension of the problem-the universe of need Now I would like to turn to our response to these needs
III A Conprehensive Program of Manpower Servshyices to Meet Youth Needs
To what extent (o youth participate in manshypower programs as recipients-as an example of popshyular participation in the benefits of public proshygrains
In the last decade the US has reached out to the youth population with an array of innovative and creative programs to alleviate labor market probshylems These programs are designed to help youth find worthwhile jobs at decent wages to experience a sense of fill participation in our productive life and to develop their personal potentials so as to avoid frustration and to maximize their contribushytions to society
A major feature of the comprehensive manpower effort is recognition of the significant differences among the categories of youth who need assistance
1 Many out-of-school unemployed young people simply require help in obtaining vocational trainshying in a good school setting For these the Manshy
power Development and Training Act passed in 1962 provides classroom training opportunities supplemented by subsistence allowances to help the trainee support himself and his family Last year about 35000 youths under 22 received this MDTA institution training-28 of all MDTA institushytional trainees
2 Recognizing that many youngsters are having difficulty in adapting to vocational training in a school setting and aware of the school dropout
problem the Congress authorized a program of training and experience in a work setting for jobshyless youth in the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 Currently termed the Out-of-School composhynent of the Neighborhood Youth Corps the proshygram helps youths aged 16-18 to prepare for steady employment In Fiscal Year 1971 the NYC Out-of-School program is expected to serve 36500 youths at a cost of $125 million
3 To reduce the dropout problem among poverty-stricken youngsters the Neighborhood Youth Corps In-School and Summer Programs
provide part-time employment and earnings opporshytunities for needy youngsters who are still attending school In FY 1971 these components are expected to serve almost 500000 youths aged 14-21 at a cost of $235 million
4 What about young people who simply cannot adjust to vocational training in a formal classroom setting or even in a setting of routine work experishyence Included in this category are young people whose social and physical environments are so unshyfavorable that their capacities for training and job seeking are severely curtailed As our experience with youth manpower services has expanded it beshycame evident that this group can be helped by reshymoval from adverse school and home settings to a new residential environment where training methshyods and stipl)portive services can be adapted to their
special needs This group is the target population for the Job
Corps The Job Corps provides occupational trainshying remedial education and a wide variety of charshyacter-building and supplemental services geared to the special needs of disadvantaged youngsters 16-21 in residential centers around the country Enrollshyrment in Job Corps Centers has also proven useful for many youths who come from rural areas where alternative local manpower development facilities are not available The unique aspect of this proshygran is its raidential character its provision of truly comprehensive services (from health care to clothing from vocational training to monthly alshylowances) and its effort to combine all necessary manpower services (from initial selection of enrolshylees to final placement of graduates on the job) into an integrated manpower delivery system
In FY 1971 the Job Corps expects to accommoshy(late 25000 youths at a tinre in 75 centers at a cost of $180000000
5 Of course prevention is the best cure for the
problenis of youth in the labor market The greatshyest priority must be given to improvement of vocashytional education in the regular school system where the majority of young people are expected to
prepare adequately for the world of work The schools niust redirect some of their effort from endshylessly preparing pupils for more schooling to preshy
paring tie average youngster for the demands of tire working world
The Vocational Education Act amendments of 1968 represent an advance in meeting the needs of school youth for quality vocational preparation
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As amended the Act greatly strengthens vocational training in local secondary schools providing asshysistance for better equipment teachers and facilishy
ties and for gearing courses realistically to todays cormiplex occupational requirements In FY 1971 the Federal Government will invest over
$300000000 in this program State and local govshyerninents will contribute one billion dollars in matching funds
6 Many other programs are components of the
comprehensive manpower effort for youth Among the most important may be
a Efforts to increase opportunities in apprenticeshyable trades for minority group youths
b Efforts to help young military dischargees make the transition to civilian life eg pre-disshy
charge training in Project Transition and post-disshycharge school benefits for veterans
c Opportunities for youths in broad-gauge proshygrams which serve both youths and adults eg the Concentrated Employment Program the JOBS Proshy
gran the Public Service Careers Program Last year more than a third of the CEP enrollees and
almost one-half of all JOBS enrollees were under
22 years of age
d Expansion of programs to train prison mshy
mates for post-release employment-a major contrishybution to efforts to rehabilitate young offenders
Together these forward looking measures constishytute a comprehensive manpower program for youth They will be significant achievements in bridging the discontinuity between school and work strengthening the participation of youth in
the economic process and combating alienation and frustration attributable to labor market probshy
lems
IV Expanding Participation in Decisionmaking
Having discussed the quantitative or passive asshy
pects of popular participation ie participation of youth as beneficiaries of program services I would like now to turn to the qualitative or active aspect
of participation This involves direct participation in decision-making-in the actual planning of proshygrams by the very persons they are designed to serve
We have learned that young people like everyshyone else want to be directly involved in decisions affecting their welfare Moreover experience shows that such participation results in more effecshy
tive and realistic programs As a result a major efshyfort has been made to give enrollees a voice
In the Job Corps for example all training cenlshyters are required to organize student governments The enrollees take these governments very serishyously and so (10 the center staffs Constitutions generally written by the enrollees themselves deshyscribe the responsibilities and organization of the student government duties of officers and election and removal procedures They provide for student councils and other officers usually elected at sixshymonth intervals who legislate rules for dress conshyduct grievance-handling and other aspects of group life in a residential setting Also the center constitutions usually establish a judicial system for
judging and penalizing mi nor offenders Center administrators meet with the student
councils at least once each week to plan improveshyments in the training program enrollee activity schedules and center procedures Some councils have jurisdiction over special funds maintained for recreational or welfire purposes Often they set up subconumittees on such subjects as instruction comshyplaints recreation community relations and food Service
Qualifications for election to the student offices vary Most centers have minimum residence reshy
quiremlents In at least one center candidates for election are required to attend special classes in center government for one week
V Participationin Adninistering Programs
Let me now turn to the third form of popular
participaitioii-pamrticipatioii in day-to-day adminisshytration of programs This aspect of manpower proshygrams has also received substantial emphasis Mainly it has taken two forms (a) use of disadshyvantaged persons as staff members and (b) involveshynient of sectors of ou- society other than the Federal Government I would like to say a word about each of these in turn
A Utilizing disadvantaged persons as staff nenbers As social work counseling teaching emshy
ployment services and other helping professions have beconie more and more professionalized there have developed significant communication barriers between the professional and his disadvantaged client The accumulation of professional skills and insights has been accompanied paradoxically by difficulties in establishing rapport and influencing the very people who require assistance To overshy
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come this problem Community Action Agencies manpower programs housing programs and others serving disadvantaged people have found that comshymunication can be restored through the employ ment of target group members to serve their disadshyvantaged neighbors The new employces working as para-professional aides under skilled professional people are able to gain the confidence of the clients to explain prograims to discuss the advanshytages and disadvantages of participation and to enlist support in language and actions that disadshyvantaged clients can understand At the same time the aides are in a position to feed back to the proshyfessionals the problems and needs of the inarticushylate masses of people who are to be served
Involvement of target group members on the staffs of agencies serving the disadvantaged has
proven beneficial for the professionals the aides
and program clients alike
B Broader Comm unity Involvement The secshyond form of popular participation in administrashytion of youth manpower programs is the deep inshyvolveient of non-government organizations
At an early stage of the development of our comshyit became clearprehlensive manpower program
that Federal Government action alone could not
provide all solutions for the problems of youth Training for jobs without involvement of emshyployers and labor unions would be unrealistic Dushy
plication of facilities and other services already available in the community would be wasteful and time-consuming Manpower programs therefore have drawn upon the skills and resources of an array of community groups
1 The Business Sector Private industry has been heavily involved not only in an advisory cashy
pacity but also in direct operation of employment and training programs In the case of the JOBS
program and the Sununer Youth Campaign for exshyample industry has provid ed leadership in direct training and placement of hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged people Experience has clearly shown that jobless young people trained in a realshylife work setting for jobs and employers identified in advance are most likely to succeed at their trainshying and employment In the Job Corps industry has applied its mnanagement and technical skills to the actual operation of Job Corps Centers
2 Labor Unions Unions are participating in expanding employment opport unities for disadvanshy
taged people and providing vocational and pre-voshycational training
In the Job Corps five building trades unions are
presently playing a major role in training at Civilshyian Conservation Centers These unions are curshyrently training about one-fourth of the youths in such centers and are cooperating in having their graduates placed into the building trades apprenshyticeship programs Great stress is being placed on this activity for completers are almost guaranteed a job in well-paid shortage occupations and the
program is helping minority group youths move into occupations in which their numbers have trashyditionally been low
3 Nonprofit Community Organizations A wide variety of community organizations which have specialized knowledge and contacts with respect to
particular disadvantaged groups are participating heavily in youth manpower programs These groups may be involved in programs to recruit counsel and arrange job and training opportunishyties for low-income youngsters or in pioneering new ways of training and orienting disadvantaged
people in numerous cities around the country Other groups are providing special youth services for the physically or mentally handicapped rural
people dropouts and other categories with special needs Also some residential centers of Job Corps are managed directly by nonprofit groups
Related to work with nonprofit organizations is our extensive community relations program In the Job Corps it is mandatory for every center to take the initiative in establishing a Community Relashytions Council These Councils include local comshymunity leaders in business labor education the church welfare recreation and government as well as Job Corps Center enrollees and staff They consider matters of ntitual concern In many areas outstanding examples of community-Center coopershyation occur eg use of Center gymnasium and shop facilities for community needs participation of enrollee volunteers in child care clean-tip and other community tasks participation in parades and fairs and use of community volunteers as tushytors entertainers and other helpers in Center proshygrams
4 Universities Broad involvement of universishyties in research and evaluation of programs has been the rule from the beginning of the manpower effort There is a continuous give and take of ideas between the university researcher and the living
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program laboratories In the Job Corps universishyties have also been actively involved in the operashytion of training centers
VI Conclusion The stability of our society will depend upon the
strong sense of involvement felt by the younger generation in government activities affecting their welfare In the new arsenal of manpower programs for youths we have tried to implement this princishy
ple by providing services that will reduce the alienshyation of youth by providing opportunities to parshyticipate more fully in the benefits of our economic system by involving youth in decision-making and by using them in the delivery of services
In addition Federal youth programs are increasshyingly operating on the principle that the non-govshyernment sector and our local and State governments must be mobilized to expand and strengthen Fedshyeral efforts Decentralization community relations cooperation with business and labor-these are corshynerstones of our comprehensive manpower policy The Administrations support of the proposed Manpower Training Act underscores its commitshyment to this approach
I hope that this summary of our experience will
prove useful to you and can be applied with realisshytic adaptations to the needs of other countries with similar problems
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MANPOWER AND YOUTH PROGRAMS IN THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES OF ERICA
by Max R Lum Jr
Many of us assume that pe alar participation is a right For example the youth in the Job Corps assume as a right participation in the control of certain monies that are removed from their pay as fines for minor violations of the rules They have a student government control over these funds Howshyever from discussions at the ILO-sponsored youth conference in Geneva (from which I have just reshyturned) it appears that participation of youth in manpower programs as a right is still an open quesshytion at least among the African countries This Poshysition was reflected by the type of resolutions that came out of the African caucus at the conference
One resolution stated that the manpower proshygrais for youth should be of the kind that facilishy
tate the contribution of youth to development and
to insure that their efforts are directed to feasible
ends which are a relevant and integral part of the total development plan The integral part of a development plan of course can be something that is superimposed from above in the decision-making
process A second resolution (which infers volunshytarism) related to the need to strengthen the motivashytion of young people to participate and contribute to the programs of self-help and mutual assistshyance (They appear to have the same problems we do regarding motivation) Another resolution of the caucus (which seems at least in part to contrashydict the first listed above) stressed the necessity to
protect young people from exploitation and excesshysive participation in development schemes Howshy
ever this resolution appears to be in response to
the fact that in Africa some countries are withshydrawing certain mechanized systems because of the serious surplus labor conditions among the youth Whether this nicans that a youth has to enter the work force at 13 because lie is available or whether he participates at a later age is not clear The withshyholding of mechanized programs to take advantage of this surplus labor also raises a question about
the extent to which youth participation resulting from such action is voluntary
Now to turn to the major purpose of this paper a report on my visit to Africa to look at what the National Youth Services in these countries were doing particularly with respect to what kinds of programs were being developed to let youth particishy
pate in the decision-making process Nineteen African countries have National Youth
Services although in some countries they may have another title For example in Ghana and the Ivory Coast they are called Pioneers Emphasis of these services may be on rural development or multipurshy
pose schemes such as vocational andor general edshyucational training or it can be a centralized trainshying-program geared to accomplish a single purpose
I also found that there were certain problems or questions which were fairly common to all of the prograins In all programs there is concern about
participation of youth-about how much control thc youth themselves should have over the system in which they are operating Similarly there is the need felt in all of the programs (which we share with them) for the development of a specific list of objectives that should be or need to be accomshy
plishied during the period the youths are in the
program this is particularly difl_ult in Africa Anshyother coinnion problem cccurs in those programs that are divided in terms of tribal or sectional groups there are gaps among these programs which need to be filled in order to make them more comshy
parable and to build some kind of national idenshytity among these groups Finally the youth in Afshyrica represent great pools not only of resources but of political power For example they were imporshytant factors in the downfall of the government in Sudan and they almost brought down the Seneshygalese government Youth also had direct participashytion in the new constitution for Ghana
The specific youth programs in the African counshy
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tries vary widely as may be seen from the followshying examples Nigeria for example is building a huge program of vocational training This program is directed towards taking some of the military pershysonnel and giving th2m vocational training before they are released to find civilian jobs In Zambia on the other hand there is a broader program The Zambia job corps although it is a large centralized camp is definitely a voluntary service It takes youth from all over the country into this center In determining whether the youth would participate in agricultural or in vocational training programs it takes into account the government needs as well as the youths needs When this determination is made they are sent to specific camps to be trained The agricultural graduates when they finish their program which may last as much as two years are given plots of land to develop The entire first twoshyyear graduating class (graduation actually occurred while we were there) was drafted into the army beshycaue of the need Zambia feels to defend its border The program therefore in practice appears to have been a pre-military training program However when the youngsters muster out of the army they will be we were informed given plots of land and in other cases given additional training to be
placed in vocational programs While we were in Tanzania where it appears
they are going their own way in youth planning the biggest controversy among the youth-a very centralized group-was the mi ni-skirt controversy The African youth feel this is an important issue The discussions regarding the length of mni-skirts actually were being addressed to the Europeans who were wearing mini-skirts shorter and shorter The mini-skirt apparently became an issue in Zamshybia also
In the Ivory Coast where there is a particushylarly encouraging program the youth come to one camp in one area of the country and then exshychanges occur within the youth camps to mix the
population and to give it some uniformity of trainshying In Ghana there is another type of programshythe Young Pioacer Gliding Schools Some three or four hundred youths (Young Pioneers) will be given special training in flying gliders for fun The National Youth Group of the country which is sepshyarate from the government but government financed is taking over this school and actually using the facility for a residential training proshygram
On the basis of what I have observed and the opshy
portunity I had to talk with various persons at the Geneva meeting where there must have been some 15 proposals from youth groups within Africa for aid both technical and administrative as well as for actual financial aid for the development of furshyther youth services there appears to be no question but that the development of youth services is going to be highly important in Africa Moreover unless the problem of youth services within these counshytries is solved within a short time there can be imshy
portant impact upon the future political developshyment of many of the African countries
Discussion
Question from the floor Title IX of the Forshyeign Assistance Act states that emphasis shall be placed on assuring maximum participation in the task of economic development on the part of the people of developing countries through the encouragement of democratic private and local governmental institutions This mandate would indicate that the type of youth programs we should support should be ones in which their objectives are obtained without the element of coercion or forced labor Yet it appears that in some African programs there are work brigades-coercion compulsion no choice Furthermore some of these programs may be underwritten by the US through our surplus agshyricultural connodities under the Food for Work program Since the youth programs in the US and Africa appear to have essentially the same objecshytives how in your opinions Mr Mirengoff and Mr Lum is it possible to achieve these objectives without the element of compulsion Do you give freedom of choice on the recruitment side or on the training side Do you use some elements of compulsion for a limited perod of time in order to prepare the youth to move on a free choice basis into a world of work
Mr Mirengoffs comments I can only give part of the answer to this question as it relates to the Job Corps program It is a voluntary program Nobody is coerced into Job Corps They come in of their own free will From our point of view this is good Those who come into Job Corps have a sense of motivation and a sense of purpose which is reshyflected in what they do once they get in Job Corps as contrasted to a situation where they have to be in public school until the age of 16 whether they like it or not In the latter situation when they do
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not like it there is trouble Our whole premise is based upon voluntarism which we hold very near and dear
In a voluntary program popular involvement has meaning In a controlled society it has no meanshying I wish there was someone who could explain the philosophy or develop the concept of popular involvement in a totalitarian country I cannot do it
Mr Lums comments Certainly in some African countries the youth programs are not fully volunshytary and may often also include political indoctrishynation In other countries the programs are really voluntary although they may be run in a military manner
The question of actual forced labor is a real and difficult issue at least in the expressed opinions on the African youth problem These youth want to say that we should live up to the ILO and the UN conventions to end forced labor but we have tremendous pools in some of the countries of 12 to 15 years olds roaming the streets and we do not know what to do about then One solution for exshyample has been to organize them in a nonvolunshytary system to build roads I do not know what this trains youth to do but maybe it brings them up to a point where eventually they are able to enter volshyuntary training programs This is an area in which it appears the African youth themselves have not yet really reached a final decision
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THE ROLE OF TRADE UNIONS AND EMPLOYER ORGANIZATIONS IN THE EFFICIENT UTILIZATION OF MANPOWER
by Everett M Kassalow
Dealing with the problem of trade unions and manpower planning and other forms of economic planning in the context of the less developed counshytries is especially difficult All of us who have grown up in and around the American trade union movement and around trade union movements generally in the Western world have done so in a certain setting and atmosphere which I would call (for want of a better word) conflictive in characshyter
Trade unions and the American unions are a classic example have always been in a certain sense outside of the mainstream of economic developshyment The unions have been beating against the development process in order to protect their memshybers They are almost driven to conflictive posishytions because they were reacting to a process which was doing damage or making dislocations in the lives of people
This kind of reactive trade unionism was successshyful in the Western World But such unionism does not lend itself immediately or too directly as a model or mechanism for learning about what trade unions canl or should do in connection with the
problemn cf shaping and implementing developshyment policy However I also believe that trade unshyions in any but a totalitarian society or a highly authoritarian society will always have to perfori tihe reactive and conflictive role of protecting their workers against the impact and the plocess of inshydustrialization However if trade unions are to play a more positive role or more participating role in the development process we do have to reexamshyine the nature of the function and the character of trade unionism in the light of the kinds of things trade unions can should or might do in the less developed countries
When I say can should or might do I am satshyisfied to use those words I am satisfied that one can approach the development process in a new society
with a sense of trying to change things and to conshyceive of new combinations because they are going to be new These societies are not going to develop the way American or European society has develshyoped or hopefully not the way Soviet society has developed There are going to be different roles to be played different emphasis different compulshysions in the situation
As we try to reconstruct the role of trade unions for these purposes a large part of Western trade unionism may not be directly relevant For exshyample in the post World War II period one can begin to see the emergence of a new kind of trade union posture to some extent in the United States but more clearly in Western Europe which did put the trade union into a more participative role and thus placed it in the mainstream of ecoshynomic and social policy making As a result of broad historical social and economic changes the trade unions are now more fully but not comshy
pletely integrated into their own societies in Westshyern Europe and to an important extent in the United States than has ever been true before
Bargaining has not ceased nor has the role of adshyvocacy which a trade union must play in negotiashytion disappeared in either Western Europe or in the United States This role however is increasshyingly added to the positive role of sharing in the key economic and social policy imaking decisions An example in the US is the Iole which has slowly alshymost painfully emerged for the AFL-CIO and some of its constituent unions in the last 10 or 15 years on nationlal conmnissions such as those on aushytomatiotn juvenile delinquency or foreign trade
In assuming these new roles the US trade union movement has not cast off its old role It has attempted to suppleiment what it was doing in the way of its militant advocacy at the job level or the industry level with this additional set of functions It is not easy when you have spent a lifetime being
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on the outside to suddenly step into the middle of things and have to take the role of policy advocate This kind of new responsibility is not at all easy and yet this is happening
In relating Western trade union experience to the developing countries it is essential to recognize that process of economic development will be difshyferent from that in the West Capitalism and inshydustrialization in the United States and in Western Europe grew unplanned for the most part spontashyneously one step tumbling upon another Growth of industrialization and moderization in Asia and Africa will not be spontaneous A large part of the process will be guided and conditioned Under these circumstances it seems pretty clear that unshyionism as a purely reactive force simply will be unacceptable It will have that role to play but inshyevitably it will be called upon (it seems to me shoild be called ulpon) to play a participatory role and a more integrated role almost from the beginshyning of the industralization process In this sense it is difficult I believe for American trade unionists especially to take a full measure of the problems which confront a less developed countrys trade unshyions
What kinds of experience am I considering when I say that one can look to new roles and a new posshyture for trade unionism in the less developed socishyeties What kinds of experience are relevant in the West What experience has there been in the less developed countries which bears upon this probshylem
Well in the West if you look at Western Europe there is a whole series of activities that Western European trade unions engage in which seem to me are relevant to the question of union participashytion in manpower training manpower developshyment economic development and social developshyment in the less developed countries
There have sprung up for example in the last few decades a uilber of so-called national ecoshynomic and social councils such as those of the Netherlands and France (and in Austria if one wants to include lie so-called chambers of labor and chambers of industry which are semi-governshymental in character) The trade unionists and the trade union movement are called upon to play a role sitting in national bod ics with consultative powers and sometimes with decision making powshyers in the case of the Netherlands and to some exshytent in the case of France
Some people are inclined to dismiss this role of
making of national social and economic policy They say that the unions have just been there as a kind of front in the various levels of the French planning process whether it was the Economic and Social Council or the commissariat and the same charge is made of the unions in the Nethershylands It seems to me this is a rather short-sighted view of the unions experience in this function It is so new and since to some extent runs against what has been the conflictive tradition and the pure advocacy of a particular point of view of the trade union movement that it would have been a miracle to have expected the trade unions overshynight to have made major contributions to ecoshynomic and social planning in these societies of Western Europe
My own feeling is that as these processes growshyand I think they will grow because traditional parliamentary bodies no longer seem adequate to deal with these top level social and economic decishysions that have to be made in society-planning bodies different in each country will grow and the trade unions will increase their sophistication in these roles and will increasingly measure up to these tasks and opportunities
In any event in somewhat different circumshystances similar bodies are already being created in a number of the African countries Trade unions have representation oin all kinds of planning bodshyies It was one of the heritages of the French coloshynial administration Planning and economic counshycils were established in Algeria Tunisia-down through French West Africa
In a number of these countries the trade union movement is wemk Therefore their influence in these planning councils could be expected to be limited To the extent this can be determined from the meager information currently available this apshypears to be a reasonable conclusion Unfortunately no one has gone into any of the African nations to see what has happened to these councils But if popshyular participation in development is to mean anyshything these are important experiments I would strongly recommend that the American AID agency andor the US Department of Labor as well as others take a rather (lee) interest in trying to find out what is happening in these kinds of institushytions I believe that the very nature of economic development in these countries means that these councils and these planning authorities will grow in importance and we should be looking into them
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to see what can be done and what are the lessons that can be learned
There are other lessons that we can begin to see in this broad experience ranging from Western Europe on to Africa and to some extent Asia First any union representation on social economic or national planning bodies as they may happen to be identified must be a real one In India for exshyample one of the reasons why there is almost total trade union discontent with the planning is that the trade unions have always been pretty much shut out Each time a new national plan was in the making the planning minister whether he is a soshycialist or a conservative goes through the motions of consulting on a formal basis with the trade union movement and that is the end of it
If you are to enlist the support and interest and to educate this important institution that we call trade unionism regarding the problems the possishybilities and the opportunities of economic planshyning it must be accorded a genuine role in the opshyerating machinery I know that planners are often horrified at the thought that they with their reshyfined techniques (really not so refined but they think they are) are going to have to consult with these grubby fellows who they feel have never really had enough formal education as well as to take them into their councils and give them voting rights in the setting of goals and the determining of
priorities for the society This situation is usually something the planners feel they cannot accept If this position by the planner is correct you can almost forget the whole process because unless the trade union has responsibility in the decision makshying machinery the function will usually decline or never even come to life
Success of trade union participation on planning councils I believe also re(luires some form of govshyernment aid I can think of three countries-France Austria and Great Britain (to choose three disparate examples)-where such aid is proshyvided to strengthen for example the research and economic facilities of the trade union movement In Austria for forty or fifty years now the chambers of labor have been supported by the government and they are really the most important research weapon or arm of Austrian labor
In France such effective participation as the trade unions have done recently in the planning
process and earlier in the social and economic area has been to a substantial measure due to governshyment assistance Under the urging of the US AID
mission France in the early and mid-fifties began to provide subsidies to the French trade unions to build up their research facilities
To an American this seems impossible How can a trade union take money from a government to build up its research facilities Will not such aid compromise the research Apparently it has not Apparently it is now recognized that both governshyment and unions are sophisticated enough so that once you invite a body like the trade union into the planning or development process you can afshyford them some measure of financial support withshyout compromising their independence
It must be recognized that the very fact of particshyipation in the planning pocess is in a certain sense a compromise of independence Neither labor nor management can participate in a joint
planning process unless they do so on the basis of respect of somebody elses rights and the recognishytion of some shared common gains and programs It seems to me that this notion is understood and that acceptance of financial ad to conduct research and training to help further participation is feasishyble
Legislation has been pending (and may already have been passed) in Great Britain which will iake available certain funds for research and for training assistance to the British trade union moveshyment Thus one of the oldest Western trade union movements and perhaps the most independent of governments along with the American trade union movement is now willingly increasing its acceptance of some form of financial aid to enable it to play its new role in society
The advantages to the government especially of less eveloped countries of these new roles that the trade unions can play are enormous If human reshysource institutions are critical in development as is now increasingly agreed what better vehicle or channel to exercise influence and increase popular
participation and understanding is there than the trade unions This is true even weak as they may be in many of these countries Moreover if they did not exist they ought to be created
In recognition of the importance of this human factor some governments of course have not been above creating the trade unions I can think of a number of Asian and African governments where the trade unions have been created largely with government benevolence or government assistance Even though we accept these trade unions with caution there exist present advantages They at
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least will help ensure communication and particishypation as well as other assistance to the governshyments of less developed countries which are overshyburdened with the tasks they face Most of these governments have to assume the responsibility for economic development activities including the major central planning role and allocation of critishycal investment resources (to some extent) and of foreign exchange To the extent these governments can look to trade unions or other intermediate inshystitutions to carry on many of the tasks such as training the administration of social security proshygrams and the joint encouragement of productivshyity programs they can be relieved of much of the weight which otherwise will fall on them This should help increase the viability and prospects for democracy because it is the overburdening of the whole process of government which it seems to me is one of the dangers that confront the African and the Asian nations
Trade unions therefore have this very useful vital possibility and related to this of course is the opportunity if you will of diverting what might otherwise be the all-out concentration by trade unshyions on wage and hour gains I do not mean that they should be deterred from their interest in wage and hour bargaining and gains but it could at least diffuse some of that all-out thrust which is trashyditionally all the trade unions do in the early stages of (levelopment
This change in trade union outlook it seems to me siiouild be sufficient inducement for new counshytry goverminents to take a real look at this process
Ilese issues I have discussed are tentative The experience that can be drawn upon is limited But the fact that we are calling for things that can hardly be itaglled or dreaied of in some peoples world shiotuld not (eter tis We have found to date
o b that what we know about institutions and the pr shylem of building institutions and especially subinshystittitions in developieit has not served us suffishyciently well Tlie ttIle union movement strikes me Is a most signifi ant factor if popular participaition is to imeanl someiting and if there is to be a hope for sonie kind of deomtcratic development process
DISCUSSANT Paul Fisher
Profesor Kassalows paper has very clearly stated that our preseit experience of trade unions with labor participation in various councils has been uneven to put it Mildly My experience leads to similar contclusions
What are the labor people really good at They are good when it comes to affairs which are of conshycern to them such as wages or working conditions But what have these matters to do with manpower Manpower as studied here is a very technical subshyject requiring a considerable degree of sophisticashytion in statistics mathematics and also in economshyics Now what has this to do with lets assume the German Works Council or a participation of a trade union representative in one of the other councils It has something to do because quite obvishyously the working hours working conditions and the wages have an allocative function They alloshycate labor not only the present labor but also the future labor and therefore direct people by the inshycentives offered by the system to a particular occushy
pation So in a way these people who are interested in these mundane affairs are instruments of manshy
power policy Where are the labor people not so good They
are not so good when it comes to technical subjects as for instance the economic planning mechanism the manpower mechanism the social security adshyministration details But should not we feel that the important issue in all three areas is the large decisions and the large decisions are rather easily understood and are basically political decisions Labor in all of these countries has the opportunity to influence political decisions
Employment is (tite obviously of interest to the trade union It is of interest to the workers or the sons of workers and employment is necessarily linked to the investment function As a conseshy
quence labor has an interest to participate in those governmental bodies which influence the employshyment function and the investment function Thereshyfore you find labor not only in the large bodies but the small ones as well which are based on the functioning of a specific industry a specific localshyity
Now what form does this participation take It takes the form of information or consultation and if you want co-deterinination But which is really the important fun(lion at the present time as disshytinguisled from the future Thelpresent function which is very important is information It is very useful from the viewpoilit of the body politic to have trade union leaders trade union representashylives not only participating in the decisions and therefore knowing why or how a decision is reaclhed to let us assume establish a dam in one
part of the country or an industry in another part
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but it is also useful for them to transmit this knowledge to their organization and therefore inshyfluence the wage policy and the manpower policy of the trade union itself
Consultation fulfills the same purpose Co-deter-Imiination depends on the subject but it can be said that co-determination has been a success precisely in that area where it was of immediate concern to the union representatives and to the labor director
Mr Kassalow sums it up by saying that the peoshyple who have the money to innovate normally the government make the employment and investshyment decisions in less developed countries thereshyfore it becomes important that the people do parshyticipate in those decisions of the government which really affect their lives and the lives of the organishyzations
DISCUSSANT Leonard Sandman
My experience suggests that it is not only diffishycult but may also be unwise to assign to unions in developing countries a role that diverts them friom the conflictive posture The following briefly disshycusses some of these experiences
In Korea I visited ain automotive manufacturing Company I was particularly impressed with tlhe large numbers of workers employed by the comshypany and that many of them appeared to be to say the least inefficiently utilized After touring the plant I asked tle manager about labor relations generally and the role of the union He recounted tle unions annual demands for wage increases and otherwise dismissed them as having only a nuishysance role because he could manipulate and control the union
I coiniented oi the large numbers of workers that lie employed and asked if possibly with sonie arrangement with tle union the workers could be engagedl more efficiently with the resulting savings in labor costs being distributed to the workers in tle form of hiigler wages and to the owners of the plant in tie fori of higher profits I quickly disshycovered that this was rather a naive suggestion beshycause as lie showed miie whetn various components of thiis cost and tle variables that influenced profit were considered wages were a very small proporshytioin of the cost of his production about 10 percent
With this kind of aii experience of which we see much in Asia a general lack of concern on the part of management with the efficient utiliation of commodities which are cheap and plentiful that is unskilled workers and often semi-skilled workers is
to be expected Obviously under such conditions little concern is to be expected on the part of the unions with the problem of how unions can coopshyerate with management to effect a more efficient utilization of workers I believe it is only when unshyions are successful in raising wages that is in pursuing their conflictive roles that management is compelled to use manpower more efficiently and then become concerned with productivity And this perhaps is one of the most effective ways that unions contribute to the efficient use of manpower
Experience in India with union participashytion in management also illustrates the difficulty of assigning to unions a role that diverts them from the conflictive posture The Minister of Labor who pioneered the program of labor particishy
pation had the feeling that if only we could give the workers a sense of management a sense of idenshytification with the industry the fact that their wages were so low would beconie less intolerable (I guess this could be called psychic income) Joint labor management councils were formed in a number of private and public sector plants Their experiments in union participation with manageshymient were getierally failures For the most part the discussions in the joint councils which were supshyposed to center on ways of increasing efficiency imshyproving management or improving the productivshyit) of the plant were centered generally on items of wages gi ievances and related interests They dushyplicated the collective bargaining function
Even with centralized planning in many of the Asian countries the unions there have generally
played atn indirect role if any in the basic quesshytions of settingpriorities determining targets and devising the strategies of employment After all ecshyonotnic development programis often represent a strategy of staying in power to the government Where unions have political influence the governshy
nient development plans may concein themselves seriously with employment and with income distrishybution problems but where they lack such influshyence development plans tend to place low priorishyties oi funding programs which promote the human goals of development
I think that popular participation should be a goal of every society It no doubt provides a system for the soundest kinds of economic and social deshyvelopment but the political realities of how growth gets distributed cannot be ignored Hence diverting union energy away from the conflictive
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roles should be examined very carefully so that we ment having a formal role rather than substance in do not end up with union participation in develop- participation
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MAIOR PARTICIPATION IN SOCIAL SECURITY
by Paul Fisher
The history of social security started off with mutual aid societies in Europe which were in esshysence trade union societies-societies of workers They had their origin in medieval German associashytions Out of this tradition developed a participashytion of trade unions of workers in the administrashytion of individual social security funds
It was important to know about how much sick pay the worker would get what would be the unshyemployment benefit that could be expected from this particular group and what would be the fushyneral grant Later as Social Security developed it became important to have some say in income sysshytems as a whole in sickness systems because they affected productivity
It is true that social security covered more than the workforce in industry and commerce It covshyered the total population The trade union represhysentative took on a new role and became not only the representative of the workers (the workers he organized and those for which he spoke) but he becane the representative of the popilation at large a very interesting goal which fits very well in the concept of a trade union as it exists in many countries developed and under-developed
What has all this to do with manpower Social security seems to be a transfer payment which you exact between one generation of workers and the next one between the healthy and the sick or beshytween the people who have small families and those who have large families
The interesting part is that many of these things have something to do with deferred wages In a way a social security contribution an individual makes today is a deferred wage which he will touch when he reaches the retirement age and this has been very well understood by the trade unions all around the globe and as a consequence it was the trade unions that fought for the advances in Social Security in this country as well as in other counshytries
The famous labor uprising in May 1968 in France was a revolution against some of De Gaulles attempts to reduce benefits De Gaulle was forced into the attempts because he felt the social security system which has very meager old age benefits was paying too much money in sick beneshyfits Labor in Franc was successful in its revolution The reform measures of Mr De Gaulle were largely discarded The same thing happened in Italy Labor as a whole has an interest in social security because it considers the social security benefits as nothing more than a part of total lifetime earnings from work
What form has it taken The usual form which has been an advisory function The advisory funcshytion is very well expressed in the United States
What is then the effectiveness of the participashytion of labor and the Social Security Administrashytion The effectiveness is quite interesting It deshypends upon the political strength and the economic strength of the labor movement If the labor is forceful it will yield results which surpass the reshysults of any other interest group
Who gets something out of it The first one who gets something out of it is quite obviously the union because the union can gain power The union can gainposts The union can occasionally see that funds which are accumulated in social seshycurity systems are deposited in the worker banks and worker banks become then the more powerful tool of making loans and investments where loans and investments are desirable Evidently trade union representatives can see to it that this particushylar function is not disregarded The power of the unions can also be abused and one of the famous examples is again in France in 1945 when the Comshymunist labor movement under the first De Gaulle government was able to conquer the social security administration and it took years before the purely politic-l interest of the Communist party of France
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was eradicated or at least minimized in the French social security system
Now who else gets something out of it The public because if trade unions do not talk about the public nobody else does It is quite true that in the original French system for instance the organshyizations of large families the organization of social security beneficiaries were also represented but if you looked at the people who represented this orshyganization it would be the same people from the French trade unions which existed and appeared from the other side of the table representing their organizations
Who else gets something out of it The governshyment The government because some of the meashysures which social security imposes some of the regulations some of the rules of the game are so
complicated that unless the system has a ready mechanism for transmitting this information to the public the public will not gain anything from a social security system The trade unions and anyshybody else representing the public are a very excelshylent a far better motivated and a far more effecshytive means of having this information transmitted than any other
The last point is what has this to do with manshypower The feeling has always been that the particshyipation of the public in manpower planning and in manpower organization must be divorced from the particular aspect which is studied here It must be linked to the final goal of a manpower policy and participation can therefore be better able to coshydetermine or to influence at least the goals of a manpower policy
US GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1972 0-469-452
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process of change and the dominant element of this change is the fact that youth who have been denied opportunities and who have been discriminated against are demanding a voice in the decisions that affect their lives and opportunities I should also like to refer to some of my specific experiences in overseas programs which highlight the importance of participation not only of the representatives of groups but of the membership of the groups My exshyperience in Germany after World War II indicated that an important reason why the trade union movement turned out to be an ineffective deterrent to the Nazi movement was the fact that the trade unions had been taken over largely by the bureaucrats in the movement and therefore there was a minimum of participation by the union members Similarly in Pakistan which economists have used as an example of a great growth model there still was a revolution I believe the Pakistan situation illustrates the importance of not pinning all your development efforts on just growth in and of itself In pursuing this singleshyminded approach the welfare and dignity of the workers were overlooked and the workers primarily helped topple the Government I believe these examples underscore the fact that to have a vigorous and healthy society there must be real participation of its citizens
MR EDWIN COHN Efforts to create employment opportunities in deshyveloping countries present a crucial problem Experience to date indicates that in countries which are trying to modernize there is overcrowding in the cities because people are leaving farms and migrating to the urban areas in the search for jobs but industrial expansion has not been proceeding at a suffishyciently rapid pace to provide the jobs needed to absorb the surplus population from the rural areas To solve this problem there is the need for increasing employment opportunities on the land both in agriculture and in agriculturalshyrelated activities as well as for creating more employment opportunities in the industrial sector There is also a general question relating to the relevance of US experience to the outlook in developing countries because there are I believe a number of significant differences in the experience and problems of these countries First Government plays a miuch larger role in most developing countries both in setting and implementing development policy and in undershytaking ind running operating enterprises Conversely the private sector instishytutions both business enterprises and farms are less active and less fully developed
MR JOHN F HILLIARD Wemight get important answers as to how to develop popular participation in developing countries by making a careful examination of our own national experience over the past 50 years I recall that in the relatively rural areas of our country 50 years ago there were comshymunities which had very little of the present convenience facilities such as running water electricity or sanitary facilities Moreover there were no farm to market roads scientific agriculture or agricultural mechanization as well as no cooperatives or market systems In the educational sector there were still only two-room schools Moreover the only service that was performed by the US Government was primarily mail delivery How did these communities imshyprove their circumstances To expand the educational facilities the people in the community built them Similarly to have specific agricultural buildings or bridges the men of the community built these structures as a joint effort This is not to suggest that the less developed countries should attempt to replicate our experience but what I am suggesting is that we never would have reached the point where we could develop and manage institutions on a large scale for the development of the whole economy and society if there had not been this
iv
upswelling of initiative experience determination and common sense at the grass-roots level Through this process the importance of the individual in his social economic and political development was understood on a very wide scale before there was anything approaching the State or natidnal identity or national system we now have to help us in our enterprises
Also when one looks at the employment problem of 50 years ago in most of America one finds there were relatively few wage-paying jobs in large segments of our society Employment was essentially a subsistence affair with certain payoffs for seasonal crops But the function of people in society was not viewed as a purely economic plhenomerion Employment was thought of also as a useful function of society As a result men women children the aged and even the handicapped had a role in society that was understood and respected In the less developed countries therefore we should not lose sight of the fact that the role in society which is useful and important to the individual playing it is one of the important goals that we are trying to achieve Achievement of this goal can give meaning color and substance to that society although a countrys economic progress may not be up to what we may believe it hould be
Popular participation should be directed towards identifying and developshying the opportunities for people in their own habitat to live better and more fruitful lives because they create their environment and opportunities and apply themselves to the purposes of society without regarding their importance in terms of whether they get regular paychecks In my judgement no country can really become a cohesive society or a nation State unless essentially this concept of development is pervasive accepted and respected by a majority of the people of the country
MR EALTON L NELSON Popular participation in -he strengthening of job market mechanisms and institutions and the removal of barriers to the matching of jobs and workers is an idea that has existed in planning and operashytions in the manpower field for a considerable time It goes back to the Wagner-Peyser Act of 1933 Thus for 37 years in the legislative process there has been a statutory provision in each State as well as the Federal Government to proshyvide consultation through an advisory council
V
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
These proceedings were prepared by Gabriel Cherin University of Houston The Symposium was planned by Morris Pollak under the supervision of Joe White Acting Director of the International Manpower Institute
VII
SYMPOSIUM ON POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN MANPOWER EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT
AND
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS V
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Wednesday April 291970
Morning Session Chairman Leo R Werts Assistant Secretary for Adminshy
istration US Department of Labor
KEYNOTE ADDRESS POPULAR PARTICIPATION DEVELOPMENT
Princeton N Lyman Chief Title IX Division Office of Program amp Policy Coordination Agency for International Development Discussion
AND
POPULAR PARTICIPATION AND MANPOWER AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT
Charles D Stewart Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Affairs Bureau of International Labor Affairs US Department of Labor
5
TITLE IX AND MANPOWER PROGRAMS OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Burnie Merson Chief Planning and Evaluation Division Office of Labor Affairs Agency for International Development
Afternoon First Session Chairman Harold Wool Director Office of the Assistant
Secretary for Policy Evaluation and Research US Deshypartment of Labor
11
SEVEN SIGNS FOR THE 1970s Seymour Wolfbein Dean School of Business Administration
Temple University Afternoon Second Session
Chairman Edwin J Cohn Title IX Division Office of Program and Policy Coordination Agency for Internashytional Development
15
ix
MOBILIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF INSTITUTIONS TO ASSIST IN EXPANDING THE POTENTIALS FOR GREATER EMPLOYMENT COMMUNITY AND PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS ROLE IN JOB CREATION
JOB CREATION IN AGRICULTURE Thomas F Carroll Agricultural Economic Section
American Development Bank Intershy
19
UNITED STATES EXPERIENCE WITH UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDEREMPLOYMENT
William Batt Consultant on Manpower Development Office of Economic Opportunity
24
ROLE OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BUSINESSMEN IN JOB C REATIO N
William Haas Vice President in Charge of Operations National Alliance of Businessmen
go
PRIVATE INVESTMENT AND JOB CREATING POSSIBILITIES Harriet S Crowley Director Office of Overseas Private Programs
Agency for International Development
27
Thursday April 30 1970
Morning First Session Chairman John F Hilliard Director Office of Education
and Human Resources Technical Assistance Buseau Agency for International Development
DEVELOPING ABILITIES THE LINK BETWEEN POPULAR PARTICIPATION AND INSTITU-TIONS INVOLVED IN EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT
POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN THE UNITED STATES
Samuel M Burt Director Understanding Program American University
IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION Business Council for International College of Continuing Education
29
TAIWAN AND KOREAN EFFORTS IN MANPOWER DEVEL-OPMENT THROUGH SCHOOL AND INDUSTRY COOPER-ATION
James D Murray Vocational Education Advisor Agency for International Development
a5
Morning Second Session Chairman Kenneth J Kelley Deputy Director Office
Labor Affairs Agency for International Development of
x
10R AND MANAGEMENTS SOCIAL POLICY INTERESTS IN TRAINING
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES WITHIN PRI-VATE INDUSTRY 9
Clayton J Cottrell Deputy Regional Manpower Administrator Atlanta Georgia US Department of Labor
Discussants J Julius F Rothman President Human Resources Development
Institute AFL-CIO Richard L Breault Manager Community and Regional Develshy
opment Group US Chamber of Commerce
Afternoon First Session Chairman Ealton L Nelson Manpower Advisor Planning
and Evaluation Division Office of Labor Affairs Agency for International Development
MATCHING WORKERS AND JOBS POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN STRENGTHENING OF JOB MARKET MECHANISMS AND INSTITUTIONS
NEW CONCEPTS OF THE EMPLOYMENT SERVICE ROLE TO MEET THE CHALLENGE OF THE 1970s 45
Malcolm R Lovell Jr Deputy Assistant Secretary for Manshypower and Manpower Administrator Manpower Administrashytion US Department of Labor
CREATION OF A CONSOLIDATED MANPOWER DELIVERY SYSTEM DECENTRALIZED TO THE STATES AND METRO-POLITAN AREAS-A WAY OF ACHIEVING INCREASED PAR-TICIPATION RESPONSIVE TO LOCAL NEEDS 49
Cyril D Tyson Deputy AdministratorCommissioner Manpower and Career Devciopment Agency New York City
Discussion 51
THE PROBLEM OF EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNI-TIES FOR W OM EN 53
Grace Farrell Chief oC the Labor Law Branch Womens Bureau US Department of Labor
Afternoon Second Session Chairman Ealton L Nelson
CASE STUDY-JOBS FOR PROGRESS Inc (OPERATION SER) 55 Seymour Brandwein Acting Associate Director Office of Research
and Development Manpower Administration US Departshyment of Labor
Discussion 58
Friday May 1 1970
Morning First Session Chairman Thomas E Posey Policy Planning and Evalushy
ation Staff Office of International Training Agency for International Development
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NEW DIRECTIONS FOR POPULAR PARTICIPATION TO DEAL WITH PROBLEMS ON MANPOWER UTILIZATION
PARTICIPATION OF THE WORKING POOR-UTILIZATION OF HUMAN RESOURCES IN ANTI-POVERTY PROGRAMS 61
Philip J Rutledge Director Department of Human Resources District of Columbia
COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN LATIN AMERICA LEAD-ING TO SOCIAL CHANGE AND INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOP-MENT RELATED TO MANPOWER 65
William F Whyte Professor Department of International and Comparative Labor Relatic s New York School of Industrial Relations Cornell University
Discussion 67 Morning Second Session
Chairman John E Blake Deputy Manpower Administrator for Employment Security Manpower Administration US Department of Labor
MOBILIZING THE PARTICIPATION OF YOUTH IN MAN-POWER AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT-A UNIVER-
SAL CHALLENGE 69 William Mirengoff Director JOB CORPS Manpower Adminisshy
tration US Department of Labor
MANPOWER AND YOUTH PROGRAMS IN THE DEVELOP-ING COUNTRIES OF AFRICA 77
Max R Lum Jr JOB CORPS Manpower Administration US Department of Labor
Discussion 78
Afternoon Session Chairman John E Dillon Chief Program Coordination
Division Office of Labor Affairs Agency for International Development
PARTICIPATION IN EFFORTS TO INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY AND TO PROMOTE THE WELFARE OF WORKERS
THE ROLE OF TRADE UNIONS AND EMPLOYER ORGANI-ZATIONS IN THE EFFICIENT UTILIZATION OF MANPOWER 81
Everett M Kassalow Professor of Economics University of Wisshyconsin
D iscussan ts 84 Paul Fisher Chief International Staff Office of Research and
Statistics Social Security Administration Department of Health Education and Welfare
Leonard Sandman Labor Advisor Bureau Near East and South A-la Affairs Department of State
LABOR PARTICIPATION IN SOCIAL SECURITY 87 Paul Fisher
Xii
OUJAAJ PARTICIPATION AND DEVELOPMENT
Princeton N Lyman
Title IX of the Foreign Assistance Act calls upon the Agency for International Development (AID) to encourage the growth of democratic private and local government institutions in carrying out its programs of assistance This paper briefly reviews the considerations being given and the things that are being done by the AID to carry out this injuncshytion Before proceeding with this review however several comments need to be made on the attitudes developing regarding local participation among other groups interested in development and on the nature and status of AIDs efforts in this area at this time I believe it liighly significant that there is growing recognition of the problems of particishypation and the need for their solution among orshyganizations concerned with development as well as within the AID There is increasing awaireness in many countries of the world that the problems of participation are not problems that can be put off until a certain higher level of modernization is achieved ever though this belief may seem (or seemed so a few years ago) an easier or more pracshytical path to development
With regard to AIDs activities we are not yet as deeply involved in the probleams of popular particishypation as we would like to be We are still searchshying for practical answers to these questions (1) How should popular participation be defined (2) How should it be applied and (3) What should AIDs role be in increasing local participation in the development process in general as well as in the manpower areaThese are difficult questions to anshyswer and I hope that the discussions during this conference will be helpful in developing answers to them
The concept of participation is a highly complex one We recognized this and appreciate the coMshyplexity of the concept in our attempt to think through the meaning of Title IX Is it political deshyvelopment or a new twist to the community develshyopment emphasis in economic aid Or just peopleshy
to-people programs What does this Title involve We chose quite specifically to emphasize the concept of participation because it is so broad The advanshytage of choosing a concept like participation is that it cuts across economic social and political factors It is probably the only concept that does cut across all these facets of the development process Not only that but we are convinced that the type of participation the degree of participation and the nature of participation that will be taking place in the development process in different countries is going to have to be decided by those societies based on the conditions that they face There are potenshytial trade-offs between economic participation and
political participation There are societies in which people are willing to accept some degree of authoritarianism for substantial economic benefits
There are other societies where that simply is not true people are most interested in owning a
piece of their own land than in higher wages as tenants or agricultural laborers These are probshylems that the society of a country will themselves have to think and argue through and then come up with a concept of participation The decision therefore should not be directed from the US preshydisposed point of view but from the point of view of that society We can appreciate the problems of
participation for developing societies by simply looking at otir own society where we have had a relatively large degree of participation However the growth in participation has been gradual and often difficult
If you look at the history of the United States since independence you can see that there have been gradual increasing waves of participation Each wave has been a difficult one for the United States to absorb even with its wealth its relatively stable democratic institutions How much more then is the problem of participation in countries which have very meager resources extraordinarily crowded conditions on the land and are desper-
I
ately concerned with obtaining even the basic reshysources for development These are problems that simply cannot be swept under the rug by general rhetoric about democratic institutions or principles or about participation Yet the interesting thing about the Title IX or perhaps the most dramatic and challenging thing about it is that it enjoins us to find ways of assisting in the development procshyess that will allow for greater participation earlier rather than later in the development process What Title IX says is that you cannot accept the simple doctrine that participation is a luxury of the develshyoped countries or of the richer countries or of tle more advanced modernizing countries None of the
people of the developing countries will accept it nor does it inake sense in terms of modern developshyment as opposed to whatever experience the Euroshy
pean countries and the United States may have gone through
Carrying through these objectives of Title IX is a challenge and it is not an easy one but I think it is terribly important and a dramatic one and I think a viable one We are capable if we set our minds to it to find development strategies which allow small farmers as well as large farmers which allow landless laborers as well as land owners unshyskilled as well factory workers to have some sense of participation and see some place for themselves in the development process economically socially and politically It is when we get down to the techshynical details when we get down to manpower training prograns thlat the real problems face us One of the things that I tiink is interesting about the problems in tile field of man power development is that it presents a lot of related problems Let me touch on just a few It seems to me that one of the
problems is clearly the question of relationship beshytween wages capital investnent and employment ft is a real symbolic and ideological problem It is a real problem in the senise tiat many countries are planning or are already developing by taking adshyvantage of developing industry In some cases they are taking advantage of the low cost labor in agrishyculture and particularly in relation to export prices However tlhese countries and some of their AID donor agencies are terribly concerned about the effect of rising wages on this pattern of developshyment at least in the short run This condition is reflected in most of the countries int uneasiness about labor organization and furtherance of labor unions For the AI) donors the problem arises beshycause whenever wages seem to go ip or threaten to
go up there is the temptation to shift to more capishytal intensive industries which is precisely where the AID resources are available Foreign exchange from AID will finance much of the capital investshyment but it is domestic resources whichi must finance labor costs and thus AID donors are faced with tile making of a difficult decision do they or do tile) not provide the foreign exchange for inshyvestment in capital This is becoming particularly serious in agriculture where such investment may displace mal) workers Even if this is only a prob lem in the short run-or as some may argue emshyployment in the tertiary sector will rise and offset the loss in agriculture-it still is a very big one for
people who are out of work because the siort rtuni for them is their lives today tomorrow and maybe for the next year A second dilemma it seems to me is the types of manpower training that we go into or that the countries that we assist are going into One of the things that we are becoming
painfully aware of in AID is the fact that educashytion structures and the formal educational systems that we have been working on in the -ountries abroad are simply inadequate to keep up with the growth of population of school age children and tile training of older people
In some instances the growth of the school age
population outruns the growth of educational facilshyities despite tremendous bursts of expenditures on education This situation raises a lot of problems and mainy difficult choices Sonic countries would argue (and you call see this in the development
pattern of many countries) tiat there is simply nothing tile) cal do about it They believe they have to concentrate on training those people who are going to go to the top those people who are to be administrators the managers the industrial elite all the way down to tile middle level It is not
possible for them they feel to be responsible not in this decade or generation for the training or giving of any kind of really meaningful education to the majority of people in the country Some peoshy
ple believe the latter is the only choice There is however an alternative approach which is fraught with all kinds of com 1plexities but attracts many people and that is to move much more heavily into what is called Informal Systems of Education These are systems of education that do not rest on the formal schoolhouse system or the trained colshylege-educated teacher or which are even related to training persons to take their place in the elite role What this system can do is to give people the
O)
ability to cope with the situation that is changing around them or to have some sense of ability to cope with their immediate environment Now these programs whether carried out by labor unions by priests by cooperatives or by innovative educators are very experimental They are also highly controshyversial because when you systematically go at trainshying a mass of people to have a share in a society in which they are not the elite you are challenging sometimes the very social structure of that society
I would take some issue with the position held by some regarding the dangers of more participashytion I think there are dangers in mass participashytion that could lead to frustration and violence But on the other hand participation is not only a means to an organized end it is very often the sum and substance of a mans dignity his ability to say I am a man that I have some part of control over my own destiny Even if he does not have the right technical solution his right to have someshything to say about how those technical solutions are applied gives him dignity How we blend that technical information with that dignity is an exshytremely difficult challenge for all of us who are soshycalled professionals in the development field The fact that people demand that element of parshyticipation or that element of control and that they have to demand it often in very dramatic ways to wake us up to the fact of how little they control their own destiny is perhaps a good thing
We are unquestionably in a very controversial difficult and perhaps dangerous area and yet parshyticipation and the injunction upon us to become inshyvolved in participation carries us purposefully into that area
I would like to touch on one other subject that I think is perhaps somewhat underplayed in our disshycussions of manpower and that is the question of rural manpower Very often when we talk about manpower training and labor we talk about the urban or perhaps the semi-urban groups However I just recently reviewed a number of papers on land reforms and land tenure and from this mateshyrial it becomes increasingly obvious that one of the great manpower problems facing most of the develshyoping countries is rural manpower It is not just a question of dividing up the land because in some countries there simply is not enough land to divide up (I say this as a strong advocate of land redistrishybution) We cannot even if we support land reform avoid the fact that there is another class of people that needs to be dealt with as well-the vast
amount of landless laborers tenant farmers or tiny landowners who need to be given some sense of efshyficacy and ability to participate in the development process
Organizing rural manpower giving them some stake in society has proven extraordinarily diffishycult even for the revolutionaries who go out into the countryside to organize the rural workers as well as for the more moderate or conservative reshygimes when they try to find some path to give those workers a stake in as well as a ieason to purshysue agricultural modernization I think this is a task which all of us have neglected too long and one that is going to be upon all of us in the develshyopment business in the next decade Moreover as the Green Revolution spreads accompanied by high yield varieties of crops which will change the
pace of agricultural production in many developshying countries it will become an increasing and most vexing problem
AID is also deeply concerned with the question of the organizations and institutions needed in deshyveloping countries to bring all or as many persons as possible into meaningful participation roles This question is especially important since one thing we have done about Title IX so far is to give it a straight people-to-people approach What Title IX is really all about is getting participation down to the little man the individual farmer or the individual village However we also know that the present AID programs are not reaching nor are the developing countries capable of reaching on a pershyson-to-person basis the hundreds of millions of
people we are talking about To persons in the manpower field I do not have to dwell on the imshyportance of the organizational and institutional factors that must be faced to accomplish this goal In the whole area of labor-both urban and ruralshythese factors are vital ones
I might also note in connection with the labor field that labor unions should be able to play an important role in broadening the participation base
Clearly labor unions play a very critical role in defining openess in political society However we also have some indications though still vague that labor unions may play an even more important role in such matters in the early stages of modernishyzation I think that it is terribly important that this matter be looked into much more deeply There are of course other institutional and organishyzational questions in the manpower area which are
3
beyond the scope of the labor unions which must be considered These include rather broad but still significant questions concerning the general nature and scope of over-all manpower development on how to reach organize and provide access to reshysources for vast numbers of people These as well as the other problems I raised in this paper are some of the challenges of applying participation in the manpower area
Discussion
Question from the floor This comment is in reshygard to the problem you noted concerning capital imports from donor countries and their possible adverse effects on employment opportunities in the developing country Has any consideration been given to the development of guidelines by the AID for use in the analysis of the impact of public works construction in developing countries which would allocate the cost of labor using a shadow cost formula for determining the feasibility or desirashybility of importing capital equipment versus using local labor If there is unemployment in the counshytry local labor costs could be considered as zero for determining economic and social feasibility of imshyporting capital equipment
Mr Lymans comment Your suggestion is inshyteresting but it raises certain practical problems In most cases the cost of labor for a project has to come out of domestic resources of the country Thus large labor intensive projects will require substantial amounts of such resources which most developing countries simply do not have or are not too willing to mobilize for such purposes They prefer therefore to find a combination which reshyduces the burden on domestic resources and places the larger burden upon the capital side which will be financed by the AID donor The AID donor also tends to look upon such financing favorably beshycause the financing of capital expenditures usually is done in the form of financing export of US equipment
Question from the floor I should like to make the following comment with respect to participashytion particularly in Latin or Central America There is a degree of participation in these counshytries far beyond that which we reL gnize For exshyample certainly in the universities of Latin Amershy
ica there is substantial participation of the students and faculty in decisions regarding university polshyicy Also in the rural areas of some of the Latin American countries and in the health programs of these countries there is a considerable amount of participation of the local population It seems to me that the degree of participation in most of the Latin American countries has been related to the resources available for such participation If you do not have resources your extent of participation is going to be rather limited it seems rather futile to spend time discussing a new well or developing new labor supply or new jobs if the resources are not available to support these programs These are really comments rather than any criticisms or quesshytions regarding your talk
Mr Lymans comment I think your comment is highly relevant to development strategy If you are trying to devise a practical approach to participashytion and development you have to try to deal with increasing ways of participation as they are going to be generated or should be generated by the stages of development
Question from the floor For some time the Farmers Union International Development Services has been involved in participation programs throughout Latin America We have found that in the agricultural field problems of clearance with the mission may develop which sometimes seriously restrict our efforts because the programs that we are conducting are offset by counterproductive official programs which are supported by the AID mission
Mr Lymans comment Your points are well taken I think one of the really difficult practical problems for AID agencies and the US in popular participation is that we are caught between the fact that we are a US government agency dealing with the host governments which as you point out may or may not be sympathetic with the participation of peasants unions or rural workers However it is a problem that is now recognized I believe in the recent legislation establishing the Inter-American Social Development Institute which is designed by Congress to set up a social development institute separate from the regular AID program and which will operate as relatively autonomous in the areas of social change
4
TOIPULAR PARTICIPATION AND MANPOWER AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT
Charles D Stewart
As I understand my task in this symposium I am supposed to provide the linkage between the aspirashytions of Title IX which I suppose are intended for domestic consumption as well as export and the more workaday objectives of manpower policy All of this I take it is within a framework of ecoshynomic policy namely for economic development in the LDCs and full employment without inflashytion in the developed countries Hopefully I will succeed in lihking social participation and the obshyjectives of manpower policy (called manpower and employment development by the sponsors of the symposium)-and do so without trying you and myself particularly with a repetition of the verities of our trade (ressed up in the mantle of social parshyticipation
If I may be excused I will take my text for the day not from Title IX or the original statement or introduction for this symposium which I agree with almost entirely but find somewhat heady Inshystead I will take my text from William Fellner in his 1969 presidential address to the American Ecoshynomic Association-wrenched perhaps somewhat outof context but I think suggestive for our purshyposes
Fellner attempted to sum up the pros and cons of what has come to be known as the Residual Factor or Investment in Education or Knowledge-to apshypraise the differential yield of what he calls progshyress-generating inputs (for education and knowlshyedge) that produce additional output indirectly via their effect upon conventionally defined producshytion functions relative to ordinary investment I extrapolate to include social investments in particishypatory democracy as progress-generating inputs Fellner argues that public decisions of a non-marshyket variety depend for viability upon how well in the West the political mechanism is capable of bridging the differences in subjective evaluations of competing groups My text is his final sentence
Is it realistic to expect that the propensity to reach compromises can be increased by making the bargaining parties aware of the fact that the joint payoff on reaching an agreement is high
I was tempted by an alternative text whose aushythor I dont know You cant move the Phillips curve to the left in a country that is going to the right Its a nice quip but not true insofar as manshypower policy in a market economy can remove imshyperfections in knowledge and competition and orshyganization to achieve a better functioning labor market Yet even so the final outcome could deshypend on willingness of workers to participate in soshycial decisions-my extrapolation of Fellners quesshytion in bargaining theory
What I intend to do using this as a jumping off point is to examine the question of social particishypation as it has been raised in manpower policy (much to the credit of our fraternity) in the conshytext of economic stabilization in the North and ecshyonomic development in the South How critical is social participation for success of economic policy in the two worlds
Now I know ivhat with increasing disappointshyment in the economic payoff of development plans in the LDCs commonly blamed on the economists in charge or at large it is increasingly popular to say that development is not simply increasing ecoshynomic production but also achieving fundamental social objectives-as President Caldera of Venezuela said in opening the recent ILO Conference in Cashyracas This is essentially the same as in the North where it is now popular to say that quantitative gains in GNP are not the end of economic policy
If I may return -lefly to Title IX it is one of the virtues of that leclaration of American foreign assistance policy nat it conceives of social particishypation not only as an end but as an instrument of economic development I have said earlier that I
5
find much of what has been said in praise of Title IX somewhat heady-a new expression of American missionary zeal more praised abroad than perhaps at home and somewhat naive with respect to the political dynamics or implications of social transshyformation of backward if not corrupt political reshygimes The cultivation of social participation on the labor market called industrial democracy by an earlier generation may no doubt contribute in time-if we have a long enough time perspectiveshyto the toppling of reactionary political and social structures But success is more likely in a society where social participation finds expression in a countrys constitutional structure It would have been difficult if I may illustrate to have imagined the gains in collective bargaining in the United States in the thirties an adventure in social parshyticipation if there ever was one without the conshystitutional presuppositions of the American system (which in other countries may exist only in intershynational declarations of human and trade union rights) Even so one must hurry to say there was much that was fortuitous in the American developshyment much that would never have happened withshyout self-help on the labor markets much that was not quite yet legal that transformed American law and American society
I suppose there is no need to push my argument to the point of the obvious Any political system is a system of social participation It may be more demshyocratic or less democratic It may have more or less of a market economy It may rely less on legislative means and more on rules for the labor market worked out by the social partners on the labor marshyket and then extended or reinforced by legislation as to some degree in the French and German sysshytems It is perhaps a matter of taste or culture or circumstance or relative efficiency whether a counshy-fry may favor a welfare system in which benefits are handed down or favor the socialization of sectors or processes by means of cooperatives or trade unshyions or codetermination or new forms of public corporations or instrumentalities for active as against passive participation in a political democshyracy It is also a matter of tactics and the stage of development how the disadvantaged or disposshysessed in any society can organize their strength for social and economic advancement and status
What is not guaranteed by Title IX or by any transformation of the political or social structure by land reform by cooperation by collective barshygaining by industrial democracy-is economic sucshy
cess Whether economic success is simply a matter of time or some elements of capitalist spirit or trashydition of entrepreneurship or a free market still has to be tested I wish only to note that there is an essential tension between social participation and a market-oriented and motivated economy which is critical both for economic growth and for social deshymocracy both in the North and the South
Now I will try to be concrete and incidentally strive to cover part of the ground that the managshyers of this symposium hope will contribute to some kind of systematic survey of social or popular parshyticipation in the attainment of manpower and emshyployment development Since my specific topic is identical with that of the symposium as a whole I may be forgiven if I touch some matters I think most suggestive while leaving to others including my discussant what they are better prepared than I to discuss Fortunately for me and perhaps for you it has been suggested that it might be useful if I bring into focus some of the experience of the North as it may be relevant by my intuitions to the problems of developments in the South
To do this in the most concrete way I wish to use Sweden and France as two case studies-beginning as it were with the idyll of the Garden of Eden and going on perhaps to things which must come to pass shortly in the Apocalypse of the Western world
To Americans Sweden has been thought of since at least the publication of Marquis Childs Sweden the Middle Way as the perfect example of a participatory democracy There was not only the popular participation of ordinary people in the cooperative movement which Childa thought of as the heart of the Swedish way there was also the broad-based trade union movement that carried over to the political scene and completed the trilshyogy in a government responsive to its power base in the trade unions and cooperative movement
But the institutionalization of social participashytion in Sweden didnt stop with these achieveshyments One leading Swedish economist Lindbeck writing a brief history of economic thought and ecshyonomic policy in postwar Sweden itemized the two historic developments as (1) the adoption of modshyern fiscal monetary policy at the macro level and (2) the adoption of Rehns conception of an active manpower policy at the micro level I will not stop here to elaborate the connection between the two except to say that an active manpower policy preshysupposed if it were to succeed a carefully managed
6
general demand policy holding short of full emshy
ployment in order to avoid inflation suppleshymented by selective demand and labor market supshyply policies in order to maintain stable levels of full employment
These economic presuppositions of Swedish polshyicy since the late Fifties have been no more or less fulfilled than in other countries and Swedish acshytive manpower policy has had to engage in fireshyfighting operations and has not always been equal to the task of overcoming mistaken demand polshyicies But these matters are not our immediate conshycern
What is relevant to our purposes are two things (1) the social environment that made possible the formulation of an active manpower policy-by the trade unions it so happened-as a means of comshybating postwar inflation in order to escape authorishytarian wages and incomes policy that would have in the view of the LO undermined a free trade union movement and a policy of free collective barshygaining with employers on the labor market and (2) the creation of a tripartite Labor Market Board
What I want to say about the first-the social enshyvironment in Sweden-brings me back to my text from Fellner Nowhere perhaps is there a greater propensity to reach compromises and to do so beshycause of an awareness that the joint payoff of an agreement is high
What I want to say about the second point-the creation of a multipartite labor market boardshygives me a chance to cover some of the ground that the managers of this symposium had in mind in constructing the symposium But I will try to do this without touching all the bases in literal fashshyion I trust my umpire will he indulgent
I must concede that the social participation repshyresented by active tripartite management of the Labor Markct Board is a compromise between
popular participation and efficient administration I really dont know how much of a New England town meeting a Parent Teachers Association a community swimnuing pool organization a housing cooperative a stibiiban civic association or Group Health let alone a community action agency is inshyvolved in what appears to be a well-organized articshyulation of community interests via the tripartite Labor Market Board
But the fact is that the administration of Swedshyish labor market policy and programs is not solely in the hands of a government bureaucracy with adshy
visory committees but is in the hands of what we would call a quasi-public organization from the top in Stockholm down to every provincial labor marshyket board The Board and the boards play an essenshytial role in the economic planning process longshyterm and conjunctural and in actual administration of the labor market If the constituencies of the three parties have any complaints which I suppose they do remedies presumably lie within the rules of the trade unions the employer organizations and the Rikstag but I cant quite imagine a mass demonstration
On substantive matters the Board and the local boards deal wih all of the problems of human reshysources development employment creation mobilshyity and relocation There is of course the usual difficulties of coordination between the school aushythorities and the vocational authorities and pershyhaps some doubts as Sweden moves in the direction of the American nonvocationally oriented high school Otherwise the business of the Labor Marshyket Board is (1) to facilitate the restructuring of the Swedish economy which involves fortunately for Sweden chiefly the movement of workers from the low-productivity forest-based activities of the North to the modern technology of the South and (2) to minimize cyclical fluctuations in the economy
We need only note the new emphasis which may be siuimarized by saying that aside from the wellshyknown mobility features of the program the aim is to provide a combination of training requirements involved in the restructuring c the economy and at the same time furthcr human resource developshyment by providing constructive substitutes for tinshyemployment in recession The result is that trainshying and quasi-training activities rise a5 the demand for employment declines and-in the recession of 1966-68-rose more than the rise in unemployment
But is all right in the Garden of Eden Does the social participation represented by th e tripartite Labor Market Board the friendly collaboration of the unions and the employer associations the discishypline of world competitioi on wage and price polshyicy the continued success of the popular based Soshycial Democratic party at the polls-does this sophistishycated form of social participation satisfy the needs of popular participation It may be only a trivial
phenomenon but the worrisome question in Sweden is how to explain wildcat strikes by workers with few economic complaints who feel neglected by their trade union and political represhysentatives
7
Even before this little breach in paradise Charles De Gaulle anticipated what was to become in France the explanatory factor-the Events of May in 1968 For many years De Gaulle intishymated the need for social participation of workers in what lie conceived to be some kind of a comshypromise with a capitalist society What he meant was never too clear but some specifics touching on profit sharing worried French businessmen and never aroused much enthusiasm in the trade unshyions or support within the party or the bureaucshyracy But De Gaulle must be credited with some kind of intuition of the dissatisfaction of workers with their role in French society and n economic life Profit-sharing codetermination industrial deshymocracy were not anything new but I think it was De Gaulle and the Events of May that brought the need for social participation to the forefront in the North in much the same way as the proponents of Title IX had done in American AID policy at about the same time
What was the situation in France that accounted for De Gaulles solitary premonitions France was viewed by many as almost the perfect model of the welfare state I remember Patrick Moynihans inshyterest in family allowances when lie visited France while Assistant Secretary of Labor He did see povshyerty in St Denis but responded Well at least everyshybody is at work But as the Events of May were to demonstrate in 1968 what matters is not simply full employment (there was of course a little reshycession in 1966-67) or levels of living or family alshylowances in the welfare state or pretty regular gains in real living (although there had been some disappointments on this score as a result of stabilishyzation policy in France during those years) What mattered in France way underneath was the feelshying of French workers that they had no influence in French policy or French society-not only that they were not sharing fairly in the gains of French economic policy (a point which is arguable)
I may recall that the student and worker demonshystrations brought France to the verge of collapse in May of 1968 De Gaulle left the country and reshyturned only after he had secured the support of the French military abroad The alienation of the stushydents was to be explained in no small part by their dissatisfaction with French educational and manshypower policy vhicli they thought was designed to allocate them to slots in the staffing pattern of a capitalist French society Neither the young nor the older generation were enthusiastic about the
new economic society of the Fifth Plan Despite some interconnections the workers demonstrated on their own and wished to have nothing to do with the students Their gripe was their isolation at the plant level from the machinery the goals and the preoccupations of their unions and their national union leadership
Most French workers probably never heard of codetermination in Germany probably had little idea what De Gaulle meant by social participation probably knew or cared little about the niceties of French planning or economic policy and probably didnt want to run their companies businesses To understand their feeling of isolation I need only to mention that French unionism is fragmented along political and religious lines the so-called Workers Councils are legislative creations and generally unshyused at most plants for grievance or other purposes There is ordinarily little union organization at the plant level even where most workers belong to one political union or another Wage levels are genershyally above the negotiated national or regional rates and are set largely by employers in response to marshyket factors and not by negotiation In brief the union is not preeminently an instrument for setshyting wages or settling grievances
At the Labor Ministers office on the Rue de Greshynelle the then Prime Minister Mr Pompidou neshygotiated the Grenelle Agreement in the final days of May 1968 with representatives of the French emshyployers and trade unions who running scared sat together for the first time took steps to raise real wages promote plant unionism and to appease French workers who at the very moment were takshying things into their own hands at their work places The results subsequently on the labor marshyket have been quite creditable The government also capitulated to the university s adents who are now again in 1970 demonstrating at Nanterre against the very university self-government that Faurd was villified for having forced the Assembly to accept in 1968
What then can we say is the experience of the North that may be relevant to maximizing popular participation as a means-in the language of Title IX-for sustained economic and social progress What is the role of manpower and employment policy in the process of social democratization
We have seen clearly in recent years that manshypower policy has an essential complementary role to economic policy-for human resource developshynient and more particularly for training to meet
8
the opportunities and needs of the labor market and for solving the structural problems involved in the continuous restructuring of the modern econshyomy which means both concern for the producshytivity and for minimization of unemployment
But this limited conception of manpower and employment policy is I think it fair to say someshywhat neutral with respect to social goals In authorshyitarian societies it is possible to imagine an efficient manpower and labor market policy quite inconsistent with a democratic society But even in Western societies we have more than a few intishymations that economic progress can be frustrated by frustrations of workers who feel alienated from soliety who feel they have no responsible role no share in decision-making no recognition no social status
The problem of the LDCs is more difficult and I must defer to those with more experience in these
special probleis As implied in Title IX the task is to develop democratic social institutions where they dont exist and where they may be in fact reshysisted by the beneficiaries of the old order I supshy
pose the experience of the North is that it is a slow process Nonetheless the democratic institutions of the North have evolved out of self help in the
creation of instruments of self governance not only in civil arrangements of local government and the political state but in the productive process and on the labor market We should not ignore or undershyestimate the democratic aspects of a free labor marshyket of a market economy or a capitalist society even if we dont wish to press the historic connecshytions between a market economy and political deshymocracy in the West
It is the special virtue of the policy expressed in Title IX that while trying not to impose our preshyconceptions on others we take a long view and fosshyter those elements of education training cooperashytivism land reform and trade unionism that are instruments for self help for both the political and economic man
To come back to my text it is a slow proCess but the only prospect for responsible bargaining the essence of the political process in a democracy is for the dispossessed to become possesse(l to have a stake-and to know the payoff is high-in the viashybility of the economy and the political state Which means to have confidence in their own strength and a sense of responsibility and participashytion in the adjustment processes of society Rememshyber Sweden and remember Francel
9
TITLE IX AND MANPOWER PROGRAMS OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
by Burnie Merson
The goals of Title IX of the Foreign Assistance planning level nationally regionally and locally of Act are stated in general terms These goals are to workers farm and employer organizations in deshydevelop citizen participation in the creation of the velopment of policy and programs to achieve full goods and services needed for economic develop- prodtctive freely chosen employment These and ment and their participation in the fruits of the in- other regional eriployment and manpower planshycreased produictivity resulting from economic ning programs have set the basic structure of world growth However before it is possible to develop and regional manpower plans which stress not the required policies and programs to achieve the only full employment but freely chosen employ objectives of Title IX it is necessary to clearly de- nient fine what is meant by citizen participation and to The achievement of popular participation restate the objectives of Title IX in more specific through productive and freely chosen employment terms will be limited without the opportunity on the
Restatement of Title IX in terms of specific ob- part of the labor force of all ages youth as well as jectives with respect to manpower would relate to adult workers for further educational and occupashycitizen participation in the development process of tional training Also to widen the employment op a country through such matters as job developshy portunities of the workers there must be a broadenshynuent skill development increased worker produc- ing of the occupational choice available to the tivity and improvement of the labor market mech- labor force Qualified jo) seekers may be barred anism This paper briefly discusses the major kinds from available job openings as a result of a number of manpower programs and objectives which I be- of factors These include improper functioning of lieve will help meet the objectives of Title IX It the labor market which impedes matching of men also discusses some of the activities of the interna- and jobs discrimination because of race creed tional and regional organizations which are related color an( unreal educational standards which go to these programs far beyond the needs of the job
One basic element of popular participation The above impediments -are found in virtually should be the development of prpductive jobs every developing country in which I have had some Provision of both full and productive employment experience and in all cases these impediments lead enables those seeking work to have the opportunity to frustrations To cite several examples illtistratshyto obtain remunerative jobs which are essential not ing these impediments to matching of men and only to enable the workers to obtain income jobs In one country because of family structure needed for basic food shelter and clothing but certain good jobs are only available to those who also to permit them to participate in the benefits of conie from the right families In another country any increased outitput of goods and services in the tnless you have the right diplomas front the right country university you are barred from jobs at certain lev-
Another basic element of popular participation els in the government This is so despite the fact is the idea of workers freely choosing their employ- that there are often highly competent people who ment The International Labor Office Basic Con- get education training and experience on-the-job vention 122 the Ottawa Plan for Resource Devel- and are quite qualified for these other jobs Yet opment the Asian plan and the Jobs and Skills they cannot move up to them because they do not program for Africa call for the participation at the have theproper credentials
11
There also can be important impacts on popular participation in the development process through tie minimum wage and social security programs
Minimum wages appropriately administered and
established can play a significant role in establishshy
ing levels of staldards of living consistent with the
objectives of welfare and ians dignity However the minimumn wage levels if raised too high can
have significant adverse effects on employment pro)spects for certain segments of the p pIlation
For example youths seekiiig summer jobs -nd pershysons with low skills and inadequate training may be priced out of the job market Social security simishy
larly can have an important and valuable impact on the standard of living of a country However its value depends upon the incidence of the tax and
how it results in the redistribution of the fruits of production to various segments of the population
The workers sense of participation in the develshyoping process is significantly enhanced if there is
participation through the trade union Trade unshyions can be important not only because of direct
participation in the economic development of a
cotintry but also because they van develop cooperashytion with other sectors of the p 2ation as represhyselited by employer associations and farm groups Similarly the government in its operations through ilh labor miiinistries is an important factor
inl deveiopinent of the institutioinal capabilities for matching men and jobs and developing skills as well as establishiig safety and labor standards And there also is the whole gamut of government reshy
lated institutions which help bring the workers in
closer con tact with tlie government and with the
developmenclt process
The programs aid objectives of the various inshy
ternational orgainiatiolis such as the 110 Convenshy
tion 122 and the Declaration of Cundinamarca
have in my judgment important goals consistent
with the objectives of Titll IX For example the Declaration of Cundinamarca notes that there
Can be no effective cconoinmic and social developshy
ment unless the legitimate rights of labor are recshy
ognized aind the aopirations of the workers are
expressed in terms of concrete achievements involvshy
ing wages eliployimieit working con(ditions social
security health housing and education In accomshy
plishing these tasks the Ministries of Labor have a
vital role to play They should be the ones to take
appropriate steps toward the establislument in each
of their coiintries of a National Council of Human
Resources at the highest level This Council should
be structured to conform with the constittition of the particular country The participation of a wide number of groups should he contemplated includshying universities representatives of employers minshyistries of education vocational training centers national planning offices bureaus of statistics nashytional productivity (cliters and other pertinent agencies that may exist in a given country The Declaration had particularly strong recommendashytions regarding the inclusionl of re 1 resentatives of democratic trade unions employer organizations aud ministries of labor to study and evaluate tile degree of trade union freedom and participation of the workers in the formulation and execution of national development programs
Any) popular participation on the international scene is represented by the ILO and OAS resolushytion predate Title IX of the Foreign Assistance Act In some respects the tying of the manpower program to a broad participation policy is easier than in other fields Manpower has always had a wide or horizonital iniput into almost all sectors of the economy It is it only coicerned with the varshyious industrial sectors-agriculture nonagriculture
bti also public adm inistration edtication health and military sectors This may often be forgotten becatise depending upon specific needs one may look at manpower solely from a single sectorial
stanlpoint Also it is difficult to handle and to look at manpower as ani interrelated system For examshy
ple an emiiployieit service Imay runia teacher
placelelit scrvice a farm placement service and services to the private andillpblic sectors It may also be concenlied with occupational safety both in the public and private sectors Also when an agency attem pts to measure uinemploymen t it usually covshyers all sectors of the population it does not ignore one or aiiot her if possible
Finally a comninet is required on the possibility of developing participation of various groups ill maiipower programs My experience in Korea and Taiwan iidicates that it is possible to do So with considera ble success In developilng plais for mallshy
power we enlisted the consmtiiers of the output of vocational schools anid the various trailing agenshycies as well as the public aul private sector groups We brought together people from the educatioial sector government in general as well as business
an(d commerce with tle vocatiollal and technical training agencies Of course for special problems arising out of the nature of the country and their social and political customs there was cooperation
12
both in providing indication of the nature of their needs as well as providing in some irstances finan-cial support In other instances industry provided shop teachers and brought foremen in from plants in order to show teachers the way things were done in industry
Rcview of the current international manpower
activities in my judgment indicates that in this syea there is at least tle beginning of programs and
actions which can help bring into fruition thc obshyjcdvcs of Title IX if thcy are broadened and dishyrcid more specifically towards the goals of full citizen participation in thcountrys development programs
13
SEVEN SIGNS FOR THE 1970s
by Seymour Wolfbein
In many years of study of manpower developshyments in the United States I have found that one can single out certain trends and changes in the economy which are highly significant as signposts or directional signs for probable future developshyments I would like to submit that there are a handful of such trecnds on which we can concenshytrate as playing sig~nificant roles in the manpower developments over the next decade Although these developments may have different importance and different values for devcloping countries I would also submit that they are of sufficient importance to be given serious consideration in any nalysis of manpower developments in the developing counshytries The following lists the seven developments that I believe are of greatest importance at present
1 Tcchnological change
2 Industrial an(d occupational change
3 Geographic change
4 Educational change
5 Population change
6 Manpower change
7 Disaggregation
Technological change Although the various items are not listed according to their relative imshyportance I would say that it is not possible to talk about moving ahead in any discussion of manshy
power or economic development without first conshysidering the problem oi technological change and its impact upon not only manpover but all aspects of life In the United States over the last 25 years output per man hour has been going ill) at about
the rate of 3 a year Thus over this period outshyput in the United States per man hour has doushybled Over the long run this is really only a blink of time A number of rather startling examples of the impact of such change in the United States can be found Let us look at agriculture for example
In that sector for the last 20 years in a row the United States has lost 200000 jobs per year off the farm Yet farm output over the period has inshycreased by more than 40 It was also during this
period that we were able to land a man on the l11OO1i
Industrial and occupational change Developshyments in the industrial-occupational area is one that most certainly cannot be ignored when conshysidering problems of popular participation Even in the United States most people are startled when it is pointed out that two out of every three people who work for a living in the United States produce services rather than goods As a result of these changes the number of professhysional workers now outnumber all of the skilled workers-one out of three persons who work for a living in the country are either professional personshynel or they are clerical workers such as secretaries stenographers and typists These conditions are also reflected in the dynamics of the working popushylation with the result that the proportion of the working population organized by the trade union movement has been going down since the end of World War II This trend apparently seems to be continuing It is therefore to be expected that in the next several years the major industrial relations actions will be going On in the service-producing side
Geographic change We are all aware that there has been tremendous migration out of the rural areas and tremendous growth in urbanization in this country since World War II The scope of these developments may be more fully understood when it is noted that three States in the United States (California Texas and Florida) account for one out of every six jobs Moreover these States in 1969 accounted for one-fifth of all the personal inshycome as neasured in the Gross National Product acounts With such concentrations of population
15
what does it do to the problem of job creation How does one handle this kind of dynamics in reshylation to this problem To further complicate the matter there is this tremendous intracity migration ie exodus to the suburbs Thus the geographic parameter of job development in itself is an amazshying phenomena
Educational change Formal education in this country has expanded substantially to the point where at present some 60 of the persons three to 31 years of age are formally registered in school When one looks at the so-called professional pershysonnel one finds that for the group as a whole the median years of school completed is seventeenshythat is equivalent to a masters degree Remember this is the median We must also remember that the professional category includes beauticians and opticians as well as physicians and physicists Thus even with ccrtaii occupations which require relatively few years of schooling the median is still 17 years But the most important factor here is that there is a world of difference betwcen median years of school completed and educational achievement The real question is what is the quality and the nashyture of the output to be obtained from these years of schooling Is the schooling being directed toshywards those occupations and activities which will be most needed in the 1970s It is estinatel by the Department of Labor that in the 1970s we are going to need as much manual talent as academic talent but will we be getting it
Will our vocational training program be realistishycally geared to meet the current needIs or to conshytinue as some of them are to provide training that is of little relationship to the industrial world of today
Population change We have experienced in the United States as in iost other countries since World War II a phenomenal rise in (he populashytion The birth rate in the United States showed sul)stantial increases until recently and has now deshyclined substantially But it lutist be noted that this lower birth rate is being applie(l as the demograshyphers say to an increasing number in the cohort of females of child-bearing age Therefore although the rate of births may be low the number of births is still high The growth in population since 1915 in this country for example has been such that in this 25 years half of the population of the United States was horn-a little over 100 million Accordshying to the 1970 population preliminary estimates the population at present is some 205 million as
compared to 170 million in 1960 or an increase over the decade of over ten liercent Another way of looking at it is that one out of every three people alive today in the United States was not born yet fifteen years ago We are already aware of the growth in the youth population and the problems that developed in connection with youth but it would seen that this problem may be further inshytensified
Manpower change The Labor Department proshyjections for the 1970s indicate that we may expect a 22 increase in the labor force during this decshyade This is an unprecelented and unparalleled inshycrease in the labor force never experienced before in the United States Most important of course in this increase is what it will do to the composition of the labor force Two changes come to mind readshyily First despite the so-called population and labor force explosion there is a decline in the popshytilation age group 35 to 44 We know that the soshycalled manpower profile in the Unitd States looks like an hour glass-there is a big batch of young people coming tip and a big batch of older
people It has vital implications for manpowertraining and for employers who wish to hire people in the age group that has had some work experishyence or career development This sector of the popshyulation is declining The second factor of equal importance is that one out of seven new workers coming up in the 1970s is going to be black
Disaggregation For the lack of finding a better term I use disaggregation By that I mean that it is necessary to look at the previous six developshyments and to consider them in some specific kinds of detail The point that is of particular imporshytance in the context of population participation and of job creation is that these six trends could be very beneficial for economic development But there is a large part of the population not only in the United States but in many other countries of the world which have not benefited from these trends and it is with these groups that in the imshymediate years ahead the problens will be greatest in terms of job creation and job development The
question will be bow to get the various parts of the
population together and to participate in these particular tasks
It may very well be right to say as I did preshyviously that we are now a service-producing econshyomy that we are a white collar group but in terms of the problems to be faced in connection with parshyticipation we must recognize the fact that a subshy
16
stantial part of the population even in the United States is not part of these what we have called mainstream developments Let us turn to some specific illustrations of what I mean For example the fact of the matter is that over 25 of all Negro males who work in this country are in one
occupation group while almost 50 of all Negro women are in one occupational group The males
are conacentrated in the operatives group occupashytion this is the occupation in this country which it
is anticipated will be declining in terms of employshyment opportunities in the 1970s Negro womens employment is concentrated in the service occupashytions
Let us disaggregate another general figure that is given continual attention-the unemployment rate In May (1970) the aggregate unemployment rate
was 50 seasonally adjusted But when one looks at nonwhite teenage males we find that the unemshyploymnent rate for this group ranges between 25 and
30 more than five times higher than the aggreshygate rate We can i am sure find many other exshyamuples of instances where certain groups of the population have benefited from the latest developshyments
To turn to the developing countries where in many instances the kinds of development we have discussed in the United States have not reached the same levels I would say that if in these countries they do not have the same discrete and distinguishshyable movements in the direction that the Western World has gone they will not have the kind of growth we are attempting to stimulate and foster
Certainly we will have dismally failed to learn from our own experiencc if we do not attempt or recognize that rts must be made as the developshying countries groi and as these basic trends imporshytant to growth begin to become more apparent to continuously watch the developments to determine if there are any groups in society who are not parshyticipating and benefiting from the trends and are falling by the wayside If it is at all possible we should be trying to bring these people in at the earliest stages of the developiment rather than wait until there are wide disparities among various paris of the population such as have developed in the Western World In this sense the purpose of
participation is vital in that if the idea is accepted and developed in the developing countries it should avoid what occurred in the Western World
17
JOB CREATION IN AGRICULTURE
by Thomas F Carroll
This paper presents what might be called a posishytion of agricultural fundamentalism with respect to policy for employment creation-deliberate employshyment creation in the developing countries
Up to very recently development economists and developers in general have been emphasizing growth theories that stress global GNP growth It is only now that questions on how GNP is distribshyuted and on how various groups in the developing countries benefit from development are becoming increasingly asked The employment and income distribution issue is becoming a fashionable foreshyfront topic among development planners This is reflected in such material as the Pearson Report Professor Myrdals report on Asia and the Peterson Report and one that is about to appear on Latin America by Professor Prebisch
We have had a great deal of theorizing and of practice from developing countries which can be characterized as the trickle down theory of deshyvelopment that has left those who are most able to use resources to develop them The AID organization and in particular the World Bank have followed this approach of putting resources where in the short run they will produce the largshyest output and then let the governments tax or otherwise acquire some of the surplus and redistribshyute it among the poorer urban and rural sectors
It is an attack on the whoe trickle down theshyory of development that I see now among developshymentalists It appears that in many recent studies this trickle down theory does not seem to work because even if some of the surplus can be captured for injection into education social welfare and other low-income support programs there is a gross inefficiency in the process Since government takes such a predominant place in managing these reshysources these inefficiencies are very noticeable
Since my recent work has been particularly strong on Latin America my illustrations and emphasis are on that particular continent
A great deal of the surplus gets stuck at the middle and upper level consumption patterns which increasingly are modeled on the consumpshytion patterns of the middle classes in the developed countries Thus if you go to a Latin American city you will find that the middle classes consume about the same basket of commodities-automobiles teleshyvision sets gadgets of all sorts-as we do in US suburbia This has put an enormous pressure on the developing countries infant industries and also on the balance of payments because a great deal of these products had to be imported
Another reason why the trickle down theory has not worked is that it ignored the labor potenshytials of an overwhelming proportion of the populashytion In such countries as Brazil or India 50 to 70 percent of the population is in the underdeveloped portion of the population in the urban and rural sectors the most important resource in this type of country is the labor resource This labor resource is very poorly utilized under the trickle down theshyory of development In the US and other develshyoped countries only a fraction of the labor force and population is in this poor range
I shall not dwell in length upon the inadequacies of industrial and urban jobs to absorb significant amounts of the migrant rural population There is increasing evidence that industry is becoming more capital intensive The types of industry that have been developing especially after the import substishytution drive has been satisfied offer very few jobs The lower productivity service sector while genershyally absorbing more labor than manufacturing has expanded in a very inadequate fashion and much of it has been disguising very large amounts of semi-employed people
Hence it is desirable to think not only of overshyall economic policies of development which are more labor-absorbing but it is desirable to have
specific rural policies that absorb productively
19
rural people so as to reduce migration to the urban areas
With respect to Latin America with a very high population growth-somewhere between 3 and 3 12 percent-in the late sixties the rural labor force is estimated to grow at the rate of about I million people annually even after assuming somewhat speeded-up migration rates Moreover there are no policies to productively absorb these people in agrishyculture On the contrary recent policies have beshycome increasingly capital intensive and the whole development strategy is generally strongly biased toward a rather labor extensive type of agricultural development as well
Let me briefly mention some of the policy defishyciencies that we have found not only in Latin America but Africa and Asia as well There is an overemphasis on commodity targets and balance of payment considerations in development planning There is very little attention to manpower planshyning in the various planning agencies and the tarshygets that are listed for development are very heavshyily oriented toward output-global macro-economic output-and commodity targets rather than institushytional targets which would involve human reshysource planning and income targets
There is a great deal of encouragement for capital intensive production techniques in public investment We see this in the development banks where much of the investment takes place in indusshytries with lines of pi oduction that offer very few jobs Perhaps the lending process itself with its emshyphasis on the project approach encourages this capshyital intensive bias
There is a strong urban bias in providing social services which encourages the out-migration from rural areas and which places great difficulties in the way of attracting and retaining qualified civil servshyants and leaders in rural areas There is a bias in the provision of social services jobs schools and other conditions that encourage not only job-wise but living level-wise the selective out-migration of competent rural people and prevents the return-mishygration of competent government officials teachers and others needed for the development of the rural areas
With respect to Latin America there is a lack of agrarian reform which is a fundamental defect in job creation in rural areas (This is not so true of Africa which has a more tribal and peasant-orishyented rural sector) There is very little recognition of the segmented nature of agriculture in developshy
ment planning They treat agriculture as a monoshylithic sector I can distinguish at least three differshyent sectors within agriculture such as the plantation sector which is export-oriented and for which deshyvelopment and employment policies will have to parallel the industrial planning techniques There is the semi-modern sector which is producing comshymodities for the market and has to some extent also a self-sufficient subsector And there is finally a really self-sufficient sector of a vast number of peasshyants who market very little and whose livelihood is within the traditional villages I think the developshyment policies and of course employment generashytion programs will have to be quite different for each of these sectors
Finally there is a strong emphasis on labor-reshyplacing types of technology particularly mechanizashytion that is imported intact from the developed countries wlere it serves a very good purpose A great deal of the pricing taxing subsidy policies as well as the activities of machinery companies are detrimental to a kind of development that would emphasize a slower transition from primitive agrishyculture to a very mechanized type of agriculture
Now to turn to policy recommendations let me briefly list certain suggestions for using simple iabor intensive labor absorbing techniques in deshyvelopment planning One of these is the recognishytion that in research and development on which we spend a great (eal of money and which developshying countries are just beginning to recognize as an investment item increasing stress should be placed on what many people are beginning to call intershymediate technology There is a great deal of reshysearch needed on micro-level agricultural developshyment ratier- than ihicro-level development and work of field economists anthropologists socioloshygists manpower planners is very much needed
There should be inter-disciplinary approaches to these micro-planning techniques and here I would like to enter a plea for not only technological planshyning but integrated social scince planning and research in the field of employment generating techshyniques I would emphasize very strongly developshyment of rural cooperatives and cooperative-like institutions in the rural areas that have the capashybility of mobilizing local people and to achieving economies of scale in development that normally individual type programs do not achieve These inshystitutions would be particularly valuable in such fields as credit marketing some types of producshytion and in machine services Also stronger emphashy
20
sis has to be placed on rural unions and syndicates particularly in Latin America This -is a very touchy problem because it is linked with the politishycal power structure
I also would like to point out the importance of decentralized agro-industrial planning I do not think we have touched upon the potentials of bringing jobs to rural people not only in agriculshyture but in agriculturally-related enterprises loshycated in or near urban areas This is something into which very little talent imagination and efshyfort and money has gone You will find that most of the industries are located in the large urban censhyters Very little is done to process agricultural prodshyucts or to create industrially-related enterprises
around primary production centers such as forests
pasture lands and crops which can be industrialshyized In this connection also I think there is a
great deal of learning to be done in stimulating
part-time and full-time industrial and semi-inshyclustrial employment opportunities in conjunction
with rural development programs A final point which needs to be strongly emphashy
sized I believe that it is not necessary to separate
or set up hardline criteria to distinguish between wealth-creating jobs and welfare (or income-subshy
sidy) jobs Acceptance of this dichotomy results in directing investment towards the activities with relatively high output potential Those of us who have been running agricultural credit programs find that among the small farmers we have the best credit risks We have farmers who have incredibly small businesses and repay their loans regularly while the larger landowners are always in arrears
Recent studies have repeatedly pointed out the big advantages of small irrigation works rather than big dams Studies have pointed out that entershyprise based on small peasant units is also highly productive because they utilize the peasants labor They are able to create wealth from work and to stimulate people to develop
I think that we have to take another look and a great deal of effort should go into the discovery of this middle ground where development projects particularly rural development or rurally-oriented deveopment projects can be both productive and socially satisfactory and at the same time soak up during the next few decades the surplus employshyment that is threatening not only the rate of growth but the basic political stability of many countries
21
UNITED STATES EXPERIENCE WITH UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDEREMPLOYMENT
by William Batt
We have no greater capital investment in any country in the world than we have in this country but we also have wide disparities in income It is true that we have more of a middle class than most developing countries but we still have dreadful problems of misdirection of funds For example if one looks at the national income data for all secshytions of the United States the District of Columbia appears as one of the wealthiest areas of the counshytry yet right in the middle of this city we have a section with desperate unemployment and tindershyemployment We have areas in the United States with unemployment rates as high as 25 to 30 pershycent
Although unemployment is an important ecoshynomic indicator it is not a particularly meaningful measure of economic conditions in rural areas beshycause of the problem of underemployment The data on unemployment developed in the 1950s by the Department of Labor focused attention on that 1roblem of depressed areas more effectively than had ever been done before And in recent studies concerned with ghetto unemployment attention was focused on the unemployment in the central cities as was national policy But it appears that we do not have similar extensive studies focused on the rural underemployment problem in the United States
We have this (lesperate rural underemployment in the United States today It exists in Eastern North Carolina and will probably worsen because of the automation in the tobacco industry This deshyvelopment will start immigrition by totally unpreshypared people to the cities of the North Among parts of ouir Indian population the unemployment data also reveal desperate poverty which even makes the Mississippi Delta look prosperous by comparison
When I read advertisements in the international edition of the New lork Times placed by developshy
ing governments such as Come put your factories in Nigeria or Come put your factories in Colomshybia or Uruguay I realize that the depressed areas of the world want the same thing that deshypressed areas in the United States want They want more job opportunities they want more industry so that there will be enough jobs there for which
people could train A study sponsored by the Area Redevelopment
Administration on what Western Europe was doing in the area of development indicates that they are ahead of us I believe that we might get more ideas from Western Europe to help South America than we do from the United States For exshyample Italy is investing 10 percent of its total inshycome in trying to make southern Italy more viable so that everybody in southern Italy does not have to leave the country to make a living I think that some combination of what the Italians are doing is what we also ought to be doing to a greater extent Of course the countries of Africa and the Southern Hemisphere do not have that tremendous inshydlustrial potential of northern Italy but the princishypIe is not invalid The principle is to help make these regions that are now depressed become ecoshynomically viable
The coal and steel community in Europe is doing a beautiful job for a very limited group It seems to me that the coal and steel community is doing ver-y well what we are doing not well at all in North Carolina Southern Italy is also doing things rather better than we are
The Secretary of Defense has announced an exshyceptionally large number of jobs are going to be cut in defense It seems to me that we must be able to figure out some better way than laying off people in aircraft companies in different parts of the counshytry When I was connected with economic developshyment work in Detroit many layoffs occurred every third year When I was running the Labor and Inshy
23
dustry Department in Pennyslvania one of the reshycessions in the 1950s cost us $400 million in unemshyployment insurance Thus the costs of doing nothing are pretty phenomenal
We are trying to do something to reduce these fantastic barriers to employment that keep people in an expanding economy from sharing the benefits of that economy We have classic cases in the public sector of jobs going begging by the hundreds because of absurd and irrelevant prereqshyuisites to employment To be a dog catcher in one city and they need a number of such workers you have to have a high school diploma and two years experience handling animals
I strongly agree with the following statement that if development does not produce more jobs and a fuller role in society for the working man (and I hope by the working man is meant someshybody besides the dues-paying member of unions) it can disrupt the world we know instead of buildshying a new one Improvements in GNP and exports investments have little meaning for the hundreds of millions who continue to live in conditions of barest subsistence squalor disease and despair Inshydeed in such circumstances the term developshyment would seem to be a serious misnomer if not a cruel delusion You may be leading people up the garden path and creating more problems than you are solving
24
ROLE OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BUSINESSMEN IN JOB CREATION
by William Haas
The National Alliance of Businessmen (NAB) was created in the manpower message of President Johnson to Congress on January 23 1968 He asked the private sector of the economy to take on the reshysponsibility of meeti major national challengeshyfinding jobs and providing job training for the hard core unemployed and under-employed
In response to this request the NAB was orgashynized by concerned leaders of the business comshymunity When President Nixon took office one of his first acts was to pledge his administrations comshy
plete and unqualified support to the NAB In fact the role of the business community and that of the NAB has been made even more important than beshyfore by President Nixons proposal for extensive changes in the national welfare and manpower training programs
The Presidents proposed plan is aimed directly at getting people off the welfare roles and onto payshyrolis and this puts the responsibility squarely on businessmen They must prove that the private secshytor of the economy with the appropriate governshyment assistance to cover the extra costs of hiring and training unskilled disadvantaged workers can provide the job opportunities that will make the Presidents program work
Orgainiationally the National Alliance of Busishy
nessmen is tinique It is an independent nonprofit corporation The Executive Board is composed of topflight businessmen from each geographic region of the nation Tiis lBoard established overall polshyicy The Executive Vice Chainn is responsible for the operations of NAB similar to that of a presshyident of a corporation and the Chief Executive Ofshyficers are from the ten regional offices across the nashytion
We are now expanding from 131 metropolitan offices to 200 metropolitan offices since we are now going nationwide and these offices are staffed by volunteers from industry and officials on loan from
government with approximately three people at each regional level and five at the metropolitan level In addition literally thousands of volunteers from business assist in carrying out the mission for which NAB was formed
The question may be asked Why should busishyness take on this challenge of finding jobs and job training for the unemployed and upgrading opporshytunities for under-employed people The most imshy
portant reason is that basically six out of every seven jobs in our country are in the private sector of the economy The businessmen are the ones who have the jobs
Businessmen are also the ones who know best what a worker should learn in order to do a job
properly If we can place the unemployed and unshyderemployed in meaningful jobs teach them how to (10 these jobs znd keep them employed we will have made a major inroad on poverty in our nashytion We will be giving new hope for productive lives to many people We will be helping our young people including many Vietnam veterans reshyturning to civilian life to build satisfying lives in their own home community
Bringing the unemployed into the mainstream of outr economy is not humanitarianism It pays off in dollars and cents for the company who gains a worker It pays off for the government by both savshying on welfare costs and gaining a taxpayer
The propran of the NAB is called JOBS which stand for Job Opportunities in the Business Sector As the title indicates this program is dishyrected towards the hiring training and retraining and upgrading meni and women for jobs in the prishyvate sector of the economy Out- initial goal was to
place 100000 hard core unemployed in meaningful jobs by July I of 1969 and that was more than met The new nationwide target for July 1 1971 is to
place 611000 hard core unemployed in productive jobs Against this objective approximately 25000
25
employers have already hired sonic 432800 persons Of this total hired approximately 305700 were hired by 21000 companies participating in the non-contract portion of the JOBS program and 127100 were hired by approximately 4000 compashynies participating under a NAB JOBS contract Of the 432800 persons hired about 228400 have reshymained on the job
We have also obtained the characteristics of the employee trainees from the simple hiring card emshyployers participating in the JOBS program are asked to submit This information shows that 73 percent of the trainees are male 27 percent are female About 75 percent of the workers aie beshytween 19 and 44 years of age 21 percent are under 19 and 4 percent over 45 or an average age of 247 years Also about 70 percent of the trainees are Negro 21 percent are white 6 percent Mexican-American 2 percent Puerto Rican and I percent of other origin The average family size of employee trainees is 36 persons Their education attainment averages about 10 12 grades of school They were unemployed an average of 212 weeks in the last year Their annual family income was approxishymately $2505
Hiring training retraining and upgrading the disadvantaged is not an easy task nor do we preshytend that it is When we ask a businessman to join with us in this program we do not want him to unshydertake a task under any illusions about the diffishyculties of the task
This is not any ordinary industry-hiring proshygram To aid us in these efforts the Department of Labor offers specific types of assistance programs These programs are designed to provide practical ways for all employers large and small to train inshyexperienced new employees without losing money on the cost involved in bringing these workers up to an average level of productivity
In response to the current economic slowdown NAB is giving increased emphasis to the upgrading portion of the JOBS program Employers particishypating under the contract part of the NABs job entry and upgrading program are compensated by the government for extraordinary training expenshyses to provide such support services as orientation basic job-related education special counselling and on-the-job training skills
If the employer believes that he does not have the in-house capability to provide these support services he can subcontract this phase to professhysional companies However the on-the-job skill training cannot be subcontracted This must be provided by the employers
Other areas that may be compensated include extra administrative and overhead costs supervishysory andl human relations training medical and dental services child care assistance and transporshytation assistance
The NAB JOB efforts in my opinion is one of the best manpower programs It offers real advanshytages to employers and job applicants
26
PRIVATE INVESTMENT AND JOB CREATING POSSIBILITIES
by Harriet S Crowley
I interpret private investment to mean any kind of private investment which has a payoff whether it is for profit or social reasons This rather broad definition of private investment is necessary for two reasons when related to job creating possibilishyties First since private profit investment area per se is a fairly limited one in the less developed counshytries its job creating effects will also be limited Secondly I believe that at present the private techshynical assistance program will be a more important source for job opportunities
I would like to diaw a backdrop with respect to investment n developing countries against which manpower planning and employment as well as the many other fields of development have to be considered A landimark which has gone pretty much unnoticed is that for the first time in the history of the international development effort the flow of private and public resources is about equal For the I year coniesUnited States about $2 billion a from the government and SI 12 billion is from private investment in profit-making enterprises Much of tlie latter is still in the extractive fields but increasingly more is in the manufacturing and service fields and in private technical assistance Proshygrams We now therefore do have a different set of flows of resouices than in earlier years
Anot her important backgrotnd factor is the fact that we are in a period of change in the United States ill altitludes toward the AID program The Peterson Report is an excellent example of this change Pat of the recommendations of that report is already in being tle creation in last years legshyislation of a new instrument for private investment to manage and conduct lie incentive programs and to get ioie private investment into the less develshyoped comiti ies This is now known as the Overseas Piivate I nvestment Corporation (OPIC) which will runt tle progranis of guarantees (extended risk guarantees) as well as surveys and related activishyties The formet programs are in operation and are
writing half a billion dollars worth of insurance a year roughly one-third of the total flow of private investment capital
The two other recommendations of the Peterson Report which probably affect most of the programs that we are interested in are the creation of a bank and the creation of the technical institute What is clearly implied by these changes is that there will be a reduced official presence overseas and that the US policy of development is going to be more reshy
sponsive and less aggressive and carried out to at least sonic extent within the framework of the multilateral analytical base and guidelines
Congress is not expected to act on any new proshy
posal uintil next year sometime The specific legislashytion is scheduled to be before Congress shortly after tihe first of the year There will clearly be a transishytion period between the enactment of that legislashytion and any new structures of organization There may be a period of almost two years in which peoshyple are not going to know whether they can comshymit funds for long range programs Durng this peshyriod it seems to metle private field should become More important partly because it is time for it to play a greater role and because there is going to be this vacuum In the manpower field it seems to me that all opportunity is being created for us to test sone of the programs which we have been supportshying at least partially if not completely For examshy
ple in tie case of cooperatives it should be possible to test their usefulness now in moving into this vacuum Can they with their modest amount of public funds attract private resources in addition to those they are beginning to put into their projshyects from others such as labor
Now to turn to the activities of private business One can find estimates of job creation of private investment ranging from $300 per manyear of emshy
ployment u) to about $7500 according to the Nashytional Industrial Conference Boards exercise in this field Clearly the record of employment vis-ashy
27
vis direct private investment is not very great Figshyures available for Latin America only show that in 1957 private investment of US private subsidishyaries were supposed to have created 830000 jobsshywhile in 1966 roughly ten years later the number of such jobs rose to 1230000 It had not even doulshybled in ten years
I think we do not know enough about the intanshygible results of direct private investment We have attempted on several occasions to get from corporashytions their social overhead spending in less develshyoped countries by their affiliates Estimates of 2 to 7 percent of their annual direct investment have been arrived at )) a variety of means including a Senate Subconunittee and special research projects This could really represent a tremendous amount of jobs in the aggregate
Aside from the training which individual corposhyrations carry on all the time there is a good deal of other social overhead investment in housing in edshytication healthi community development and conshytributions to things like the National Development Foundation Peace Corps projects and Voluntary Agency projects But we (o not know enough about these activities and about the results of cooperashytive efforts and credit unions in terms of job creashyion
There has been a movement in the last year or so in what for want of a better term I call the mini-investment field This is the very small capshyital investmient kind of a project with usually a very quick turiover They are springing out genershyally from non1-profit programs overseas which have reached a plateau in their normal technical assistshyance activities They ale recognizing that they can go no further witlouit somel productive capacity input into their programs whatever they may be There have appeae(l on the scene tlini gs like Tech noserve-a nonrlofit institution supported by the chirrclies Tlhey do feasibility studies to find small lprojects anI then they raise the needed capishytal They have had prezty good luck at such activities so far There ate also emerging small inshyvestment corporations stpported by Protestant reshy
ligiotis grams The Mennonites for several years have had such an investment corporation and have maintained porifolios between $300000 and s100000 overseas all the time This group puts it
in one project and takes it out perhaps in a couple of years sometimes even less and then puts it in another one They are able to (1o this bccause of their own people overseas who see these opportunishyties and who generally either have the skills needed for the project or know where to get a volunteer with the needed skills to give the technical assistshyance that may be necessary
Joint ventures are another set of activities that are just starting The Pan-American Development Foundation has been doing this in the small loan business for a while and I think it has quite a good record
Another one is Kodel which was started up by the Catholics but now has broadened to membershyship of a good sized number of other religious and non-religious groups This is a trend toward conshysortia action on the part of the private agencies all of whom jealously like their independence and their own identity That has been a very hard block for them to overcome but they are overcomshying it and they are putting together their varied resources to direct them into major projects I think this is very encouraging because all of these
projects are at the grass roots small in nature pershyhaps but if there are enough of these they begin to expand and spread
Some 80 of these registered voluntary agencies are operating programs of around $600 million three-quarters of which is their own and the rest is from government support
In conclusion I should like to make two brief comments regarding our activities in the private sector First we are very happy to go out and use
private organizations for contract purposes often as substitute for direct hire-a better substitute in many cases This is something we should be able to do These are national resources and we have some responsibility it seems to me in this field However we often do not do a very good job of guidance for th~m Secondly I also believe that private organizashytions are going to have to demonstrate a much greater management capability on their own and a better ability to negotiate with those governments to implement their own programs without support services il) to now generally being offered by our missions and embassies
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POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES
by Samuel H Burt
Among the major distinguishing features of the American public education system is the fact that its schools have always been considered as belongshying to the public as being in the service of the public and to be served by the public on a volunshyteer basis as a matter of civic and communityr reshysponsibility The desire to be involved in puiblic education stems in part from the special status prestige and power accorded to educated persons as well as to persons connected with education in any way In many communities the chairman of a local board of education has more prestige than the elected mayor
The current furor unrest and criticism of our public schools is proof that the American publicshyor rather the many publics which comprise Amershyica-still demand a high degree of responsiveness to their need from public education administrators and professional staff In the finest tradition of our democratic society these various publics have eishyther voluntarily organized citizens school commitshytees or been organized by school administrators to serve on Volunteer advisory committees in order to help improve one or more aspects of public educashytion
The major rationale for such service is that our public schools are seen as societys major vehicle for tralsimitting to youth those precepts concepts and traditions on whi h our society has flourished in the past and must depend upon for continuing growth and success in the future
There is also a growing recognition that the problems of public education are basic central to and inextricably intertwined with other major problems of modern society-housing urbanization crime inlustrialiation civil rights jobs for mishynorities narrow professionalization and all the other factors which make or break the American Dream for each individual in our nation
Among all the publics comprising our national
life none has been more aware of the critical role and potential of public education than businessshymen manufacturers labor leaders and employers in agriculture and the professions-hereinafter reshyferred to in the aggregate as industry Motivated by the need for a continuing flow of well-educated and well-trained youth industry has voluntarily asshysisted schools to enrich expand and improve those
programs in the public schools directly related to industrys manpower needs-vocational and technishycal education For over 50 years industry has been involved in a variety of activities and services deshysigned to gear vocational education to industrial
operations But it is upon the same 20000 formally orgashy
nized industry-education cooperating and advisory committees composed of some 100000 volunteer industry representatives that sophisticated vocashytional educators depend for sustained and meanshyingful involvement in the schools It is this orgashynized involvement which is credited with making vocational education programs relevant to the needs of students and employers While there are
many authorities in the field of vocational educashytion who would argue this responsiveness there is general agreement that proper and effective utilishyzation of industry-education cooperating and adshyvisori y committees could indeed achieve this goal
So strong and pervasive is this belief that by 1965 every state had either passed a law or issued regulashytions requiring public schools to utilize volunteer advijory committees for all vocational programs in the schools Despite the fact that such laws have been honored more in the breach than in practice the 1968 Amendments to the Vocational Education Act of 1963 mandated the establishment of a Nashytional Advisory Council on Vocational Education
and State Advisory Councils on Vocational Educashytion for each state receiving federal vocational edushy
cation funds These Councils are composed of volshy
29
unteer representatives from the general public inshydustry and education As a consequence vocational education has become the only field of public edishycation which by law must utilize volunteer coMshymittees of interested citizens at the national state and local levels There has been an abiundance of voluntcers to serve on these committecs One reashyson for such service was discussed earlier ie the prestige which accrues to volunteer service in public education A second motivating factor is rooted in the hope that involvement in a vocashytional education program will not only help imshyprove that program hut will abo serve as a direct source of trained manpower supply for those comshypanics working with the school people There are also such motivational factors as the desire of adults to help young people in starting their cashyreers to receive 1 ublic recognition (personally and for the company) as a concerned citizen to be acshyknowledged as an expert and leader in ones field and to be considered altruistic and even philanshythropic by ones friends business associates and family circle through volunteer involvement in edshyucation
It is because people (o respond to organized appeals to these motivational factors that it has been possible for vocational educators to deshyvelop in the US a national system of cooperating and advisory commitcees and councils to forge an industry-education partnership in cooperation with government-for the purpose of developing manshypower skills creating jobs and the matching of workers with jobs
This system is as yet but dillily perceived and litshytle understood Our remaining discussion will cenlshyter around the roles responsibili ties and relationshy
ships of the various levels of these committees and councils as they are currently being utilized for achieving popular participation in public vocashytional education
1 The National Advisory Council on Vocashytional Education
The 1968 Amendments to the Vocational Educashytion Act of 19(33 established a National Advisory Council on Vocational Education composed of 21 leading national representatives from industry edshy
For a disrcusion of legisiation affecting vocational eiicashytion advisory conunitlies e Sanmnel Mf Burt 7ndustry and floratIionalTehil Iuration York McGraw-HillI lltit (New Book Co 1967) ant Smnnutl N1 Burl The Sate Advifory Councils on Iawational Eduration (Kalamizoo The W E Upjohin Institute for Employment Research 1968)
ucation and the general public Members are apshypointed by the President of the US Functions of the Council are broadly stated in the Act as to
(a) Advise the US Commissioner of Educashytion concerning the administration of preparashytion of general regulations for and operation of vocational education programs receiving federal funds
(b) Review the administration operation and effectiveness of vocational education proshygrams make recommendations thereto and publish reports of its findings and recommenshydations to the Secretary of the Department of Health Education and Welfare for transmittal to Congress
(c) Conduct independent evaluations of voshycational education programs and publish and distribute reports of such evaluations
(d) Review possible duplications of vocashytional education programs and publish and distribute reports and recommendations to the Secretary of HEW
The Act also provides funds for staff to be emshyployed by the National Council in conducting its activities and carrying out its t esponsibilities
While the National Council has no operational nor administrative responsibilities for the conduct of vocational education programs its independent status and legislative authority for review and evalshyuation does give it strong investigatory powers Furthermore since its findings and recommendashytions are required to be published and distributed the ouncil can be expected to have considerable impact on Congressional deliberations concerning all facets of vocational education at the national level
Although tlie relationship established by the Act between the National Council and tle State Advisshyory Councils on Vocational Education is one of reshyceiving reports from the State Councils as deshyscribed below the National Coumicil carly opted to work closely with tle State Councils As a matter of fact at the requcest of the State Councils the Nashylional Council is providing a considerabie degree of leadership to the State Councils It appears that much of the voik of the National Council will be based on reports submitted by the State Councils The National Council ii also serving as a clearing hdouse of imiforIuationl and conununiilications for tie various State Councils includinug conduct of speshycial studies for use by the Staic Councils in the deshyvelopment of their activities
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2 The State Advisory Councils on Vocational 3 Local Advisory Committee on Vocational Ed-Education ucation
In addition to establishing the National Advishysory Council the 1968 Amendments to the Vocashytional Education Act of 1963 also mandated the establishment of a State Advisory Council on Vocashytional Education by every State receiving federal funds for vocational education Members of the State Councils are appointed by the Governor or in those states in which State Boards of Education are elected members of the Advisory Council are appointed by the Board
The functions of the State Councils as specified by the Act are to
1 Evaluate the effectiveness of the vocational education programs services and activities throughout the state
2 Assist the State Board through consultation initiated by the Board in preparing the State Plans for Vocational Education
3 Advise the State Board on the development of
policy matters arising in the administration of vocational education programs
4 Prepare anid submit through the State Board to the US Commissioner of Education and the National Advisory Council on Vocational Education an annual evaluation report of voshycational cducation programs with recommenshydations for such changes as may be considshyered appropriate and warranted
The Act also provides funds for staff to be emshy
ployed by the State Councils While tile State Councils have no administrative
or operating responsibilities they are independent of albeit advisory to the State Boards of Educashytion amid to the State Departments of Education Ilici published reports an( recommendations can I)e expected to not only have an impact on vocashytional education decisions of state governors and state legislators State Boards and Departments of Education but also on the US Office of Education and the National Advisory Council on Vocational Education It is still too soon to determine how successful the State Councils will be in functioning independently of and at the same time interdeshy
pendently with the established bureatucracy of the State Departments of Education and other state agencies dealing with vocational education trainshying and manpower development
Within the states the use of advisory committees of industry people by vocational educators is manshydated in every state either by state law or by rules an(d regulations issued by State Departments of Edshyucation Except for a few states advisory commitshytees are required only for occupational education
programs conducted in a school receiving federal funds Requirements are usually met by the school listing the names of the advisory committee memshybers when requesting funds from the State Departshyment of Education Rarely is provision made by the state for special staff to service the committees or to promote industry-education cooperation Guidelines provided by the State Departments of Education stress the advisory nature of the commitshytees and warn the educators not to allow the comshymittees to become involved in administrative or operational matters Despite the lack of positive and constructive leadership on the part of most State Departments of Education in the field of efshyfective utilization of industry committees at the local levels sophisticated vocational educators and industry groups have developed various types of non-legally required advisory committees as effecshytive instrumentalities and strategies for involving industry and vocational education It is these nonshymandated committees which when added to the leshygally required committees provide the characterisshytics and format of the nationally organized system discussed in the paper
(a) The School System General Advisory Comshymittee
A number of large school systems throughout the country have appointed General Advisory Comshymittees on Vocational Education to serve in an advisory capacity to the Director of Vocational Edshyucation the superintendent of schools and occashysionally to the Board of Education This type of committee is used in helping plan long-range school system policy and objectives for vocational educashytion and to help determine relative emphasis and
priorities that should be given to various elements of the program at any particular time Once policy and priorities have been agreed upon the commitshytee may engage in activities to obtain public supshyport and any needed legislation and funds These activities of course go beyond the advisory stashytus which marks the planning and policy determishynation assistance functions for which the commitshytee was established
31
Membership in these committees is usually drawn from the ranks of top level management in the community and includes leaders of community and industry groups economic development agenshycies and government agencies concerned with manshypower development Appointment is usually made by the school superintendent sometimes by the chairman of the school board The Director of Voshycational Education usually serves as secretary to the committee
(b) The School General Advisory Committee Many large area vocational schools technical inshy
stitutes and community colleges have established general advisory committees on vocational educashytion to assist in formulating general plans and polshyicies for the school These committees have proven invaluable in helping determine what programs should be offered by the schools priorities to be asshysigned in initiating and expanding programs and in obtaining industry-wide and public support for the school Membership is usually composed of pershysonnel directors plant superintendents vice-presishydents of large companies owners of medium size businesses trade association and labor organizashytions minority groups representatives and represhysentatives of economic development agencies and government agencies concerned with manpower deshyvelopment The assistant president dean of inshystruction or assistant director of the school usually serves as secretary to the general advisory commitshytee Since the committee is established to serve a
particular institution it is rare unfortunately for the committee to become involved in or knowlshyedgeable about what other similar institutions are doing or what other vocational education and training programs are being offered in the geoshygraphic area generally served by the school
(c) Departmental Advisory Committees
If a vocational school is offering several related industry courses eg bricklaying carpentry and construction electricity these courses may be orgashynized into a Construction Technology Department supervised by a department head and perhaps served by a departmental advisory committee
Membership of a departmental advisory commitshytee usually consists solely of representatives of the industry for which the courses are being offered The major responsibility of the departmental adshyvisory committee is to make certain that the school provides for and properly supports the educational and training program needed by the industry The
departmental advisory committee not only serves in an advisory capacity to the department head but also supports him in any requests to his supervisors for program improvement and expansion The committee may also meet with the several occupashytional cooperating committees serving the instrucshytors within the department
(d) Occupational Cooperating Committees Practically all discussions literature laws and
regulations dealing with vocational education adshyvisory committees are concerned with the concept and practices of the occupational committee insistshying that such committees are advisory only Despite such statements these committees function in fact as instrumentalities for achieving cooperation beshytween education and industry rather than as a deshyvice for educators to obtain advice from industry This dichotomy between theory and practice is the source of considerable confusion among both vocashytional educators ahd industry people Nevertheless these occupational cooperating committees have been and are responsible for the bulk of industry people voluntarily involved in vocational educashytion and for annually contributing millions of dolshylars and even more millions of hours in the service of vocational education
School officials look to membership on these comshymittees from frontline supervisory staff owners of small companies and representatives from unions and trade associations connected with a particular occupation Members of the committees are usually those individuals in a company who are directly reshysponsible for hiring and training new employees
Over 30 specific cooperative service activities have been identified as being offered by occupashytional committees They can be classified under the headings
1 Engaging in student recruitment selection and placement activities
2 Improvement of instructional program offershyings through evaluation and enrichment
3 Providing assistance to teachers for personal and professional growth
4 Providing prizes financial aid scholarships and other forms of honors to outstanding stushydents
5 Engaging in industry and public relations support of the school program
The occupational cooperating committees are the foundation and strength of the national advishy
32
sory committee system described in this discussion They provide the opportunity for industry people and vocational educators to engage in cooperative action and involvement at the local community levshyel-where the real action takes place-in the schools
Summary
In a society in which a persons work is a prishymary determinant of his personal and social status there is ar obvious relationship between the world of school and the world of work This relationship calls for a high degree of compatability and coopershyation between industry and school people to make vocational education relevant to the manpower needs of the economy and to make industry responshysive to the mission and needs of vocational educashytion
In pursuit of these mutually beneficial goals inshydustry and education in the US have developed over a period of some 50 years the concept and practice of a national system of formally organized advisory and cooperating committees at the nashytional state community school and individual
program levels At each level we find different groups of leading citizens involved because of difshyfering demands from and services to be provided For example a general advisory committee to a local school system calls for representation from community minority groups but an advisory-coopshyerating committee for an occupational program in a school requires representation from front-line sushypervisors directly engaged in hiring and training new employees While this national system is far from being fully recognized and fully utilized a framework-established by law-does exist and the potential is perceived by mur nations leaders in both industry and education
Laws written by professional administrators and lawyers concerning utilization of volunteer citishyzens can and do leave yt to be desired Despite the fact that many professional educators are disshytrustful of volunteer citizen participation in such a complex field as public education so many benefits have accrued to youth adults schools industry local communities and our nation as a result of inshydustry-education cooperative partnerships as to warrant efforts to increase such cooperation manyshyfold
33
TAIWAN AND KOREAN EFFORTS IN MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT THROUGH SCHOOL AND INDUSTRY COOPERATION
by James D Murray
Although the skilled labor force of a country is developed in a number of ways the public and prishyvate vocational schools play a very important role The primary purpose of this part of the educashytional program is to prepare the student for useful employment Vocational education means more than training for specific job skills It develops abilities understandings attitudes work habits and appreciations which contribute to a satisfying and productive life This breadth of training makes it possible for the graduates of the vocashytional schools to adjust to rapid technological changes in their fields and advance quickly on the job In due time those graduates with leadership abilities can achieve supervisory positions Vocashytional education also has the responsibility of proshyviding supplementary training in occupational skills and related technical knowledge to make emshyployed adults more productive This is usually accomplished through an evening program
This paper discusses my experiences (using Taishywan as an example) in developing school and inshydustry cooperation through advisory committees in designing realistic vocational educational programs geared to the manpower needs of a developing conitry The paper also comments on the use of skill contests and participation in the Skill Olymshy
pics (with particular reference to Korea) to gain acceptance for vocational education and to build status for the skilled workers
The Taiwan Program
In the Taiwan program I worked with the Vocashytional Teacher Training Institution eight technishycal high schools and the Institute of Technology which is a post-high school in most respects With regard to the Institute of Technology my assignshyment to reorganize this old established institution to properly equip it and train the faculty provides a good example of the nature of problems involved
in developing a meaningful and iiseful advisory committee
The first step in this undertaking was to have the
president of the school and the faculty obtain an understanding of what an advisory committee should do and how it should operate I was fortushynate in being able to obtain the full cooperation of the president of the school It was therefore possible for me to put before the president of the Institute material from the many US pamphlets on how to organize a school industry advisory committee which I adapted as best I could to (he local situashytion He in turn gave it to his department heads they read it we discussed it and I thought I would run -t little check and do a little role playing with the president of the Institute calling the meeting going through all the procedures including writing of invitations to prospective members of the comshymittee
We got off to a reasonably good start but then additional progress became difficult We could see that the true understanding of what an advisory committee should do and how it should operate was not getting through Fortunately (not by inshytention) I made the comment during a meeting that in this assembled group was perhaps the most knowledgeable group on how a school industry adshyvisory committee should be organized and opershyated This group is perhaps the most knowledgeashyble in Taiwan Therefore would it not be to our advantage (and to the advantage of the country) to make this available to others who perhaps are not so well acquainted with this advisory commitshytee concept by translating the information I had developed into Chinese The group agreed to this
proposal We went through the whole procedure line by line It took a lot of time but when we got through the group understood the need for and
purposes of an advisory committee It was now possible to proceed with the organizashy
35
tion of the General Advisory Committee for the institution We brought in the public sector prishyvate sector large medium and small industries also some things that we would not include in the US such as the Ministry of Education Provincial Deshypartment of Education and the military It was successful we were able to assemble a very fine committee The committee brought forth to the institute things which I could very well have said but it was much more meaningful coming from their own people than from an outsider
The process of actually organizing the committee was a bit slow I worked with the president with the departmnt heads and we madle calls on indusshytry gave them a little pamphlet explained how the committee should operate
At the first meeting the members were informed about the purpose of the reorganized institution the type of equipment it would have the type of
buildins planned for the future and that they were going to be involved in the planning of this reorganization
Subsequent to this niceting we proceeded to the organization of the craft committees again bringing n the military and some of our AID
people in various specialties The committees were organized and committee members sat in on the planning of the courses of study The school would prepare the plai and send it out to the adshyvisory committee beforehand The committee havshying been exposed to the plain would then offer comshyments and criticism it worked beautifully Since this i rocedureiworketi so well for the Institute we
thought we would niow see what could be done for the eight technical high schools Here we practiced what we talked about in the Institutes industry adshyvisory commititees regarding the organization of the comm it tee If we just send an educator to work with the schools for this purpose we have the picshyture from one side Therefore why not have one person from the industry side as well as a person from the school side And we dlid this
The Taiwan Power Company furnished their director of training and the provincial governshyment brouight ill ole of their school-indlist ry coorshydinators They worked with each of time eight vocashytional schools in reorganizing their school industry advisory committee We chose electricity as the first committee to organize because each of the eight schools had the school industry advisory committee and we happened to get this mai from Taiwan Power Company Also the Taiwan Power Coishy
pany had an office in each of these eight cities with which we were working
A final interesting comment regarding the Taishywan experience-after four meetings attended by the coordinator from the provincial department of education and the training director from the Taishywan Power Company they issued a report which contained useful suggestions which took into acshycount the local situation
A few of the suggestions made to the schools in this report incluied the following Planned visits and in-plant practice should be arranged for the graduating class mathematics related to the ocshycuipation should be taught shop practice of gradshyntitig students to be based on Taiwan Power
Company regulations a safety boo issued by the Quason Training Center schools foi reference
The Korean Program
In Korea basically similar procedures were used in developing industry advisory committees As in Taiwan procedires were developed and accepted regarding establishment of national provincial and school advisory conumittees These are conshytained in the by-laws promulgated in June 1963 of the Industrial Education Advisory Committee Adshyvisory comnittees are operating in Korea they are operating even thoughlithey are not as sophisticated as the ones in the United States Effective advisory committees were also established for the agriculshytural program
It Korea as in many other countries the advishysory committees lead to other participation proshygrais One exaimple is the school industry cooperashyive program where the student spends part time in
school and part time iworking in industry The proshygrais are operating quite siccessfully
Other programins which I believe particularly imshyportant as a means of fostering popular participashytion are tihe National Skill Contests and the Skill Olympics which art described in the section that follows
National Skill Conitests and the Skill Olympics
The National Skill Contest In 1963 USAID asshysisted the Ministry of Education and the Korean Technical Edunication Association in tie organizashytion and operation of the First National Technical High School Skill Contest The objectives of this activity were to encourage the students and teachshyers to strive for better workmanship to gain public
acceptance of vocational education and to improve
36
the image of the skilled worker in society The conshytest is similar to an athletic tournament but in this activity the students from participating high schools compete with each other for honors in the various trades Suitable contest problems and projshyects are prepared by a committee representing inshydustry and education and the contest is conducted under very strict supervision The completed conshytest projects are evaluated in terms of precision finish working speed logical procedure economishycal use of materials and proper use of tools Ilie winners are given appropriate awards and pibshylicly honored Since the program was started in 1963 five contests have been held and each year he test problems have become inucreasingly difficult and the judges more severe in their evaluation
The National Technical High School Skill Conshytests were quite successful and generated considerashyble interest within education circles as well as in the public and private industrial sectors However a group of imaginative and aggressive Koreans were not satisfied and begaii to explore ways to expand and improve this program Ini 1966 they heard about the International Vocational Training competition which is connionly referred to as the Skill Olympics andldecided to seek admittance into this internaiionial event
The Interinational focational Trainig Compeshytition The International Vocational Training Competition originated in Spain shortly after World War II It began as a national skill conshytest similar to the national skill contests that were condicteld in tie Republic of Korea The colipetition in Spain proved to be so successful that the Spainish invited their neighliboing cotutry Portugal to coipete in the Madrid conitest The joint conitests ield in Madrid ini 1950 and 1951 were atteirlded by iany meinlbers of the diplomatic
rls Twy weie imiipressed with the spirit of comshy)Ctitioni atnd the healthy xc lanige of training ideas
which took place at the contest As a coise(ulience they indi crd the training agencies inl their respecshytive couiitries to joili inl the coimpetition In auldi tion to Spain the list of nations now participating is (Iuite imtipiessive Atistiia lelgium Deninark West Germlanity lolland Ireland Italy ILuxeishyburg Portugal Switverland United Kingdom Japan and Koiea The first six international conshytests were held in Spain but since 1958 the contest has been held in various Eiiopeaii countries
The member co(nries may choose their particishy
pants for tie International Vocational Training
Competition in any manner but it is usually done through a national skill contest The International Vocational Training Competition lasts about three weeks During the first week the technical represhysentatives and experts make the necessary preparashytions select test items and prepare the necessary bltieprints At the end of the first week the contesshytants arrive and the competition starts the second week The testing time may be as much as 35 hours Judging is completed in the third and final week after which the winners are awarded medalsshynormally a gold silver aiid bronze medal for each trade
Korea Eners the Skill Olympics The Korea Committee-International Vocational Training Competition (IVTC) was organized in 1966 to preshy
pare for entrance ini the 1967 Skill Olympics Using the experience gained in the organization of the National Technical High School Skill Compeshytition five regional elimination contests were held thn rotighou t Korea with the winners meeting in the Ntional Contest in Seoul The competitors (1300) came from technical high schools aid industry The maxintin age limit set by international regushylations is 19 years (not to have readied 20th birthshyday) Extetlding tile cotipelitiont to include young skill workers from industry has provided crossshyfertilization of training techniques between school and industry anl entrance into international comshy
petition has escalated the standards of evaluation Korea sent niine contestants to the 1967 Skill
OlyIipirs which was held inl Spain July 10 to July 17 Tlieie were 231 coimpetitors front 12 countries com11peting inl 31 different tracles Korea won gold
niedals in tailoring and shoemaking a silver nedal in wood patern making and bronze medals in sheet metal and sign painting Uponl their reshytin to Scoul these winiels were given an enthuishysiast ic welcomie at the airport and later a recognishytion ceremotiy was held inl Citizenis IHTall The Prime Minister was the principal speaker and preshysented each winner with appropriate awards Later Ilie President of Korea personiall) congratulated the group onl their success Inl the past high level govshyernment officials have participated ini the National Teciial High School Skill Competition activishyties but Iris event far exceeded any previous occashy5100is
The success of the Korean contestanits in the
19ti7 Skill Olympics spread throughout tie country motivating more young craftsmen and students to compete for the honor of representing their coutishy
37
try in the international competition The Korean team that competed in the 1968 Skill Olympics in Switzerland was even more successful than its
predecessors Korea-Taiwan Cooperation Inspired by the
Korean and Japanese success in the Skill Olympics the Republic of China decided to improve and exshypand their Vocational Industrial High School Skill Competition Taiwan has held annual skill conshytests for vocational high school students for the
past 15 years and in 1967 they decided to prepare
for entrance into the Skill Olympics An exchange of information and technical assistance was arshyranged with the Korea Committee for Inernashytional Vocational Training Competition As a reshystilt of this cooperative effort Taiwan conducted their First National Vocaiional Training Competishytion in Novenber of 1968 The competition was very siccessful and the Chinese Government is now
considering entering the International Vocational Training Competition in 1970
38
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES WITHIN PRIVATE INDUSTRY
by Clayton J Cottrcll
Two urgent needs have met each other within our society during the last 15 years The first is the need of industry for skilled and semiskilled workers The second is the need for poor people for both jobs and the opportunity for better jobs We cannot freeze _to pernlan2nce the existence of two Americas the one rich and the other poor sepashyrate and unequal Our whole society is responding to these needs
State and federal programs have been expanded an( many new oies started to bring the indi vidtishyals and the jobs together In many US communishyties the problenms of cliage in urban life have been attacked by local government school systems colshyleges church groups neighborhood grou ps and civic organiatiolns Conicern has grown ald still is
growing that the future and even the safety of an urban industrial society depends on solving the problem of getting iiore people gainfully eishyployed
All these goals and problems come together at a single point That point is the absorption by inldu1sshytry of the hard-core ulnemploye( who are for historshyical reasons mostly meibers of mi nority racial groups Federal state and community efforts are necessary to deal with many aspects of the problem But the heart of the matter liesin our factories where maln lnees job and1 relates to it well or badly As one who has spent his adult life in indusshytry I can siuinnarie what indlistry call do and is doing The why the how the what anil the who
Let us look at the situnation through the eyes of a persol who sees hiimself inl relation to his personial problem and as lie thiinks it through
I quit school before I learned a trade lie says I now have a family I have bills to pay kids to clothe and I want to be better off next year than I am right iiow To get eiiough income I will work two jobs and maybe oie or two unskilled jobs or part-time jobs for the wife But even this work will
not bring in enough money to provide for the famshyily There must be another way
There is another way The Labor Department has created many opplortulities through such onshyilie-job traiing programs as National Youth Corps Model Cities and others But what about
private industry The typical American community today has a straige pattern of buildings both busishyness an1d resident ial in the middle of the city surshyrounidied by a ring of mediumn-age residential-inshydnustrial arear which in turn is surrounded by more industrial and residential suburbs The irner city in a Europeian city is kept up through periodic reiiewal programs it remains the heart of the city Whenu it deteriorates soimueth ing is dlone about it We inl America are only beginning to follow that
patternl In a single community we may find an available
1)001 of labor on one side of town while the availashyble jobs are in another part of the area Yet there may he the problem of labor shortage inl this comshy
ni it) because the available workers and jobs though right beside each other were not brought together )oes induistry briniig thei together More aiid lmore industry is doiig just that It has to today if it wants to stay in business Titere is also anohllir imiotve husiniessllel especially manageshyment rightly feel responisible toward the economy aid the lationi They also want to solve their own
probleii of eiarging an(1 improviig the labor force ald they walt to solve tlie liations problem of brinmgiig the hard-core iiieiployed inmto the mailnstreall of our iatiolnal life ManIaigemeut knows it is to its advantage to hell the chronically uineiployed aind that with a lot of help and pashytieice they will help themselves
Vhat happens whenllan automobile manufacturer accepts an obligatioi to hire 750 of the hard-core inemployed and make them into productive em-
Ilayees First these people have to be brought up
39
to an acceptable level of literacy A number of peoshyple who sign up for programs never show up This is disappointing frustrating and even demoralizshying for the people in industry who are trying to make a success of a training program Is it reasonashyble to conclude that these pcople do not want to work The car manufacturer did a follow-up study and some startling things came to light People who cannot read cannot read the destination signs on buses The company now has follow-up men to show the trainees how to catch the right bus and how to transfer cnroite
There was also the problem of tardiness Only one in five had alarm clocks Why They had never before had to be at any particular place at any parshyticular time Once these hard-core people knew how and why to come to work their attendance and tardiness record was 500 percent better than the average of all other employees
There were far fewei hopeless cases than had been expected The nonperformers are now pershyforming and performing well and are devoting hours of their own time to company-conducted sesshysions after work oi things like personal hygiene and efficient maniagement of their money
We went through a similar experience in anshyother company in Rochester New York where we worked with an industry-supporued employment agency Rochester Jobs Incorporated to recruit apshyplican ts from the inner city We found that a high number of hard-core people cannot pass physical examinations Out of 635 applicants during an eight-week period as many as 220 failed physicals
There was a big proportion of rejects and dropshyouts Only about 170 of the original 635 comshy
pleted the training and got permanent jobs A large aiount of tinie and money was spent in inshyterviewing examining and training people who never became employed with the result that the cost per person hired was far greater than in norshymal hiring We nevertheless consider it a worthshywhile program for we were convinced of the need to create new job opportunities for the unemployed of the inner city of Rochester and to assist them to qualify for these jobs Everyone who can and will work deserves the opportunity
In both cases the story is the ame management felt the same obligation to deal with a large social
problem many tribulations were involved in hanshydling the proLlems but management emerged conshyvinced not only of the obligation but also of the conclusion that the in-house development of
human resources was definitely good business It is good business because it produces good workers In similar programs at other companies the broadest conclusion of all was that management learned more than the trainees did more about people more about motivation and training more about minority groups
Management learned other things too First they learned that trainees require an enormous amount of attention to financial family and vocational
problems which interfere with learning Second one way to insure built-in motivation is to hire heads of households They learned that tests are not always good predictors of success The will to sucshyceed is just as necessary on the part of management as it is on the part of the hard-core trainee In each case an economic social and psychological cripple is transformed into a whole man or woman
The transformation of these people is not the only training problem which confronts industry today Members of minority groups are not the only people in our country who require attention and merit concern Every member of the industrial working team has something to learn about his own job that lie ought to learn in his best interests This is recognized by indtustry for there are many seminars and university courses many high-level management study groups especially set up for top and middle management In the factory laboratory the drafting room and in the office training reshymains an ongoing and virtually necessary activity
One teaching technique used by industry known as programmeld slides helps employees to improve their skill right on the job It takes advantage of the fact that four-filhs of all learning is visual It makes each lesson part of a practically subconscious reflex pattern like driving a car and painlessly trains the memory in the way that it should go
Let me state a paradox which like many parashydoxes also happens to he true Industry should alshyways leave the path open for an employee to upshygrade his ability and move up in relation to his growing skill and productivity but industry must not make perpetual upgrading a condition of emshy
ployment There are such things as plateaus levels of acshy
complishment on which a person temporarily or
permanently comes to a rest It is unfair and unshywise to pretend that an employee must visibly be climbing higher if lie is to continue to be useful but it is equally unfair and unwise to close off or fail to provide an upward path for employees who
40
want to follow it Small companies are plagued by the dilemma of forcing the level of performance upshyward at too fast a pace versus letting the level of performance stay flat for too long They cannot afshyford many mistakes in personal selection and trainshying What can they do Part of their question has been answered by the US Departinent of Labor but another part of their answer may come from joining locally sponsored training institutions to do the job for them
Community colleges which are usually oriented toward the needs of local industries are natural places for training to take place Small companies help to insure their own future when they help to support the institutions and when their executives and engineers help to run them Community colshyleges serve a need magnificently to an extent that all too oftn goes unrecognized because its results are not spectacular
Summing up then I return to where I began American industry needs workers and more producshytive workers in greater numbers all the time and this trend will continue Many Americans are there for the seeking ready and able to supply the work when properly trained and motivated Industry has developed the ability to do this job industry is also improving its ability to keep career opportunishyties open for average men as well as the excepshytionally talented Industry is using and continuing to use its in-house capabilities for the development of hunan resources In short industry really is doing a job and after all what else is industry for
DISCUSSANT Julius F Rothman
In the 1960s Americans learned that the key to any stuategy against poverty was a program that ofshyfered jobs at decent wages with an opportunity for advancement For those living in poverty the deshyspair of the ghetto is rooted in unemployment unshyderemployment and in being less than a full parshyticipant in the society It is clear that the way out of poverty for the disadvantaged of our society is through training in skills that will prepare them for the job market
Today there is general agreement that our manshypower policies must be integrally related to our over-all economic planning and policies
The nations manpower policies as they have evolved over the past eight years have moved from a central concern for the needs of the technologishycally displaced worker to a much broader and more basic concern with the unemployed underemshy
ployed and disadvantaged worker In this process they have had substantial impact on programs reshylated to welfare poverty and the urban crisis Planshyning for manpower policies and programs has in a real sense moved to center-stage in economic decishysion-making
It is also generally recognized that a realistic manpower policy can only be developed within the framework of a national economy that is growing rapidly enough to provide job opportunities for all
persons who are able to work and seeking employshyment This in effect means a full employment economy with unemployment rates somewhere beshytween 2 and 2 12 percent With the unemployment rate at 14 percent it is clear that new approaches to the utilization of manpower must be considered
There are several essential elemcnts that must go into a national manpower policy if we are to preshy
pare the disadvantaged unemployed for the work force
(1) There is a need for a coordinated and comshyprehensive manpower policy The absence of such a
policy has led to a proliferation of manpower proshygrams many of them inadequately funded and freshy
quently failing to meet the needs of the workers for whom they were intended
(2) For those who cannot be absorbed into existing jobs and who desire to work either in the
private or public sectors of the economy there must be a large-scale public service employment and training program subsidized by the Federal Government
(3) To effectively implement national manshypower policies and programs the US Employment Service should be federalized Until this is achieved the fifty state employment services need to be strengthened and upgraded
(4) Greater emphasis must b- placed on upshygrading programs that provide workers with the opportunity to achieve greater skills larger inshycomes and dded status
(5) The federal minimum wage should be raised to at least $200 an hour and the Fair Labor Standards Act be extended to cover all workers
While about one million people per year are helped by current manpower programs this is but a fraction of those who require help An expansion of existing programs through the creation of addishytional training opportunities in private industry is clearly indicated but it has been demonstrated that the private sector has not met the job and training needs of all of the disadvantaged
41
The AFL-CIO has long maintained that public service employment provides the best avenue for those who cannot find a place in the private sector of our economy At least three studies have amply documented the sulbtantial number of job openshyings in the public sector that could be filled if sufshyficient funds were made available to the local and state governments Nor are these jobs of the leafshyraking variety Opportunities exist in such areas as anti-pollution enforcement educational institushytions general administration health and hospitals highway and traflic control libraries police fire recreation and sanitation
The Commission on Technology Automation and Economic Progress estimated in 1966 that 53 million new jobs could be created through public service employment An Office of Economic Opporshytunity study by Greenleigh Associates suggested the
possibility of 43 million such jobs And a 1969 study by tihe Upjohn Institute indicated that the mayors of 130 cities with populations over 100000 could use another 280000 persons on their municishy
pal payrolls iminediately If America is to help the working poor and find
jobs for the uneniployed why not use federal funds to improve the quality of essential community services
In a period of rising unemployment increased emphasis should be placed on upgrading the skills of those who are currently employed Upgrading programis would perform a twofold purpose They would provide a ladder for presently employed workers seeking advancement from low-paying enshytry-level jobs and at the same time would provide entry-level openings for the unemployed who could also look to future upward mobility
In the past too much emphasis has been directed towards placing workers in enury-level low-wage jobs which require little or no formal training In too many instances manpower activities have been viewed as a substitute for welfare programs with the result that neither manpower nor welfare needs are adequately met The main thrust of training must be directed toward helping individuals deshyvelop their maximum potential skills for employshyment opportunities that actually exist in the job market This means training for skills beyond the entry-level
There is currently a great deal of talk about reorshyganizing the existing manpower programs and placshying the operating responsibility in the hands of the
states The AFL-CIO is convinced that placing major responsibility for the unemployment probshylems of the poor and the disadvantaged in the hands of the States is a serious mistake The
problems of employment and unemployment are complex and national in scope The individual states have no mechanisms for coping with these
problens The work force is highly mobile Joblessshyness and underemployment require national solushyiLOns not fifty diflerent approaches
Those who advocate this approach would make the key operating mechanism the State Employment Agency The past record of most of these State agenshycies does not suggest they will aggressively press for either job placeient or job development for the
poolr or members of minority groups What is needed to create an effective manpower
training system was stated succinctly by the Nashytional Manpower Policy Task Force in a report reshyleased early this year which said available
manpower services should be provided on the basis of need not impeded by diverse eligibility requireshyments varying administrative practices or competshying agencies The separate programs must be fused into a single comprehensive federal manpower proshygram--providing a variety of services in varying mixes depending upon national conditions and local need preferably funded by a single federal source
Manpower programs are a crucial component of any broad strategy for the elimination of unemployshyment and poverty As long as we have some 45 milshylion unemployed and some 15 million underemshy
ployed-who together with their dependents acshycount for most of the 25 million who live in povershyty-there is an urgent need to move rapidly toward the creation of effective manpower policies and
programs The 1960s was a period of innovation and exshy
perimlentation in the manpower training field Many programs were tried some failed and others met with varying degrees of success The net result was something less than a coordinated and compreshyhensive approach to manpower training We now have the opportunity to streamline existing manshy
power programs into a coinpreliensive program and to add to our manpower policies those elements which past experience has indicated are essential to meet the needs of the disadvantaged
To this end the AFL-CIO proposes that any changes in manpower policy be measured against the following criteria
42
(1) Consolidate existing job training programs into a single flexible program which can be taishylored to the needs of the unemployed and to the labor market in which they live
(2) Create a completely new upgrading program designed to encourage employers to develop upshygrading programs either within a company or within an industry and at the same time to fill job vacancies at the entry-level
(3) Establish a system of public service employshyment with State or local government and private nonprofit agencies operating under federal conshytract which would undertake to absorb those who have not been placed in private employment or training in the performance of community imshy
provemen projects in health education public safety recreation bIeatitification etc
We lelieve that these policies if followed would put the United States on the high road toward elimshyinating the unemployment that exists in our slums and urban ghettos and would bring the disshyadvantaged into the econonic mainstream
The Employment Act of 1916 said All Amerishycans able to work and seeking work have the right to useful reuninerative regular and full-time emshyployment and it is the policy of the United States to assure the existence at all times of sufficient emshyployment opportunities to enable all Americans to freely exercise this right
The rhetoric of the 1940s must become the realshyity of the 1970s
DISCUSSANT Richard L Breault
The National Chamber of Commerce for a numshyber of years has been promoting among its menishybers the importance of creating in their own comshymunities a process for bringing together diverse groups that need to become involved in dealing with community problems These probleis might range from pollution to poverty and even to ecoshynomic developmlenti The latter although at a local level I gather relates to the In-pose of Title IX of the Foreign Aid Act We have developed guideshylines for such community action projects which are being used by some of our members
There are in the United States some rather intershyesting conuiiiuity-wide projects that have brought together a wide variety of )articipants For examshyplc in Rochester Minnesota literally h1undreds of citizens are involved in looking at the goals for the community and determining priorities and alternashytive ways these objectives and priorities may be achieved The Goals for Dallas project is an exshy
ample in a much larger city where a rather difficult yet feasible process has been worked out to get thousands of persons involved in determining what Dallas should be now and in the next ten or fifteen years where it should go and what needs to be done to get where they want to go There are a number of examples of other cities that also are supporting such programs to a greater or lesser exshytent
There also have been some excellent examples of
puillic participation in specific manpower proshygrams in addition to other broad community efshyforts such as in Rochester and Dallas The whole manpower outreach program to poverty areas that many businessmen are now using is an example They will go to local organizations and ghetto groups and literally ask them to go out and help find the people who can benefit from training and
jobs The cooperative efforts in the buddy system are an example of individuals becoming involved In this effort one person assumes the responsibility to be a friend and advisor to a disadvantaged per-Soil
In some cities local Chambers of Commerce have been organizing neighborhood recruitment centers right in the ghetos manned by people from these areas In each of the cities the success of the proshygram depends upon the degree to which the key leadership elements of the community are inshyvolved You literally have to start with one two or three persons to get a system of this kind working I would certainly say that here in the United States the businessman particularly through his orgashynized channel of communication which in most cases is a local or a State Chamber of Commerce is indispensable As one looks around the country at this sort of back to people involvement and parshyticipation one finds that where failures have ocshycurred it has been because some of the key eleshyments-business labor the churches ethnic groups or the political part of the community-were left out
It is often noted that it is difficult to get the
pieces of a community together to do a job We have found this to be true in our work
There is a natural fragmentation among comshymunity groups in this country The labor groups may not talk too often to the businessmen the buisinessmen might miot get along too well with sonic other group and so on There is also the fear that getting together in a cooperative project may result in some loss of independence as an organizashy
43
tion or as an individual Compromises would have to be made which one would just as soon not have to make Difficult as this process may be in the US I imagine that it would probably be even more difficult in developing countries In the US the communication media are intensively develshyoped enabling one to reach out to people In many of the developing countries one would not expect to have these media as well developed
The Chamber of Commerce has prepared an adshydition to a publication we call Where the Action Is This pamphlet is a compilation of brieflyshy
stated examples of projectsthat involve cooperative efforts with business and other groups in the comshymunity usually taking a major role It is divided into a number of categories such as education manpower crime housing and minority business enterprise In each case the name is given of a pershyson who may be contacted to obtain more informashytion about that particular project This material
put together with the guidelines we provide our members gives at least the basic steps that are necesshysary to get people to cooperate in a community These guidelines could also work for others
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NEW CONCEPTS OF THE EMPLOYMENT SERVICE ROLE TO MEET THE CHALLENGE OF THE 1970s
by Malcolm R Lovell Jr
Recently there has been in the United States a good deal of criticism of the Employment Service Such criticism may have resulted in part from the fact that more has been expected of the Employshyment Service than it could produce The problem has been that we have never set realistic goals for the Employment Service Its broad charter is to serve all people in manpower programs with funds which may appear substantial but are still limited when considered in terms of the cost of a program required to meet the needs of all the people
Some changes are taking place however One is the growing recognition that manpower programs can play a very significant part in overall economic progran and in fighting poverty and discriminashytion Therefore I believe that this nation is preshypared to put more resources into the manpower area than ever before
What are the nature and extent of the resources required to do an effective job Currently some 16 billion dollars have been allocated for training and other assistance to the disadvantaged These proshygrams are serving approximately a million people We estimate that the universe of need according to current poverty criteria is about ten million peoshyple These are the people in serious need of manshypower services if they are to realize their own poshytential in the labor market And they also are the people who are currently at substandard incomes
Of course if you take into consideration non-disshyadvantaged people in need of manpower services the spectrum can broaden out to all of the people in the labor market soae eighty million But asshysuming ten million people are in need our serving one million people is just scratching the surface
Probably the most important breakthrough that is on the horizon is the Family Assistance Plan (FAP) that was proposed by President Nixon last year This plan in my judgment is probably one of the most far reaching pieces of social legislation presented to Congress since the 1930s
The implications of the FAP program are treshymendous The proposed bill would require the Emshyployment Service to serve 29 million people startshying with some 425000 the first year after passage of the bill However those that would be mandatorishyally included in the program are about three milshylion people And then there ate another three milshylion people that have the option of obtaining the manpower services provided in the program Thus the bill contemplates the rendering of manpower services to roughly six million people
This is a sizeable proportion of the estimated universe of need of ten million In addition I would hope that through the proposed Manpower Training Act (NITA) we would be able to help a large part of the remaining individuals who are not eligible under the Family Assistance Plan This group would include for example certain 3ingle people individuals without dependents and youth over a certain age without dependents I beshylieve therefore that we are beginning to see the posshysibility over tle next five years of serving a major segment of our population who are in most drastic need of manpower services
How do you go about organizing a progam of such a magnitude It may properly be compared with the operation of our medical system We need hospitals to deal with medical problems We recogshynize that people can be put in the hospitals with a variety of administrative procedures The Medishycare program allows people to go into the hospitals and it pays the costs Medicaid is similar There is also a large private insurance program which pershymits people to have the hospital cost paid There are of course other patients who must pay their own hospital costs What must be emphasized howshyever is that all of these people are treated in the same hospital regardless of the program financing them
Manpower services are becoming so complex as to require that specific institutions be identified as
45
providing certain basic services similar in nature as the hospitals do In the manpower area there is no institution that is as prepared and qualified to provide these services as the Employment Service The kinds of broad services which I believe should rest with the Employment Service are of the nature which may in general terms be described as covershying the functions connected with the process of matching people to jobs and providing and arrangshying for services which an individual may need in order to become employable This definition of the Employment Services responsibility includes a vashyriety of services The following briefly reviews some of them
Serving the FAP Th2 Employment Service should have responsibility for serving persons who are eligible under the FAP program The eligible individuals as defined by the law will have to preregister at Social Security offices Thus the ES will have a waiting list of persons to work on of roughly 3 million-the number of estimated preshyregistrants
It would seem to me that the system which will have to be set up to provide the required manshy
power services to this group of persons should also be the system used as the hospitals are to serve other individuals who are in need of manpower services This would mean oireach into areas not covered by the FAP as well as to people eligible for assistance but who for some reason have not been willing to come in by themselves
Occupational Choice The Employment Service should also be responsible for assisting individuals in making occupational choices The person himshyself however has to make the final decision on what ie wants to do Once the occupational judgshyment has been made by the individual the Emshyployment Service should make arrangements for the worker to receive appropriate instruction or on-the-job training Upon the completion of trainshying he should be referred to a job We however do not expect the Employment Service to do the trainshying
Job Information It is more important now than ever before that the ES be the resting place for inshyformation on job opportunities as well as containshying data on the individual seeking employment or training A number of the new federal programs will create a substantial number of job opportunishyties within the ES itself as well as among other public employers There will also be a substantial
number of training opportunities available as a reshysuilt of these programs For these programs to funcshytion effectively and efficiently it is essential that there be a central point where these jobs can be tabulated and put on a computer and where the inshydividuals know they can go to be exposed to the kinds of work opportunities and training opporshytunities available
Cooperation with Others We see the possibility of Employment Service contracts for services The
programs under the jurisdiction of ES may be of such a magnitude that without subcontracts the ES may not be able to properly perform its responsibilshyities Such contracts may be to community groups or private nonprofit institutions There are a numshyber of functions that are measurable and controllashyble so that theii performances can be watched and
properly monitored
Organization of the Employment Service
One of the problems of the Employment Service is the fact that in terms of social institutions of today it is a relatively old institution-some thirty years old The leadership of the organization has been in the hands of those who joined the organishyzation during the 1930s and most of them have been white Civil Service rules as well as other obshystacles to change have made it difficult for the Emshy
ployment Service to get the kind of minority represhysentation that we think it should have Currently minority groups account for about 14 percent of the Employment Service staff Although this proshy
portion does not appear to be too bad when viewed in terms of the population mix of the country we think it is bad when you consider the nature of the work involved Now Stite agencies have to submit
plans toward achieving a staff racial mix goal which reflects the population the local employment offices serve Each agency is going to set target goals and develop plans on how to achieve these goals
We have also found that the local offices are orshyganized in much the same way that they were thirty years ago except for a change made eight years ago This change unfortunately tended to reshyduce the responsiveness of the ES to the needs of the disadvantaged since it set up a system of speshycialized offices conceived to serve the employer rather than the candidate for employment
A study is now being conducted in eleven oflices directed towards changing that organizational structure and developing a structure which can more effectively serve the disadvantaged As a
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model we are using the employability team concept developed and used in the Work Incentive Proshygram (WIN) and which also will be used in the Family Assistance Plan
We have found that the attitudes of the State Agencies which have long been reported as an obshystacle to effectively participating in modern manshypower efforts have been changing One of the things that we think has been influential in this change is a greater interest on the part of mayors and governors in manpower programs A year ago we funded and offered opportunities to every govershynor to have some manpower staff attached to the manpower programs in his State This action has substantially increased interest in the manpower organizations of the StateWe just recently have ofshyfered a similar opportunity to the mayors of 150 citshy
ies As part of the Presidents new federalism conshyceptwe plan through the Manpower Training Act to involve mayors and governors to an even larger degree The involvement of these public officials in the basic judgments of how Employment Service assets will be used will in our opinion have a very useful effect and will vigorously help in speeding up the changes already taking place in the organishyzational structure
We are investing considerable resources in the Employment Service system We will be expecting performance on the part of the State agehciesectW are proceeding on this road with the assumption that we will have some opposition Those that have distrusted the Employment Service in the past need to be shown by actual achievement of the goals that have been set We hope to achieve them
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CREATION OF A CONSOLIDATED MANPOWER DELIVERY SYSTEM DECENTRALIZED TO THE STATES AND METROPOLITAN AREAS-
A WAY OF ACHIEVING INCREASED PARTICIPATION RESPONSIVE TO LOCAL NEEDS
by Cyril D Tyson
This paper presents a model manpower delivery system developed for New York City which is releshyvant to the problems of the major urban areas The major cities in many instances have had to develop their own administrative mechanisms to deal speshycifically with the problems of the city and over and above Federal and State resources allocate city reshysources to that effort
At the municipal level New York City to my knowledge has the only comprehcnsive nan)ower
program in the country When the present Manshy
power and Career Development Agency was set up there were sonie 85 different manpower programs in the city Some of these manpower agencies were run by the city and some by nonprofit corporashytions resources came from the Federal Government the State and the city No one could determine how the resources were allocated how many people were trained with these resources and what hapshypened to people after training
In recognition of these and related problems we attempted to set up a manpower agency in a new and unique way The first determination made was that it was necessary to set up a comprehensive manpower system to meet our responsibility to tie together those agencies man(ated by legislation to some aspects of manpower as well as other agencies or groups who have been in this field de facto but were doing a creditable job We wanted to bring together all of these instititions whiile maintaining their own individual institutional identity and their own internal liies of administration In efshyfect we wanted to define ourselves as the manager of the manpower system and the determiner of the kind of specifications that these institutions would have to utilize in order to develop adequately the pruduct produced by this system and which would
have to be marketed in the free enterprise system I was not interested in becoming directly involved in operating specific training or educational agenshycies nor in developing a manpower bureaucracy I thought of myself as a businessman with a $45000000 budget and a company that would deshyvelop the appropriate kinds of tools to insure that the product produced was marketable and that there were effective kinds of returns I wanted also to develop accountability in order to identify the cause of ineffectiveness Finally I wanted to define the objectives of the agency in terms of the unishyverse of need and in terms of the kind of resources available
In the City of New York 45 agencies andor orshyganizations have been tied together into a compreshyhensive manpower system In the community parshyticipation area this means there are 26 poverty areas or 26 community action agencies The smallshyest poverty area has a population the size of most normal cities and the largest has more people in it than Newark Each of these 26 community action agencies funded with both City and OEO money administers Neighborhood Manpower Servshyice Centers (NMSC) No training goes on in those Centers they are the intake points the testshying and counselling points and the points of detershymination of the educational andor vocational
plans of individuals All of the resources in the City are available to these NNISCs We have Cityshywide training programs and as appropriate proshygrams inl specific regional opportunity centers so that a person may go close to home for training People are given an option for the first time We are thus beginning to provide interest options so that a person participates in a program because that is where lie belongs and not to fill program quotas
49
We believe we have the only program and the first in tie country in which an institution of highcr education is an integrated part of a manshypower system The City University of New York and all of its junior colleges one in each borough provides the major portion of the educational coishyponent and the skilled training component within our system This educational component includes English as a second language basic education edushycation related to skilled training and preparation for high school equivalency
In addition the Board of Education provides basic education and English as a second language in a number of the I I regions which encompass the 26 poverty areas The State Dep-rtment of Vocational Rehabilitation alo is tied into that system Prior to their involvement they had only one office in New York City while they now have a staff in every one of our regional opportunity centers The) are beginning to relate their activities in a more releshyvant way to the popuilation that comes under their jurisdiclion In addition (hie Stale Employment
Service is a part of this system in New York City Ve informed the State Employment Service that
we wantied their staff inl all of lie 11 regions and that we would make city futds available so they could hire the Peronnel to staff the counselling fuinctions in these training facilities In tis procshyess the Stae Eiployment Service wotild become more relevant to tlie needs of the community and in tle process of expansion tle) (ould hire people who aie reflective of the community they serve
The Opportunities Industrialization Center and aI number of other institutions and organizations are involved in the progran Fifty percent of the
people who pailiipate are former welfare recipishyents We have over 300 people who started in public service career plograis in college and we provide for release Itimne funds to insure that people in ptiblic service carees cani pursue higher educashytion related to tle job they have or will tilimately have
The whole recruitment mechanism is contracted out to antipoverty agencies Also contracted out are the skilled training tile educational component and the counselling component This raised the question about wiat is needed to insure accountashybility We have used a ceitral data processing censhytet belonging to an antipoverty agency with terinishynals into all of our NMSCs A person is interviewed tested and lie intake form is filled out If it is deshyterinied that tie person is ready for a job the
counsellor or the person at that terminal provides basic kinds of infoniation to match tlhis person with a job If theie is an appropriate job in seven seconds the name of lie company the hourly rate location etc come over the terminal For a year and a half we have been placing people in jobs through direct on-line access against a batch-match system
Training opportunities are also on the comshyputer Wheni we allocate the training resources of the city into tie communities they also have access to time information tile) need from the computer All of our job developers and counsellors are placed on the computer by code This enables us to obtain information for example on number and kind of people and jobs handled on any one day This brings accointability into the process We know who is getting what kind of job at what rate and the relevancy of those jobs to the people we are serving
We have also developed a management informashylion system ours will be tihe first Intitiicipal agency ini New York City to have a completely computershyized management information system With this system we will be able to cross the program inforshymation with the fiscal information and do cost benshyefit analysis
Our tiniverse of need consists of the five most difshyficult categories in the labor market welfare recipishyents chronically unemployed Iigh school dropshyouts minority underemployed an(l employable handicapped Ve now understand that most of liese people need itraining of one kind or another
only a small proportion can go directly on to jobs We Ilust consider how best to train these people low do )oui traini people inl the community to
provide service to themselves I low do you train those people for example in a way ini which they can begin to handle sophisticated information sysshytems We canl tell you inl oir system who is in what kind of training prograi ini what agency in what area what their reading levels are thei age range tleir job development activity the activity of the Neighborhood Manpower Centers including whet her tiey are late ini the flow of that informashytion through that system With otit regional system maliagers and the related staff inl our regional censhyts who imatnage not only that aclivity and the inshy
stittitions that are part of it but also the contract of the Neighborhood Manpower Ceiters we are in a position to tal in specific terms about what the
problems are and how they can be eliminated
50
When you make a commitment to involve comshymunity people in the process of any service you should be prepared to provide them the tools Those tools have to be designed at a level of the people who are participating in that system in
order to make their participation relevant For Cxshyaiple we developed a processing and procedural
mautial and flow chart so that any onie at any part of that system knows his responsibility inl that sysshyten as far as the Neighborhood 11anpower Centers ale COnceied
The iaini objective is to involve tie Community so that they develop whole sets of new tools and skills that make it possible for then to intersect our econoimy at another lcvel When we involve coimshymn1lity people we build up a set of skills for them that has applicability within a broader context of our society At the sanie timie that we are providing
manpower services we help the conunity develop a certain orider of technology that to ily knowledge does not exist in any other Connility in the counshy
try If we are coniceriel about the rational use of reshy
solices inl this couitriy we muiiistfind ways in which to iiilie those resources ms way in which they have a multiplier effect There will never he elnough miolley to solve somne of the iost pressing
problems that we have uinless We beginl to redesign olr insituiions begin to create linkages by the inshy
volvement of the City Univeisity of New York for example ill imianpower In the future probably any
pelsol in a imanpower pjrograil who has received a high school equivalancy in that process will have access to a college education at City University In effect by linking (ity University of New York into the systciim we are forcing a certaini ortder of intershynal institutional ianige
We want to lie degree possible to maximize the participation of the people who need the serviees in tile process of pirovidiiig the services for themshyselves It is possible to do hat It is possible to get institutions even ill the context of history that iight have been slightly recalci irani to conie toshy
gether in ieii of a larger scheiiata as long as we are prepared to help them in very real kinds of ways to master the new kinds of technology in order to run a more effective and efficient system
Discussion
Question from the floor One of the major purshy
poses of thiis Symposium is to extract fron Amerishycan experiences the aphplicability of popular particshyipation in a less developed economy These discusshysions have pointed out that there are underlying
principles which can be applied one being a coinshymitment to invlve those people left out of the iainstreain back into society Title IX of the Forshy
eign Assistance Art says that people in the develop mng countries nust he given a sense of participation in development of their country in order to achieve fle basic goals of political stability social progress and growth
What do you think are the basic underlying
principles for bringing about (lie involvement of
people in theircountrys development plocess
Mr Trvons ronments I think this is a relevant question and I am going to make the formulation
in power terms We like to feel in a detiocratic soshytiety that power is negotiated Certain institushytional arrangenients are set ill) that make it possishyble for those in power to negotiate with others in ain exchange People who have no power and thereshyfore no participation in pr1ograns have to be orgashynized
flow uslit inust bepeople le organized They organized into instittitional arrangenients because in the fiial analysis tlie iransfer of power is done in institutional ways People who are out of the mainshystream imiiust in in which theybe organied a way caii express their (oncern within the context of an institution that they either contirol or play a major role in
Also if this is to be a viable situation we must equip thei with tools tech hiq ies methodology and resoirt es so that when tile) negotiate there is soimnetliIng to iiegotiate about The strategy in our agelnty was to provide tools of a ceitain order of technology in aiiinstiititional context so that these tools could be used as leverage against a whole set of other inst itutions Therefore you use the tools and the technology as an instruieint of changing
powver and resource ielationships The people onut of thei mainstreani must be
trained amd given adequate resources and approshypriate technology If a poor person is put ol a polshyicy board and is not taught the difference between policy and adi in istration lie should not be blamed for failure They must understand their reshysponsibility in terms of policy
51
THE PROBLEM OF EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN
by Grace Farrell
We hear a great deal in the United States today about the need for equal employment opportunity But it is often forgotten that the equal employment opportunity principle applies regardless of sex as well as inl the more customary areas of race crced color anid national origin
Women have come a long way in tie world of work In the US they make up an extremely signifshyicant part of the labor force about 30 million or 38 percent of the labor force Today it is expected that nine out of ten women will work at some point in their lives and for most of them for a considerable period of time The employment pattern for women is no longer that of out of high school or college alul into an ofllice for a couple of years until they marry and then to usually leave the labor force perimaien tly
The greater participation of women in the work force however is not reflected cither in the kind of work they do or in the pay they receive This tindershyitilization of a substantial body of workers constishy
tutes one of tile greatest wastes of our manpower resources today Women need not only the opporshytiility for employment but of course to get into and participate in tile training programs that lead to elliploymeint
In the 19fiWs a imtilliber of laws were passed to
help solve some of these pioblems Anilg tile Fedshy
cral laws was the Equpal Pay Act of 1963 which
prohibits ain cimployer froill discriminating in tile
payment of wages based on sex for all of his emshy
ployces who are subject to the ilinilltim wage provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act Also the Fair Labor Standards Amendment of 1966 whicl illcreased the Federal illinilium wage also
broadened the coverage of the Equal Pay Act Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibshy
its discrimination ill all phases of employment by employers employllent agencies and certain trainshying committees The discrimination prohibited is
tilat based on sex as well as race religion color or national origin Although not strictly speaking a law Executive Order 11375 amended an early Ex ecutive Order which prohibited discrimination by government contractors and subcontractors and federally assisted construction contracts to include discrimination against women Alany states have elacted similar laws also This is very important because it seems that no law is passed without a nillber of exceptions exemptions or exclusions This is true of the Federal laws that I have just enumerated as it is of much other legislation
One of the problems often occurs when the
public employment service is attempting to place women in jobs and relates to such factors as not being able to refer a woman out to work in a facshy
tory because the job requires her to work sixty hours a week and there is a State law which says women can only work forty-eight hours a week Similarly tilroulgh tile years originally for some rather good purposes there were eiacted by the States protective labor legislation which limited womlens hours of work or being in jobs which reshy
quire lifting more thalln iwelty-five pounds With
respect to the latter a mother will often tell you
this is ridiculous because ler baby at the age of
two weighed more than 25 pouinids Such laws are still oil the books in most cases These laws were a
major problem in applying sections of the Federal laws As a result last August the Equal Employshynient Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a revised Sex-Discrimination Guideline which states that State protective legislation including laws which limit womens oturs prohibit her from
working nights restrict her occupation or restrict tie weights they may lift now act as a barrier to
equal employment opportunity and are superseded
by the sections of the law under which the EEOC operates
Since thou about a half dozen States have indishy
53
cated that they will not contest this ruling They agreed that in order to achieve equal employment o0)lx)0rtillities for woien they will no longer enshyforce their protective labor laws There also have been several court decisions which have held siniishylarly
I think nhimately this whole problem will reach a higher court than it has now and it may be solved through a combination of State action and court action EEOC s position remains however in a State regardless of what a State labor department or the equivalent agency has held that labor laws
and hours laws may not be used as a defense to an otherwise illegal employment practice The EEOC has issued a number of decisions on a State-by-State basis on this point
All of these Federal laws and regulations are a step in the right direction and I think it is an imshy
portant one But what they are really getting at is a change in attitude which hopefully changes in laws will help to bring about Not only is a change in attitudes toward the working woman needed but also an understanding of her competence and abilshyity
54
CASE STUDY-JOBS FOR PROGRESS TNC (OPERATION SER)
by Seymour Brandwein
Operation SER (the Spanish word to be) was created as a self-help instrument designed to solve the most pressing manpower problems of the Mexishycan-Anierican population It is run by an organizashytion called Jobs for Progress sponsored by two of the largest civic organizations of Mexican-Amerishycans the League of United Latin American Citishyzens (LULAC) and the American GI Forum Its central staff is financed by the Federal Government Jobs for Progress is operating in five states in the Southwest The administrative structure consists of a regional board which sets the policy for a reshygional office under which local boards and local
projects areguided and monitored There is a maxshyinum of conununity self-involvement and the local
projects are free to adapt themselves to community needs within established guidelines for recruitment and development
This paper traces the development of this effort in an over-simplified and selective form Unnecesshysary details are avoided in order to illustrate clearly some of the special issues and problems of
popular participation in government manpower programs
There are some ten million Mexican-Americans in the Southwest This minority largely bilingual and bicultural has a disproportionately large share of the unemployment and poverty The new manpower programs initiated in the 1960s were frequently criticized by Mexican-Americans The criticism was sometimes merited sometimes uninshyformed However it was also quite clear that some of the programs run by the public agencies hadldifshyficulty with this minority group because of lanshyguage and cultural differences and problems of inshysensitivity of the non-Nlexican-American staff There were also problems of trainee attitudes toshyward government and particularly toward Anglo staff
The Labor Departments Experimental and Demonstration staff jointly with the Office of Ecoshy
nomic Opportunity (OEO) undertook an experishymental program to determine whether it was feasishyble and useful to bring into the manpower proshygrams some of the strengths feelings and cultural sensitivities of the minority group We visualized this also as an opportunity to convert protest acshytivity into constructive program action and as a way to develop understanding of and participation
in program development The following briefly deshysci ibes the way this program was developed
The first question that required an answer was who represents this minority We began with the major national organizations already active in soshycial civic affairs LULAC GI Forum and the Comshymiinity Service organization-a California-based orshyganization-which later withdrew from the Board We recognized the limitations in turning to thes groups since their membership did not include many of the very poor Each organization had limshyited resources and organizational skills But they were broad-based and they were an available strucshyture They had responsible records Their leaders were widely respected even though they might not be speaking for the total community A LULAC Chapter had already run an employment center in Houston with a volunteer staff
In late 1965 meetings were held with representashytives of these groups to encourage them to set up an organization and staff (which we would finance) to develop mianpower programs It took some months to develop agreement on appropriate relative represhysentation of the several groups on the governing board It was also agreed that the initial efforts should be concentrated in eleven major areas of Mexican-American population in the Southwest rather than dispersed over that region or the nashytion
At first there was over-emphasis on structure More time was devoted to charts of -everal layers of boards and to job descriptions and to relationships than any serious consideration of what specifically
55
should be done We knew that there would be problems but we went along with their own prefershyences We were concerned that the Mexican-Amerishycan leaders involved looked upon this as getting their share of the money and as a matter of dealing with Washington in spite of what was said about working with State and local agencies Before the initial funding we brought together the Mexican-American leaders regional and State agency officials of tile Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) Department of Health Education and Welfare and the Labor Department to explain the objectives of tile program and to allow them to raise their concerns and to have them start dealing with Mexican-Americans It was also our purpose to give the Mexican-Americans an awareness of the nature of the Federal-State relationship and its conshystraints the ainouint of resources tie limits on the resources and how decisions were nade on their alshylocation In this way the State and SER leaders were forewarned of the many technical and intershyagency relationship difficulties
The program was launched in mid-1966 We disshycussed types of staff needed and SER leaders cited the names of four possible executive directors Each had considera)le background and stature and were all acceptable Each of the four declined and a pershysonnel committee selected as executive director a young man from one of the organizations and a deiputy from one of the other organizations There was disagreement about tile choice of a person to be staff head We had to explain to the top leaders that neither they nor we could permit the selection to be a patronage activity and that the man seshylected while hie was promising oil paper and might be very good as a local project director simply was unequipped to work with regional and state govshyernment officials They reluctantly accepted this aid selected a man with some experience who in retrospect turned out to be the tower of strength in technical direction that was needed in the initial years in the effort Tile staff assemlbled by the new chief were young and willing Despite cautions from us the new staff rushed ambitiously to draft the proposals for large-scale new programs to give to Washington The proposals were in general terms and were justified simply as being needed They did not take into account the complex probshylems and lead-in time requirements inherent in the launching of any comprelensive programn For exshyample there was one proposal for an Employment Center in one State to be financed by $37 million
at a time when the total allocation for this entire State for Manpower training was approximately $25 million We had to explain in a quite turbushylent session that such funds were not available that the programs had to be linked with others of the State and local manpower agencies and that speshycific account had to be taken of operational probshylems of building up a sizeable scale program Thus through the hard way the staff became familiar with funding and operational constraints under manpower agencies and what was meant by develshyoping a program
The next problem we focused on was the quesshytion of separate SER programs versus programs jointly run with public agencies We identified apshy
proximate suis that we thought we could obtain1 from uncommitted resources in Washington We also made clear to the SER staff and to the State agency that such funds would be provided over and beyond the funds regularly allocated to the States if the programs were jointly developed if the State agencies would conduct certain functions requirshying their technical skill and if SER would be given authority and responsibility for operating acshytivities for which bilingual staff and Mexican-American sponsorship would be particularly useful The SER staff was now able to begin to examine
program specifics to proceed oil the technical tasks involved and find out what was literally involved in manpower development programs Issues did arise The SER staff came to us with questions about some State agency procedures We offered inshyformation and illade suggestiolls but with a couple of rare exceptions we did not intervene We told them they would have to work it out themselves
In the spring of 1968 new SER training projects with agencies in five States were funded with apshy
proximately $5 million There were 2500 trainees in the target areas where there were high proporshytions of Mexican-Americans unemployed The projshyects varied by locality but generally tile SER was responsible for or directly involved in recruitment and selection of trainees counseling pre-job orienshytation basic education relations with employers to obtain jobs for trainees and in coaching of trainshyees during training and after placement particushylarly where Spanish-speaking capability was reshyquired The State employment services did testing counseling job placement work and the State voshycational education agencies conducted or arranged for the formal skill training
We now graduated to a new level of problems
56
We moved from proposal development planning relations with State agencies and mastering of funding procedures to the specifics of program opshycration staff development technical assistance and linking to other programs These proceeded reasonshyably well in comparison to the earlier public
agency programs There were problems but a dedishycated enthusiastic staff was assembled and there was a clear affirmative response in the Mexican-American community and among potential trainshyces The State igencies respond(ed responsibly
But several types of problems are wortn noting There were questions of authority between the overall SER Board and the local SER Board and between the local Boards authority as against that of the staffs to which they were giving policy direcshytion I take particular credit for the fact that we reshysisted the temptation to be the big bosses We took the position that SER had to resolve its internal reshylations or be discredited in the eyes of the Governshyment and the public If they were serious about
private minority ability to decide and stand on their decisions
Another problen was that as the staff gained in capability t became the only identifiable major center of organized lexican-American program acshytivity and was pulled toward other potential activishyties such as housing minority entrepreneurship and education Universities and government agenshycies wanted to see how they could get Mexican-American involvement through SER We took a middle course There has been OEO funding in
part that has permitted this relatively easy stance But we insisted that there be primary and overshywhelming concentration on the manpower activishyties for which they were funded
On another front we had hoped that the initial Board would serve as a base for broader participashytion by drawing in additional Mexican-American groups Its example has provided some impetus for generating and developing various other activities at the local level by locally organized Mexican-American groups
To conclude I think it would be useful to note without overdramatizing several results that have become apparent during this fourth year of activshyity I think beyond question the program has heightened not only the interest but the undershystanding of miany Mexican-American leaders both of the potential and of the limitations of manshy
power programs-how they function and how they
can be used to meet the problems of unemployed Alexican-Americans
The programs have developed a knowledgeable Mexican-American staff who whatever their limishytations initially are now on a basis quite comparashyble to that of public agency staffs and are equipped to participate constructively in program planning development and operations In addition in the
process of negotiating with the public agencies they have influenced and generated some changes in program development to take more rational acshycount of unique problems of Mexican-Americans And for the first time on any scale they have led agencies in the manpower field into a direct sharshying a direct partnership of operating responsibility with minority organizations to the mutual benefit of both
One of the initial criticisms was that the areas we were concentrating in were urban areas and that we were not paying any attention to the Mexishycan migrants The observation was sound but it was our judgment that until a capability developed in a difficult enough area there was little sense in releasing another set of factors in the exceedingly complex and dispersed migrant problem
In the most recent years programs hive broadened SER is now conducting basic edtucationI programs for Mexican-American migrant in sevshyeral areas with financial support from OEO Beshy
yond the funds that we arranged over and above State resources as some initial ability was develshyoped the group was turned to for on-the-job trainshying contracts and to take on responsibility for certain functions in so-called Concentrated Employshynent Programs Also there has begun to be a drawshymig on this capability without regard to funds conshying directly from Washington For example a skills baink operation which accounted for some very large numbers of placements is probably the most significant of these activities
Beyond getting from the participation of the mishynority groups some of the special strengths it had
to offer particularly bilingual capability and a bishy
cultural understanding the SER program has
served as the resource for staff to enter the public
agencies so that by now perhaps a third of the initial group are working in State agencies and have brought within the public programs in other
areas and types of activities some of the special mishynority capability which was lacking at the outset of this program
57
Discussion
Question from the Floor What are the qualifishycations required for board members How are they selected or elected What was the background of some of the early staff including the staff director
Mr Brandweins comments On qualifications of the national board members we left the selection wholly to the organizations involved Similarly at the local level we made that matter the business of the local SER Boards Two problems in the initial years arose out of that practice where it was clear that we were not intervening and that it was not a matter of handpicking of members by the Governshyment The first problem was that as some of the novelty wore off as age crept up some of the boards original leaders replacements moved down to a more limited level and background Secondly we had an unusually sharp distinction between the board and the staff The board members were lawshyyers middle-level lower-income businessmen or real estate agents professional men in the communshyity The staff as a result of the first struggle in which we undertook to make clear that we would not proceed on a patronage basis were largely men in their twenties with college training and backshyground in sonic social activities In short order even at modest pay levels $12000-$1l1000 we had a problem of staff twenty years the junior of the board members earning higher incomes and chalshylenging the board members with lack of knowledge of program detail That has presented and continshyties to present friction For staff selection we have relied on two sets of procedures One is a wide cirshyculation of notice of vacancies to Mexican-Amerishycan organizations and the second is insistence on a fairly broad based selection committee in the boards themselves All things considered I think these procedures have worked out reasonably well
Question from the Floor What were the specific qualifications of the man who ultimately was seshylected as staff director
Mr Brandweins comments The man selected as staff director was a regional compliance officer with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commisshysion He had been consulted in the preparation of this was familiar with agency structures and had a record of active participation in one or both of the national organizations We focused on a cross reshygional basis and thus attracted capable leaders so
the original board operations were on the level of the most able leadership in this community The language element happened to be a particularly identifiably useful one here Also our focus was on the major metropolitan areas where we had greater access to potentially able young staff with a broader base from which to select
Question from the Floor How does a less develshyoped country take a small amount of money and conduct experimental activities to find out if they work and if they do to get a fair share of the reshysources of that country in order to mount larger
programs At what level did MDTA start and to what level has it now grown
Mr Brandweins comments I think I would
like to build on what you raise two ways Implicit
in all I said was a certain attitude of government Now governments are the people who are in them
The shepherding for MDTA was in a unit which everyone recognized had some flexibility reaching for examples of what might be done and it genershyated an element of let us try let us see what the
next steps will bring We also helped generate through this attitude somewhat different attitudes to government Thus irrespective of the amount of resources what resources there were were applied with some sense of We are not sure of what the
best way is This is the beginning We are going to build but we have the opportunity and where else can we go We were breeding through this type of combined public-private activity some developshyment of private group assertiveness understanding and self-generated expansion of activities We were also developing flexibility on the part of the public agencies to go further with available resources I believe these are potential products of any effort to combine public and private activity
Question from the Floor Why was on-the-job training chosen rather than training beforehand
Mr Brandweins comments There are two
points to make in answer to this question What we might have wanted to do was limited by the conshystraints of what we could do Therefore half by deshysire and half by necessity we relied on a learn-asshyyou-go basis What we undertook to do is to make available and insist on specific times and places for reassessment of what we did learn and I think this was the tool that we consciously relied on most This was very costly and at the periodic Board
58
meeings staff were brought together and State re- brought together promoted a high degree of intershygional and Federal agency officials were also in- change In addition there were realistic timetables vited Workshops in which project staff were of development
PARTICIPATION OT THE WORKING POOR-UTILIZATION OF HUMAN RESOURCES IN ANTI-POVERTY PROGRAMS
by Philip J Rutledge
The last several years we have seen in this counshytry a rather unusual development of programs parshyticularly in ghetto communities aimed at a kind of uplifting of these communities The efforts really are not completely new antipoverty efforts have a long history Certainly many of the best traditions of our philanthropy have grown up out of attempts to do something about and for those persons who have been less fortunate in the competitive struggle in our system
We have however developed a tradition that says organized private philanthropy may be good but the Government doing it is not so good In fact the Governments assistance to individuals who can not make it is inappropriate because if these individuals had any ambition any skills or tried to develop themselves they could make it on their own We have not had this type of tradition however about helping either private enterprise or the farmers or many other groups in the country as long as they were not identified with certain other
personal characterisitcs some of which have had distinct ethnic and racial identification
During the late fifties many of the private founshydations began to take a little different approach to human resources and community development These efforts were sometimes called antipoverty deshyvelopments Some rather comprehensive and wideshyspread efforts were funded which were concerned with changing things and opening doors of opporshytunity not only through outside help but also by stimulating people in groups to take actions someshytimes even disruptive and offensive action to change the nature of their situation Many of our more respected foundations funded such programs Also in the 1960s we have seen a spate of programs to assist the disadvantaged started by the Office of Economic Opportunity and Manpower Administrashytion and to some extent through efforts of the Manshypower Development and Training Act The latter
in my judgment was not really directed to any sigshynificant extent toward the disadvantaged and the occupants of the ghetto until relatively recently
I have spent much of my working career in the public health field particularly in the area of public health education It was our job to organize persons who may be concerned with immunization or x-ray programs and to get them involved in conshyvincing other people to come in for x-rays and imshymunizations These were really efforts in retroshyspect to use the people of these ghetto communities to achieve certain goals which we had in mind and which we knew-and I think with some validityshywere good for them However it never occurred to us while we were doing this that perhaps the peoshyple might have some other ideas about whether it was good for them or not
There has been I would suggest in whatever area we have used citizen involvement community involvement or the inexpert in our program activishyties a kind of tension between what might be an elitest approach in whieh -a group would say Now these are the facts I know how it -ought to be done and all I want you to do is come over and help me do it and get some of those others to come and help do it Or This subject or this area is just too complicated for you to understand so you just go and do it the way I want you to do it Sometimes such a position was valid
On the other hand we have had coming along at the same time in this country another approach which might be entitled egalitarian This apshyproach suggests that Well maybe they do have some ideas about some of these areas Maybe they do know something about how we ought to proshygram and organize in their community Maybe they do know something about training persons in manpower programming or the kind of skills or the kinds of materials that ought to be prepared
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But what must we do to prepare them or indoctrishynate them into our particular philosophy
The efforts to accommodate these two apshy
proaches I think has created most of our probshylems The movements in this area in the early sixshyties changed the conditions a little bit because many of the persons who were being organized chose to make political instruments rather than soshycial instruments out of the organization techshyniques They tried to use their power of organizashytion for control and redirection of the resources that were being made available Such conditions made it difficult for the Government who wanted to involve -sidents particularly residents of the ghettos in vast social prograims The Government unlike sonic of the private philanthropic agencies and social work agencies that have been involved in this area in the past has other constituencies-it has a responsibility to the overall citizenry and above all responsibilities to the Congress and to the taxpayers
Thus we have seen in the sixties a great upsurge of interest in popular participation in a variety of
programs including manpower And now we have reached a point in our history where there is a tendency to back off fromn this concept by the Govshyernment I do not regard this backing off as necesshysarily an evil conspiracy on the part of the adminisshytration that happens to be in power It is perhaps one of the natural things that occurs when a new concept appears It grows and expands to one point reaches a plateau and falls back a little bit while liome retrenchment and redevelopment takes place Then after a while it moves on to another plashyteau In any process of change progress is not alshyways continuous
We are only now at a point where we are beginshyning to look for a different theoretical basis for
participation The concept of participation in
public and in private programming that we have been using has been largely an upper middle class one Therefore we accept the fact that there has not been any significant input or contribution from the class that we are trying to help Having worked in this area a long while I am not sure that we know enough about how to change this concept I think it is appropriate that we take not only the concept of participation but the concept of social programming in the ghetto back to the drawing board and take another look at them Some things have not worked some things have worked in spite
of what we were doing and some things just hapshypened accidentally
In the area of citizen participation I think it is rather significant that such groups as the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) and its professional offshoot the National Academy of Public Aministration (NAPA) are now beginning to take hard and serious professional looks at where we are in terms of government programming in utilizing citizens particularly disadvantaged resshyidents of the ghetto in our public programs The National Academy of Public Administration for example recently held a special conference on this problem of participation
A paper by John Strange of the ASPA which looked at citizen participation in programs funded through the Economic Opportunity Act found that the purposes in terms of the participants in these social programs-manpower and the like-included such goals as (1) the creation of a sense of group identity solidarity and power based on ethnicity economic class status and the use of Government programs or services and (2) to overcome a sense of powerlessness enhance life opportunities and to publicly affirm individual worth or to provide a job Ih terms of affecting the participants the purposes were (1) to train and educate and inform them of Government programs (2) to educate parshyticipants in the way the Government system works and develop political or administrative skills and (3) to alter social behavior in order to establish conditions for effective individual and family life
Another objective noted by Strange relating to participants which needs to be emphasized is that an institutional device must be provided which will enable the participants to settle for less than they want One of the important mechanisms that has held the American society together-holds all socieshyties together-is finding some means to compromise potentially incompatible differences and bringing into the decision-making process people who have different value systems and objectives This often provides an institutional device to enable them to settle for less
I also believe we have to take another look at the way we are redistributing power in our public proshygrams Certainly citizen participation community control of schools police precinct projects and other programs are basically ways of redistributing the power Whether we are talking about manshypower programs social programs educational sysshy
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tems or what have you the major consideration bashysically is how can we redistribute the power so that the people in that system feel that they can yield it and use it as they believe best This feeling is someshytimes more important psychologically than the job itself
There are a number of ingredients needed to achieve meaningful and successful citizen particishypation but in summary I wish to note two which are of particular importance The first is the tendshyency in this country and perhaps in foreign areas as well to back off from assisting people if they do not seem to appreciate adequately what we are doing for them Second I do not think that we can develop in the ghettos which I am familiar with
and I doubt if we could develop that kind of popushylar participation in similar areas in foreign counshytries if we think that participation is simply going to be a means of promoting stability and promotshying a maintenance of the existing situation
I believe the nature of our society today is changed and in this country as well as developing nations citizen participation and community orshyganizations and popular involvement can provide as John Strange has suggested that mechanism for compromise and change if it is used properly If we give them some victories this might be more imshyportant than any other thing we might be able to do to keep our system and that of other countries together
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COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN LATIN AMERICA LEADING TO SOCIAL CHANGE AND INSTITUTIONAL
DEVELOPMENT RELATED TO MANPOWER
by William F Whyte
The Peruvian government has a massive and amshybitious social and economic change program going on and there are opportunities to observe very inshyteresting changes and possibly to help these proshygressive changes to come about
This paper discusses changes in two rural sectors of Peru One is the Sierra Hacienda which has in the past been run very much like the feudal manor of the Middle Ages the peasants largely of Indian extraction served very much as serfs tied to the land owing labor services to the patron the hacenshydado The second sector is the coastal plantations which are quite a different style of operation from the Sierra where the haciendas have been pretty much in the subsistence economy with very small surpluses The coastal plantations have been enshygaged in large scale modern agriculture sugar cane cotton etc largely for the export market These large agro-industrial enterprises are either Peruvian owned or foreign owned
Unions have been rather effective on the coast due to the cohesive organization that exists there In the Sierra there have been sporadic peasant movements but the cohesive organization is lackshying
To properly provide technical assistance to the change processes occurring in these two sectors or anywhere else you should know what really is going oin I therefore must first try to knock down what seems to me a false image of the peasant which I call the myth of the passive peasant This is the notion that the peasant is bound by trashydition he is conservative and he sticks to his old customs So if anything is going to change on the country side it will be from some kind of outside intervention either by community developers supshy
This paper is based on field studies in Peru undertaken in collaboration with Dr L Williams of Cornell University and the Institute of Peruvian Studies of Peru
ported by AID or by political agitators or revolushytionists
In Peru the younger social scientists differ in what the long-run objectives are but they do agree in accepting what I quite dogmatically call a myth-the myth that it you do not get out there you middle-class intellectuals and guide the peasshyants or stir them up they will just sit there and nothing will happen
Changes have been observed some slow but some quite rapid and dramatic in various parts of rural Peru where the government has not intervened and where there has been no planned intervention from the outside The peasants have joined toshygether and learned how to manipulate the power structure and have achieved in some cases basic transformations Those peasant families who have been living on haciendas as serfs have managed to combine together to oust the landlord to take over the lands and to operate their own farming entershyprises
We have been trying to observe how this takes
place Visualize what we call the baseless triangle where the hacendado the landlord is at the apex of the triangle and the peasants are at the bottom all linked to the apex by lines coming down from the landlord And when we say the baseless trishyangle we have an image of a lack of interconnecshytion among the peasants horizontally This is a vershytical system and the hacendado has done his best in the past to keep this that way and it means that anything that the peasants need in the economic system and the political system and any wants they have they have had to try to fulfill by acting through the landlord who has been quite unrecepshytive to their initiatives which have always been on an individual basis That is you would ask the landshylord for a favor to you and your family but there would not be concerted organized action The landshy
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lord was the gatekeeper between you and the outshyside society
When we find this structure changing we find more or less simultaneously new links are formed links across the base of the triangle which we call the closing of the triangle base But this is not enough We find that the peasants begin to estabshylish independent connections with politicians maybe there are competing political parties which they can use to advantage
In some cases the landlord has outstanding loans with the agricultural development bank which he has not been repaying The peasants discover this and with the assistance perhaps of lawyers apshy
proach the bank to see if they can take over the loan and therefore take over the estate
In other cases the peasants discover that the landshylord has been required by law to provide educashytion for their children and lie has not complied or has just done so in a token way So the peasants apshy
peal to the Ministry of Education they offer to build a schoolhouse if they can get help The procshyess of transformation and development therefore involves not only the banding together of the peasshyants to close the base of the triangle but the develshyoping of upward links with power figures in society
As this process takes place the hacendados posishytion becomes more difficult and lie is likely to have
problems himself in the decline of his agricultural operations especially if lie has been an absentee landlord letting someone else run the operations Frequently there are legal fights among the hacenshydado group for the control of land When the old man dies his sons are likely to fight for control then the peasants at times can move in and take OVer
This seems to have one implication for developshyment and for training needs The process of popushylar participation aJparently requires the developshyment by the peasauts of direct links with bankers
politicians and people in the field of education If this is so it seems to mie the technical assistance process ought to be oriented to some extent around helping peasants understand how this world outshyside their little estate works and how to establish connections and deal with these power figures indeshy
pendent of the landlord or boss Then there is a second phase that is likely to
arise and present another set of problems When you first look at the typical Sierra hacienda you have a picture of the landlord being at the top and the pcasants all at the same level at the bottom but
this is not always the case The landlord maintains his control not only by dealing with each peasant individually but by having his favorite There are certain itidividual peasants certain families that he feels are particularly loyal to him and they get the breaks which means different treatment in the distribution of land that the peasant is able to work for his own family So you frequently find sitshynations where a small minority of peasants under this hacendado has two or three times as much land or even more under their own immediate conshytrol than the rank and file
Now when this hacienda system breaks up when the peasants are able to unite against the hacendado and are successful in ousting him an interesting issue arises This issue relates to whether the part of the hacienda directly under the immediate conshytrol of the landlord should be divided among the
peasants or whether the whole estate shall be redishyvided Those who have had the greater amounts of land feel that they have worked hard improved the land and built their houses on it and that they have earned the land So they prefer to maintain the existing distribution The rank and file leaders counter with the point that this is inequitable disshytribution and everyone should start from the same
base line It was not until the present military govshyernment came into power that there was no longer any difference of opinion on this matter between the Executive and Congress This solution was achieved by dismissing the Congress and then it was finally possible to settle the distribution of land issue
This type of problem involving peasant solidarshyity and intergroup conflict is going to become more
prevalent Yet most of the persons working on agrarian reform are assistance and agricultural production specialists with no knowledge or backshy
ground about social organization or processes
about intergroup conflicts and negotiation
How do you handle a situation that involves basic differences of interest that have to be fought out negotiated mediated or arbitrated Some unshyderstanding on that front should be provided or
our technical assistance efforts will go awry
Another possible training focus involves comshymunity development In Peru there is a long tradishy
tion of community self-help buildings schools roads and so forth However there is also a long history in which these communal efforts lead to inshy
creased wealth at one particular time but the
problem of maintenance is not handled That is
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you build a school and the initial cost is taken care of then there is the problem of supplying teachers maintaining the school and so on So you can readshyily have a situation in which the more successful the community development program the more the expense burden falls upon the national governshymient which is alost the only supplier of tax money Work has been started but more needs to be (lone to develop the community revolving fund concept The idea is to tie together the impulses of conunities to build physical improvements to make investments in their community with sonic continuing commitment of the community to assess itself to maintain this particular facility
It seems to me that technical assistance training can be very helpful in exploring possibilities of linking the community development effort to the development of local government
On the coast there is a quite different transforshyimation problem than in the Sierra Technology and scientific knowledge are used much more on the coast Greater division of labor and more union organization exists on the coast
The Peruvian government objective is to transshyform the haciendas of the Sierra into self-governing
peasant communiities really dividing the land up among the peasants but also trying to maintain a communal organization for mutual help On the coast the government recognizes this is not practishycal You can not just divide the sugar estates and the cotton plantations into small farmer plots so the approach has been to transform the agro-industrial complex into a producers cooperative This inshyvolves a major structural transformation which will also have an impact on the workers In the first stage the goverinment administrators have been running everything It is just a transfer of power from private land owner to government But the ideology is to have the peasants take over Here you run into political questions because on the coast of Peru the unions have generally been organized by another political party and the government is very leery of doing anything to encourage this political group it would rather (10 the opposite
The social scientists feel that something could be worked through the already existing union strucshyture This cannot be (lone automatically because the Peruvian unions do not aict in quite the same way that the unions do in the US The unions in Peru tend to be more centralized there is less activshyity at the lower levels On the other hand you do
have a degree of mobilization of workers around the unions The Peruvian government therefore has to determine whether or not it can build on this established organization the development of
producers cooperatives Peru is trying to carry out a structural transforshy
mation in these coastal haciendas for which there is no parallel in history It is not just a question of communicating what is a cooperative the officers needed and- what do they do but drastic changes
in peoples roles have to be developed and a new type of organization has to be established A signifshyicant social and cultural transformation is inshyvolved a change with which our best experts on
producers cooperatives and agriculture are not familiar
I am also not suggesting that sociologists such as myself should provide the technical assistance However I do think it is important to shift our
priorities here and say that a major transformation
process has been launched and is going to be going on for a long time with some successes a lot of failshyures many difficulties and that maybe the best help we can provide is some assistance on the reshysearch side to study and try to understand what is going on and feed this information back to Peshyruvian agrarian reform programs
The nature of this process is to develop training materials which can be used to train present and future administrators on these estates It can train incipient peasant leaders so that they will become able to deal with the complexities technical as well as social of the new type of organization
In this connection I think outside help can be useful to Peru but in financial form rather than direct investment in research talent because I have found that Peru has very able social scientists who understand what is going on much better than most experts in this field who could be imported Instead of thinking simply in terms of experts to go in and tell people what ought to be done about manpower and related problems we recognize the complexity of these problems and try to learn about these transformations as they are taking
place so that out of this learning process can be
provided teaching materials for training programs for work in the colleges and universities that will
give Latin Americans a much more realistic picture of the problems of social reforms and development than they camn obtain from the US models that are ordinarily imposed on them
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Discussion
Questions from the floor How can free and unshytrammeled research in the field of power relationshyships be placed in a military regime which may feel itself rightly or wrongly threatened as for example in the program of land reform How do you collashyborate with these free researchers in Peru in raisshying these questions
Mr Whyte comments We have so far had no difficulty at all under the present government in doing research and in publishing But the time may conic particularly as we try to publish more and more studies on land reform because what we have been doing so far has helped to highlight the evils of the preexisting system that the government is committed to change If we do get into studiesshy
as we are hoping to-of the governments present efshyforts of land reform in certain areas I am sure we are going to run into a problem ie the governshyment has intervened and knocked out the preshyexisting power ligures and starts to undertake the transformation of society from the top down We think not only we in the US but also our Peshy
ruvian social science associates that there are limishytations to this approach It is going to break down
in certain predictable ways When we get to the
point of observing these breakdowns and reporting
on them analyzing them we will then face the
problem you have raised by the question We have
been completely free so far but when we look at
the impact of the present government in certain
areas we are getting into something much more
delicate
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MOBILIZING THE PARTICIPATION OF YOUTH IN MANPOWER AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT-A UNIVERSAL CHALLENGE
by William Mirengoff
I am rather intrigued by this Symposiums emshyphasis on popular participation in manpower proshygrams although I must confess I find the term a little ambiguous Just what do we mean by popular
participation Does it mean the involvement of state and local
officials as the democratically elected representashytives of the populace
Or does it mean the direct involvement of that segment of the populace to whom the program is directed independent of the local political strucshyture indeed sometimes challenging the elected power structure
And if we mean the latter how do we bring this
participation about There are some rather broad philosophical issues
involved here For the purposes of todays discussion I view
participation as three-dimensional
1 Participation in the fruits of the program-as recipients This is essentially a passive role and the results can be quantified in terms of people served and benefits received
2 Participation in decision-making This is esshysentially an active role-helping to determine program policies and targets
3 Participation in implementing the program and delivering the services This is a manashygerial and administrative role
I Trend Toward Popular Participationin Manshypower Programs
One of the lessons we have learned over the last decade is that the Federal Government bureaucracy alone despite all its resources cannot guarantee soshylutions to all of the complex problems facing our nation Rather experience has shown that deep inshyvolvement by all the sectors of the society affected
by a particular problem is essential This not only includes involvement by orgnizations that can conshytribute resources and services but also full particishypation in program development and decision-makshying by the very people for whom the programs are being provided
The Economic Opportunity Act embodied the clearest expression of popular participation by reshyquiring the maximum feasible participation of the poor in its program The Community Action Agencies went out and organized the poor so that they could participate effectively in detision-makshying In some areas insistence of program clients on a voice in activities affecting their welfare was viewed as a threat to established power structures In general however involvement of the poor led to a healthy exchange of ideas and combination of efshyforts that fostered creative programs
Building on the experience of the Economic Opshyportunity Act the Model Cities Program also reshyquires the direct involvement of the population in the target area
Manpower Administration programs stress this too-particularly the involvement of staff from the client group and the target area In addition there has been a clear trend toward decentralization which strengthens participation in administration at the local level
It may be of some interest to trace the evolution of popular participation in the manpower and reshylated human resources programs I think of this evolution as passing through three stages-Prolifershyation Cooperation and Consolidation
1 ProliferationWe started with the Area Reshydevelopment Act of 1961 then the Manpower Development Training Act of 1962 then an explosion of manpower programs-The Neighshyborhood Youth Corps Operation Mainstream New Careers the JOBS Program etc-based
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on the Economic Opportunity Act Later came the WIN Program Public Service Careers and other programs
Unrelated fragmented programs proliferated each with its own organizational structure funding eligibility requirements and apshyproaches
But in the last analysis programs all take place on some piece of real estate-in a state city or community They all converge on the people in an area with a minimum of planning and coordination competing for local resources for local clients for public attention and support
2 CooperationRecognizing the need for rationshyalization and coordination below the Fedshyeral level major efforts were made to achieve cooperation among the individual programs We tried joint funding-with independent
programs joining voluntarily in combined efshyforts We tried to pull the Department of Labor programs together in the Concenshytrated Employment Program-a coordinated effort to focus available services on specific low-income areas We tried to bring together all human resource programs of all governshyment agencies plus non-government involveshyment through the CAMPS program--essenshytially a system of local planning and coordishynation through a network of state and local interagency committees
All of these efforts had a measure of success but all were hampered by a timeless adminisshytrative problemi-the suspicions and cautious protectiveness of centrally operated program agencies that are asked to yield some autonshyomy in the interests of a cooperative effort and greater involvement by people at the local level
3 Consolidation We are now at the third stageshyconsolidation This stage is best epitomized by the proposed Manpower Training Act (MTA) This legislation is currently before the Congress where it has bi-partisan supshyport
We are firmly committed to the MTA which will be a milestone in the development of manshypower policy in this country It will
Decategorize our present fragmented programs
Decentralize the planning and delivery system for manpower services
Move programs toward maximum participashytion by state and local governments-Govershynors Mayors and other popularly elected repshyresentatives
The MTA would supersede the Manpower Deshyvelopment and Training Act (MDTA) and manshy
power sections of the Economic Opportunity Act Under the ITA most of the individual manpower programs that are currently operated from Washshyington as highly centralized separately adminisshytered activities would be merged into one overall manpower effort Program categories such as MDTA Neighborhood Youth Corps the Concenshytrated Employment Program Operation Mainshystream and others would lose their identities in the consolidated effort Responsibility for planning and administering the new comprehensive manshy
power program would be delegated to a large exshytent to the Governors of the States and to local
prime sponsors (primarily Mayors and other heads of local governments)
Each year the prime sponsors would be required to prepare comprehensive manpower plans for their areas proposing manpower services tailored to the
special needs of local problem groups The Govershynors would be responsible for submitting consolishydated manpower plans for their states State and local advisory and planning bodies composed of representatives of business labor welfare groups agriculture education local and state government agencies and other community elements are to play key roles in developing the plans Upon approval of the state plans by the federal governshyment the Governors and local prime sponsors would assume major responsibilities for impleshymenting approved programs
As you can see unification and decentralization of programs under the MT are directly related to the principle of fuller particilition by non-Federal groups The MTA would mobiii e the experience and resources of ou- pluralistic network of local governments and commununity interests to support all states of manpower activity
II Need For Youth Manpower Programs
I would like now to turn specifically to youth
programs to explore how the principle of particishy
pation is being applied in manpower services for young people As most of you know there has been
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a mounting interest in youth manpower problems in this country Many new programs for young peoshyple entering or preparing for the labor force have been introduced during the last decade At present youth accounts for well over one-third of the enshyrollment and expenditures in Federally assisted manpower activities
In large part this emphasis represents a growing awareness of the alienation and frustration of
many young people who are unable to participate effectively in the labor market We are faced with
the rejection of prevailing values youthful cynishycism and sucli symptoms of social disorganization as caipus unrest high crimc rates racial tensions and drug abuse
In the US probleis encountered by youth in the labor market reflect basic population labor force and educational trends
A Population Upsurge There has been a sharp
increase in the youth population during the last decade as the post-World War II baby crop came to maturity Between 1960 and 1969 the number of youths aged 11-24 increased by 12 million from 27 to 39 million Thuis fl4 increase was four times larger than the rate for the population as a whole Ten years ago only one out of seven people were 1-1-24 years old today close to one oit of five Is it any wonder that this sharp upsurge of youth reachshying employable age has created stresses in the labor market stresses in the school system stresses in the
streets for those who are not in school or in jobs and stresses throughout our social fabric
Most tragic of all in my opinion is the collapse of the school system in the inner-city Inundated by waves of disadvantaged youth faced with shortages of teacliers and facilities burdened with problems inherited ftoni fainily economic and governmental institutions groping for ways to overcome the handicaps of low-income youngsters-the inner-city school system faces a major challenge
B Ulnemploynent Although the economy has shown marked strengii in absorbing most of the new job seekers unemployment among young peoshyple particularly disadvantaged youths who are most in need of steady jobs and incomes is a signifshyicant problem Among youths 16-21 who are in the labor force
1 12 or about 1300000 were unemployed in February of 1970 compared to a 45 rate for the labor force as a whole
2 Among nonwhites the rate was even highershy20
Unemployment rates are still higher in some
pockets of urban and rural poverty
To a large extent the substantial unemployment rate reflects diminishing opportunities for jobs with low skill requirements Such jobs have tradishytionally served as an entree into the labor market for many youngsters Recently however low skilled jobs have become scarcer as labor requirements in agriculture dropped off and as l-abor needs in inshydustry shifted from manual workers to highershyskilled technical occupations As the country turned the corner from a goods-producing to a servshyice-oriented economy a strong back and willingshyness to work no longer were adequate tickets to a job
C Labor Force Entrants Without Adequate Voshycational Skills A significant number-perhaps as many as one-third-of our young people enter the labor force without adequate job skills They face
special problems in a job market with rising skill requirements
The problem may be expressed in this paradox
The US keeps a larger proportion of its population in school longer than any other country-to ensure their preparation for lifeshytime activity
Yet the unemployment rate among youth is far higher than in any other nation and has been rising rapidly over the last four decades
And this paradox persists in the face of unushysual prosperity high levels of employment and skill shortages
Students who do pot complete at least a high school education encounter special difficalties In 1968 almost one million youth 14-17 were not enshyrolled in school Dropouts aged 16-21 had a 15 unemployment rate during that year-twice the rate of comparable high school graduates For nonshywhite dropouts the unemployment rate was 25 Even those who complete high school are not necesshysarily prepared for a vocation There is a disparity between educational credentials and performance levels with many high school graduates unable to read write work or reason properly
Manpower programs can be viewed as repair shops for those young people who have come out of the school system without adequate preparation for the world of work We get the toughest casesshy
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the rejects This poses a major challenge in deshyveloping creative techniques for rebuilding the skills interests and character traits of the disadvanshytaged youngsters
All of this gives you some idea of the dimension of the problem-the universe of need Now I would like to turn to our response to these needs
III A Conprehensive Program of Manpower Servshyices to Meet Youth Needs
To what extent (o youth participate in manshypower programs as recipients-as an example of popshyular participation in the benefits of public proshygrains
In the last decade the US has reached out to the youth population with an array of innovative and creative programs to alleviate labor market probshylems These programs are designed to help youth find worthwhile jobs at decent wages to experience a sense of fill participation in our productive life and to develop their personal potentials so as to avoid frustration and to maximize their contribushytions to society
A major feature of the comprehensive manpower effort is recognition of the significant differences among the categories of youth who need assistance
1 Many out-of-school unemployed young people simply require help in obtaining vocational trainshying in a good school setting For these the Manshy
power Development and Training Act passed in 1962 provides classroom training opportunities supplemented by subsistence allowances to help the trainee support himself and his family Last year about 35000 youths under 22 received this MDTA institution training-28 of all MDTA institushytional trainees
2 Recognizing that many youngsters are having difficulty in adapting to vocational training in a school setting and aware of the school dropout
problem the Congress authorized a program of training and experience in a work setting for jobshyless youth in the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 Currently termed the Out-of-School composhynent of the Neighborhood Youth Corps the proshygram helps youths aged 16-18 to prepare for steady employment In Fiscal Year 1971 the NYC Out-of-School program is expected to serve 36500 youths at a cost of $125 million
3 To reduce the dropout problem among poverty-stricken youngsters the Neighborhood Youth Corps In-School and Summer Programs
provide part-time employment and earnings opporshytunities for needy youngsters who are still attending school In FY 1971 these components are expected to serve almost 500000 youths aged 14-21 at a cost of $235 million
4 What about young people who simply cannot adjust to vocational training in a formal classroom setting or even in a setting of routine work experishyence Included in this category are young people whose social and physical environments are so unshyfavorable that their capacities for training and job seeking are severely curtailed As our experience with youth manpower services has expanded it beshycame evident that this group can be helped by reshymoval from adverse school and home settings to a new residential environment where training methshyods and stipl)portive services can be adapted to their
special needs This group is the target population for the Job
Corps The Job Corps provides occupational trainshying remedial education and a wide variety of charshyacter-building and supplemental services geared to the special needs of disadvantaged youngsters 16-21 in residential centers around the country Enrollshyrment in Job Corps Centers has also proven useful for many youths who come from rural areas where alternative local manpower development facilities are not available The unique aspect of this proshygran is its raidential character its provision of truly comprehensive services (from health care to clothing from vocational training to monthly alshylowances) and its effort to combine all necessary manpower services (from initial selection of enrolshylees to final placement of graduates on the job) into an integrated manpower delivery system
In FY 1971 the Job Corps expects to accommoshy(late 25000 youths at a tinre in 75 centers at a cost of $180000000
5 Of course prevention is the best cure for the
problenis of youth in the labor market The greatshyest priority must be given to improvement of vocashytional education in the regular school system where the majority of young people are expected to
prepare adequately for the world of work The schools niust redirect some of their effort from endshylessly preparing pupils for more schooling to preshy
paring tie average youngster for the demands of tire working world
The Vocational Education Act amendments of 1968 represent an advance in meeting the needs of school youth for quality vocational preparation
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As amended the Act greatly strengthens vocational training in local secondary schools providing asshysistance for better equipment teachers and facilishy
ties and for gearing courses realistically to todays cormiplex occupational requirements In FY 1971 the Federal Government will invest over
$300000000 in this program State and local govshyerninents will contribute one billion dollars in matching funds
6 Many other programs are components of the
comprehensive manpower effort for youth Among the most important may be
a Efforts to increase opportunities in apprenticeshyable trades for minority group youths
b Efforts to help young military dischargees make the transition to civilian life eg pre-disshy
charge training in Project Transition and post-disshycharge school benefits for veterans
c Opportunities for youths in broad-gauge proshygrams which serve both youths and adults eg the Concentrated Employment Program the JOBS Proshy
gran the Public Service Careers Program Last year more than a third of the CEP enrollees and
almost one-half of all JOBS enrollees were under
22 years of age
d Expansion of programs to train prison mshy
mates for post-release employment-a major contrishybution to efforts to rehabilitate young offenders
Together these forward looking measures constishytute a comprehensive manpower program for youth They will be significant achievements in bridging the discontinuity between school and work strengthening the participation of youth in
the economic process and combating alienation and frustration attributable to labor market probshy
lems
IV Expanding Participation in Decisionmaking
Having discussed the quantitative or passive asshy
pects of popular participation ie participation of youth as beneficiaries of program services I would like now to turn to the qualitative or active aspect
of participation This involves direct participation in decision-making-in the actual planning of proshygrams by the very persons they are designed to serve
We have learned that young people like everyshyone else want to be directly involved in decisions affecting their welfare Moreover experience shows that such participation results in more effecshy
tive and realistic programs As a result a major efshyfort has been made to give enrollees a voice
In the Job Corps for example all training cenlshyters are required to organize student governments The enrollees take these governments very serishyously and so (10 the center staffs Constitutions generally written by the enrollees themselves deshyscribe the responsibilities and organization of the student government duties of officers and election and removal procedures They provide for student councils and other officers usually elected at sixshymonth intervals who legislate rules for dress conshyduct grievance-handling and other aspects of group life in a residential setting Also the center constitutions usually establish a judicial system for
judging and penalizing mi nor offenders Center administrators meet with the student
councils at least once each week to plan improveshyments in the training program enrollee activity schedules and center procedures Some councils have jurisdiction over special funds maintained for recreational or welfire purposes Often they set up subconumittees on such subjects as instruction comshyplaints recreation community relations and food Service
Qualifications for election to the student offices vary Most centers have minimum residence reshy
quiremlents In at least one center candidates for election are required to attend special classes in center government for one week
V Participationin Adninistering Programs
Let me now turn to the third form of popular
participaitioii-pamrticipatioii in day-to-day adminisshytration of programs This aspect of manpower proshygrams has also received substantial emphasis Mainly it has taken two forms (a) use of disadshyvantaged persons as staff members and (b) involveshynient of sectors of ou- society other than the Federal Government I would like to say a word about each of these in turn
A Utilizing disadvantaged persons as staff nenbers As social work counseling teaching emshy
ployment services and other helping professions have beconie more and more professionalized there have developed significant communication barriers between the professional and his disadvantaged client The accumulation of professional skills and insights has been accompanied paradoxically by difficulties in establishing rapport and influencing the very people who require assistance To overshy
73
come this problem Community Action Agencies manpower programs housing programs and others serving disadvantaged people have found that comshymunication can be restored through the employ ment of target group members to serve their disadshyvantaged neighbors The new employces working as para-professional aides under skilled professional people are able to gain the confidence of the clients to explain prograims to discuss the advanshytages and disadvantages of participation and to enlist support in language and actions that disadshyvantaged clients can understand At the same time the aides are in a position to feed back to the proshyfessionals the problems and needs of the inarticushylate masses of people who are to be served
Involvement of target group members on the staffs of agencies serving the disadvantaged has
proven beneficial for the professionals the aides
and program clients alike
B Broader Comm unity Involvement The secshyond form of popular participation in administrashytion of youth manpower programs is the deep inshyvolveient of non-government organizations
At an early stage of the development of our comshyit became clearprehlensive manpower program
that Federal Government action alone could not
provide all solutions for the problems of youth Training for jobs without involvement of emshyployers and labor unions would be unrealistic Dushy
plication of facilities and other services already available in the community would be wasteful and time-consuming Manpower programs therefore have drawn upon the skills and resources of an array of community groups
1 The Business Sector Private industry has been heavily involved not only in an advisory cashy
pacity but also in direct operation of employment and training programs In the case of the JOBS
program and the Sununer Youth Campaign for exshyample industry has provid ed leadership in direct training and placement of hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged people Experience has clearly shown that jobless young people trained in a realshylife work setting for jobs and employers identified in advance are most likely to succeed at their trainshying and employment In the Job Corps industry has applied its mnanagement and technical skills to the actual operation of Job Corps Centers
2 Labor Unions Unions are participating in expanding employment opport unities for disadvanshy
taged people and providing vocational and pre-voshycational training
In the Job Corps five building trades unions are
presently playing a major role in training at Civilshyian Conservation Centers These unions are curshyrently training about one-fourth of the youths in such centers and are cooperating in having their graduates placed into the building trades apprenshyticeship programs Great stress is being placed on this activity for completers are almost guaranteed a job in well-paid shortage occupations and the
program is helping minority group youths move into occupations in which their numbers have trashyditionally been low
3 Nonprofit Community Organizations A wide variety of community organizations which have specialized knowledge and contacts with respect to
particular disadvantaged groups are participating heavily in youth manpower programs These groups may be involved in programs to recruit counsel and arrange job and training opportunishyties for low-income youngsters or in pioneering new ways of training and orienting disadvantaged
people in numerous cities around the country Other groups are providing special youth services for the physically or mentally handicapped rural
people dropouts and other categories with special needs Also some residential centers of Job Corps are managed directly by nonprofit groups
Related to work with nonprofit organizations is our extensive community relations program In the Job Corps it is mandatory for every center to take the initiative in establishing a Community Relashytions Council These Councils include local comshymunity leaders in business labor education the church welfare recreation and government as well as Job Corps Center enrollees and staff They consider matters of ntitual concern In many areas outstanding examples of community-Center coopershyation occur eg use of Center gymnasium and shop facilities for community needs participation of enrollee volunteers in child care clean-tip and other community tasks participation in parades and fairs and use of community volunteers as tushytors entertainers and other helpers in Center proshygrams
4 Universities Broad involvement of universishyties in research and evaluation of programs has been the rule from the beginning of the manpower effort There is a continuous give and take of ideas between the university researcher and the living
74
program laboratories In the Job Corps universishyties have also been actively involved in the operashytion of training centers
VI Conclusion The stability of our society will depend upon the
strong sense of involvement felt by the younger generation in government activities affecting their welfare In the new arsenal of manpower programs for youths we have tried to implement this princishy
ple by providing services that will reduce the alienshyation of youth by providing opportunities to parshyticipate more fully in the benefits of our economic system by involving youth in decision-making and by using them in the delivery of services
In addition Federal youth programs are increasshyingly operating on the principle that the non-govshyernment sector and our local and State governments must be mobilized to expand and strengthen Fedshyeral efforts Decentralization community relations cooperation with business and labor-these are corshynerstones of our comprehensive manpower policy The Administrations support of the proposed Manpower Training Act underscores its commitshyment to this approach
I hope that this summary of our experience will
prove useful to you and can be applied with realisshytic adaptations to the needs of other countries with similar problems
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MANPOWER AND YOUTH PROGRAMS IN THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES OF ERICA
by Max R Lum Jr
Many of us assume that pe alar participation is a right For example the youth in the Job Corps assume as a right participation in the control of certain monies that are removed from their pay as fines for minor violations of the rules They have a student government control over these funds Howshyever from discussions at the ILO-sponsored youth conference in Geneva (from which I have just reshyturned) it appears that participation of youth in manpower programs as a right is still an open quesshytion at least among the African countries This Poshysition was reflected by the type of resolutions that came out of the African caucus at the conference
One resolution stated that the manpower proshygrais for youth should be of the kind that facilishy
tate the contribution of youth to development and
to insure that their efforts are directed to feasible
ends which are a relevant and integral part of the total development plan The integral part of a development plan of course can be something that is superimposed from above in the decision-making
process A second resolution (which infers volunshytarism) related to the need to strengthen the motivashytion of young people to participate and contribute to the programs of self-help and mutual assistshyance (They appear to have the same problems we do regarding motivation) Another resolution of the caucus (which seems at least in part to contrashydict the first listed above) stressed the necessity to
protect young people from exploitation and excesshysive participation in development schemes Howshy
ever this resolution appears to be in response to
the fact that in Africa some countries are withshydrawing certain mechanized systems because of the serious surplus labor conditions among the youth Whether this nicans that a youth has to enter the work force at 13 because lie is available or whether he participates at a later age is not clear The withshyholding of mechanized programs to take advantage of this surplus labor also raises a question about
the extent to which youth participation resulting from such action is voluntary
Now to turn to the major purpose of this paper a report on my visit to Africa to look at what the National Youth Services in these countries were doing particularly with respect to what kinds of programs were being developed to let youth particishy
pate in the decision-making process Nineteen African countries have National Youth
Services although in some countries they may have another title For example in Ghana and the Ivory Coast they are called Pioneers Emphasis of these services may be on rural development or multipurshy
pose schemes such as vocational andor general edshyucational training or it can be a centralized trainshying-program geared to accomplish a single purpose
I also found that there were certain problems or questions which were fairly common to all of the prograins In all programs there is concern about
participation of youth-about how much control thc youth themselves should have over the system in which they are operating Similarly there is the need felt in all of the programs (which we share with them) for the development of a specific list of objectives that should be or need to be accomshy
plishied during the period the youths are in the
program this is particularly difl_ult in Africa Anshyother coinnion problem cccurs in those programs that are divided in terms of tribal or sectional groups there are gaps among these programs which need to be filled in order to make them more comshy
parable and to build some kind of national idenshytity among these groups Finally the youth in Afshyrica represent great pools not only of resources but of political power For example they were imporshytant factors in the downfall of the government in Sudan and they almost brought down the Seneshygalese government Youth also had direct participashytion in the new constitution for Ghana
The specific youth programs in the African counshy
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tries vary widely as may be seen from the followshying examples Nigeria for example is building a huge program of vocational training This program is directed towards taking some of the military pershysonnel and giving th2m vocational training before they are released to find civilian jobs In Zambia on the other hand there is a broader program The Zambia job corps although it is a large centralized camp is definitely a voluntary service It takes youth from all over the country into this center In determining whether the youth would participate in agricultural or in vocational training programs it takes into account the government needs as well as the youths needs When this determination is made they are sent to specific camps to be trained The agricultural graduates when they finish their program which may last as much as two years are given plots of land to develop The entire first twoshyyear graduating class (graduation actually occurred while we were there) was drafted into the army beshycaue of the need Zambia feels to defend its border The program therefore in practice appears to have been a pre-military training program However when the youngsters muster out of the army they will be we were informed given plots of land and in other cases given additional training to be
placed in vocational programs While we were in Tanzania where it appears
they are going their own way in youth planning the biggest controversy among the youth-a very centralized group-was the mi ni-skirt controversy The African youth feel this is an important issue The discussions regarding the length of mni-skirts actually were being addressed to the Europeans who were wearing mini-skirts shorter and shorter The mini-skirt apparently became an issue in Zamshybia also
In the Ivory Coast where there is a particushylarly encouraging program the youth come to one camp in one area of the country and then exshychanges occur within the youth camps to mix the
population and to give it some uniformity of trainshying In Ghana there is another type of programshythe Young Pioacer Gliding Schools Some three or four hundred youths (Young Pioneers) will be given special training in flying gliders for fun The National Youth Group of the country which is sepshyarate from the government but government financed is taking over this school and actually using the facility for a residential training proshygram
On the basis of what I have observed and the opshy
portunity I had to talk with various persons at the Geneva meeting where there must have been some 15 proposals from youth groups within Africa for aid both technical and administrative as well as for actual financial aid for the development of furshyther youth services there appears to be no question but that the development of youth services is going to be highly important in Africa Moreover unless the problem of youth services within these counshytries is solved within a short time there can be imshy
portant impact upon the future political developshyment of many of the African countries
Discussion
Question from the floor Title IX of the Forshyeign Assistance Act states that emphasis shall be placed on assuring maximum participation in the task of economic development on the part of the people of developing countries through the encouragement of democratic private and local governmental institutions This mandate would indicate that the type of youth programs we should support should be ones in which their objectives are obtained without the element of coercion or forced labor Yet it appears that in some African programs there are work brigades-coercion compulsion no choice Furthermore some of these programs may be underwritten by the US through our surplus agshyricultural connodities under the Food for Work program Since the youth programs in the US and Africa appear to have essentially the same objecshytives how in your opinions Mr Mirengoff and Mr Lum is it possible to achieve these objectives without the element of compulsion Do you give freedom of choice on the recruitment side or on the training side Do you use some elements of compulsion for a limited perod of time in order to prepare the youth to move on a free choice basis into a world of work
Mr Mirengoffs comments I can only give part of the answer to this question as it relates to the Job Corps program It is a voluntary program Nobody is coerced into Job Corps They come in of their own free will From our point of view this is good Those who come into Job Corps have a sense of motivation and a sense of purpose which is reshyflected in what they do once they get in Job Corps as contrasted to a situation where they have to be in public school until the age of 16 whether they like it or not In the latter situation when they do
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not like it there is trouble Our whole premise is based upon voluntarism which we hold very near and dear
In a voluntary program popular involvement has meaning In a controlled society it has no meanshying I wish there was someone who could explain the philosophy or develop the concept of popular involvement in a totalitarian country I cannot do it
Mr Lums comments Certainly in some African countries the youth programs are not fully volunshytary and may often also include political indoctrishynation In other countries the programs are really voluntary although they may be run in a military manner
The question of actual forced labor is a real and difficult issue at least in the expressed opinions on the African youth problem These youth want to say that we should live up to the ILO and the UN conventions to end forced labor but we have tremendous pools in some of the countries of 12 to 15 years olds roaming the streets and we do not know what to do about then One solution for exshyample has been to organize them in a nonvolunshytary system to build roads I do not know what this trains youth to do but maybe it brings them up to a point where eventually they are able to enter volshyuntary training programs This is an area in which it appears the African youth themselves have not yet really reached a final decision
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THE ROLE OF TRADE UNIONS AND EMPLOYER ORGANIZATIONS IN THE EFFICIENT UTILIZATION OF MANPOWER
by Everett M Kassalow
Dealing with the problem of trade unions and manpower planning and other forms of economic planning in the context of the less developed counshytries is especially difficult All of us who have grown up in and around the American trade union movement and around trade union movements generally in the Western world have done so in a certain setting and atmosphere which I would call (for want of a better word) conflictive in characshyter
Trade unions and the American unions are a classic example have always been in a certain sense outside of the mainstream of economic developshyment The unions have been beating against the development process in order to protect their memshybers They are almost driven to conflictive posishytions because they were reacting to a process which was doing damage or making dislocations in the lives of people
This kind of reactive trade unionism was successshyful in the Western World But such unionism does not lend itself immediately or too directly as a model or mechanism for learning about what trade unions canl or should do in connection with the
problemn cf shaping and implementing developshyment policy However I also believe that trade unshyions in any but a totalitarian society or a highly authoritarian society will always have to perfori tihe reactive and conflictive role of protecting their workers against the impact and the plocess of inshydustrialization However if trade unions are to play a more positive role or more participating role in the development process we do have to reexamshyine the nature of the function and the character of trade unionism in the light of the kinds of things trade unions can should or might do in the less developed countries
When I say can should or might do I am satshyisfied to use those words I am satisfied that one can approach the development process in a new society
with a sense of trying to change things and to conshyceive of new combinations because they are going to be new These societies are not going to develop the way American or European society has develshyoped or hopefully not the way Soviet society has developed There are going to be different roles to be played different emphasis different compulshysions in the situation
As we try to reconstruct the role of trade unions for these purposes a large part of Western trade unionism may not be directly relevant For exshyample in the post World War II period one can begin to see the emergence of a new kind of trade union posture to some extent in the United States but more clearly in Western Europe which did put the trade union into a more participative role and thus placed it in the mainstream of ecoshynomic and social policy making As a result of broad historical social and economic changes the trade unions are now more fully but not comshy
pletely integrated into their own societies in Westshyern Europe and to an important extent in the United States than has ever been true before
Bargaining has not ceased nor has the role of adshyvocacy which a trade union must play in negotiashytion disappeared in either Western Europe or in the United States This role however is increasshyingly added to the positive role of sharing in the key economic and social policy imaking decisions An example in the US is the Iole which has slowly alshymost painfully emerged for the AFL-CIO and some of its constituent unions in the last 10 or 15 years on nationlal conmnissions such as those on aushytomatiotn juvenile delinquency or foreign trade
In assuming these new roles the US trade union movement has not cast off its old role It has attempted to suppleiment what it was doing in the way of its militant advocacy at the job level or the industry level with this additional set of functions It is not easy when you have spent a lifetime being
81
on the outside to suddenly step into the middle of things and have to take the role of policy advocate This kind of new responsibility is not at all easy and yet this is happening
In relating Western trade union experience to the developing countries it is essential to recognize that process of economic development will be difshyferent from that in the West Capitalism and inshydustrialization in the United States and in Western Europe grew unplanned for the most part spontashyneously one step tumbling upon another Growth of industrialization and moderization in Asia and Africa will not be spontaneous A large part of the process will be guided and conditioned Under these circumstances it seems pretty clear that unshyionism as a purely reactive force simply will be unacceptable It will have that role to play but inshyevitably it will be called upon (it seems to me shoild be called ulpon) to play a participatory role and a more integrated role almost from the beginshyning of the industralization process In this sense it is difficult I believe for American trade unionists especially to take a full measure of the problems which confront a less developed countrys trade unshyions
What kinds of experience am I considering when I say that one can look to new roles and a new posshyture for trade unionism in the less developed socishyeties What kinds of experience are relevant in the West What experience has there been in the less developed countries which bears upon this probshylem
Well in the West if you look at Western Europe there is a whole series of activities that Western European trade unions engage in which seem to me are relevant to the question of union participashytion in manpower training manpower developshyment economic development and social developshyment in the less developed countries
There have sprung up for example in the last few decades a uilber of so-called national ecoshynomic and social councils such as those of the Netherlands and France (and in Austria if one wants to include lie so-called chambers of labor and chambers of industry which are semi-governshymental in character) The trade unionists and the trade union movement are called upon to play a role sitting in national bod ics with consultative powers and sometimes with decision making powshyers in the case of the Netherlands and to some exshytent in the case of France
Some people are inclined to dismiss this role of
making of national social and economic policy They say that the unions have just been there as a kind of front in the various levels of the French planning process whether it was the Economic and Social Council or the commissariat and the same charge is made of the unions in the Nethershylands It seems to me this is a rather short-sighted view of the unions experience in this function It is so new and since to some extent runs against what has been the conflictive tradition and the pure advocacy of a particular point of view of the trade union movement that it would have been a miracle to have expected the trade unions overshynight to have made major contributions to ecoshynomic and social planning in these societies of Western Europe
My own feeling is that as these processes growshyand I think they will grow because traditional parliamentary bodies no longer seem adequate to deal with these top level social and economic decishysions that have to be made in society-planning bodies different in each country will grow and the trade unions will increase their sophistication in these roles and will increasingly measure up to these tasks and opportunities
In any event in somewhat different circumshystances similar bodies are already being created in a number of the African countries Trade unions have representation oin all kinds of planning bodshyies It was one of the heritages of the French coloshynial administration Planning and economic counshycils were established in Algeria Tunisia-down through French West Africa
In a number of these countries the trade union movement is wemk Therefore their influence in these planning councils could be expected to be limited To the extent this can be determined from the meager information currently available this apshypears to be a reasonable conclusion Unfortunately no one has gone into any of the African nations to see what has happened to these councils But if popshyular participation in development is to mean anyshything these are important experiments I would strongly recommend that the American AID agency andor the US Department of Labor as well as others take a rather (lee) interest in trying to find out what is happening in these kinds of institushytions I believe that the very nature of economic development in these countries means that these councils and these planning authorities will grow in importance and we should be looking into them
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to see what can be done and what are the lessons that can be learned
There are other lessons that we can begin to see in this broad experience ranging from Western Europe on to Africa and to some extent Asia First any union representation on social economic or national planning bodies as they may happen to be identified must be a real one In India for exshyample one of the reasons why there is almost total trade union discontent with the planning is that the trade unions have always been pretty much shut out Each time a new national plan was in the making the planning minister whether he is a soshycialist or a conservative goes through the motions of consulting on a formal basis with the trade union movement and that is the end of it
If you are to enlist the support and interest and to educate this important institution that we call trade unionism regarding the problems the possishybilities and the opportunities of economic planshyning it must be accorded a genuine role in the opshyerating machinery I know that planners are often horrified at the thought that they with their reshyfined techniques (really not so refined but they think they are) are going to have to consult with these grubby fellows who they feel have never really had enough formal education as well as to take them into their councils and give them voting rights in the setting of goals and the determining of
priorities for the society This situation is usually something the planners feel they cannot accept If this position by the planner is correct you can almost forget the whole process because unless the trade union has responsibility in the decision makshying machinery the function will usually decline or never even come to life
Success of trade union participation on planning councils I believe also re(luires some form of govshyernment aid I can think of three countries-France Austria and Great Britain (to choose three disparate examples)-where such aid is proshyvided to strengthen for example the research and economic facilities of the trade union movement In Austria for forty or fifty years now the chambers of labor have been supported by the government and they are really the most important research weapon or arm of Austrian labor
In France such effective participation as the trade unions have done recently in the planning
process and earlier in the social and economic area has been to a substantial measure due to governshyment assistance Under the urging of the US AID
mission France in the early and mid-fifties began to provide subsidies to the French trade unions to build up their research facilities
To an American this seems impossible How can a trade union take money from a government to build up its research facilities Will not such aid compromise the research Apparently it has not Apparently it is now recognized that both governshyment and unions are sophisticated enough so that once you invite a body like the trade union into the planning or development process you can afshyford them some measure of financial support withshyout compromising their independence
It must be recognized that the very fact of particshyipation in the planning pocess is in a certain sense a compromise of independence Neither labor nor management can participate in a joint
planning process unless they do so on the basis of respect of somebody elses rights and the recognishytion of some shared common gains and programs It seems to me that this notion is understood and that acceptance of financial ad to conduct research and training to help further participation is feasishyble
Legislation has been pending (and may already have been passed) in Great Britain which will iake available certain funds for research and for training assistance to the British trade union moveshyment Thus one of the oldest Western trade union movements and perhaps the most independent of governments along with the American trade union movement is now willingly increasing its acceptance of some form of financial aid to enable it to play its new role in society
The advantages to the government especially of less eveloped countries of these new roles that the trade unions can play are enormous If human reshysource institutions are critical in development as is now increasingly agreed what better vehicle or channel to exercise influence and increase popular
participation and understanding is there than the trade unions This is true even weak as they may be in many of these countries Moreover if they did not exist they ought to be created
In recognition of the importance of this human factor some governments of course have not been above creating the trade unions I can think of a number of Asian and African governments where the trade unions have been created largely with government benevolence or government assistance Even though we accept these trade unions with caution there exist present advantages They at
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least will help ensure communication and particishypation as well as other assistance to the governshyments of less developed countries which are overshyburdened with the tasks they face Most of these governments have to assume the responsibility for economic development activities including the major central planning role and allocation of critishycal investment resources (to some extent) and of foreign exchange To the extent these governments can look to trade unions or other intermediate inshystitutions to carry on many of the tasks such as training the administration of social security proshygrams and the joint encouragement of productivshyity programs they can be relieved of much of the weight which otherwise will fall on them This should help increase the viability and prospects for democracy because it is the overburdening of the whole process of government which it seems to me is one of the dangers that confront the African and the Asian nations
Trade unions therefore have this very useful vital possibility and related to this of course is the opportunity if you will of diverting what might otherwise be the all-out concentration by trade unshyions on wage and hour gains I do not mean that they should be deterred from their interest in wage and hour bargaining and gains but it could at least diffuse some of that all-out thrust which is trashyditionally all the trade unions do in the early stages of (levelopment
This change in trade union outlook it seems to me siiouild be sufficient inducement for new counshytry goverminents to take a real look at this process
Ilese issues I have discussed are tentative The experience that can be drawn upon is limited But the fact that we are calling for things that can hardly be itaglled or dreaied of in some peoples world shiotuld not (eter tis We have found to date
o b that what we know about institutions and the pr shylem of building institutions and especially subinshystittitions in developieit has not served us suffishyciently well Tlie ttIle union movement strikes me Is a most signifi ant factor if popular participaition is to imeanl someiting and if there is to be a hope for sonie kind of deomtcratic development process
DISCUSSANT Paul Fisher
Profesor Kassalows paper has very clearly stated that our preseit experience of trade unions with labor participation in various councils has been uneven to put it Mildly My experience leads to similar contclusions
What are the labor people really good at They are good when it comes to affairs which are of conshycern to them such as wages or working conditions But what have these matters to do with manpower Manpower as studied here is a very technical subshyject requiring a considerable degree of sophisticashytion in statistics mathematics and also in economshyics Now what has this to do with lets assume the German Works Council or a participation of a trade union representative in one of the other councils It has something to do because quite obvishyously the working hours working conditions and the wages have an allocative function They alloshycate labor not only the present labor but also the future labor and therefore direct people by the inshycentives offered by the system to a particular occushy
pation So in a way these people who are interested in these mundane affairs are instruments of manshy
power policy Where are the labor people not so good They
are not so good when it comes to technical subjects as for instance the economic planning mechanism the manpower mechanism the social security adshyministration details But should not we feel that the important issue in all three areas is the large decisions and the large decisions are rather easily understood and are basically political decisions Labor in all of these countries has the opportunity to influence political decisions
Employment is (tite obviously of interest to the trade union It is of interest to the workers or the sons of workers and employment is necessarily linked to the investment function As a conseshy
quence labor has an interest to participate in those governmental bodies which influence the employshyment function and the investment function Thereshyfore you find labor not only in the large bodies but the small ones as well which are based on the functioning of a specific industry a specific localshyity
Now what form does this participation take It takes the form of information or consultation and if you want co-deterinination But which is really the important fun(lion at the present time as disshytinguisled from the future Thelpresent function which is very important is information It is very useful from the viewpoilit of the body politic to have trade union leaders trade union representashylives not only participating in the decisions and therefore knowing why or how a decision is reaclhed to let us assume establish a dam in one
part of the country or an industry in another part
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but it is also useful for them to transmit this knowledge to their organization and therefore inshyfluence the wage policy and the manpower policy of the trade union itself
Consultation fulfills the same purpose Co-deter-Imiination depends on the subject but it can be said that co-determination has been a success precisely in that area where it was of immediate concern to the union representatives and to the labor director
Mr Kassalow sums it up by saying that the peoshyple who have the money to innovate normally the government make the employment and investshyment decisions in less developed countries thereshyfore it becomes important that the people do parshyticipate in those decisions of the government which really affect their lives and the lives of the organishyzations
DISCUSSANT Leonard Sandman
My experience suggests that it is not only diffishycult but may also be unwise to assign to unions in developing countries a role that diverts them friom the conflictive posture The following briefly disshycusses some of these experiences
In Korea I visited ain automotive manufacturing Company I was particularly impressed with tlhe large numbers of workers employed by the comshypany and that many of them appeared to be to say the least inefficiently utilized After touring the plant I asked tle manager about labor relations generally and the role of the union He recounted tle unions annual demands for wage increases and otherwise dismissed them as having only a nuishysance role because he could manipulate and control the union
I coiniented oi the large numbers of workers that lie employed and asked if possibly with sonie arrangement with tle union the workers could be engagedl more efficiently with the resulting savings in labor costs being distributed to the workers in tle form of hiigler wages and to the owners of the plant in tie fori of higher profits I quickly disshycovered that this was rather a naive suggestion beshycause as lie showed miie whetn various components of thiis cost and tle variables that influenced profit were considered wages were a very small proporshytioin of the cost of his production about 10 percent
With this kind of aii experience of which we see much in Asia a general lack of concern on the part of management with the efficient utiliation of commodities which are cheap and plentiful that is unskilled workers and often semi-skilled workers is
to be expected Obviously under such conditions little concern is to be expected on the part of the unions with the problem of how unions can coopshyerate with management to effect a more efficient utilization of workers I believe it is only when unshyions are successful in raising wages that is in pursuing their conflictive roles that management is compelled to use manpower more efficiently and then become concerned with productivity And this perhaps is one of the most effective ways that unions contribute to the efficient use of manpower
Experience in India with union participashytion in management also illustrates the difficulty of assigning to unions a role that diverts them from the conflictive posture The Minister of Labor who pioneered the program of labor particishy
pation had the feeling that if only we could give the workers a sense of management a sense of idenshytification with the industry the fact that their wages were so low would beconie less intolerable (I guess this could be called psychic income) Joint labor management councils were formed in a number of private and public sector plants Their experiments in union participation with manageshymient were getierally failures For the most part the discussions in the joint councils which were supshyposed to center on ways of increasing efficiency imshyproving management or improving the productivshyit) of the plant were centered generally on items of wages gi ievances and related interests They dushyplicated the collective bargaining function
Even with centralized planning in many of the Asian countries the unions there have generally
played atn indirect role if any in the basic quesshytions of settingpriorities determining targets and devising the strategies of employment After all ecshyonotnic development programis often represent a strategy of staying in power to the government Where unions have political influence the governshy
nient development plans may concein themselves seriously with employment and with income distrishybution problems but where they lack such influshyence development plans tend to place low priorishyties oi funding programs which promote the human goals of development
I think that popular participation should be a goal of every society It no doubt provides a system for the soundest kinds of economic and social deshyvelopment but the political realities of how growth gets distributed cannot be ignored Hence diverting union energy away from the conflictive
85
roles should be examined very carefully so that we ment having a formal role rather than substance in do not end up with union participation in develop- participation
86
MAIOR PARTICIPATION IN SOCIAL SECURITY
by Paul Fisher
The history of social security started off with mutual aid societies in Europe which were in esshysence trade union societies-societies of workers They had their origin in medieval German associashytions Out of this tradition developed a participashytion of trade unions of workers in the administrashytion of individual social security funds
It was important to know about how much sick pay the worker would get what would be the unshyemployment benefit that could be expected from this particular group and what would be the fushyneral grant Later as Social Security developed it became important to have some say in income sysshytems as a whole in sickness systems because they affected productivity
It is true that social security covered more than the workforce in industry and commerce It covshyered the total population The trade union represhysentative took on a new role and became not only the representative of the workers (the workers he organized and those for which he spoke) but he becane the representative of the popilation at large a very interesting goal which fits very well in the concept of a trade union as it exists in many countries developed and under-developed
What has all this to do with manpower Social security seems to be a transfer payment which you exact between one generation of workers and the next one between the healthy and the sick or beshytween the people who have small families and those who have large families
The interesting part is that many of these things have something to do with deferred wages In a way a social security contribution an individual makes today is a deferred wage which he will touch when he reaches the retirement age and this has been very well understood by the trade unions all around the globe and as a consequence it was the trade unions that fought for the advances in Social Security in this country as well as in other counshytries
The famous labor uprising in May 1968 in France was a revolution against some of De Gaulles attempts to reduce benefits De Gaulle was forced into the attempts because he felt the social security system which has very meager old age benefits was paying too much money in sick beneshyfits Labor in Franc was successful in its revolution The reform measures of Mr De Gaulle were largely discarded The same thing happened in Italy Labor as a whole has an interest in social security because it considers the social security benefits as nothing more than a part of total lifetime earnings from work
What form has it taken The usual form which has been an advisory function The advisory funcshytion is very well expressed in the United States
What is then the effectiveness of the participashytion of labor and the Social Security Administrashytion The effectiveness is quite interesting It deshypends upon the political strength and the economic strength of the labor movement If the labor is forceful it will yield results which surpass the reshysults of any other interest group
Who gets something out of it The first one who gets something out of it is quite obviously the union because the union can gain power The union can gainposts The union can occasionally see that funds which are accumulated in social seshycurity systems are deposited in the worker banks and worker banks become then the more powerful tool of making loans and investments where loans and investments are desirable Evidently trade union representatives can see to it that this particushylar function is not disregarded The power of the unions can also be abused and one of the famous examples is again in France in 1945 when the Comshymunist labor movement under the first De Gaulle government was able to conquer the social security administration and it took years before the purely politic-l interest of the Communist party of France
87
was eradicated or at least minimized in the French social security system
Now who else gets something out of it The public because if trade unions do not talk about the public nobody else does It is quite true that in the original French system for instance the organshyizations of large families the organization of social security beneficiaries were also represented but if you looked at the people who represented this orshyganization it would be the same people from the French trade unions which existed and appeared from the other side of the table representing their organizations
Who else gets something out of it The governshyment The government because some of the meashysures which social security imposes some of the regulations some of the rules of the game are so
complicated that unless the system has a ready mechanism for transmitting this information to the public the public will not gain anything from a social security system The trade unions and anyshybody else representing the public are a very excelshylent a far better motivated and a far more effecshytive means of having this information transmitted than any other
The last point is what has this to do with manshypower The feeling has always been that the particshyipation of the public in manpower planning and in manpower organization must be divorced from the particular aspect which is studied here It must be linked to the final goal of a manpower policy and participation can therefore be better able to coshydetermine or to influence at least the goals of a manpower policy
US GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1972 0-469-452
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upswelling of initiative experience determination and common sense at the grass-roots level Through this process the importance of the individual in his social economic and political development was understood on a very wide scale before there was anything approaching the State or natidnal identity or national system we now have to help us in our enterprises
Also when one looks at the employment problem of 50 years ago in most of America one finds there were relatively few wage-paying jobs in large segments of our society Employment was essentially a subsistence affair with certain payoffs for seasonal crops But the function of people in society was not viewed as a purely economic plhenomerion Employment was thought of also as a useful function of society As a result men women children the aged and even the handicapped had a role in society that was understood and respected In the less developed countries therefore we should not lose sight of the fact that the role in society which is useful and important to the individual playing it is one of the important goals that we are trying to achieve Achievement of this goal can give meaning color and substance to that society although a countrys economic progress may not be up to what we may believe it hould be
Popular participation should be directed towards identifying and developshying the opportunities for people in their own habitat to live better and more fruitful lives because they create their environment and opportunities and apply themselves to the purposes of society without regarding their importance in terms of whether they get regular paychecks In my judgement no country can really become a cohesive society or a nation State unless essentially this concept of development is pervasive accepted and respected by a majority of the people of the country
MR EALTON L NELSON Popular participation in -he strengthening of job market mechanisms and institutions and the removal of barriers to the matching of jobs and workers is an idea that has existed in planning and operashytions in the manpower field for a considerable time It goes back to the Wagner-Peyser Act of 1933 Thus for 37 years in the legislative process there has been a statutory provision in each State as well as the Federal Government to proshyvide consultation through an advisory council
V
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
These proceedings were prepared by Gabriel Cherin University of Houston The Symposium was planned by Morris Pollak under the supervision of Joe White Acting Director of the International Manpower Institute
VII
SYMPOSIUM ON POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN MANPOWER EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT
AND
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS V
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Wednesday April 291970
Morning Session Chairman Leo R Werts Assistant Secretary for Adminshy
istration US Department of Labor
KEYNOTE ADDRESS POPULAR PARTICIPATION DEVELOPMENT
Princeton N Lyman Chief Title IX Division Office of Program amp Policy Coordination Agency for International Development Discussion
AND
POPULAR PARTICIPATION AND MANPOWER AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT
Charles D Stewart Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Affairs Bureau of International Labor Affairs US Department of Labor
5
TITLE IX AND MANPOWER PROGRAMS OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Burnie Merson Chief Planning and Evaluation Division Office of Labor Affairs Agency for International Development
Afternoon First Session Chairman Harold Wool Director Office of the Assistant
Secretary for Policy Evaluation and Research US Deshypartment of Labor
11
SEVEN SIGNS FOR THE 1970s Seymour Wolfbein Dean School of Business Administration
Temple University Afternoon Second Session
Chairman Edwin J Cohn Title IX Division Office of Program and Policy Coordination Agency for Internashytional Development
15
ix
MOBILIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF INSTITUTIONS TO ASSIST IN EXPANDING THE POTENTIALS FOR GREATER EMPLOYMENT COMMUNITY AND PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS ROLE IN JOB CREATION
JOB CREATION IN AGRICULTURE Thomas F Carroll Agricultural Economic Section
American Development Bank Intershy
19
UNITED STATES EXPERIENCE WITH UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDEREMPLOYMENT
William Batt Consultant on Manpower Development Office of Economic Opportunity
24
ROLE OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BUSINESSMEN IN JOB C REATIO N
William Haas Vice President in Charge of Operations National Alliance of Businessmen
go
PRIVATE INVESTMENT AND JOB CREATING POSSIBILITIES Harriet S Crowley Director Office of Overseas Private Programs
Agency for International Development
27
Thursday April 30 1970
Morning First Session Chairman John F Hilliard Director Office of Education
and Human Resources Technical Assistance Buseau Agency for International Development
DEVELOPING ABILITIES THE LINK BETWEEN POPULAR PARTICIPATION AND INSTITU-TIONS INVOLVED IN EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT
POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN THE UNITED STATES
Samuel M Burt Director Understanding Program American University
IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION Business Council for International College of Continuing Education
29
TAIWAN AND KOREAN EFFORTS IN MANPOWER DEVEL-OPMENT THROUGH SCHOOL AND INDUSTRY COOPER-ATION
James D Murray Vocational Education Advisor Agency for International Development
a5
Morning Second Session Chairman Kenneth J Kelley Deputy Director Office
Labor Affairs Agency for International Development of
x
10R AND MANAGEMENTS SOCIAL POLICY INTERESTS IN TRAINING
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES WITHIN PRI-VATE INDUSTRY 9
Clayton J Cottrell Deputy Regional Manpower Administrator Atlanta Georgia US Department of Labor
Discussants J Julius F Rothman President Human Resources Development
Institute AFL-CIO Richard L Breault Manager Community and Regional Develshy
opment Group US Chamber of Commerce
Afternoon First Session Chairman Ealton L Nelson Manpower Advisor Planning
and Evaluation Division Office of Labor Affairs Agency for International Development
MATCHING WORKERS AND JOBS POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN STRENGTHENING OF JOB MARKET MECHANISMS AND INSTITUTIONS
NEW CONCEPTS OF THE EMPLOYMENT SERVICE ROLE TO MEET THE CHALLENGE OF THE 1970s 45
Malcolm R Lovell Jr Deputy Assistant Secretary for Manshypower and Manpower Administrator Manpower Administrashytion US Department of Labor
CREATION OF A CONSOLIDATED MANPOWER DELIVERY SYSTEM DECENTRALIZED TO THE STATES AND METRO-POLITAN AREAS-A WAY OF ACHIEVING INCREASED PAR-TICIPATION RESPONSIVE TO LOCAL NEEDS 49
Cyril D Tyson Deputy AdministratorCommissioner Manpower and Career Devciopment Agency New York City
Discussion 51
THE PROBLEM OF EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNI-TIES FOR W OM EN 53
Grace Farrell Chief oC the Labor Law Branch Womens Bureau US Department of Labor
Afternoon Second Session Chairman Ealton L Nelson
CASE STUDY-JOBS FOR PROGRESS Inc (OPERATION SER) 55 Seymour Brandwein Acting Associate Director Office of Research
and Development Manpower Administration US Departshyment of Labor
Discussion 58
Friday May 1 1970
Morning First Session Chairman Thomas E Posey Policy Planning and Evalushy
ation Staff Office of International Training Agency for International Development
xi
NEW DIRECTIONS FOR POPULAR PARTICIPATION TO DEAL WITH PROBLEMS ON MANPOWER UTILIZATION
PARTICIPATION OF THE WORKING POOR-UTILIZATION OF HUMAN RESOURCES IN ANTI-POVERTY PROGRAMS 61
Philip J Rutledge Director Department of Human Resources District of Columbia
COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN LATIN AMERICA LEAD-ING TO SOCIAL CHANGE AND INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOP-MENT RELATED TO MANPOWER 65
William F Whyte Professor Department of International and Comparative Labor Relatic s New York School of Industrial Relations Cornell University
Discussion 67 Morning Second Session
Chairman John E Blake Deputy Manpower Administrator for Employment Security Manpower Administration US Department of Labor
MOBILIZING THE PARTICIPATION OF YOUTH IN MAN-POWER AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT-A UNIVER-
SAL CHALLENGE 69 William Mirengoff Director JOB CORPS Manpower Adminisshy
tration US Department of Labor
MANPOWER AND YOUTH PROGRAMS IN THE DEVELOP-ING COUNTRIES OF AFRICA 77
Max R Lum Jr JOB CORPS Manpower Administration US Department of Labor
Discussion 78
Afternoon Session Chairman John E Dillon Chief Program Coordination
Division Office of Labor Affairs Agency for International Development
PARTICIPATION IN EFFORTS TO INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY AND TO PROMOTE THE WELFARE OF WORKERS
THE ROLE OF TRADE UNIONS AND EMPLOYER ORGANI-ZATIONS IN THE EFFICIENT UTILIZATION OF MANPOWER 81
Everett M Kassalow Professor of Economics University of Wisshyconsin
D iscussan ts 84 Paul Fisher Chief International Staff Office of Research and
Statistics Social Security Administration Department of Health Education and Welfare
Leonard Sandman Labor Advisor Bureau Near East and South A-la Affairs Department of State
LABOR PARTICIPATION IN SOCIAL SECURITY 87 Paul Fisher
Xii
OUJAAJ PARTICIPATION AND DEVELOPMENT
Princeton N Lyman
Title IX of the Foreign Assistance Act calls upon the Agency for International Development (AID) to encourage the growth of democratic private and local government institutions in carrying out its programs of assistance This paper briefly reviews the considerations being given and the things that are being done by the AID to carry out this injuncshytion Before proceeding with this review however several comments need to be made on the attitudes developing regarding local participation among other groups interested in development and on the nature and status of AIDs efforts in this area at this time I believe it liighly significant that there is growing recognition of the problems of particishypation and the need for their solution among orshyganizations concerned with development as well as within the AID There is increasing awaireness in many countries of the world that the problems of participation are not problems that can be put off until a certain higher level of modernization is achieved ever though this belief may seem (or seemed so a few years ago) an easier or more pracshytical path to development
With regard to AIDs activities we are not yet as deeply involved in the probleams of popular particishypation as we would like to be We are still searchshying for practical answers to these questions (1) How should popular participation be defined (2) How should it be applied and (3) What should AIDs role be in increasing local participation in the development process in general as well as in the manpower areaThese are difficult questions to anshyswer and I hope that the discussions during this conference will be helpful in developing answers to them
The concept of participation is a highly complex one We recognized this and appreciate the coMshyplexity of the concept in our attempt to think through the meaning of Title IX Is it political deshyvelopment or a new twist to the community develshyopment emphasis in economic aid Or just peopleshy
to-people programs What does this Title involve We chose quite specifically to emphasize the concept of participation because it is so broad The advanshytage of choosing a concept like participation is that it cuts across economic social and political factors It is probably the only concept that does cut across all these facets of the development process Not only that but we are convinced that the type of participation the degree of participation and the nature of participation that will be taking place in the development process in different countries is going to have to be decided by those societies based on the conditions that they face There are potenshytial trade-offs between economic participation and
political participation There are societies in which people are willing to accept some degree of authoritarianism for substantial economic benefits
There are other societies where that simply is not true people are most interested in owning a
piece of their own land than in higher wages as tenants or agricultural laborers These are probshylems that the society of a country will themselves have to think and argue through and then come up with a concept of participation The decision therefore should not be directed from the US preshydisposed point of view but from the point of view of that society We can appreciate the problems of
participation for developing societies by simply looking at otir own society where we have had a relatively large degree of participation However the growth in participation has been gradual and often difficult
If you look at the history of the United States since independence you can see that there have been gradual increasing waves of participation Each wave has been a difficult one for the United States to absorb even with its wealth its relatively stable democratic institutions How much more then is the problem of participation in countries which have very meager resources extraordinarily crowded conditions on the land and are desper-
I
ately concerned with obtaining even the basic reshysources for development These are problems that simply cannot be swept under the rug by general rhetoric about democratic institutions or principles or about participation Yet the interesting thing about the Title IX or perhaps the most dramatic and challenging thing about it is that it enjoins us to find ways of assisting in the development procshyess that will allow for greater participation earlier rather than later in the development process What Title IX says is that you cannot accept the simple doctrine that participation is a luxury of the develshyoped countries or of the richer countries or of tle more advanced modernizing countries None of the
people of the developing countries will accept it nor does it inake sense in terms of modern developshyment as opposed to whatever experience the Euroshy
pean countries and the United States may have gone through
Carrying through these objectives of Title IX is a challenge and it is not an easy one but I think it is terribly important and a dramatic one and I think a viable one We are capable if we set our minds to it to find development strategies which allow small farmers as well as large farmers which allow landless laborers as well as land owners unshyskilled as well factory workers to have some sense of participation and see some place for themselves in the development process economically socially and politically It is when we get down to the techshynical details when we get down to manpower training prograns thlat the real problems face us One of the things that I tiink is interesting about the problems in tile field of man power development is that it presents a lot of related problems Let me touch on just a few It seems to me that one of the
problems is clearly the question of relationship beshytween wages capital investnent and employment ft is a real symbolic and ideological problem It is a real problem in the senise tiat many countries are planning or are already developing by taking adshyvantage of developing industry In some cases they are taking advantage of the low cost labor in agrishyculture and particularly in relation to export prices However tlhese countries and some of their AID donor agencies are terribly concerned about the effect of rising wages on this pattern of developshyment at least in the short run This condition is reflected in most of the countries int uneasiness about labor organization and furtherance of labor unions For the AI) donors the problem arises beshycause whenever wages seem to go ip or threaten to
go up there is the temptation to shift to more capishytal intensive industries which is precisely where the AID resources are available Foreign exchange from AID will finance much of the capital investshyment but it is domestic resources whichi must finance labor costs and thus AID donors are faced with tile making of a difficult decision do they or do tile) not provide the foreign exchange for inshyvestment in capital This is becoming particularly serious in agriculture where such investment may displace mal) workers Even if this is only a prob lem in the short run-or as some may argue emshyployment in the tertiary sector will rise and offset the loss in agriculture-it still is a very big one for
people who are out of work because the siort rtuni for them is their lives today tomorrow and maybe for the next year A second dilemma it seems to me is the types of manpower training that we go into or that the countries that we assist are going into One of the things that we are becoming
painfully aware of in AID is the fact that educashytion structures and the formal educational systems that we have been working on in the -ountries abroad are simply inadequate to keep up with the growth of population of school age children and tile training of older people
In some instances the growth of the school age
population outruns the growth of educational facilshyities despite tremendous bursts of expenditures on education This situation raises a lot of problems and mainy difficult choices Sonic countries would argue (and you call see this in the development
pattern of many countries) tiat there is simply nothing tile) cal do about it They believe they have to concentrate on training those people who are going to go to the top those people who are to be administrators the managers the industrial elite all the way down to tile middle level It is not
possible for them they feel to be responsible not in this decade or generation for the training or giving of any kind of really meaningful education to the majority of people in the country Some peoshy
ple believe the latter is the only choice There is however an alternative approach which is fraught with all kinds of com 1plexities but attracts many people and that is to move much more heavily into what is called Informal Systems of Education These are systems of education that do not rest on the formal schoolhouse system or the trained colshylege-educated teacher or which are even related to training persons to take their place in the elite role What this system can do is to give people the
O)
ability to cope with the situation that is changing around them or to have some sense of ability to cope with their immediate environment Now these programs whether carried out by labor unions by priests by cooperatives or by innovative educators are very experimental They are also highly controshyversial because when you systematically go at trainshying a mass of people to have a share in a society in which they are not the elite you are challenging sometimes the very social structure of that society
I would take some issue with the position held by some regarding the dangers of more participashytion I think there are dangers in mass participashytion that could lead to frustration and violence But on the other hand participation is not only a means to an organized end it is very often the sum and substance of a mans dignity his ability to say I am a man that I have some part of control over my own destiny Even if he does not have the right technical solution his right to have someshything to say about how those technical solutions are applied gives him dignity How we blend that technical information with that dignity is an exshytremely difficult challenge for all of us who are soshycalled professionals in the development field The fact that people demand that element of parshyticipation or that element of control and that they have to demand it often in very dramatic ways to wake us up to the fact of how little they control their own destiny is perhaps a good thing
We are unquestionably in a very controversial difficult and perhaps dangerous area and yet parshyticipation and the injunction upon us to become inshyvolved in participation carries us purposefully into that area
I would like to touch on one other subject that I think is perhaps somewhat underplayed in our disshycussions of manpower and that is the question of rural manpower Very often when we talk about manpower training and labor we talk about the urban or perhaps the semi-urban groups However I just recently reviewed a number of papers on land reforms and land tenure and from this mateshyrial it becomes increasingly obvious that one of the great manpower problems facing most of the develshyoping countries is rural manpower It is not just a question of dividing up the land because in some countries there simply is not enough land to divide up (I say this as a strong advocate of land redistrishybution) We cannot even if we support land reform avoid the fact that there is another class of people that needs to be dealt with as well-the vast
amount of landless laborers tenant farmers or tiny landowners who need to be given some sense of efshyficacy and ability to participate in the development process
Organizing rural manpower giving them some stake in society has proven extraordinarily diffishycult even for the revolutionaries who go out into the countryside to organize the rural workers as well as for the more moderate or conservative reshygimes when they try to find some path to give those workers a stake in as well as a ieason to purshysue agricultural modernization I think this is a task which all of us have neglected too long and one that is going to be upon all of us in the develshyopment business in the next decade Moreover as the Green Revolution spreads accompanied by high yield varieties of crops which will change the
pace of agricultural production in many developshying countries it will become an increasing and most vexing problem
AID is also deeply concerned with the question of the organizations and institutions needed in deshyveloping countries to bring all or as many persons as possible into meaningful participation roles This question is especially important since one thing we have done about Title IX so far is to give it a straight people-to-people approach What Title IX is really all about is getting participation down to the little man the individual farmer or the individual village However we also know that the present AID programs are not reaching nor are the developing countries capable of reaching on a pershyson-to-person basis the hundreds of millions of
people we are talking about To persons in the manpower field I do not have to dwell on the imshyportance of the organizational and institutional factors that must be faced to accomplish this goal In the whole area of labor-both urban and ruralshythese factors are vital ones
I might also note in connection with the labor field that labor unions should be able to play an important role in broadening the participation base
Clearly labor unions play a very critical role in defining openess in political society However we also have some indications though still vague that labor unions may play an even more important role in such matters in the early stages of modernishyzation I think that it is terribly important that this matter be looked into much more deeply There are of course other institutional and organishyzational questions in the manpower area which are
3
beyond the scope of the labor unions which must be considered These include rather broad but still significant questions concerning the general nature and scope of over-all manpower development on how to reach organize and provide access to reshysources for vast numbers of people These as well as the other problems I raised in this paper are some of the challenges of applying participation in the manpower area
Discussion
Question from the floor This comment is in reshygard to the problem you noted concerning capital imports from donor countries and their possible adverse effects on employment opportunities in the developing country Has any consideration been given to the development of guidelines by the AID for use in the analysis of the impact of public works construction in developing countries which would allocate the cost of labor using a shadow cost formula for determining the feasibility or desirashybility of importing capital equipment versus using local labor If there is unemployment in the counshytry local labor costs could be considered as zero for determining economic and social feasibility of imshyporting capital equipment
Mr Lymans comment Your suggestion is inshyteresting but it raises certain practical problems In most cases the cost of labor for a project has to come out of domestic resources of the country Thus large labor intensive projects will require substantial amounts of such resources which most developing countries simply do not have or are not too willing to mobilize for such purposes They prefer therefore to find a combination which reshyduces the burden on domestic resources and places the larger burden upon the capital side which will be financed by the AID donor The AID donor also tends to look upon such financing favorably beshycause the financing of capital expenditures usually is done in the form of financing export of US equipment
Question from the floor I should like to make the following comment with respect to participashytion particularly in Latin or Central America There is a degree of participation in these counshytries far beyond that which we reL gnize For exshyample certainly in the universities of Latin Amershy
ica there is substantial participation of the students and faculty in decisions regarding university polshyicy Also in the rural areas of some of the Latin American countries and in the health programs of these countries there is a considerable amount of participation of the local population It seems to me that the degree of participation in most of the Latin American countries has been related to the resources available for such participation If you do not have resources your extent of participation is going to be rather limited it seems rather futile to spend time discussing a new well or developing new labor supply or new jobs if the resources are not available to support these programs These are really comments rather than any criticisms or quesshytions regarding your talk
Mr Lymans comment I think your comment is highly relevant to development strategy If you are trying to devise a practical approach to participashytion and development you have to try to deal with increasing ways of participation as they are going to be generated or should be generated by the stages of development
Question from the floor For some time the Farmers Union International Development Services has been involved in participation programs throughout Latin America We have found that in the agricultural field problems of clearance with the mission may develop which sometimes seriously restrict our efforts because the programs that we are conducting are offset by counterproductive official programs which are supported by the AID mission
Mr Lymans comment Your points are well taken I think one of the really difficult practical problems for AID agencies and the US in popular participation is that we are caught between the fact that we are a US government agency dealing with the host governments which as you point out may or may not be sympathetic with the participation of peasants unions or rural workers However it is a problem that is now recognized I believe in the recent legislation establishing the Inter-American Social Development Institute which is designed by Congress to set up a social development institute separate from the regular AID program and which will operate as relatively autonomous in the areas of social change
4
TOIPULAR PARTICIPATION AND MANPOWER AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT
Charles D Stewart
As I understand my task in this symposium I am supposed to provide the linkage between the aspirashytions of Title IX which I suppose are intended for domestic consumption as well as export and the more workaday objectives of manpower policy All of this I take it is within a framework of ecoshynomic policy namely for economic development in the LDCs and full employment without inflashytion in the developed countries Hopefully I will succeed in lihking social participation and the obshyjectives of manpower policy (called manpower and employment development by the sponsors of the symposium)-and do so without trying you and myself particularly with a repetition of the verities of our trade (ressed up in the mantle of social parshyticipation
If I may be excused I will take my text for the day not from Title IX or the original statement or introduction for this symposium which I agree with almost entirely but find somewhat heady Inshystead I will take my text from William Fellner in his 1969 presidential address to the American Ecoshynomic Association-wrenched perhaps somewhat outof context but I think suggestive for our purshyposes
Fellner attempted to sum up the pros and cons of what has come to be known as the Residual Factor or Investment in Education or Knowledge-to apshypraise the differential yield of what he calls progshyress-generating inputs (for education and knowlshyedge) that produce additional output indirectly via their effect upon conventionally defined producshytion functions relative to ordinary investment I extrapolate to include social investments in particishypatory democracy as progress-generating inputs Fellner argues that public decisions of a non-marshyket variety depend for viability upon how well in the West the political mechanism is capable of bridging the differences in subjective evaluations of competing groups My text is his final sentence
Is it realistic to expect that the propensity to reach compromises can be increased by making the bargaining parties aware of the fact that the joint payoff on reaching an agreement is high
I was tempted by an alternative text whose aushythor I dont know You cant move the Phillips curve to the left in a country that is going to the right Its a nice quip but not true insofar as manshypower policy in a market economy can remove imshyperfections in knowledge and competition and orshyganization to achieve a better functioning labor market Yet even so the final outcome could deshypend on willingness of workers to participate in soshycial decisions-my extrapolation of Fellners quesshytion in bargaining theory
What I intend to do using this as a jumping off point is to examine the question of social particishypation as it has been raised in manpower policy (much to the credit of our fraternity) in the conshytext of economic stabilization in the North and ecshyonomic development in the South How critical is social participation for success of economic policy in the two worlds
Now I know ivhat with increasing disappointshyment in the economic payoff of development plans in the LDCs commonly blamed on the economists in charge or at large it is increasingly popular to say that development is not simply increasing ecoshynomic production but also achieving fundamental social objectives-as President Caldera of Venezuela said in opening the recent ILO Conference in Cashyracas This is essentially the same as in the North where it is now popular to say that quantitative gains in GNP are not the end of economic policy
If I may return -lefly to Title IX it is one of the virtues of that leclaration of American foreign assistance policy nat it conceives of social particishypation not only as an end but as an instrument of economic development I have said earlier that I
5
find much of what has been said in praise of Title IX somewhat heady-a new expression of American missionary zeal more praised abroad than perhaps at home and somewhat naive with respect to the political dynamics or implications of social transshyformation of backward if not corrupt political reshygimes The cultivation of social participation on the labor market called industrial democracy by an earlier generation may no doubt contribute in time-if we have a long enough time perspectiveshyto the toppling of reactionary political and social structures But success is more likely in a society where social participation finds expression in a countrys constitutional structure It would have been difficult if I may illustrate to have imagined the gains in collective bargaining in the United States in the thirties an adventure in social parshyticipation if there ever was one without the conshystitutional presuppositions of the American system (which in other countries may exist only in intershynational declarations of human and trade union rights) Even so one must hurry to say there was much that was fortuitous in the American developshyment much that would never have happened withshyout self-help on the labor markets much that was not quite yet legal that transformed American law and American society
I suppose there is no need to push my argument to the point of the obvious Any political system is a system of social participation It may be more demshyocratic or less democratic It may have more or less of a market economy It may rely less on legislative means and more on rules for the labor market worked out by the social partners on the labor marshyket and then extended or reinforced by legislation as to some degree in the French and German sysshytems It is perhaps a matter of taste or culture or circumstance or relative efficiency whether a counshy-fry may favor a welfare system in which benefits are handed down or favor the socialization of sectors or processes by means of cooperatives or trade unshyions or codetermination or new forms of public corporations or instrumentalities for active as against passive participation in a political democshyracy It is also a matter of tactics and the stage of development how the disadvantaged or disposshysessed in any society can organize their strength for social and economic advancement and status
What is not guaranteed by Title IX or by any transformation of the political or social structure by land reform by cooperation by collective barshygaining by industrial democracy-is economic sucshy
cess Whether economic success is simply a matter of time or some elements of capitalist spirit or trashydition of entrepreneurship or a free market still has to be tested I wish only to note that there is an essential tension between social participation and a market-oriented and motivated economy which is critical both for economic growth and for social deshymocracy both in the North and the South
Now I will try to be concrete and incidentally strive to cover part of the ground that the managshyers of this symposium hope will contribute to some kind of systematic survey of social or popular parshyticipation in the attainment of manpower and emshyployment development Since my specific topic is identical with that of the symposium as a whole I may be forgiven if I touch some matters I think most suggestive while leaving to others including my discussant what they are better prepared than I to discuss Fortunately for me and perhaps for you it has been suggested that it might be useful if I bring into focus some of the experience of the North as it may be relevant by my intuitions to the problems of developments in the South
To do this in the most concrete way I wish to use Sweden and France as two case studies-beginning as it were with the idyll of the Garden of Eden and going on perhaps to things which must come to pass shortly in the Apocalypse of the Western world
To Americans Sweden has been thought of since at least the publication of Marquis Childs Sweden the Middle Way as the perfect example of a participatory democracy There was not only the popular participation of ordinary people in the cooperative movement which Childa thought of as the heart of the Swedish way there was also the broad-based trade union movement that carried over to the political scene and completed the trilshyogy in a government responsive to its power base in the trade unions and cooperative movement
But the institutionalization of social participashytion in Sweden didnt stop with these achieveshyments One leading Swedish economist Lindbeck writing a brief history of economic thought and ecshyonomic policy in postwar Sweden itemized the two historic developments as (1) the adoption of modshyern fiscal monetary policy at the macro level and (2) the adoption of Rehns conception of an active manpower policy at the micro level I will not stop here to elaborate the connection between the two except to say that an active manpower policy preshysupposed if it were to succeed a carefully managed
6
general demand policy holding short of full emshy
ployment in order to avoid inflation suppleshymented by selective demand and labor market supshyply policies in order to maintain stable levels of full employment
These economic presuppositions of Swedish polshyicy since the late Fifties have been no more or less fulfilled than in other countries and Swedish acshytive manpower policy has had to engage in fireshyfighting operations and has not always been equal to the task of overcoming mistaken demand polshyicies But these matters are not our immediate conshycern
What is relevant to our purposes are two things (1) the social environment that made possible the formulation of an active manpower policy-by the trade unions it so happened-as a means of comshybating postwar inflation in order to escape authorishytarian wages and incomes policy that would have in the view of the LO undermined a free trade union movement and a policy of free collective barshygaining with employers on the labor market and (2) the creation of a tripartite Labor Market Board
What I want to say about the first-the social enshyvironment in Sweden-brings me back to my text from Fellner Nowhere perhaps is there a greater propensity to reach compromises and to do so beshycause of an awareness that the joint payoff of an agreement is high
What I want to say about the second point-the creation of a multipartite labor market boardshygives me a chance to cover some of the ground that the managers of this symposium had in mind in constructing the symposium But I will try to do this without touching all the bases in literal fashshyion I trust my umpire will he indulgent
I must concede that the social participation repshyresented by active tripartite management of the Labor Markct Board is a compromise between
popular participation and efficient administration I really dont know how much of a New England town meeting a Parent Teachers Association a community swimnuing pool organization a housing cooperative a stibiiban civic association or Group Health let alone a community action agency is inshyvolved in what appears to be a well-organized articshyulation of community interests via the tripartite Labor Market Board
But the fact is that the administration of Swedshyish labor market policy and programs is not solely in the hands of a government bureaucracy with adshy
visory committees but is in the hands of what we would call a quasi-public organization from the top in Stockholm down to every provincial labor marshyket board The Board and the boards play an essenshytial role in the economic planning process longshyterm and conjunctural and in actual administration of the labor market If the constituencies of the three parties have any complaints which I suppose they do remedies presumably lie within the rules of the trade unions the employer organizations and the Rikstag but I cant quite imagine a mass demonstration
On substantive matters the Board and the local boards deal wih all of the problems of human reshysources development employment creation mobilshyity and relocation There is of course the usual difficulties of coordination between the school aushythorities and the vocational authorities and pershyhaps some doubts as Sweden moves in the direction of the American nonvocationally oriented high school Otherwise the business of the Labor Marshyket Board is (1) to facilitate the restructuring of the Swedish economy which involves fortunately for Sweden chiefly the movement of workers from the low-productivity forest-based activities of the North to the modern technology of the South and (2) to minimize cyclical fluctuations in the economy
We need only note the new emphasis which may be siuimarized by saying that aside from the wellshyknown mobility features of the program the aim is to provide a combination of training requirements involved in the restructuring c the economy and at the same time furthcr human resource developshyment by providing constructive substitutes for tinshyemployment in recession The result is that trainshying and quasi-training activities rise a5 the demand for employment declines and-in the recession of 1966-68-rose more than the rise in unemployment
But is all right in the Garden of Eden Does the social participation represented by th e tripartite Labor Market Board the friendly collaboration of the unions and the employer associations the discishypline of world competitioi on wage and price polshyicy the continued success of the popular based Soshycial Democratic party at the polls-does this sophistishycated form of social participation satisfy the needs of popular participation It may be only a trivial
phenomenon but the worrisome question in Sweden is how to explain wildcat strikes by workers with few economic complaints who feel neglected by their trade union and political represhysentatives
7
Even before this little breach in paradise Charles De Gaulle anticipated what was to become in France the explanatory factor-the Events of May in 1968 For many years De Gaulle intishymated the need for social participation of workers in what lie conceived to be some kind of a comshypromise with a capitalist society What he meant was never too clear but some specifics touching on profit sharing worried French businessmen and never aroused much enthusiasm in the trade unshyions or support within the party or the bureaucshyracy But De Gaulle must be credited with some kind of intuition of the dissatisfaction of workers with their role in French society and n economic life Profit-sharing codetermination industrial deshymocracy were not anything new but I think it was De Gaulle and the Events of May that brought the need for social participation to the forefront in the North in much the same way as the proponents of Title IX had done in American AID policy at about the same time
What was the situation in France that accounted for De Gaulles solitary premonitions France was viewed by many as almost the perfect model of the welfare state I remember Patrick Moynihans inshyterest in family allowances when lie visited France while Assistant Secretary of Labor He did see povshyerty in St Denis but responded Well at least everyshybody is at work But as the Events of May were to demonstrate in 1968 what matters is not simply full employment (there was of course a little reshycession in 1966-67) or levels of living or family alshylowances in the welfare state or pretty regular gains in real living (although there had been some disappointments on this score as a result of stabilishyzation policy in France during those years) What mattered in France way underneath was the feelshying of French workers that they had no influence in French policy or French society-not only that they were not sharing fairly in the gains of French economic policy (a point which is arguable)
I may recall that the student and worker demonshystrations brought France to the verge of collapse in May of 1968 De Gaulle left the country and reshyturned only after he had secured the support of the French military abroad The alienation of the stushydents was to be explained in no small part by their dissatisfaction with French educational and manshypower policy vhicli they thought was designed to allocate them to slots in the staffing pattern of a capitalist French society Neither the young nor the older generation were enthusiastic about the
new economic society of the Fifth Plan Despite some interconnections the workers demonstrated on their own and wished to have nothing to do with the students Their gripe was their isolation at the plant level from the machinery the goals and the preoccupations of their unions and their national union leadership
Most French workers probably never heard of codetermination in Germany probably had little idea what De Gaulle meant by social participation probably knew or cared little about the niceties of French planning or economic policy and probably didnt want to run their companies businesses To understand their feeling of isolation I need only to mention that French unionism is fragmented along political and religious lines the so-called Workers Councils are legislative creations and generally unshyused at most plants for grievance or other purposes There is ordinarily little union organization at the plant level even where most workers belong to one political union or another Wage levels are genershyally above the negotiated national or regional rates and are set largely by employers in response to marshyket factors and not by negotiation In brief the union is not preeminently an instrument for setshyting wages or settling grievances
At the Labor Ministers office on the Rue de Greshynelle the then Prime Minister Mr Pompidou neshygotiated the Grenelle Agreement in the final days of May 1968 with representatives of the French emshyployers and trade unions who running scared sat together for the first time took steps to raise real wages promote plant unionism and to appease French workers who at the very moment were takshying things into their own hands at their work places The results subsequently on the labor marshyket have been quite creditable The government also capitulated to the university s adents who are now again in 1970 demonstrating at Nanterre against the very university self-government that Faurd was villified for having forced the Assembly to accept in 1968
What then can we say is the experience of the North that may be relevant to maximizing popular participation as a means-in the language of Title IX-for sustained economic and social progress What is the role of manpower and employment policy in the process of social democratization
We have seen clearly in recent years that manshypower policy has an essential complementary role to economic policy-for human resource developshynient and more particularly for training to meet
8
the opportunities and needs of the labor market and for solving the structural problems involved in the continuous restructuring of the modern econshyomy which means both concern for the producshytivity and for minimization of unemployment
But this limited conception of manpower and employment policy is I think it fair to say someshywhat neutral with respect to social goals In authorshyitarian societies it is possible to imagine an efficient manpower and labor market policy quite inconsistent with a democratic society But even in Western societies we have more than a few intishymations that economic progress can be frustrated by frustrations of workers who feel alienated from soliety who feel they have no responsible role no share in decision-making no recognition no social status
The problem of the LDCs is more difficult and I must defer to those with more experience in these
special probleis As implied in Title IX the task is to develop democratic social institutions where they dont exist and where they may be in fact reshysisted by the beneficiaries of the old order I supshy
pose the experience of the North is that it is a slow process Nonetheless the democratic institutions of the North have evolved out of self help in the
creation of instruments of self governance not only in civil arrangements of local government and the political state but in the productive process and on the labor market We should not ignore or undershyestimate the democratic aspects of a free labor marshyket of a market economy or a capitalist society even if we dont wish to press the historic connecshytions between a market economy and political deshymocracy in the West
It is the special virtue of the policy expressed in Title IX that while trying not to impose our preshyconceptions on others we take a long view and fosshyter those elements of education training cooperashytivism land reform and trade unionism that are instruments for self help for both the political and economic man
To come back to my text it is a slow proCess but the only prospect for responsible bargaining the essence of the political process in a democracy is for the dispossessed to become possesse(l to have a stake-and to know the payoff is high-in the viashybility of the economy and the political state Which means to have confidence in their own strength and a sense of responsibility and participashytion in the adjustment processes of society Rememshyber Sweden and remember Francel
9
TITLE IX AND MANPOWER PROGRAMS OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
by Burnie Merson
The goals of Title IX of the Foreign Assistance planning level nationally regionally and locally of Act are stated in general terms These goals are to workers farm and employer organizations in deshydevelop citizen participation in the creation of the velopment of policy and programs to achieve full goods and services needed for economic develop- prodtctive freely chosen employment These and ment and their participation in the fruits of the in- other regional eriployment and manpower planshycreased produictivity resulting from economic ning programs have set the basic structure of world growth However before it is possible to develop and regional manpower plans which stress not the required policies and programs to achieve the only full employment but freely chosen employ objectives of Title IX it is necessary to clearly de- nient fine what is meant by citizen participation and to The achievement of popular participation restate the objectives of Title IX in more specific through productive and freely chosen employment terms will be limited without the opportunity on the
Restatement of Title IX in terms of specific ob- part of the labor force of all ages youth as well as jectives with respect to manpower would relate to adult workers for further educational and occupashycitizen participation in the development process of tional training Also to widen the employment op a country through such matters as job developshy portunities of the workers there must be a broadenshynuent skill development increased worker produc- ing of the occupational choice available to the tivity and improvement of the labor market mech- labor force Qualified jo) seekers may be barred anism This paper briefly discusses the major kinds from available job openings as a result of a number of manpower programs and objectives which I be- of factors These include improper functioning of lieve will help meet the objectives of Title IX It the labor market which impedes matching of men also discusses some of the activities of the interna- and jobs discrimination because of race creed tional and regional organizations which are related color an( unreal educational standards which go to these programs far beyond the needs of the job
One basic element of popular participation The above impediments -are found in virtually should be the development of prpductive jobs every developing country in which I have had some Provision of both full and productive employment experience and in all cases these impediments lead enables those seeking work to have the opportunity to frustrations To cite several examples illtistratshyto obtain remunerative jobs which are essential not ing these impediments to matching of men and only to enable the workers to obtain income jobs In one country because of family structure needed for basic food shelter and clothing but certain good jobs are only available to those who also to permit them to participate in the benefits of conie from the right families In another country any increased outitput of goods and services in the tnless you have the right diplomas front the right country university you are barred from jobs at certain lev-
Another basic element of popular participation els in the government This is so despite the fact is the idea of workers freely choosing their employ- that there are often highly competent people who ment The International Labor Office Basic Con- get education training and experience on-the-job vention 122 the Ottawa Plan for Resource Devel- and are quite qualified for these other jobs Yet opment the Asian plan and the Jobs and Skills they cannot move up to them because they do not program for Africa call for the participation at the have theproper credentials
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There also can be important impacts on popular participation in the development process through tie minimum wage and social security programs
Minimum wages appropriately administered and
established can play a significant role in establishshy
ing levels of staldards of living consistent with the
objectives of welfare and ians dignity However the minimumn wage levels if raised too high can
have significant adverse effects on employment pro)spects for certain segments of the p pIlation
For example youths seekiiig summer jobs -nd pershysons with low skills and inadequate training may be priced out of the job market Social security simishy
larly can have an important and valuable impact on the standard of living of a country However its value depends upon the incidence of the tax and
how it results in the redistribution of the fruits of production to various segments of the population
The workers sense of participation in the develshyoping process is significantly enhanced if there is
participation through the trade union Trade unshyions can be important not only because of direct
participation in the economic development of a
cotintry but also because they van develop cooperashytion with other sectors of the p 2ation as represhyselited by employer associations and farm groups Similarly the government in its operations through ilh labor miiinistries is an important factor
inl deveiopinent of the institutioinal capabilities for matching men and jobs and developing skills as well as establishiig safety and labor standards And there also is the whole gamut of government reshy
lated institutions which help bring the workers in
closer con tact with tlie government and with the
developmenclt process
The programs aid objectives of the various inshy
ternational orgainiatiolis such as the 110 Convenshy
tion 122 and the Declaration of Cundinamarca
have in my judgment important goals consistent
with the objectives of Titll IX For example the Declaration of Cundinamarca notes that there
Can be no effective cconoinmic and social developshy
ment unless the legitimate rights of labor are recshy
ognized aind the aopirations of the workers are
expressed in terms of concrete achievements involvshy
ing wages eliployimieit working con(ditions social
security health housing and education In accomshy
plishing these tasks the Ministries of Labor have a
vital role to play They should be the ones to take
appropriate steps toward the establislument in each
of their coiintries of a National Council of Human
Resources at the highest level This Council should
be structured to conform with the constittition of the particular country The participation of a wide number of groups should he contemplated includshying universities representatives of employers minshyistries of education vocational training centers national planning offices bureaus of statistics nashytional productivity (cliters and other pertinent agencies that may exist in a given country The Declaration had particularly strong recommendashytions regarding the inclusionl of re 1 resentatives of democratic trade unions employer organizations aud ministries of labor to study and evaluate tile degree of trade union freedom and participation of the workers in the formulation and execution of national development programs
Any) popular participation on the international scene is represented by the ILO and OAS resolushytion predate Title IX of the Foreign Assistance Act In some respects the tying of the manpower program to a broad participation policy is easier than in other fields Manpower has always had a wide or horizonital iniput into almost all sectors of the economy It is it only coicerned with the varshyious industrial sectors-agriculture nonagriculture
bti also public adm inistration edtication health and military sectors This may often be forgotten becatise depending upon specific needs one may look at manpower solely from a single sectorial
stanlpoint Also it is difficult to handle and to look at manpower as ani interrelated system For examshy
ple an emiiployieit service Imay runia teacher
placelelit scrvice a farm placement service and services to the private andillpblic sectors It may also be concenlied with occupational safety both in the public and private sectors Also when an agency attem pts to measure uinemploymen t it usually covshyers all sectors of the population it does not ignore one or aiiot her if possible
Finally a comninet is required on the possibility of developing participation of various groups ill maiipower programs My experience in Korea and Taiwan iidicates that it is possible to do So with considera ble success In developilng plais for mallshy
power we enlisted the consmtiiers of the output of vocational schools anid the various trailing agenshycies as well as the public aul private sector groups We brought together people from the educatioial sector government in general as well as business
an(d commerce with tle vocatiollal and technical training agencies Of course for special problems arising out of the nature of the country and their social and political customs there was cooperation
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both in providing indication of the nature of their needs as well as providing in some irstances finan-cial support In other instances industry provided shop teachers and brought foremen in from plants in order to show teachers the way things were done in industry
Rcview of the current international manpower
activities in my judgment indicates that in this syea there is at least tle beginning of programs and
actions which can help bring into fruition thc obshyjcdvcs of Title IX if thcy are broadened and dishyrcid more specifically towards the goals of full citizen participation in thcountrys development programs
13
SEVEN SIGNS FOR THE 1970s
by Seymour Wolfbein
In many years of study of manpower developshyments in the United States I have found that one can single out certain trends and changes in the economy which are highly significant as signposts or directional signs for probable future developshyments I would like to submit that there are a handful of such trecnds on which we can concenshytrate as playing sig~nificant roles in the manpower developments over the next decade Although these developments may have different importance and different values for devcloping countries I would also submit that they are of sufficient importance to be given serious consideration in any nalysis of manpower developments in the developing counshytries The following lists the seven developments that I believe are of greatest importance at present
1 Tcchnological change
2 Industrial an(d occupational change
3 Geographic change
4 Educational change
5 Population change
6 Manpower change
7 Disaggregation
Technological change Although the various items are not listed according to their relative imshyportance I would say that it is not possible to talk about moving ahead in any discussion of manshy
power or economic development without first conshysidering the problem oi technological change and its impact upon not only manpover but all aspects of life In the United States over the last 25 years output per man hour has been going ill) at about
the rate of 3 a year Thus over this period outshyput in the United States per man hour has doushybled Over the long run this is really only a blink of time A number of rather startling examples of the impact of such change in the United States can be found Let us look at agriculture for example
In that sector for the last 20 years in a row the United States has lost 200000 jobs per year off the farm Yet farm output over the period has inshycreased by more than 40 It was also during this
period that we were able to land a man on the l11OO1i
Industrial and occupational change Developshyments in the industrial-occupational area is one that most certainly cannot be ignored when conshysidering problems of popular participation Even in the United States most people are startled when it is pointed out that two out of every three people who work for a living in the United States produce services rather than goods As a result of these changes the number of professhysional workers now outnumber all of the skilled workers-one out of three persons who work for a living in the country are either professional personshynel or they are clerical workers such as secretaries stenographers and typists These conditions are also reflected in the dynamics of the working popushylation with the result that the proportion of the working population organized by the trade union movement has been going down since the end of World War II This trend apparently seems to be continuing It is therefore to be expected that in the next several years the major industrial relations actions will be going On in the service-producing side
Geographic change We are all aware that there has been tremendous migration out of the rural areas and tremendous growth in urbanization in this country since World War II The scope of these developments may be more fully understood when it is noted that three States in the United States (California Texas and Florida) account for one out of every six jobs Moreover these States in 1969 accounted for one-fifth of all the personal inshycome as neasured in the Gross National Product acounts With such concentrations of population
15
what does it do to the problem of job creation How does one handle this kind of dynamics in reshylation to this problem To further complicate the matter there is this tremendous intracity migration ie exodus to the suburbs Thus the geographic parameter of job development in itself is an amazshying phenomena
Educational change Formal education in this country has expanded substantially to the point where at present some 60 of the persons three to 31 years of age are formally registered in school When one looks at the so-called professional pershysonnel one finds that for the group as a whole the median years of school completed is seventeenshythat is equivalent to a masters degree Remember this is the median We must also remember that the professional category includes beauticians and opticians as well as physicians and physicists Thus even with ccrtaii occupations which require relatively few years of schooling the median is still 17 years But the most important factor here is that there is a world of difference betwcen median years of school completed and educational achievement The real question is what is the quality and the nashyture of the output to be obtained from these years of schooling Is the schooling being directed toshywards those occupations and activities which will be most needed in the 1970s It is estinatel by the Department of Labor that in the 1970s we are going to need as much manual talent as academic talent but will we be getting it
Will our vocational training program be realistishycally geared to meet the current needIs or to conshytinue as some of them are to provide training that is of little relationship to the industrial world of today
Population change We have experienced in the United States as in iost other countries since World War II a phenomenal rise in (he populashytion The birth rate in the United States showed sul)stantial increases until recently and has now deshyclined substantially But it lutist be noted that this lower birth rate is being applie(l as the demograshyphers say to an increasing number in the cohort of females of child-bearing age Therefore although the rate of births may be low the number of births is still high The growth in population since 1915 in this country for example has been such that in this 25 years half of the population of the United States was horn-a little over 100 million Accordshying to the 1970 population preliminary estimates the population at present is some 205 million as
compared to 170 million in 1960 or an increase over the decade of over ten liercent Another way of looking at it is that one out of every three people alive today in the United States was not born yet fifteen years ago We are already aware of the growth in the youth population and the problems that developed in connection with youth but it would seen that this problem may be further inshytensified
Manpower change The Labor Department proshyjections for the 1970s indicate that we may expect a 22 increase in the labor force during this decshyade This is an unprecelented and unparalleled inshycrease in the labor force never experienced before in the United States Most important of course in this increase is what it will do to the composition of the labor force Two changes come to mind readshyily First despite the so-called population and labor force explosion there is a decline in the popshytilation age group 35 to 44 We know that the soshycalled manpower profile in the Unitd States looks like an hour glass-there is a big batch of young people coming tip and a big batch of older
people It has vital implications for manpowertraining and for employers who wish to hire people in the age group that has had some work experishyence or career development This sector of the popshyulation is declining The second factor of equal importance is that one out of seven new workers coming up in the 1970s is going to be black
Disaggregation For the lack of finding a better term I use disaggregation By that I mean that it is necessary to look at the previous six developshyments and to consider them in some specific kinds of detail The point that is of particular imporshytance in the context of population participation and of job creation is that these six trends could be very beneficial for economic development But there is a large part of the population not only in the United States but in many other countries of the world which have not benefited from these trends and it is with these groups that in the imshymediate years ahead the problens will be greatest in terms of job creation and job development The
question will be bow to get the various parts of the
population together and to participate in these particular tasks
It may very well be right to say as I did preshyviously that we are now a service-producing econshyomy that we are a white collar group but in terms of the problems to be faced in connection with parshyticipation we must recognize the fact that a subshy
16
stantial part of the population even in the United States is not part of these what we have called mainstream developments Let us turn to some specific illustrations of what I mean For example the fact of the matter is that over 25 of all Negro males who work in this country are in one
occupation group while almost 50 of all Negro women are in one occupational group The males
are conacentrated in the operatives group occupashytion this is the occupation in this country which it
is anticipated will be declining in terms of employshyment opportunities in the 1970s Negro womens employment is concentrated in the service occupashytions
Let us disaggregate another general figure that is given continual attention-the unemployment rate In May (1970) the aggregate unemployment rate
was 50 seasonally adjusted But when one looks at nonwhite teenage males we find that the unemshyploymnent rate for this group ranges between 25 and
30 more than five times higher than the aggreshygate rate We can i am sure find many other exshyamuples of instances where certain groups of the population have benefited from the latest developshyments
To turn to the developing countries where in many instances the kinds of development we have discussed in the United States have not reached the same levels I would say that if in these countries they do not have the same discrete and distinguishshyable movements in the direction that the Western World has gone they will not have the kind of growth we are attempting to stimulate and foster
Certainly we will have dismally failed to learn from our own experiencc if we do not attempt or recognize that rts must be made as the developshying countries groi and as these basic trends imporshytant to growth begin to become more apparent to continuously watch the developments to determine if there are any groups in society who are not parshyticipating and benefiting from the trends and are falling by the wayside If it is at all possible we should be trying to bring these people in at the earliest stages of the developiment rather than wait until there are wide disparities among various paris of the population such as have developed in the Western World In this sense the purpose of
participation is vital in that if the idea is accepted and developed in the developing countries it should avoid what occurred in the Western World
17
JOB CREATION IN AGRICULTURE
by Thomas F Carroll
This paper presents what might be called a posishytion of agricultural fundamentalism with respect to policy for employment creation-deliberate employshyment creation in the developing countries
Up to very recently development economists and developers in general have been emphasizing growth theories that stress global GNP growth It is only now that questions on how GNP is distribshyuted and on how various groups in the developing countries benefit from development are becoming increasingly asked The employment and income distribution issue is becoming a fashionable foreshyfront topic among development planners This is reflected in such material as the Pearson Report Professor Myrdals report on Asia and the Peterson Report and one that is about to appear on Latin America by Professor Prebisch
We have had a great deal of theorizing and of practice from developing countries which can be characterized as the trickle down theory of deshyvelopment that has left those who are most able to use resources to develop them The AID organization and in particular the World Bank have followed this approach of putting resources where in the short run they will produce the largshyest output and then let the governments tax or otherwise acquire some of the surplus and redistribshyute it among the poorer urban and rural sectors
It is an attack on the whoe trickle down theshyory of development that I see now among developshymentalists It appears that in many recent studies this trickle down theory does not seem to work because even if some of the surplus can be captured for injection into education social welfare and other low-income support programs there is a gross inefficiency in the process Since government takes such a predominant place in managing these reshysources these inefficiencies are very noticeable
Since my recent work has been particularly strong on Latin America my illustrations and emphasis are on that particular continent
A great deal of the surplus gets stuck at the middle and upper level consumption patterns which increasingly are modeled on the consumpshytion patterns of the middle classes in the developed countries Thus if you go to a Latin American city you will find that the middle classes consume about the same basket of commodities-automobiles teleshyvision sets gadgets of all sorts-as we do in US suburbia This has put an enormous pressure on the developing countries infant industries and also on the balance of payments because a great deal of these products had to be imported
Another reason why the trickle down theory has not worked is that it ignored the labor potenshytials of an overwhelming proportion of the populashytion In such countries as Brazil or India 50 to 70 percent of the population is in the underdeveloped portion of the population in the urban and rural sectors the most important resource in this type of country is the labor resource This labor resource is very poorly utilized under the trickle down theshyory of development In the US and other develshyoped countries only a fraction of the labor force and population is in this poor range
I shall not dwell in length upon the inadequacies of industrial and urban jobs to absorb significant amounts of the migrant rural population There is increasing evidence that industry is becoming more capital intensive The types of industry that have been developing especially after the import substishytution drive has been satisfied offer very few jobs The lower productivity service sector while genershyally absorbing more labor than manufacturing has expanded in a very inadequate fashion and much of it has been disguising very large amounts of semi-employed people
Hence it is desirable to think not only of overshyall economic policies of development which are more labor-absorbing but it is desirable to have
specific rural policies that absorb productively
19
rural people so as to reduce migration to the urban areas
With respect to Latin America with a very high population growth-somewhere between 3 and 3 12 percent-in the late sixties the rural labor force is estimated to grow at the rate of about I million people annually even after assuming somewhat speeded-up migration rates Moreover there are no policies to productively absorb these people in agrishyculture On the contrary recent policies have beshycome increasingly capital intensive and the whole development strategy is generally strongly biased toward a rather labor extensive type of agricultural development as well
Let me briefly mention some of the policy defishyciencies that we have found not only in Latin America but Africa and Asia as well There is an overemphasis on commodity targets and balance of payment considerations in development planning There is very little attention to manpower planshyning in the various planning agencies and the tarshygets that are listed for development are very heavshyily oriented toward output-global macro-economic output-and commodity targets rather than institushytional targets which would involve human reshysource planning and income targets
There is a great deal of encouragement for capital intensive production techniques in public investment We see this in the development banks where much of the investment takes place in indusshytries with lines of pi oduction that offer very few jobs Perhaps the lending process itself with its emshyphasis on the project approach encourages this capshyital intensive bias
There is a strong urban bias in providing social services which encourages the out-migration from rural areas and which places great difficulties in the way of attracting and retaining qualified civil servshyants and leaders in rural areas There is a bias in the provision of social services jobs schools and other conditions that encourage not only job-wise but living level-wise the selective out-migration of competent rural people and prevents the return-mishygration of competent government officials teachers and others needed for the development of the rural areas
With respect to Latin America there is a lack of agrarian reform which is a fundamental defect in job creation in rural areas (This is not so true of Africa which has a more tribal and peasant-orishyented rural sector) There is very little recognition of the segmented nature of agriculture in developshy
ment planning They treat agriculture as a monoshylithic sector I can distinguish at least three differshyent sectors within agriculture such as the plantation sector which is export-oriented and for which deshyvelopment and employment policies will have to parallel the industrial planning techniques There is the semi-modern sector which is producing comshymodities for the market and has to some extent also a self-sufficient subsector And there is finally a really self-sufficient sector of a vast number of peasshyants who market very little and whose livelihood is within the traditional villages I think the developshyment policies and of course employment generashytion programs will have to be quite different for each of these sectors
Finally there is a strong emphasis on labor-reshyplacing types of technology particularly mechanizashytion that is imported intact from the developed countries wlere it serves a very good purpose A great deal of the pricing taxing subsidy policies as well as the activities of machinery companies are detrimental to a kind of development that would emphasize a slower transition from primitive agrishyculture to a very mechanized type of agriculture
Now to turn to policy recommendations let me briefly list certain suggestions for using simple iabor intensive labor absorbing techniques in deshyvelopment planning One of these is the recognishytion that in research and development on which we spend a great (eal of money and which developshying countries are just beginning to recognize as an investment item increasing stress should be placed on what many people are beginning to call intershymediate technology There is a great deal of reshysearch needed on micro-level agricultural developshyment ratier- than ihicro-level development and work of field economists anthropologists socioloshygists manpower planners is very much needed
There should be inter-disciplinary approaches to these micro-planning techniques and here I would like to enter a plea for not only technological planshyning but integrated social scince planning and research in the field of employment generating techshyniques I would emphasize very strongly developshyment of rural cooperatives and cooperative-like institutions in the rural areas that have the capashybility of mobilizing local people and to achieving economies of scale in development that normally individual type programs do not achieve These inshystitutions would be particularly valuable in such fields as credit marketing some types of producshytion and in machine services Also stronger emphashy
20
sis has to be placed on rural unions and syndicates particularly in Latin America This -is a very touchy problem because it is linked with the politishycal power structure
I also would like to point out the importance of decentralized agro-industrial planning I do not think we have touched upon the potentials of bringing jobs to rural people not only in agriculshyture but in agriculturally-related enterprises loshycated in or near urban areas This is something into which very little talent imagination and efshyfort and money has gone You will find that most of the industries are located in the large urban censhyters Very little is done to process agricultural prodshyucts or to create industrially-related enterprises
around primary production centers such as forests
pasture lands and crops which can be industrialshyized In this connection also I think there is a
great deal of learning to be done in stimulating
part-time and full-time industrial and semi-inshyclustrial employment opportunities in conjunction
with rural development programs A final point which needs to be strongly emphashy
sized I believe that it is not necessary to separate
or set up hardline criteria to distinguish between wealth-creating jobs and welfare (or income-subshy
sidy) jobs Acceptance of this dichotomy results in directing investment towards the activities with relatively high output potential Those of us who have been running agricultural credit programs find that among the small farmers we have the best credit risks We have farmers who have incredibly small businesses and repay their loans regularly while the larger landowners are always in arrears
Recent studies have repeatedly pointed out the big advantages of small irrigation works rather than big dams Studies have pointed out that entershyprise based on small peasant units is also highly productive because they utilize the peasants labor They are able to create wealth from work and to stimulate people to develop
I think that we have to take another look and a great deal of effort should go into the discovery of this middle ground where development projects particularly rural development or rurally-oriented deveopment projects can be both productive and socially satisfactory and at the same time soak up during the next few decades the surplus employshyment that is threatening not only the rate of growth but the basic political stability of many countries
21
UNITED STATES EXPERIENCE WITH UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDEREMPLOYMENT
by William Batt
We have no greater capital investment in any country in the world than we have in this country but we also have wide disparities in income It is true that we have more of a middle class than most developing countries but we still have dreadful problems of misdirection of funds For example if one looks at the national income data for all secshytions of the United States the District of Columbia appears as one of the wealthiest areas of the counshytry yet right in the middle of this city we have a section with desperate unemployment and tindershyemployment We have areas in the United States with unemployment rates as high as 25 to 30 pershycent
Although unemployment is an important ecoshynomic indicator it is not a particularly meaningful measure of economic conditions in rural areas beshycause of the problem of underemployment The data on unemployment developed in the 1950s by the Department of Labor focused attention on that 1roblem of depressed areas more effectively than had ever been done before And in recent studies concerned with ghetto unemployment attention was focused on the unemployment in the central cities as was national policy But it appears that we do not have similar extensive studies focused on the rural underemployment problem in the United States
We have this (lesperate rural underemployment in the United States today It exists in Eastern North Carolina and will probably worsen because of the automation in the tobacco industry This deshyvelopment will start immigrition by totally unpreshypared people to the cities of the North Among parts of ouir Indian population the unemployment data also reveal desperate poverty which even makes the Mississippi Delta look prosperous by comparison
When I read advertisements in the international edition of the New lork Times placed by developshy
ing governments such as Come put your factories in Nigeria or Come put your factories in Colomshybia or Uruguay I realize that the depressed areas of the world want the same thing that deshypressed areas in the United States want They want more job opportunities they want more industry so that there will be enough jobs there for which
people could train A study sponsored by the Area Redevelopment
Administration on what Western Europe was doing in the area of development indicates that they are ahead of us I believe that we might get more ideas from Western Europe to help South America than we do from the United States For exshyample Italy is investing 10 percent of its total inshycome in trying to make southern Italy more viable so that everybody in southern Italy does not have to leave the country to make a living I think that some combination of what the Italians are doing is what we also ought to be doing to a greater extent Of course the countries of Africa and the Southern Hemisphere do not have that tremendous inshydlustrial potential of northern Italy but the princishypIe is not invalid The principle is to help make these regions that are now depressed become ecoshynomically viable
The coal and steel community in Europe is doing a beautiful job for a very limited group It seems to me that the coal and steel community is doing ver-y well what we are doing not well at all in North Carolina Southern Italy is also doing things rather better than we are
The Secretary of Defense has announced an exshyceptionally large number of jobs are going to be cut in defense It seems to me that we must be able to figure out some better way than laying off people in aircraft companies in different parts of the counshytry When I was connected with economic developshyment work in Detroit many layoffs occurred every third year When I was running the Labor and Inshy
23
dustry Department in Pennyslvania one of the reshycessions in the 1950s cost us $400 million in unemshyployment insurance Thus the costs of doing nothing are pretty phenomenal
We are trying to do something to reduce these fantastic barriers to employment that keep people in an expanding economy from sharing the benefits of that economy We have classic cases in the public sector of jobs going begging by the hundreds because of absurd and irrelevant prereqshyuisites to employment To be a dog catcher in one city and they need a number of such workers you have to have a high school diploma and two years experience handling animals
I strongly agree with the following statement that if development does not produce more jobs and a fuller role in society for the working man (and I hope by the working man is meant someshybody besides the dues-paying member of unions) it can disrupt the world we know instead of buildshying a new one Improvements in GNP and exports investments have little meaning for the hundreds of millions who continue to live in conditions of barest subsistence squalor disease and despair Inshydeed in such circumstances the term developshyment would seem to be a serious misnomer if not a cruel delusion You may be leading people up the garden path and creating more problems than you are solving
24
ROLE OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BUSINESSMEN IN JOB CREATION
by William Haas
The National Alliance of Businessmen (NAB) was created in the manpower message of President Johnson to Congress on January 23 1968 He asked the private sector of the economy to take on the reshysponsibility of meeti major national challengeshyfinding jobs and providing job training for the hard core unemployed and under-employed
In response to this request the NAB was orgashynized by concerned leaders of the business comshymunity When President Nixon took office one of his first acts was to pledge his administrations comshy
plete and unqualified support to the NAB In fact the role of the business community and that of the NAB has been made even more important than beshyfore by President Nixons proposal for extensive changes in the national welfare and manpower training programs
The Presidents proposed plan is aimed directly at getting people off the welfare roles and onto payshyrolis and this puts the responsibility squarely on businessmen They must prove that the private secshytor of the economy with the appropriate governshyment assistance to cover the extra costs of hiring and training unskilled disadvantaged workers can provide the job opportunities that will make the Presidents program work
Orgainiationally the National Alliance of Busishy
nessmen is tinique It is an independent nonprofit corporation The Executive Board is composed of topflight businessmen from each geographic region of the nation Tiis lBoard established overall polshyicy The Executive Vice Chainn is responsible for the operations of NAB similar to that of a presshyident of a corporation and the Chief Executive Ofshyficers are from the ten regional offices across the nashytion
We are now expanding from 131 metropolitan offices to 200 metropolitan offices since we are now going nationwide and these offices are staffed by volunteers from industry and officials on loan from
government with approximately three people at each regional level and five at the metropolitan level In addition literally thousands of volunteers from business assist in carrying out the mission for which NAB was formed
The question may be asked Why should busishyness take on this challenge of finding jobs and job training for the unemployed and upgrading opporshytunities for under-employed people The most imshy
portant reason is that basically six out of every seven jobs in our country are in the private sector of the economy The businessmen are the ones who have the jobs
Businessmen are also the ones who know best what a worker should learn in order to do a job
properly If we can place the unemployed and unshyderemployed in meaningful jobs teach them how to (10 these jobs znd keep them employed we will have made a major inroad on poverty in our nashytion We will be giving new hope for productive lives to many people We will be helping our young people including many Vietnam veterans reshyturning to civilian life to build satisfying lives in their own home community
Bringing the unemployed into the mainstream of outr economy is not humanitarianism It pays off in dollars and cents for the company who gains a worker It pays off for the government by both savshying on welfare costs and gaining a taxpayer
The propran of the NAB is called JOBS which stand for Job Opportunities in the Business Sector As the title indicates this program is dishyrected towards the hiring training and retraining and upgrading meni and women for jobs in the prishyvate sector of the economy Out- initial goal was to
place 100000 hard core unemployed in meaningful jobs by July I of 1969 and that was more than met The new nationwide target for July 1 1971 is to
place 611000 hard core unemployed in productive jobs Against this objective approximately 25000
25
employers have already hired sonic 432800 persons Of this total hired approximately 305700 were hired by 21000 companies participating in the non-contract portion of the JOBS program and 127100 were hired by approximately 4000 compashynies participating under a NAB JOBS contract Of the 432800 persons hired about 228400 have reshymained on the job
We have also obtained the characteristics of the employee trainees from the simple hiring card emshyployers participating in the JOBS program are asked to submit This information shows that 73 percent of the trainees are male 27 percent are female About 75 percent of the workers aie beshytween 19 and 44 years of age 21 percent are under 19 and 4 percent over 45 or an average age of 247 years Also about 70 percent of the trainees are Negro 21 percent are white 6 percent Mexican-American 2 percent Puerto Rican and I percent of other origin The average family size of employee trainees is 36 persons Their education attainment averages about 10 12 grades of school They were unemployed an average of 212 weeks in the last year Their annual family income was approxishymately $2505
Hiring training retraining and upgrading the disadvantaged is not an easy task nor do we preshytend that it is When we ask a businessman to join with us in this program we do not want him to unshydertake a task under any illusions about the diffishyculties of the task
This is not any ordinary industry-hiring proshygram To aid us in these efforts the Department of Labor offers specific types of assistance programs These programs are designed to provide practical ways for all employers large and small to train inshyexperienced new employees without losing money on the cost involved in bringing these workers up to an average level of productivity
In response to the current economic slowdown NAB is giving increased emphasis to the upgrading portion of the JOBS program Employers particishypating under the contract part of the NABs job entry and upgrading program are compensated by the government for extraordinary training expenshyses to provide such support services as orientation basic job-related education special counselling and on-the-job training skills
If the employer believes that he does not have the in-house capability to provide these support services he can subcontract this phase to professhysional companies However the on-the-job skill training cannot be subcontracted This must be provided by the employers
Other areas that may be compensated include extra administrative and overhead costs supervishysory andl human relations training medical and dental services child care assistance and transporshytation assistance
The NAB JOB efforts in my opinion is one of the best manpower programs It offers real advanshytages to employers and job applicants
26
PRIVATE INVESTMENT AND JOB CREATING POSSIBILITIES
by Harriet S Crowley
I interpret private investment to mean any kind of private investment which has a payoff whether it is for profit or social reasons This rather broad definition of private investment is necessary for two reasons when related to job creating possibilishyties First since private profit investment area per se is a fairly limited one in the less developed counshytries its job creating effects will also be limited Secondly I believe that at present the private techshynical assistance program will be a more important source for job opportunities
I would like to diaw a backdrop with respect to investment n developing countries against which manpower planning and employment as well as the many other fields of development have to be considered A landimark which has gone pretty much unnoticed is that for the first time in the history of the international development effort the flow of private and public resources is about equal For the I year coniesUnited States about $2 billion a from the government and SI 12 billion is from private investment in profit-making enterprises Much of tlie latter is still in the extractive fields but increasingly more is in the manufacturing and service fields and in private technical assistance Proshygrams We now therefore do have a different set of flows of resouices than in earlier years
Anot her important backgrotnd factor is the fact that we are in a period of change in the United States ill altitludes toward the AID program The Peterson Report is an excellent example of this change Pat of the recommendations of that report is already in being tle creation in last years legshyislation of a new instrument for private investment to manage and conduct lie incentive programs and to get ioie private investment into the less develshyoped comiti ies This is now known as the Overseas Piivate I nvestment Corporation (OPIC) which will runt tle progranis of guarantees (extended risk guarantees) as well as surveys and related activishyties The formet programs are in operation and are
writing half a billion dollars worth of insurance a year roughly one-third of the total flow of private investment capital
The two other recommendations of the Peterson Report which probably affect most of the programs that we are interested in are the creation of a bank and the creation of the technical institute What is clearly implied by these changes is that there will be a reduced official presence overseas and that the US policy of development is going to be more reshy
sponsive and less aggressive and carried out to at least sonic extent within the framework of the multilateral analytical base and guidelines
Congress is not expected to act on any new proshy
posal uintil next year sometime The specific legislashytion is scheduled to be before Congress shortly after tihe first of the year There will clearly be a transishytion period between the enactment of that legislashytion and any new structures of organization There may be a period of almost two years in which peoshyple are not going to know whether they can comshymit funds for long range programs Durng this peshyriod it seems to metle private field should become More important partly because it is time for it to play a greater role and because there is going to be this vacuum In the manpower field it seems to me that all opportunity is being created for us to test sone of the programs which we have been supportshying at least partially if not completely For examshy
ple in tie case of cooperatives it should be possible to test their usefulness now in moving into this vacuum Can they with their modest amount of public funds attract private resources in addition to those they are beginning to put into their projshyects from others such as labor
Now to turn to the activities of private business One can find estimates of job creation of private investment ranging from $300 per manyear of emshy
ployment u) to about $7500 according to the Nashytional Industrial Conference Boards exercise in this field Clearly the record of employment vis-ashy
27
vis direct private investment is not very great Figshyures available for Latin America only show that in 1957 private investment of US private subsidishyaries were supposed to have created 830000 jobsshywhile in 1966 roughly ten years later the number of such jobs rose to 1230000 It had not even doulshybled in ten years
I think we do not know enough about the intanshygible results of direct private investment We have attempted on several occasions to get from corporashytions their social overhead spending in less develshyoped countries by their affiliates Estimates of 2 to 7 percent of their annual direct investment have been arrived at )) a variety of means including a Senate Subconunittee and special research projects This could really represent a tremendous amount of jobs in the aggregate
Aside from the training which individual corposhyrations carry on all the time there is a good deal of other social overhead investment in housing in edshytication healthi community development and conshytributions to things like the National Development Foundation Peace Corps projects and Voluntary Agency projects But we (o not know enough about these activities and about the results of cooperashytive efforts and credit unions in terms of job creashyion
There has been a movement in the last year or so in what for want of a better term I call the mini-investment field This is the very small capshyital investmient kind of a project with usually a very quick turiover They are springing out genershyally from non1-profit programs overseas which have reached a plateau in their normal technical assistshyance activities They ale recognizing that they can go no further witlouit somel productive capacity input into their programs whatever they may be There have appeae(l on the scene tlini gs like Tech noserve-a nonrlofit institution supported by the chirrclies Tlhey do feasibility studies to find small lprojects anI then they raise the needed capishytal They have had prezty good luck at such activities so far There ate also emerging small inshyvestment corporations stpported by Protestant reshy
ligiotis grams The Mennonites for several years have had such an investment corporation and have maintained porifolios between $300000 and s100000 overseas all the time This group puts it
in one project and takes it out perhaps in a couple of years sometimes even less and then puts it in another one They are able to (1o this bccause of their own people overseas who see these opportunishyties and who generally either have the skills needed for the project or know where to get a volunteer with the needed skills to give the technical assistshyance that may be necessary
Joint ventures are another set of activities that are just starting The Pan-American Development Foundation has been doing this in the small loan business for a while and I think it has quite a good record
Another one is Kodel which was started up by the Catholics but now has broadened to membershyship of a good sized number of other religious and non-religious groups This is a trend toward conshysortia action on the part of the private agencies all of whom jealously like their independence and their own identity That has been a very hard block for them to overcome but they are overcomshying it and they are putting together their varied resources to direct them into major projects I think this is very encouraging because all of these
projects are at the grass roots small in nature pershyhaps but if there are enough of these they begin to expand and spread
Some 80 of these registered voluntary agencies are operating programs of around $600 million three-quarters of which is their own and the rest is from government support
In conclusion I should like to make two brief comments regarding our activities in the private sector First we are very happy to go out and use
private organizations for contract purposes often as substitute for direct hire-a better substitute in many cases This is something we should be able to do These are national resources and we have some responsibility it seems to me in this field However we often do not do a very good job of guidance for th~m Secondly I also believe that private organizashytions are going to have to demonstrate a much greater management capability on their own and a better ability to negotiate with those governments to implement their own programs without support services il) to now generally being offered by our missions and embassies
28
POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES
by Samuel H Burt
Among the major distinguishing features of the American public education system is the fact that its schools have always been considered as belongshying to the public as being in the service of the public and to be served by the public on a volunshyteer basis as a matter of civic and communityr reshysponsibility The desire to be involved in puiblic education stems in part from the special status prestige and power accorded to educated persons as well as to persons connected with education in any way In many communities the chairman of a local board of education has more prestige than the elected mayor
The current furor unrest and criticism of our public schools is proof that the American publicshyor rather the many publics which comprise Amershyica-still demand a high degree of responsiveness to their need from public education administrators and professional staff In the finest tradition of our democratic society these various publics have eishyther voluntarily organized citizens school commitshytees or been organized by school administrators to serve on Volunteer advisory committees in order to help improve one or more aspects of public educashytion
The major rationale for such service is that our public schools are seen as societys major vehicle for tralsimitting to youth those precepts concepts and traditions on whi h our society has flourished in the past and must depend upon for continuing growth and success in the future
There is also a growing recognition that the problems of public education are basic central to and inextricably intertwined with other major problems of modern society-housing urbanization crime inlustrialiation civil rights jobs for mishynorities narrow professionalization and all the other factors which make or break the American Dream for each individual in our nation
Among all the publics comprising our national
life none has been more aware of the critical role and potential of public education than businessshymen manufacturers labor leaders and employers in agriculture and the professions-hereinafter reshyferred to in the aggregate as industry Motivated by the need for a continuing flow of well-educated and well-trained youth industry has voluntarily asshysisted schools to enrich expand and improve those
programs in the public schools directly related to industrys manpower needs-vocational and technishycal education For over 50 years industry has been involved in a variety of activities and services deshysigned to gear vocational education to industrial
operations But it is upon the same 20000 formally orgashy
nized industry-education cooperating and advisory committees composed of some 100000 volunteer industry representatives that sophisticated vocashytional educators depend for sustained and meanshyingful involvement in the schools It is this orgashynized involvement which is credited with making vocational education programs relevant to the needs of students and employers While there are
many authorities in the field of vocational educashytion who would argue this responsiveness there is general agreement that proper and effective utilishyzation of industry-education cooperating and adshyvisori y committees could indeed achieve this goal
So strong and pervasive is this belief that by 1965 every state had either passed a law or issued regulashytions requiring public schools to utilize volunteer advijory committees for all vocational programs in the schools Despite the fact that such laws have been honored more in the breach than in practice the 1968 Amendments to the Vocational Education Act of 1963 mandated the establishment of a Nashytional Advisory Council on Vocational Education
and State Advisory Councils on Vocational Educashytion for each state receiving federal vocational edushy
cation funds These Councils are composed of volshy
29
unteer representatives from the general public inshydustry and education As a consequence vocational education has become the only field of public edishycation which by law must utilize volunteer coMshymittees of interested citizens at the national state and local levels There has been an abiundance of voluntcers to serve on these committecs One reashyson for such service was discussed earlier ie the prestige which accrues to volunteer service in public education A second motivating factor is rooted in the hope that involvement in a vocashytional education program will not only help imshyprove that program hut will abo serve as a direct source of trained manpower supply for those comshypanics working with the school people There are also such motivational factors as the desire of adults to help young people in starting their cashyreers to receive 1 ublic recognition (personally and for the company) as a concerned citizen to be acshyknowledged as an expert and leader in ones field and to be considered altruistic and even philanshythropic by ones friends business associates and family circle through volunteer involvement in edshyucation
It is because people (o respond to organized appeals to these motivational factors that it has been possible for vocational educators to deshyvelop in the US a national system of cooperating and advisory commitcees and councils to forge an industry-education partnership in cooperation with government-for the purpose of developing manshypower skills creating jobs and the matching of workers with jobs
This system is as yet but dillily perceived and litshytle understood Our remaining discussion will cenlshyter around the roles responsibili ties and relationshy
ships of the various levels of these committees and councils as they are currently being utilized for achieving popular participation in public vocashytional education
1 The National Advisory Council on Vocashytional Education
The 1968 Amendments to the Vocational Educashytion Act of 19(33 established a National Advisory Council on Vocational Education composed of 21 leading national representatives from industry edshy
For a disrcusion of legisiation affecting vocational eiicashytion advisory conunitlies e Sanmnel Mf Burt 7ndustry and floratIionalTehil Iuration York McGraw-HillI lltit (New Book Co 1967) ant Smnnutl N1 Burl The Sate Advifory Councils on Iawational Eduration (Kalamizoo The W E Upjohin Institute for Employment Research 1968)
ucation and the general public Members are apshypointed by the President of the US Functions of the Council are broadly stated in the Act as to
(a) Advise the US Commissioner of Educashytion concerning the administration of preparashytion of general regulations for and operation of vocational education programs receiving federal funds
(b) Review the administration operation and effectiveness of vocational education proshygrams make recommendations thereto and publish reports of its findings and recommenshydations to the Secretary of the Department of Health Education and Welfare for transmittal to Congress
(c) Conduct independent evaluations of voshycational education programs and publish and distribute reports of such evaluations
(d) Review possible duplications of vocashytional education programs and publish and distribute reports and recommendations to the Secretary of HEW
The Act also provides funds for staff to be emshyployed by the National Council in conducting its activities and carrying out its t esponsibilities
While the National Council has no operational nor administrative responsibilities for the conduct of vocational education programs its independent status and legislative authority for review and evalshyuation does give it strong investigatory powers Furthermore since its findings and recommendashytions are required to be published and distributed the ouncil can be expected to have considerable impact on Congressional deliberations concerning all facets of vocational education at the national level
Although tlie relationship established by the Act between the National Council and tle State Advisshyory Councils on Vocational Education is one of reshyceiving reports from the State Councils as deshyscribed below the National Coumicil carly opted to work closely with tle State Councils As a matter of fact at the requcest of the State Councils the Nashylional Council is providing a considerabie degree of leadership to the State Councils It appears that much of the voik of the National Council will be based on reports submitted by the State Councils The National Council ii also serving as a clearing hdouse of imiforIuationl and conununiilications for tie various State Councils includinug conduct of speshycial studies for use by the Staic Councils in the deshyvelopment of their activities
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2 The State Advisory Councils on Vocational 3 Local Advisory Committee on Vocational Ed-Education ucation
In addition to establishing the National Advishysory Council the 1968 Amendments to the Vocashytional Education Act of 1963 also mandated the establishment of a State Advisory Council on Vocashytional Education by every State receiving federal funds for vocational education Members of the State Councils are appointed by the Governor or in those states in which State Boards of Education are elected members of the Advisory Council are appointed by the Board
The functions of the State Councils as specified by the Act are to
1 Evaluate the effectiveness of the vocational education programs services and activities throughout the state
2 Assist the State Board through consultation initiated by the Board in preparing the State Plans for Vocational Education
3 Advise the State Board on the development of
policy matters arising in the administration of vocational education programs
4 Prepare anid submit through the State Board to the US Commissioner of Education and the National Advisory Council on Vocational Education an annual evaluation report of voshycational cducation programs with recommenshydations for such changes as may be considshyered appropriate and warranted
The Act also provides funds for staff to be emshy
ployed by the State Councils While tile State Councils have no administrative
or operating responsibilities they are independent of albeit advisory to the State Boards of Educashytion amid to the State Departments of Education Ilici published reports an( recommendations can I)e expected to not only have an impact on vocashytional education decisions of state governors and state legislators State Boards and Departments of Education but also on the US Office of Education and the National Advisory Council on Vocational Education It is still too soon to determine how successful the State Councils will be in functioning independently of and at the same time interdeshy
pendently with the established bureatucracy of the State Departments of Education and other state agencies dealing with vocational education trainshying and manpower development
Within the states the use of advisory committees of industry people by vocational educators is manshydated in every state either by state law or by rules an(d regulations issued by State Departments of Edshyucation Except for a few states advisory commitshytees are required only for occupational education
programs conducted in a school receiving federal funds Requirements are usually met by the school listing the names of the advisory committee memshybers when requesting funds from the State Departshyment of Education Rarely is provision made by the state for special staff to service the committees or to promote industry-education cooperation Guidelines provided by the State Departments of Education stress the advisory nature of the commitshytees and warn the educators not to allow the comshymittees to become involved in administrative or operational matters Despite the lack of positive and constructive leadership on the part of most State Departments of Education in the field of efshyfective utilization of industry committees at the local levels sophisticated vocational educators and industry groups have developed various types of non-legally required advisory committees as effecshytive instrumentalities and strategies for involving industry and vocational education It is these nonshymandated committees which when added to the leshygally required committees provide the characterisshytics and format of the nationally organized system discussed in the paper
(a) The School System General Advisory Comshymittee
A number of large school systems throughout the country have appointed General Advisory Comshymittees on Vocational Education to serve in an advisory capacity to the Director of Vocational Edshyucation the superintendent of schools and occashysionally to the Board of Education This type of committee is used in helping plan long-range school system policy and objectives for vocational educashytion and to help determine relative emphasis and
priorities that should be given to various elements of the program at any particular time Once policy and priorities have been agreed upon the commitshytee may engage in activities to obtain public supshyport and any needed legislation and funds These activities of course go beyond the advisory stashytus which marks the planning and policy determishynation assistance functions for which the commitshytee was established
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Membership in these committees is usually drawn from the ranks of top level management in the community and includes leaders of community and industry groups economic development agenshycies and government agencies concerned with manshypower development Appointment is usually made by the school superintendent sometimes by the chairman of the school board The Director of Voshycational Education usually serves as secretary to the committee
(b) The School General Advisory Committee Many large area vocational schools technical inshy
stitutes and community colleges have established general advisory committees on vocational educashytion to assist in formulating general plans and polshyicies for the school These committees have proven invaluable in helping determine what programs should be offered by the schools priorities to be asshysigned in initiating and expanding programs and in obtaining industry-wide and public support for the school Membership is usually composed of pershysonnel directors plant superintendents vice-presishydents of large companies owners of medium size businesses trade association and labor organizashytions minority groups representatives and represhysentatives of economic development agencies and government agencies concerned with manpower deshyvelopment The assistant president dean of inshystruction or assistant director of the school usually serves as secretary to the general advisory commitshytee Since the committee is established to serve a
particular institution it is rare unfortunately for the committee to become involved in or knowlshyedgeable about what other similar institutions are doing or what other vocational education and training programs are being offered in the geoshygraphic area generally served by the school
(c) Departmental Advisory Committees
If a vocational school is offering several related industry courses eg bricklaying carpentry and construction electricity these courses may be orgashynized into a Construction Technology Department supervised by a department head and perhaps served by a departmental advisory committee
Membership of a departmental advisory commitshytee usually consists solely of representatives of the industry for which the courses are being offered The major responsibility of the departmental adshyvisory committee is to make certain that the school provides for and properly supports the educational and training program needed by the industry The
departmental advisory committee not only serves in an advisory capacity to the department head but also supports him in any requests to his supervisors for program improvement and expansion The committee may also meet with the several occupashytional cooperating committees serving the instrucshytors within the department
(d) Occupational Cooperating Committees Practically all discussions literature laws and
regulations dealing with vocational education adshyvisory committees are concerned with the concept and practices of the occupational committee insistshying that such committees are advisory only Despite such statements these committees function in fact as instrumentalities for achieving cooperation beshytween education and industry rather than as a deshyvice for educators to obtain advice from industry This dichotomy between theory and practice is the source of considerable confusion among both vocashytional educators ahd industry people Nevertheless these occupational cooperating committees have been and are responsible for the bulk of industry people voluntarily involved in vocational educashytion and for annually contributing millions of dolshylars and even more millions of hours in the service of vocational education
School officials look to membership on these comshymittees from frontline supervisory staff owners of small companies and representatives from unions and trade associations connected with a particular occupation Members of the committees are usually those individuals in a company who are directly reshysponsible for hiring and training new employees
Over 30 specific cooperative service activities have been identified as being offered by occupashytional committees They can be classified under the headings
1 Engaging in student recruitment selection and placement activities
2 Improvement of instructional program offershyings through evaluation and enrichment
3 Providing assistance to teachers for personal and professional growth
4 Providing prizes financial aid scholarships and other forms of honors to outstanding stushydents
5 Engaging in industry and public relations support of the school program
The occupational cooperating committees are the foundation and strength of the national advishy
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sory committee system described in this discussion They provide the opportunity for industry people and vocational educators to engage in cooperative action and involvement at the local community levshyel-where the real action takes place-in the schools
Summary
In a society in which a persons work is a prishymary determinant of his personal and social status there is ar obvious relationship between the world of school and the world of work This relationship calls for a high degree of compatability and coopershyation between industry and school people to make vocational education relevant to the manpower needs of the economy and to make industry responshysive to the mission and needs of vocational educashytion
In pursuit of these mutually beneficial goals inshydustry and education in the US have developed over a period of some 50 years the concept and practice of a national system of formally organized advisory and cooperating committees at the nashytional state community school and individual
program levels At each level we find different groups of leading citizens involved because of difshyfering demands from and services to be provided For example a general advisory committee to a local school system calls for representation from community minority groups but an advisory-coopshyerating committee for an occupational program in a school requires representation from front-line sushypervisors directly engaged in hiring and training new employees While this national system is far from being fully recognized and fully utilized a framework-established by law-does exist and the potential is perceived by mur nations leaders in both industry and education
Laws written by professional administrators and lawyers concerning utilization of volunteer citishyzens can and do leave yt to be desired Despite the fact that many professional educators are disshytrustful of volunteer citizen participation in such a complex field as public education so many benefits have accrued to youth adults schools industry local communities and our nation as a result of inshydustry-education cooperative partnerships as to warrant efforts to increase such cooperation manyshyfold
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TAIWAN AND KOREAN EFFORTS IN MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT THROUGH SCHOOL AND INDUSTRY COOPERATION
by James D Murray
Although the skilled labor force of a country is developed in a number of ways the public and prishyvate vocational schools play a very important role The primary purpose of this part of the educashytional program is to prepare the student for useful employment Vocational education means more than training for specific job skills It develops abilities understandings attitudes work habits and appreciations which contribute to a satisfying and productive life This breadth of training makes it possible for the graduates of the vocashytional schools to adjust to rapid technological changes in their fields and advance quickly on the job In due time those graduates with leadership abilities can achieve supervisory positions Vocashytional education also has the responsibility of proshyviding supplementary training in occupational skills and related technical knowledge to make emshyployed adults more productive This is usually accomplished through an evening program
This paper discusses my experiences (using Taishywan as an example) in developing school and inshydustry cooperation through advisory committees in designing realistic vocational educational programs geared to the manpower needs of a developing conitry The paper also comments on the use of skill contests and participation in the Skill Olymshy
pics (with particular reference to Korea) to gain acceptance for vocational education and to build status for the skilled workers
The Taiwan Program
In the Taiwan program I worked with the Vocashytional Teacher Training Institution eight technishycal high schools and the Institute of Technology which is a post-high school in most respects With regard to the Institute of Technology my assignshyment to reorganize this old established institution to properly equip it and train the faculty provides a good example of the nature of problems involved
in developing a meaningful and iiseful advisory committee
The first step in this undertaking was to have the
president of the school and the faculty obtain an understanding of what an advisory committee should do and how it should operate I was fortushynate in being able to obtain the full cooperation of the president of the school It was therefore possible for me to put before the president of the Institute material from the many US pamphlets on how to organize a school industry advisory committee which I adapted as best I could to (he local situashytion He in turn gave it to his department heads they read it we discussed it and I thought I would run -t little check and do a little role playing with the president of the Institute calling the meeting going through all the procedures including writing of invitations to prospective members of the comshymittee
We got off to a reasonably good start but then additional progress became difficult We could see that the true understanding of what an advisory committee should do and how it should operate was not getting through Fortunately (not by inshytention) I made the comment during a meeting that in this assembled group was perhaps the most knowledgeable group on how a school industry adshyvisory committee should be organized and opershyated This group is perhaps the most knowledgeashyble in Taiwan Therefore would it not be to our advantage (and to the advantage of the country) to make this available to others who perhaps are not so well acquainted with this advisory commitshytee concept by translating the information I had developed into Chinese The group agreed to this
proposal We went through the whole procedure line by line It took a lot of time but when we got through the group understood the need for and
purposes of an advisory committee It was now possible to proceed with the organizashy
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tion of the General Advisory Committee for the institution We brought in the public sector prishyvate sector large medium and small industries also some things that we would not include in the US such as the Ministry of Education Provincial Deshypartment of Education and the military It was successful we were able to assemble a very fine committee The committee brought forth to the institute things which I could very well have said but it was much more meaningful coming from their own people than from an outsider
The process of actually organizing the committee was a bit slow I worked with the president with the departmnt heads and we madle calls on indusshytry gave them a little pamphlet explained how the committee should operate
At the first meeting the members were informed about the purpose of the reorganized institution the type of equipment it would have the type of
buildins planned for the future and that they were going to be involved in the planning of this reorganization
Subsequent to this niceting we proceeded to the organization of the craft committees again bringing n the military and some of our AID
people in various specialties The committees were organized and committee members sat in on the planning of the courses of study The school would prepare the plai and send it out to the adshyvisory committee beforehand The committee havshying been exposed to the plain would then offer comshyments and criticism it worked beautifully Since this i rocedureiworketi so well for the Institute we
thought we would niow see what could be done for the eight technical high schools Here we practiced what we talked about in the Institutes industry adshyvisory commititees regarding the organization of the comm it tee If we just send an educator to work with the schools for this purpose we have the picshyture from one side Therefore why not have one person from the industry side as well as a person from the school side And we dlid this
The Taiwan Power Company furnished their director of training and the provincial governshyment brouight ill ole of their school-indlist ry coorshydinators They worked with each of time eight vocashytional schools in reorganizing their school industry advisory committee We chose electricity as the first committee to organize because each of the eight schools had the school industry advisory committee and we happened to get this mai from Taiwan Power Company Also the Taiwan Power Coishy
pany had an office in each of these eight cities with which we were working
A final interesting comment regarding the Taishywan experience-after four meetings attended by the coordinator from the provincial department of education and the training director from the Taishywan Power Company they issued a report which contained useful suggestions which took into acshycount the local situation
A few of the suggestions made to the schools in this report incluied the following Planned visits and in-plant practice should be arranged for the graduating class mathematics related to the ocshycuipation should be taught shop practice of gradshyntitig students to be based on Taiwan Power
Company regulations a safety boo issued by the Quason Training Center schools foi reference
The Korean Program
In Korea basically similar procedures were used in developing industry advisory committees As in Taiwan procedires were developed and accepted regarding establishment of national provincial and school advisory conumittees These are conshytained in the by-laws promulgated in June 1963 of the Industrial Education Advisory Committee Adshyvisory comnittees are operating in Korea they are operating even thoughlithey are not as sophisticated as the ones in the United States Effective advisory committees were also established for the agriculshytural program
It Korea as in many other countries the advishysory committees lead to other participation proshygrais One exaimple is the school industry cooperashyive program where the student spends part time in
school and part time iworking in industry The proshygrais are operating quite siccessfully
Other programins which I believe particularly imshyportant as a means of fostering popular participashytion are tihe National Skill Contests and the Skill Olympics which art described in the section that follows
National Skill Conitests and the Skill Olympics
The National Skill Contest In 1963 USAID asshysisted the Ministry of Education and the Korean Technical Edunication Association in tie organizashytion and operation of the First National Technical High School Skill Contest The objectives of this activity were to encourage the students and teachshyers to strive for better workmanship to gain public
acceptance of vocational education and to improve
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the image of the skilled worker in society The conshytest is similar to an athletic tournament but in this activity the students from participating high schools compete with each other for honors in the various trades Suitable contest problems and projshyects are prepared by a committee representing inshydustry and education and the contest is conducted under very strict supervision The completed conshytest projects are evaluated in terms of precision finish working speed logical procedure economishycal use of materials and proper use of tools Ilie winners are given appropriate awards and pibshylicly honored Since the program was started in 1963 five contests have been held and each year he test problems have become inucreasingly difficult and the judges more severe in their evaluation
The National Technical High School Skill Conshytests were quite successful and generated considerashyble interest within education circles as well as in the public and private industrial sectors However a group of imaginative and aggressive Koreans were not satisfied and begaii to explore ways to expand and improve this program Ini 1966 they heard about the International Vocational Training competition which is connionly referred to as the Skill Olympics andldecided to seek admittance into this internaiionial event
The Interinational focational Trainig Compeshytition The International Vocational Training Competition originated in Spain shortly after World War II It began as a national skill conshytest similar to the national skill contests that were condicteld in tie Republic of Korea The colipetition in Spain proved to be so successful that the Spainish invited their neighliboing cotutry Portugal to coipete in the Madrid conitest The joint conitests ield in Madrid ini 1950 and 1951 were atteirlded by iany meinlbers of the diplomatic
rls Twy weie imiipressed with the spirit of comshy)Ctitioni atnd the healthy xc lanige of training ideas
which took place at the contest As a coise(ulience they indi crd the training agencies inl their respecshytive couiitries to joili inl the coimpetition In auldi tion to Spain the list of nations now participating is (Iuite imtipiessive Atistiia lelgium Deninark West Germlanity lolland Ireland Italy ILuxeishyburg Portugal Switverland United Kingdom Japan and Koiea The first six international conshytests were held in Spain but since 1958 the contest has been held in various Eiiopeaii countries
The member co(nries may choose their particishy
pants for tie International Vocational Training
Competition in any manner but it is usually done through a national skill contest The International Vocational Training Competition lasts about three weeks During the first week the technical represhysentatives and experts make the necessary preparashytions select test items and prepare the necessary bltieprints At the end of the first week the contesshytants arrive and the competition starts the second week The testing time may be as much as 35 hours Judging is completed in the third and final week after which the winners are awarded medalsshynormally a gold silver aiid bronze medal for each trade
Korea Eners the Skill Olympics The Korea Committee-International Vocational Training Competition (IVTC) was organized in 1966 to preshy
pare for entrance ini the 1967 Skill Olympics Using the experience gained in the organization of the National Technical High School Skill Compeshytition five regional elimination contests were held thn rotighou t Korea with the winners meeting in the Ntional Contest in Seoul The competitors (1300) came from technical high schools aid industry The maxintin age limit set by international regushylations is 19 years (not to have readied 20th birthshyday) Extetlding tile cotipelitiont to include young skill workers from industry has provided crossshyfertilization of training techniques between school and industry anl entrance into international comshy
petition has escalated the standards of evaluation Korea sent niine contestants to the 1967 Skill
OlyIipirs which was held inl Spain July 10 to July 17 Tlieie were 231 coimpetitors front 12 countries com11peting inl 31 different tracles Korea won gold
niedals in tailoring and shoemaking a silver nedal in wood patern making and bronze medals in sheet metal and sign painting Uponl their reshytin to Scoul these winiels were given an enthuishysiast ic welcomie at the airport and later a recognishytion ceremotiy was held inl Citizenis IHTall The Prime Minister was the principal speaker and preshysented each winner with appropriate awards Later Ilie President of Korea personiall) congratulated the group onl their success Inl the past high level govshyernment officials have participated ini the National Teciial High School Skill Competition activishyties but Iris event far exceeded any previous occashy5100is
The success of the Korean contestanits in the
19ti7 Skill Olympics spread throughout tie country motivating more young craftsmen and students to compete for the honor of representing their coutishy
37
try in the international competition The Korean team that competed in the 1968 Skill Olympics in Switzerland was even more successful than its
predecessors Korea-Taiwan Cooperation Inspired by the
Korean and Japanese success in the Skill Olympics the Republic of China decided to improve and exshypand their Vocational Industrial High School Skill Competition Taiwan has held annual skill conshytests for vocational high school students for the
past 15 years and in 1967 they decided to prepare
for entrance into the Skill Olympics An exchange of information and technical assistance was arshyranged with the Korea Committee for Inernashytional Vocational Training Competition As a reshystilt of this cooperative effort Taiwan conducted their First National Vocaiional Training Competishytion in Novenber of 1968 The competition was very siccessful and the Chinese Government is now
considering entering the International Vocational Training Competition in 1970
38
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES WITHIN PRIVATE INDUSTRY
by Clayton J Cottrcll
Two urgent needs have met each other within our society during the last 15 years The first is the need of industry for skilled and semiskilled workers The second is the need for poor people for both jobs and the opportunity for better jobs We cannot freeze _to pernlan2nce the existence of two Americas the one rich and the other poor sepashyrate and unequal Our whole society is responding to these needs
State and federal programs have been expanded an( many new oies started to bring the indi vidtishyals and the jobs together In many US communishyties the problenms of cliage in urban life have been attacked by local government school systems colshyleges church groups neighborhood grou ps and civic organiatiolns Conicern has grown ald still is
growing that the future and even the safety of an urban industrial society depends on solving the problem of getting iiore people gainfully eishyployed
All these goals and problems come together at a single point That point is the absorption by inldu1sshytry of the hard-core ulnemploye( who are for historshyical reasons mostly meibers of mi nority racial groups Federal state and community efforts are necessary to deal with many aspects of the problem But the heart of the matter liesin our factories where maln lnees job and1 relates to it well or badly As one who has spent his adult life in indusshytry I can siuinnarie what indlistry call do and is doing The why the how the what anil the who
Let us look at the situnation through the eyes of a persol who sees hiimself inl relation to his personial problem and as lie thiinks it through
I quit school before I learned a trade lie says I now have a family I have bills to pay kids to clothe and I want to be better off next year than I am right iiow To get eiiough income I will work two jobs and maybe oie or two unskilled jobs or part-time jobs for the wife But even this work will
not bring in enough money to provide for the famshyily There must be another way
There is another way The Labor Department has created many opplortulities through such onshyilie-job traiing programs as National Youth Corps Model Cities and others But what about
private industry The typical American community today has a straige pattern of buildings both busishyness an1d resident ial in the middle of the city surshyrounidied by a ring of mediumn-age residential-inshydnustrial arear which in turn is surrounded by more industrial and residential suburbs The irner city in a Europeian city is kept up through periodic reiiewal programs it remains the heart of the city Whenu it deteriorates soimueth ing is dlone about it We inl America are only beginning to follow that
patternl In a single community we may find an available
1)001 of labor on one side of town while the availashyble jobs are in another part of the area Yet there may he the problem of labor shortage inl this comshy
ni it) because the available workers and jobs though right beside each other were not brought together )oes induistry briniig thei together More aiid lmore industry is doiig just that It has to today if it wants to stay in business Titere is also anohllir imiotve husiniessllel especially manageshyment rightly feel responisible toward the economy aid the lationi They also want to solve their own
probleii of eiarging an(1 improviig the labor force ald they walt to solve tlie liations problem of brinmgiig the hard-core iiieiployed inmto the mailnstreall of our iatiolnal life ManIaigemeut knows it is to its advantage to hell the chronically uineiployed aind that with a lot of help and pashytieice they will help themselves
Vhat happens whenllan automobile manufacturer accepts an obligatioi to hire 750 of the hard-core inemployed and make them into productive em-
Ilayees First these people have to be brought up
39
to an acceptable level of literacy A number of peoshyple who sign up for programs never show up This is disappointing frustrating and even demoralizshying for the people in industry who are trying to make a success of a training program Is it reasonashyble to conclude that these pcople do not want to work The car manufacturer did a follow-up study and some startling things came to light People who cannot read cannot read the destination signs on buses The company now has follow-up men to show the trainees how to catch the right bus and how to transfer cnroite
There was also the problem of tardiness Only one in five had alarm clocks Why They had never before had to be at any particular place at any parshyticular time Once these hard-core people knew how and why to come to work their attendance and tardiness record was 500 percent better than the average of all other employees
There were far fewei hopeless cases than had been expected The nonperformers are now pershyforming and performing well and are devoting hours of their own time to company-conducted sesshysions after work oi things like personal hygiene and efficient maniagement of their money
We went through a similar experience in anshyother company in Rochester New York where we worked with an industry-supporued employment agency Rochester Jobs Incorporated to recruit apshyplican ts from the inner city We found that a high number of hard-core people cannot pass physical examinations Out of 635 applicants during an eight-week period as many as 220 failed physicals
There was a big proportion of rejects and dropshyouts Only about 170 of the original 635 comshy
pleted the training and got permanent jobs A large aiount of tinie and money was spent in inshyterviewing examining and training people who never became employed with the result that the cost per person hired was far greater than in norshymal hiring We nevertheless consider it a worthshywhile program for we were convinced of the need to create new job opportunities for the unemployed of the inner city of Rochester and to assist them to qualify for these jobs Everyone who can and will work deserves the opportunity
In both cases the story is the ame management felt the same obligation to deal with a large social
problem many tribulations were involved in hanshydling the proLlems but management emerged conshyvinced not only of the obligation but also of the conclusion that the in-house development of
human resources was definitely good business It is good business because it produces good workers In similar programs at other companies the broadest conclusion of all was that management learned more than the trainees did more about people more about motivation and training more about minority groups
Management learned other things too First they learned that trainees require an enormous amount of attention to financial family and vocational
problems which interfere with learning Second one way to insure built-in motivation is to hire heads of households They learned that tests are not always good predictors of success The will to sucshyceed is just as necessary on the part of management as it is on the part of the hard-core trainee In each case an economic social and psychological cripple is transformed into a whole man or woman
The transformation of these people is not the only training problem which confronts industry today Members of minority groups are not the only people in our country who require attention and merit concern Every member of the industrial working team has something to learn about his own job that lie ought to learn in his best interests This is recognized by indtustry for there are many seminars and university courses many high-level management study groups especially set up for top and middle management In the factory laboratory the drafting room and in the office training reshymains an ongoing and virtually necessary activity
One teaching technique used by industry known as programmeld slides helps employees to improve their skill right on the job It takes advantage of the fact that four-filhs of all learning is visual It makes each lesson part of a practically subconscious reflex pattern like driving a car and painlessly trains the memory in the way that it should go
Let me state a paradox which like many parashydoxes also happens to he true Industry should alshyways leave the path open for an employee to upshygrade his ability and move up in relation to his growing skill and productivity but industry must not make perpetual upgrading a condition of emshy
ployment There are such things as plateaus levels of acshy
complishment on which a person temporarily or
permanently comes to a rest It is unfair and unshywise to pretend that an employee must visibly be climbing higher if lie is to continue to be useful but it is equally unfair and unwise to close off or fail to provide an upward path for employees who
40
want to follow it Small companies are plagued by the dilemma of forcing the level of performance upshyward at too fast a pace versus letting the level of performance stay flat for too long They cannot afshyford many mistakes in personal selection and trainshying What can they do Part of their question has been answered by the US Departinent of Labor but another part of their answer may come from joining locally sponsored training institutions to do the job for them
Community colleges which are usually oriented toward the needs of local industries are natural places for training to take place Small companies help to insure their own future when they help to support the institutions and when their executives and engineers help to run them Community colshyleges serve a need magnificently to an extent that all too oftn goes unrecognized because its results are not spectacular
Summing up then I return to where I began American industry needs workers and more producshytive workers in greater numbers all the time and this trend will continue Many Americans are there for the seeking ready and able to supply the work when properly trained and motivated Industry has developed the ability to do this job industry is also improving its ability to keep career opportunishyties open for average men as well as the excepshytionally talented Industry is using and continuing to use its in-house capabilities for the development of hunan resources In short industry really is doing a job and after all what else is industry for
DISCUSSANT Julius F Rothman
In the 1960s Americans learned that the key to any stuategy against poverty was a program that ofshyfered jobs at decent wages with an opportunity for advancement For those living in poverty the deshyspair of the ghetto is rooted in unemployment unshyderemployment and in being less than a full parshyticipant in the society It is clear that the way out of poverty for the disadvantaged of our society is through training in skills that will prepare them for the job market
Today there is general agreement that our manshypower policies must be integrally related to our over-all economic planning and policies
The nations manpower policies as they have evolved over the past eight years have moved from a central concern for the needs of the technologishycally displaced worker to a much broader and more basic concern with the unemployed underemshy
ployed and disadvantaged worker In this process they have had substantial impact on programs reshylated to welfare poverty and the urban crisis Planshyning for manpower policies and programs has in a real sense moved to center-stage in economic decishysion-making
It is also generally recognized that a realistic manpower policy can only be developed within the framework of a national economy that is growing rapidly enough to provide job opportunities for all
persons who are able to work and seeking employshyment This in effect means a full employment economy with unemployment rates somewhere beshytween 2 and 2 12 percent With the unemployment rate at 14 percent it is clear that new approaches to the utilization of manpower must be considered
There are several essential elemcnts that must go into a national manpower policy if we are to preshy
pare the disadvantaged unemployed for the work force
(1) There is a need for a coordinated and comshyprehensive manpower policy The absence of such a
policy has led to a proliferation of manpower proshygrams many of them inadequately funded and freshy
quently failing to meet the needs of the workers for whom they were intended
(2) For those who cannot be absorbed into existing jobs and who desire to work either in the
private or public sectors of the economy there must be a large-scale public service employment and training program subsidized by the Federal Government
(3) To effectively implement national manshypower policies and programs the US Employment Service should be federalized Until this is achieved the fifty state employment services need to be strengthened and upgraded
(4) Greater emphasis must b- placed on upshygrading programs that provide workers with the opportunity to achieve greater skills larger inshycomes and dded status
(5) The federal minimum wage should be raised to at least $200 an hour and the Fair Labor Standards Act be extended to cover all workers
While about one million people per year are helped by current manpower programs this is but a fraction of those who require help An expansion of existing programs through the creation of addishytional training opportunities in private industry is clearly indicated but it has been demonstrated that the private sector has not met the job and training needs of all of the disadvantaged
41
The AFL-CIO has long maintained that public service employment provides the best avenue for those who cannot find a place in the private sector of our economy At least three studies have amply documented the sulbtantial number of job openshyings in the public sector that could be filled if sufshyficient funds were made available to the local and state governments Nor are these jobs of the leafshyraking variety Opportunities exist in such areas as anti-pollution enforcement educational institushytions general administration health and hospitals highway and traflic control libraries police fire recreation and sanitation
The Commission on Technology Automation and Economic Progress estimated in 1966 that 53 million new jobs could be created through public service employment An Office of Economic Opporshytunity study by Greenleigh Associates suggested the
possibility of 43 million such jobs And a 1969 study by tihe Upjohn Institute indicated that the mayors of 130 cities with populations over 100000 could use another 280000 persons on their municishy
pal payrolls iminediately If America is to help the working poor and find
jobs for the uneniployed why not use federal funds to improve the quality of essential community services
In a period of rising unemployment increased emphasis should be placed on upgrading the skills of those who are currently employed Upgrading programis would perform a twofold purpose They would provide a ladder for presently employed workers seeking advancement from low-paying enshytry-level jobs and at the same time would provide entry-level openings for the unemployed who could also look to future upward mobility
In the past too much emphasis has been directed towards placing workers in enury-level low-wage jobs which require little or no formal training In too many instances manpower activities have been viewed as a substitute for welfare programs with the result that neither manpower nor welfare needs are adequately met The main thrust of training must be directed toward helping individuals deshyvelop their maximum potential skills for employshyment opportunities that actually exist in the job market This means training for skills beyond the entry-level
There is currently a great deal of talk about reorshyganizing the existing manpower programs and placshying the operating responsibility in the hands of the
states The AFL-CIO is convinced that placing major responsibility for the unemployment probshylems of the poor and the disadvantaged in the hands of the States is a serious mistake The
problems of employment and unemployment are complex and national in scope The individual states have no mechanisms for coping with these
problens The work force is highly mobile Joblessshyness and underemployment require national solushyiLOns not fifty diflerent approaches
Those who advocate this approach would make the key operating mechanism the State Employment Agency The past record of most of these State agenshycies does not suggest they will aggressively press for either job placeient or job development for the
poolr or members of minority groups What is needed to create an effective manpower
training system was stated succinctly by the Nashytional Manpower Policy Task Force in a report reshyleased early this year which said available
manpower services should be provided on the basis of need not impeded by diverse eligibility requireshyments varying administrative practices or competshying agencies The separate programs must be fused into a single comprehensive federal manpower proshygram--providing a variety of services in varying mixes depending upon national conditions and local need preferably funded by a single federal source
Manpower programs are a crucial component of any broad strategy for the elimination of unemployshyment and poverty As long as we have some 45 milshylion unemployed and some 15 million underemshy
ployed-who together with their dependents acshycount for most of the 25 million who live in povershyty-there is an urgent need to move rapidly toward the creation of effective manpower policies and
programs The 1960s was a period of innovation and exshy
perimlentation in the manpower training field Many programs were tried some failed and others met with varying degrees of success The net result was something less than a coordinated and compreshyhensive approach to manpower training We now have the opportunity to streamline existing manshy
power programs into a coinpreliensive program and to add to our manpower policies those elements which past experience has indicated are essential to meet the needs of the disadvantaged
To this end the AFL-CIO proposes that any changes in manpower policy be measured against the following criteria
42
(1) Consolidate existing job training programs into a single flexible program which can be taishylored to the needs of the unemployed and to the labor market in which they live
(2) Create a completely new upgrading program designed to encourage employers to develop upshygrading programs either within a company or within an industry and at the same time to fill job vacancies at the entry-level
(3) Establish a system of public service employshyment with State or local government and private nonprofit agencies operating under federal conshytract which would undertake to absorb those who have not been placed in private employment or training in the performance of community imshy
provemen projects in health education public safety recreation bIeatitification etc
We lelieve that these policies if followed would put the United States on the high road toward elimshyinating the unemployment that exists in our slums and urban ghettos and would bring the disshyadvantaged into the econonic mainstream
The Employment Act of 1916 said All Amerishycans able to work and seeking work have the right to useful reuninerative regular and full-time emshyployment and it is the policy of the United States to assure the existence at all times of sufficient emshyployment opportunities to enable all Americans to freely exercise this right
The rhetoric of the 1940s must become the realshyity of the 1970s
DISCUSSANT Richard L Breault
The National Chamber of Commerce for a numshyber of years has been promoting among its menishybers the importance of creating in their own comshymunities a process for bringing together diverse groups that need to become involved in dealing with community problems These probleis might range from pollution to poverty and even to ecoshynomic developmlenti The latter although at a local level I gather relates to the In-pose of Title IX of the Foreign Aid Act We have developed guideshylines for such community action projects which are being used by some of our members
There are in the United States some rather intershyesting conuiiiuity-wide projects that have brought together a wide variety of )articipants For examshyplc in Rochester Minnesota literally h1undreds of citizens are involved in looking at the goals for the community and determining priorities and alternashytive ways these objectives and priorities may be achieved The Goals for Dallas project is an exshy
ample in a much larger city where a rather difficult yet feasible process has been worked out to get thousands of persons involved in determining what Dallas should be now and in the next ten or fifteen years where it should go and what needs to be done to get where they want to go There are a number of examples of other cities that also are supporting such programs to a greater or lesser exshytent
There also have been some excellent examples of
puillic participation in specific manpower proshygrams in addition to other broad community efshyforts such as in Rochester and Dallas The whole manpower outreach program to poverty areas that many businessmen are now using is an example They will go to local organizations and ghetto groups and literally ask them to go out and help find the people who can benefit from training and
jobs The cooperative efforts in the buddy system are an example of individuals becoming involved In this effort one person assumes the responsibility to be a friend and advisor to a disadvantaged per-Soil
In some cities local Chambers of Commerce have been organizing neighborhood recruitment centers right in the ghetos manned by people from these areas In each of the cities the success of the proshygram depends upon the degree to which the key leadership elements of the community are inshyvolved You literally have to start with one two or three persons to get a system of this kind working I would certainly say that here in the United States the businessman particularly through his orgashynized channel of communication which in most cases is a local or a State Chamber of Commerce is indispensable As one looks around the country at this sort of back to people involvement and parshyticipation one finds that where failures have ocshycurred it has been because some of the key eleshyments-business labor the churches ethnic groups or the political part of the community-were left out
It is often noted that it is difficult to get the
pieces of a community together to do a job We have found this to be true in our work
There is a natural fragmentation among comshymunity groups in this country The labor groups may not talk too often to the businessmen the buisinessmen might miot get along too well with sonic other group and so on There is also the fear that getting together in a cooperative project may result in some loss of independence as an organizashy
43
tion or as an individual Compromises would have to be made which one would just as soon not have to make Difficult as this process may be in the US I imagine that it would probably be even more difficult in developing countries In the US the communication media are intensively develshyoped enabling one to reach out to people In many of the developing countries one would not expect to have these media as well developed
The Chamber of Commerce has prepared an adshydition to a publication we call Where the Action Is This pamphlet is a compilation of brieflyshy
stated examples of projectsthat involve cooperative efforts with business and other groups in the comshymunity usually taking a major role It is divided into a number of categories such as education manpower crime housing and minority business enterprise In each case the name is given of a pershyson who may be contacted to obtain more informashytion about that particular project This material
put together with the guidelines we provide our members gives at least the basic steps that are necesshysary to get people to cooperate in a community These guidelines could also work for others
44
NEW CONCEPTS OF THE EMPLOYMENT SERVICE ROLE TO MEET THE CHALLENGE OF THE 1970s
by Malcolm R Lovell Jr
Recently there has been in the United States a good deal of criticism of the Employment Service Such criticism may have resulted in part from the fact that more has been expected of the Employshyment Service than it could produce The problem has been that we have never set realistic goals for the Employment Service Its broad charter is to serve all people in manpower programs with funds which may appear substantial but are still limited when considered in terms of the cost of a program required to meet the needs of all the people
Some changes are taking place however One is the growing recognition that manpower programs can play a very significant part in overall economic progran and in fighting poverty and discriminashytion Therefore I believe that this nation is preshypared to put more resources into the manpower area than ever before
What are the nature and extent of the resources required to do an effective job Currently some 16 billion dollars have been allocated for training and other assistance to the disadvantaged These proshygrams are serving approximately a million people We estimate that the universe of need according to current poverty criteria is about ten million peoshyple These are the people in serious need of manshypower services if they are to realize their own poshytential in the labor market And they also are the people who are currently at substandard incomes
Of course if you take into consideration non-disshyadvantaged people in need of manpower services the spectrum can broaden out to all of the people in the labor market soae eighty million But asshysuming ten million people are in need our serving one million people is just scratching the surface
Probably the most important breakthrough that is on the horizon is the Family Assistance Plan (FAP) that was proposed by President Nixon last year This plan in my judgment is probably one of the most far reaching pieces of social legislation presented to Congress since the 1930s
The implications of the FAP program are treshymendous The proposed bill would require the Emshyployment Service to serve 29 million people startshying with some 425000 the first year after passage of the bill However those that would be mandatorishyally included in the program are about three milshylion people And then there ate another three milshylion people that have the option of obtaining the manpower services provided in the program Thus the bill contemplates the rendering of manpower services to roughly six million people
This is a sizeable proportion of the estimated universe of need of ten million In addition I would hope that through the proposed Manpower Training Act (NITA) we would be able to help a large part of the remaining individuals who are not eligible under the Family Assistance Plan This group would include for example certain 3ingle people individuals without dependents and youth over a certain age without dependents I beshylieve therefore that we are beginning to see the posshysibility over tle next five years of serving a major segment of our population who are in most drastic need of manpower services
How do you go about organizing a progam of such a magnitude It may properly be compared with the operation of our medical system We need hospitals to deal with medical problems We recogshynize that people can be put in the hospitals with a variety of administrative procedures The Medishycare program allows people to go into the hospitals and it pays the costs Medicaid is similar There is also a large private insurance program which pershymits people to have the hospital cost paid There are of course other patients who must pay their own hospital costs What must be emphasized howshyever is that all of these people are treated in the same hospital regardless of the program financing them
Manpower services are becoming so complex as to require that specific institutions be identified as
45
providing certain basic services similar in nature as the hospitals do In the manpower area there is no institution that is as prepared and qualified to provide these services as the Employment Service The kinds of broad services which I believe should rest with the Employment Service are of the nature which may in general terms be described as covershying the functions connected with the process of matching people to jobs and providing and arrangshying for services which an individual may need in order to become employable This definition of the Employment Services responsibility includes a vashyriety of services The following briefly reviews some of them
Serving the FAP Th2 Employment Service should have responsibility for serving persons who are eligible under the FAP program The eligible individuals as defined by the law will have to preregister at Social Security offices Thus the ES will have a waiting list of persons to work on of roughly 3 million-the number of estimated preshyregistrants
It would seem to me that the system which will have to be set up to provide the required manshy
power services to this group of persons should also be the system used as the hospitals are to serve other individuals who are in need of manpower services This would mean oireach into areas not covered by the FAP as well as to people eligible for assistance but who for some reason have not been willing to come in by themselves
Occupational Choice The Employment Service should also be responsible for assisting individuals in making occupational choices The person himshyself however has to make the final decision on what ie wants to do Once the occupational judgshyment has been made by the individual the Emshyployment Service should make arrangements for the worker to receive appropriate instruction or on-the-job training Upon the completion of trainshying he should be referred to a job We however do not expect the Employment Service to do the trainshying
Job Information It is more important now than ever before that the ES be the resting place for inshyformation on job opportunities as well as containshying data on the individual seeking employment or training A number of the new federal programs will create a substantial number of job opportunishyties within the ES itself as well as among other public employers There will also be a substantial
number of training opportunities available as a reshysuilt of these programs For these programs to funcshytion effectively and efficiently it is essential that there be a central point where these jobs can be tabulated and put on a computer and where the inshydividuals know they can go to be exposed to the kinds of work opportunities and training opporshytunities available
Cooperation with Others We see the possibility of Employment Service contracts for services The
programs under the jurisdiction of ES may be of such a magnitude that without subcontracts the ES may not be able to properly perform its responsibilshyities Such contracts may be to community groups or private nonprofit institutions There are a numshyber of functions that are measurable and controllashyble so that theii performances can be watched and
properly monitored
Organization of the Employment Service
One of the problems of the Employment Service is the fact that in terms of social institutions of today it is a relatively old institution-some thirty years old The leadership of the organization has been in the hands of those who joined the organishyzation during the 1930s and most of them have been white Civil Service rules as well as other obshystacles to change have made it difficult for the Emshy
ployment Service to get the kind of minority represhysentation that we think it should have Currently minority groups account for about 14 percent of the Employment Service staff Although this proshy
portion does not appear to be too bad when viewed in terms of the population mix of the country we think it is bad when you consider the nature of the work involved Now Stite agencies have to submit
plans toward achieving a staff racial mix goal which reflects the population the local employment offices serve Each agency is going to set target goals and develop plans on how to achieve these goals
We have also found that the local offices are orshyganized in much the same way that they were thirty years ago except for a change made eight years ago This change unfortunately tended to reshyduce the responsiveness of the ES to the needs of the disadvantaged since it set up a system of speshycialized offices conceived to serve the employer rather than the candidate for employment
A study is now being conducted in eleven oflices directed towards changing that organizational structure and developing a structure which can more effectively serve the disadvantaged As a
46
model we are using the employability team concept developed and used in the Work Incentive Proshygram (WIN) and which also will be used in the Family Assistance Plan
We have found that the attitudes of the State Agencies which have long been reported as an obshystacle to effectively participating in modern manshypower efforts have been changing One of the things that we think has been influential in this change is a greater interest on the part of mayors and governors in manpower programs A year ago we funded and offered opportunities to every govershynor to have some manpower staff attached to the manpower programs in his State This action has substantially increased interest in the manpower organizations of the StateWe just recently have ofshyfered a similar opportunity to the mayors of 150 citshy
ies As part of the Presidents new federalism conshyceptwe plan through the Manpower Training Act to involve mayors and governors to an even larger degree The involvement of these public officials in the basic judgments of how Employment Service assets will be used will in our opinion have a very useful effect and will vigorously help in speeding up the changes already taking place in the organishyzational structure
We are investing considerable resources in the Employment Service system We will be expecting performance on the part of the State agehciesectW are proceeding on this road with the assumption that we will have some opposition Those that have distrusted the Employment Service in the past need to be shown by actual achievement of the goals that have been set We hope to achieve them
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CREATION OF A CONSOLIDATED MANPOWER DELIVERY SYSTEM DECENTRALIZED TO THE STATES AND METROPOLITAN AREAS-
A WAY OF ACHIEVING INCREASED PARTICIPATION RESPONSIVE TO LOCAL NEEDS
by Cyril D Tyson
This paper presents a model manpower delivery system developed for New York City which is releshyvant to the problems of the major urban areas The major cities in many instances have had to develop their own administrative mechanisms to deal speshycifically with the problems of the city and over and above Federal and State resources allocate city reshysources to that effort
At the municipal level New York City to my knowledge has the only comprehcnsive nan)ower
program in the country When the present Manshy
power and Career Development Agency was set up there were sonie 85 different manpower programs in the city Some of these manpower agencies were run by the city and some by nonprofit corporashytions resources came from the Federal Government the State and the city No one could determine how the resources were allocated how many people were trained with these resources and what hapshypened to people after training
In recognition of these and related problems we attempted to set up a manpower agency in a new and unique way The first determination made was that it was necessary to set up a comprehensive manpower system to meet our responsibility to tie together those agencies man(ated by legislation to some aspects of manpower as well as other agencies or groups who have been in this field de facto but were doing a creditable job We wanted to bring together all of these instititions whiile maintaining their own individual institutional identity and their own internal liies of administration In efshyfect we wanted to define ourselves as the manager of the manpower system and the determiner of the kind of specifications that these institutions would have to utilize in order to develop adequately the pruduct produced by this system and which would
have to be marketed in the free enterprise system I was not interested in becoming directly involved in operating specific training or educational agenshycies nor in developing a manpower bureaucracy I thought of myself as a businessman with a $45000000 budget and a company that would deshyvelop the appropriate kinds of tools to insure that the product produced was marketable and that there were effective kinds of returns I wanted also to develop accountability in order to identify the cause of ineffectiveness Finally I wanted to define the objectives of the agency in terms of the unishyverse of need and in terms of the kind of resources available
In the City of New York 45 agencies andor orshyganizations have been tied together into a compreshyhensive manpower system In the community parshyticipation area this means there are 26 poverty areas or 26 community action agencies The smallshyest poverty area has a population the size of most normal cities and the largest has more people in it than Newark Each of these 26 community action agencies funded with both City and OEO money administers Neighborhood Manpower Servshyice Centers (NMSC) No training goes on in those Centers they are the intake points the testshying and counselling points and the points of detershymination of the educational andor vocational
plans of individuals All of the resources in the City are available to these NNISCs We have Cityshywide training programs and as appropriate proshygrams inl specific regional opportunity centers so that a person may go close to home for training People are given an option for the first time We are thus beginning to provide interest options so that a person participates in a program because that is where lie belongs and not to fill program quotas
49
We believe we have the only program and the first in tie country in which an institution of highcr education is an integrated part of a manshypower system The City University of New York and all of its junior colleges one in each borough provides the major portion of the educational coishyponent and the skilled training component within our system This educational component includes English as a second language basic education edushycation related to skilled training and preparation for high school equivalency
In addition the Board of Education provides basic education and English as a second language in a number of the I I regions which encompass the 26 poverty areas The State Dep-rtment of Vocational Rehabilitation alo is tied into that system Prior to their involvement they had only one office in New York City while they now have a staff in every one of our regional opportunity centers The) are beginning to relate their activities in a more releshyvant way to the popuilation that comes under their jurisdiclion In addition (hie Stale Employment
Service is a part of this system in New York City Ve informed the State Employment Service that
we wantied their staff inl all of lie 11 regions and that we would make city futds available so they could hire the Peronnel to staff the counselling fuinctions in these training facilities In tis procshyess the Stae Eiployment Service wotild become more relevant to tlie needs of the community and in tle process of expansion tle) (ould hire people who aie reflective of the community they serve
The Opportunities Industrialization Center and aI number of other institutions and organizations are involved in the progran Fifty percent of the
people who pailiipate are former welfare recipishyents We have over 300 people who started in public service career plograis in college and we provide for release Itimne funds to insure that people in ptiblic service carees cani pursue higher educashytion related to tle job they have or will tilimately have
The whole recruitment mechanism is contracted out to antipoverty agencies Also contracted out are the skilled training tile educational component and the counselling component This raised the question about wiat is needed to insure accountashybility We have used a ceitral data processing censhytet belonging to an antipoverty agency with terinishynals into all of our NMSCs A person is interviewed tested and lie intake form is filled out If it is deshyterinied that tie person is ready for a job the
counsellor or the person at that terminal provides basic kinds of infoniation to match tlhis person with a job If theie is an appropriate job in seven seconds the name of lie company the hourly rate location etc come over the terminal For a year and a half we have been placing people in jobs through direct on-line access against a batch-match system
Training opportunities are also on the comshyputer Wheni we allocate the training resources of the city into tie communities they also have access to time information tile) need from the computer All of our job developers and counsellors are placed on the computer by code This enables us to obtain information for example on number and kind of people and jobs handled on any one day This brings accointability into the process We know who is getting what kind of job at what rate and the relevancy of those jobs to the people we are serving
We have also developed a management informashylion system ours will be tihe first Intitiicipal agency ini New York City to have a completely computershyized management information system With this system we will be able to cross the program inforshymation with the fiscal information and do cost benshyefit analysis
Our tiniverse of need consists of the five most difshyficult categories in the labor market welfare recipishyents chronically unemployed Iigh school dropshyouts minority underemployed an(l employable handicapped Ve now understand that most of liese people need itraining of one kind or another
only a small proportion can go directly on to jobs We Ilust consider how best to train these people low do )oui traini people inl the community to
provide service to themselves I low do you train those people for example in a way ini which they can begin to handle sophisticated information sysshytems We canl tell you inl oir system who is in what kind of training prograi ini what agency in what area what their reading levels are thei age range tleir job development activity the activity of the Neighborhood Manpower Centers including whet her tiey are late ini the flow of that informashytion through that system With otit regional system maliagers and the related staff inl our regional censhyts who imatnage not only that aclivity and the inshy
stittitions that are part of it but also the contract of the Neighborhood Manpower Ceiters we are in a position to tal in specific terms about what the
problems are and how they can be eliminated
50
When you make a commitment to involve comshymunity people in the process of any service you should be prepared to provide them the tools Those tools have to be designed at a level of the people who are participating in that system in
order to make their participation relevant For Cxshyaiple we developed a processing and procedural
mautial and flow chart so that any onie at any part of that system knows his responsibility inl that sysshyten as far as the Neighborhood 11anpower Centers ale COnceied
The iaini objective is to involve tie Community so that they develop whole sets of new tools and skills that make it possible for then to intersect our econoimy at another lcvel When we involve coimshymn1lity people we build up a set of skills for them that has applicability within a broader context of our society At the sanie timie that we are providing
manpower services we help the conunity develop a certain orider of technology that to ily knowledge does not exist in any other Connility in the counshy
try If we are coniceriel about the rational use of reshy
solices inl this couitriy we muiiistfind ways in which to iiilie those resources ms way in which they have a multiplier effect There will never he elnough miolley to solve somne of the iost pressing
problems that we have uinless We beginl to redesign olr insituiions begin to create linkages by the inshy
volvement of the City Univeisity of New York for example ill imianpower In the future probably any
pelsol in a imanpower pjrograil who has received a high school equivalancy in that process will have access to a college education at City University In effect by linking (ity University of New York into the systciim we are forcing a certaini ortder of intershynal institutional ianige
We want to lie degree possible to maximize the participation of the people who need the serviees in tile process of pirovidiiig the services for themshyselves It is possible to do hat It is possible to get institutions even ill the context of history that iight have been slightly recalci irani to conie toshy
gether in ieii of a larger scheiiata as long as we are prepared to help them in very real kinds of ways to master the new kinds of technology in order to run a more effective and efficient system
Discussion
Question from the floor One of the major purshy
poses of thiis Symposium is to extract fron Amerishycan experiences the aphplicability of popular particshyipation in a less developed economy These discusshysions have pointed out that there are underlying
principles which can be applied one being a coinshymitment to invlve those people left out of the iainstreain back into society Title IX of the Forshy
eign Assistance Art says that people in the develop mng countries nust he given a sense of participation in development of their country in order to achieve fle basic goals of political stability social progress and growth
What do you think are the basic underlying
principles for bringing about (lie involvement of
people in theircountrys development plocess
Mr Trvons ronments I think this is a relevant question and I am going to make the formulation
in power terms We like to feel in a detiocratic soshytiety that power is negotiated Certain institushytional arrangenients are set ill) that make it possishyble for those in power to negotiate with others in ain exchange People who have no power and thereshyfore no participation in pr1ograns have to be orgashynized
flow uslit inust bepeople le organized They organized into instittitional arrangenients because in the fiial analysis tlie iransfer of power is done in institutional ways People who are out of the mainshystream imiiust in in which theybe organied a way caii express their (oncern within the context of an institution that they either contirol or play a major role in
Also if this is to be a viable situation we must equip thei with tools tech hiq ies methodology and resoirt es so that when tile) negotiate there is soimnetliIng to iiegotiate about The strategy in our agelnty was to provide tools of a ceitain order of technology in aiiinstiititional context so that these tools could be used as leverage against a whole set of other inst itutions Therefore you use the tools and the technology as an instruieint of changing
powver and resource ielationships The people onut of thei mainstreani must be
trained amd given adequate resources and approshypriate technology If a poor person is put ol a polshyicy board and is not taught the difference between policy and adi in istration lie should not be blamed for failure They must understand their reshysponsibility in terms of policy
51
THE PROBLEM OF EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN
by Grace Farrell
We hear a great deal in the United States today about the need for equal employment opportunity But it is often forgotten that the equal employment opportunity principle applies regardless of sex as well as inl the more customary areas of race crced color anid national origin
Women have come a long way in tie world of work In the US they make up an extremely signifshyicant part of the labor force about 30 million or 38 percent of the labor force Today it is expected that nine out of ten women will work at some point in their lives and for most of them for a considerable period of time The employment pattern for women is no longer that of out of high school or college alul into an ofllice for a couple of years until they marry and then to usually leave the labor force perimaien tly
The greater participation of women in the work force however is not reflected cither in the kind of work they do or in the pay they receive This tindershyitilization of a substantial body of workers constishy
tutes one of tile greatest wastes of our manpower resources today Women need not only the opporshytiility for employment but of course to get into and participate in tile training programs that lead to elliploymeint
In the 19fiWs a imtilliber of laws were passed to
help solve some of these pioblems Anilg tile Fedshy
cral laws was the Equpal Pay Act of 1963 which
prohibits ain cimployer froill discriminating in tile
payment of wages based on sex for all of his emshy
ployces who are subject to the ilinilltim wage provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act Also the Fair Labor Standards Amendment of 1966 whicl illcreased the Federal illinilium wage also
broadened the coverage of the Equal Pay Act Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibshy
its discrimination ill all phases of employment by employers employllent agencies and certain trainshying committees The discrimination prohibited is
tilat based on sex as well as race religion color or national origin Although not strictly speaking a law Executive Order 11375 amended an early Ex ecutive Order which prohibited discrimination by government contractors and subcontractors and federally assisted construction contracts to include discrimination against women Alany states have elacted similar laws also This is very important because it seems that no law is passed without a nillber of exceptions exemptions or exclusions This is true of the Federal laws that I have just enumerated as it is of much other legislation
One of the problems often occurs when the
public employment service is attempting to place women in jobs and relates to such factors as not being able to refer a woman out to work in a facshy
tory because the job requires her to work sixty hours a week and there is a State law which says women can only work forty-eight hours a week Similarly tilroulgh tile years originally for some rather good purposes there were eiacted by the States protective labor legislation which limited womlens hours of work or being in jobs which reshy
quire lifting more thalln iwelty-five pounds With
respect to the latter a mother will often tell you
this is ridiculous because ler baby at the age of
two weighed more than 25 pouinids Such laws are still oil the books in most cases These laws were a
major problem in applying sections of the Federal laws As a result last August the Equal Employshynient Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a revised Sex-Discrimination Guideline which states that State protective legislation including laws which limit womens oturs prohibit her from
working nights restrict her occupation or restrict tie weights they may lift now act as a barrier to
equal employment opportunity and are superseded
by the sections of the law under which the EEOC operates
Since thou about a half dozen States have indishy
53
cated that they will not contest this ruling They agreed that in order to achieve equal employment o0)lx)0rtillities for woien they will no longer enshyforce their protective labor laws There also have been several court decisions which have held siniishylarly
I think nhimately this whole problem will reach a higher court than it has now and it may be solved through a combination of State action and court action EEOC s position remains however in a State regardless of what a State labor department or the equivalent agency has held that labor laws
and hours laws may not be used as a defense to an otherwise illegal employment practice The EEOC has issued a number of decisions on a State-by-State basis on this point
All of these Federal laws and regulations are a step in the right direction and I think it is an imshy
portant one But what they are really getting at is a change in attitude which hopefully changes in laws will help to bring about Not only is a change in attitudes toward the working woman needed but also an understanding of her competence and abilshyity
54
CASE STUDY-JOBS FOR PROGRESS TNC (OPERATION SER)
by Seymour Brandwein
Operation SER (the Spanish word to be) was created as a self-help instrument designed to solve the most pressing manpower problems of the Mexishycan-Anierican population It is run by an organizashytion called Jobs for Progress sponsored by two of the largest civic organizations of Mexican-Amerishycans the League of United Latin American Citishyzens (LULAC) and the American GI Forum Its central staff is financed by the Federal Government Jobs for Progress is operating in five states in the Southwest The administrative structure consists of a regional board which sets the policy for a reshygional office under which local boards and local
projects areguided and monitored There is a maxshyinum of conununity self-involvement and the local
projects are free to adapt themselves to community needs within established guidelines for recruitment and development
This paper traces the development of this effort in an over-simplified and selective form Unnecesshysary details are avoided in order to illustrate clearly some of the special issues and problems of
popular participation in government manpower programs
There are some ten million Mexican-Americans in the Southwest This minority largely bilingual and bicultural has a disproportionately large share of the unemployment and poverty The new manpower programs initiated in the 1960s were frequently criticized by Mexican-Americans The criticism was sometimes merited sometimes uninshyformed However it was also quite clear that some of the programs run by the public agencies hadldifshyficulty with this minority group because of lanshyguage and cultural differences and problems of inshysensitivity of the non-Nlexican-American staff There were also problems of trainee attitudes toshyward government and particularly toward Anglo staff
The Labor Departments Experimental and Demonstration staff jointly with the Office of Ecoshy
nomic Opportunity (OEO) undertook an experishymental program to determine whether it was feasishyble and useful to bring into the manpower proshygrams some of the strengths feelings and cultural sensitivities of the minority group We visualized this also as an opportunity to convert protest acshytivity into constructive program action and as a way to develop understanding of and participation
in program development The following briefly deshysci ibes the way this program was developed
The first question that required an answer was who represents this minority We began with the major national organizations already active in soshycial civic affairs LULAC GI Forum and the Comshymiinity Service organization-a California-based orshyganization-which later withdrew from the Board We recognized the limitations in turning to thes groups since their membership did not include many of the very poor Each organization had limshyited resources and organizational skills But they were broad-based and they were an available strucshyture They had responsible records Their leaders were widely respected even though they might not be speaking for the total community A LULAC Chapter had already run an employment center in Houston with a volunteer staff
In late 1965 meetings were held with representashytives of these groups to encourage them to set up an organization and staff (which we would finance) to develop mianpower programs It took some months to develop agreement on appropriate relative represhysentation of the several groups on the governing board It was also agreed that the initial efforts should be concentrated in eleven major areas of Mexican-American population in the Southwest rather than dispersed over that region or the nashytion
At first there was over-emphasis on structure More time was devoted to charts of -everal layers of boards and to job descriptions and to relationships than any serious consideration of what specifically
55
should be done We knew that there would be problems but we went along with their own prefershyences We were concerned that the Mexican-Amerishycan leaders involved looked upon this as getting their share of the money and as a matter of dealing with Washington in spite of what was said about working with State and local agencies Before the initial funding we brought together the Mexican-American leaders regional and State agency officials of tile Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) Department of Health Education and Welfare and the Labor Department to explain the objectives of tile program and to allow them to raise their concerns and to have them start dealing with Mexican-Americans It was also our purpose to give the Mexican-Americans an awareness of the nature of the Federal-State relationship and its conshystraints the ainouint of resources tie limits on the resources and how decisions were nade on their alshylocation In this way the State and SER leaders were forewarned of the many technical and intershyagency relationship difficulties
The program was launched in mid-1966 We disshycussed types of staff needed and SER leaders cited the names of four possible executive directors Each had considera)le background and stature and were all acceptable Each of the four declined and a pershysonnel committee selected as executive director a young man from one of the organizations and a deiputy from one of the other organizations There was disagreement about tile choice of a person to be staff head We had to explain to the top leaders that neither they nor we could permit the selection to be a patronage activity and that the man seshylected while hie was promising oil paper and might be very good as a local project director simply was unequipped to work with regional and state govshyernment officials They reluctantly accepted this aid selected a man with some experience who in retrospect turned out to be the tower of strength in technical direction that was needed in the initial years in the effort Tile staff assemlbled by the new chief were young and willing Despite cautions from us the new staff rushed ambitiously to draft the proposals for large-scale new programs to give to Washington The proposals were in general terms and were justified simply as being needed They did not take into account the complex probshylems and lead-in time requirements inherent in the launching of any comprelensive programn For exshyample there was one proposal for an Employment Center in one State to be financed by $37 million
at a time when the total allocation for this entire State for Manpower training was approximately $25 million We had to explain in a quite turbushylent session that such funds were not available that the programs had to be linked with others of the State and local manpower agencies and that speshycific account had to be taken of operational probshylems of building up a sizeable scale program Thus through the hard way the staff became familiar with funding and operational constraints under manpower agencies and what was meant by develshyoping a program
The next problem we focused on was the quesshytion of separate SER programs versus programs jointly run with public agencies We identified apshy
proximate suis that we thought we could obtain1 from uncommitted resources in Washington We also made clear to the SER staff and to the State agency that such funds would be provided over and beyond the funds regularly allocated to the States if the programs were jointly developed if the State agencies would conduct certain functions requirshying their technical skill and if SER would be given authority and responsibility for operating acshytivities for which bilingual staff and Mexican-American sponsorship would be particularly useful The SER staff was now able to begin to examine
program specifics to proceed oil the technical tasks involved and find out what was literally involved in manpower development programs Issues did arise The SER staff came to us with questions about some State agency procedures We offered inshyformation and illade suggestiolls but with a couple of rare exceptions we did not intervene We told them they would have to work it out themselves
In the spring of 1968 new SER training projects with agencies in five States were funded with apshy
proximately $5 million There were 2500 trainees in the target areas where there were high proporshytions of Mexican-Americans unemployed The projshyects varied by locality but generally tile SER was responsible for or directly involved in recruitment and selection of trainees counseling pre-job orienshytation basic education relations with employers to obtain jobs for trainees and in coaching of trainshyees during training and after placement particushylarly where Spanish-speaking capability was reshyquired The State employment services did testing counseling job placement work and the State voshycational education agencies conducted or arranged for the formal skill training
We now graduated to a new level of problems
56
We moved from proposal development planning relations with State agencies and mastering of funding procedures to the specifics of program opshycration staff development technical assistance and linking to other programs These proceeded reasonshyably well in comparison to the earlier public
agency programs There were problems but a dedishycated enthusiastic staff was assembled and there was a clear affirmative response in the Mexican-American community and among potential trainshyces The State igencies respond(ed responsibly
But several types of problems are wortn noting There were questions of authority between the overall SER Board and the local SER Board and between the local Boards authority as against that of the staffs to which they were giving policy direcshytion I take particular credit for the fact that we reshysisted the temptation to be the big bosses We took the position that SER had to resolve its internal reshylations or be discredited in the eyes of the Governshyment and the public If they were serious about
private minority ability to decide and stand on their decisions
Another problen was that as the staff gained in capability t became the only identifiable major center of organized lexican-American program acshytivity and was pulled toward other potential activishyties such as housing minority entrepreneurship and education Universities and government agenshycies wanted to see how they could get Mexican-American involvement through SER We took a middle course There has been OEO funding in
part that has permitted this relatively easy stance But we insisted that there be primary and overshywhelming concentration on the manpower activishyties for which they were funded
On another front we had hoped that the initial Board would serve as a base for broader participashytion by drawing in additional Mexican-American groups Its example has provided some impetus for generating and developing various other activities at the local level by locally organized Mexican-American groups
To conclude I think it would be useful to note without overdramatizing several results that have become apparent during this fourth year of activshyity I think beyond question the program has heightened not only the interest but the undershystanding of miany Mexican-American leaders both of the potential and of the limitations of manshy
power programs-how they function and how they
can be used to meet the problems of unemployed Alexican-Americans
The programs have developed a knowledgeable Mexican-American staff who whatever their limishytations initially are now on a basis quite comparashyble to that of public agency staffs and are equipped to participate constructively in program planning development and operations In addition in the
process of negotiating with the public agencies they have influenced and generated some changes in program development to take more rational acshycount of unique problems of Mexican-Americans And for the first time on any scale they have led agencies in the manpower field into a direct sharshying a direct partnership of operating responsibility with minority organizations to the mutual benefit of both
One of the initial criticisms was that the areas we were concentrating in were urban areas and that we were not paying any attention to the Mexishycan migrants The observation was sound but it was our judgment that until a capability developed in a difficult enough area there was little sense in releasing another set of factors in the exceedingly complex and dispersed migrant problem
In the most recent years programs hive broadened SER is now conducting basic edtucationI programs for Mexican-American migrant in sevshyeral areas with financial support from OEO Beshy
yond the funds that we arranged over and above State resources as some initial ability was develshyoped the group was turned to for on-the-job trainshying contracts and to take on responsibility for certain functions in so-called Concentrated Employshynent Programs Also there has begun to be a drawshymig on this capability without regard to funds conshying directly from Washington For example a skills baink operation which accounted for some very large numbers of placements is probably the most significant of these activities
Beyond getting from the participation of the mishynority groups some of the special strengths it had
to offer particularly bilingual capability and a bishy
cultural understanding the SER program has
served as the resource for staff to enter the public
agencies so that by now perhaps a third of the initial group are working in State agencies and have brought within the public programs in other
areas and types of activities some of the special mishynority capability which was lacking at the outset of this program
57
Discussion
Question from the Floor What are the qualifishycations required for board members How are they selected or elected What was the background of some of the early staff including the staff director
Mr Brandweins comments On qualifications of the national board members we left the selection wholly to the organizations involved Similarly at the local level we made that matter the business of the local SER Boards Two problems in the initial years arose out of that practice where it was clear that we were not intervening and that it was not a matter of handpicking of members by the Governshyment The first problem was that as some of the novelty wore off as age crept up some of the boards original leaders replacements moved down to a more limited level and background Secondly we had an unusually sharp distinction between the board and the staff The board members were lawshyyers middle-level lower-income businessmen or real estate agents professional men in the communshyity The staff as a result of the first struggle in which we undertook to make clear that we would not proceed on a patronage basis were largely men in their twenties with college training and backshyground in sonic social activities In short order even at modest pay levels $12000-$1l1000 we had a problem of staff twenty years the junior of the board members earning higher incomes and chalshylenging the board members with lack of knowledge of program detail That has presented and continshyties to present friction For staff selection we have relied on two sets of procedures One is a wide cirshyculation of notice of vacancies to Mexican-Amerishycan organizations and the second is insistence on a fairly broad based selection committee in the boards themselves All things considered I think these procedures have worked out reasonably well
Question from the Floor What were the specific qualifications of the man who ultimately was seshylected as staff director
Mr Brandweins comments The man selected as staff director was a regional compliance officer with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commisshysion He had been consulted in the preparation of this was familiar with agency structures and had a record of active participation in one or both of the national organizations We focused on a cross reshygional basis and thus attracted capable leaders so
the original board operations were on the level of the most able leadership in this community The language element happened to be a particularly identifiably useful one here Also our focus was on the major metropolitan areas where we had greater access to potentially able young staff with a broader base from which to select
Question from the Floor How does a less develshyoped country take a small amount of money and conduct experimental activities to find out if they work and if they do to get a fair share of the reshysources of that country in order to mount larger
programs At what level did MDTA start and to what level has it now grown
Mr Brandweins comments I think I would
like to build on what you raise two ways Implicit
in all I said was a certain attitude of government Now governments are the people who are in them
The shepherding for MDTA was in a unit which everyone recognized had some flexibility reaching for examples of what might be done and it genershyated an element of let us try let us see what the
next steps will bring We also helped generate through this attitude somewhat different attitudes to government Thus irrespective of the amount of resources what resources there were were applied with some sense of We are not sure of what the
best way is This is the beginning We are going to build but we have the opportunity and where else can we go We were breeding through this type of combined public-private activity some developshyment of private group assertiveness understanding and self-generated expansion of activities We were also developing flexibility on the part of the public agencies to go further with available resources I believe these are potential products of any effort to combine public and private activity
Question from the Floor Why was on-the-job training chosen rather than training beforehand
Mr Brandweins comments There are two
points to make in answer to this question What we might have wanted to do was limited by the conshystraints of what we could do Therefore half by deshysire and half by necessity we relied on a learn-asshyyou-go basis What we undertook to do is to make available and insist on specific times and places for reassessment of what we did learn and I think this was the tool that we consciously relied on most This was very costly and at the periodic Board
58
meeings staff were brought together and State re- brought together promoted a high degree of intershygional and Federal agency officials were also in- change In addition there were realistic timetables vited Workshops in which project staff were of development
PARTICIPATION OT THE WORKING POOR-UTILIZATION OF HUMAN RESOURCES IN ANTI-POVERTY PROGRAMS
by Philip J Rutledge
The last several years we have seen in this counshytry a rather unusual development of programs parshyticularly in ghetto communities aimed at a kind of uplifting of these communities The efforts really are not completely new antipoverty efforts have a long history Certainly many of the best traditions of our philanthropy have grown up out of attempts to do something about and for those persons who have been less fortunate in the competitive struggle in our system
We have however developed a tradition that says organized private philanthropy may be good but the Government doing it is not so good In fact the Governments assistance to individuals who can not make it is inappropriate because if these individuals had any ambition any skills or tried to develop themselves they could make it on their own We have not had this type of tradition however about helping either private enterprise or the farmers or many other groups in the country as long as they were not identified with certain other
personal characterisitcs some of which have had distinct ethnic and racial identification
During the late fifties many of the private founshydations began to take a little different approach to human resources and community development These efforts were sometimes called antipoverty deshyvelopments Some rather comprehensive and wideshyspread efforts were funded which were concerned with changing things and opening doors of opporshytunity not only through outside help but also by stimulating people in groups to take actions someshytimes even disruptive and offensive action to change the nature of their situation Many of our more respected foundations funded such programs Also in the 1960s we have seen a spate of programs to assist the disadvantaged started by the Office of Economic Opportunity and Manpower Administrashytion and to some extent through efforts of the Manshypower Development and Training Act The latter
in my judgment was not really directed to any sigshynificant extent toward the disadvantaged and the occupants of the ghetto until relatively recently
I have spent much of my working career in the public health field particularly in the area of public health education It was our job to organize persons who may be concerned with immunization or x-ray programs and to get them involved in conshyvincing other people to come in for x-rays and imshymunizations These were really efforts in retroshyspect to use the people of these ghetto communities to achieve certain goals which we had in mind and which we knew-and I think with some validityshywere good for them However it never occurred to us while we were doing this that perhaps the peoshyple might have some other ideas about whether it was good for them or not
There has been I would suggest in whatever area we have used citizen involvement community involvement or the inexpert in our program activishyties a kind of tension between what might be an elitest approach in whieh -a group would say Now these are the facts I know how it -ought to be done and all I want you to do is come over and help me do it and get some of those others to come and help do it Or This subject or this area is just too complicated for you to understand so you just go and do it the way I want you to do it Sometimes such a position was valid
On the other hand we have had coming along at the same time in this country another approach which might be entitled egalitarian This apshyproach suggests that Well maybe they do have some ideas about some of these areas Maybe they do know something about how we ought to proshygram and organize in their community Maybe they do know something about training persons in manpower programming or the kind of skills or the kinds of materials that ought to be prepared
61
But what must we do to prepare them or indoctrishynate them into our particular philosophy
The efforts to accommodate these two apshy
proaches I think has created most of our probshylems The movements in this area in the early sixshyties changed the conditions a little bit because many of the persons who were being organized chose to make political instruments rather than soshycial instruments out of the organization techshyniques They tried to use their power of organizashytion for control and redirection of the resources that were being made available Such conditions made it difficult for the Government who wanted to involve -sidents particularly residents of the ghettos in vast social prograims The Government unlike sonic of the private philanthropic agencies and social work agencies that have been involved in this area in the past has other constituencies-it has a responsibility to the overall citizenry and above all responsibilities to the Congress and to the taxpayers
Thus we have seen in the sixties a great upsurge of interest in popular participation in a variety of
programs including manpower And now we have reached a point in our history where there is a tendency to back off fromn this concept by the Govshyernment I do not regard this backing off as necesshysarily an evil conspiracy on the part of the adminisshytration that happens to be in power It is perhaps one of the natural things that occurs when a new concept appears It grows and expands to one point reaches a plateau and falls back a little bit while liome retrenchment and redevelopment takes place Then after a while it moves on to another plashyteau In any process of change progress is not alshyways continuous
We are only now at a point where we are beginshyning to look for a different theoretical basis for
participation The concept of participation in
public and in private programming that we have been using has been largely an upper middle class one Therefore we accept the fact that there has not been any significant input or contribution from the class that we are trying to help Having worked in this area a long while I am not sure that we know enough about how to change this concept I think it is appropriate that we take not only the concept of participation but the concept of social programming in the ghetto back to the drawing board and take another look at them Some things have not worked some things have worked in spite
of what we were doing and some things just hapshypened accidentally
In the area of citizen participation I think it is rather significant that such groups as the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) and its professional offshoot the National Academy of Public Aministration (NAPA) are now beginning to take hard and serious professional looks at where we are in terms of government programming in utilizing citizens particularly disadvantaged resshyidents of the ghetto in our public programs The National Academy of Public Administration for example recently held a special conference on this problem of participation
A paper by John Strange of the ASPA which looked at citizen participation in programs funded through the Economic Opportunity Act found that the purposes in terms of the participants in these social programs-manpower and the like-included such goals as (1) the creation of a sense of group identity solidarity and power based on ethnicity economic class status and the use of Government programs or services and (2) to overcome a sense of powerlessness enhance life opportunities and to publicly affirm individual worth or to provide a job Ih terms of affecting the participants the purposes were (1) to train and educate and inform them of Government programs (2) to educate parshyticipants in the way the Government system works and develop political or administrative skills and (3) to alter social behavior in order to establish conditions for effective individual and family life
Another objective noted by Strange relating to participants which needs to be emphasized is that an institutional device must be provided which will enable the participants to settle for less than they want One of the important mechanisms that has held the American society together-holds all socieshyties together-is finding some means to compromise potentially incompatible differences and bringing into the decision-making process people who have different value systems and objectives This often provides an institutional device to enable them to settle for less
I also believe we have to take another look at the way we are redistributing power in our public proshygrams Certainly citizen participation community control of schools police precinct projects and other programs are basically ways of redistributing the power Whether we are talking about manshypower programs social programs educational sysshy
62
tems or what have you the major consideration bashysically is how can we redistribute the power so that the people in that system feel that they can yield it and use it as they believe best This feeling is someshytimes more important psychologically than the job itself
There are a number of ingredients needed to achieve meaningful and successful citizen particishypation but in summary I wish to note two which are of particular importance The first is the tendshyency in this country and perhaps in foreign areas as well to back off from assisting people if they do not seem to appreciate adequately what we are doing for them Second I do not think that we can develop in the ghettos which I am familiar with
and I doubt if we could develop that kind of popushylar participation in similar areas in foreign counshytries if we think that participation is simply going to be a means of promoting stability and promotshying a maintenance of the existing situation
I believe the nature of our society today is changed and in this country as well as developing nations citizen participation and community orshyganizations and popular involvement can provide as John Strange has suggested that mechanism for compromise and change if it is used properly If we give them some victories this might be more imshyportant than any other thing we might be able to do to keep our system and that of other countries together
63
COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN LATIN AMERICA LEADING TO SOCIAL CHANGE AND INSTITUTIONAL
DEVELOPMENT RELATED TO MANPOWER
by William F Whyte
The Peruvian government has a massive and amshybitious social and economic change program going on and there are opportunities to observe very inshyteresting changes and possibly to help these proshygressive changes to come about
This paper discusses changes in two rural sectors of Peru One is the Sierra Hacienda which has in the past been run very much like the feudal manor of the Middle Ages the peasants largely of Indian extraction served very much as serfs tied to the land owing labor services to the patron the hacenshydado The second sector is the coastal plantations which are quite a different style of operation from the Sierra where the haciendas have been pretty much in the subsistence economy with very small surpluses The coastal plantations have been enshygaged in large scale modern agriculture sugar cane cotton etc largely for the export market These large agro-industrial enterprises are either Peruvian owned or foreign owned
Unions have been rather effective on the coast due to the cohesive organization that exists there In the Sierra there have been sporadic peasant movements but the cohesive organization is lackshying
To properly provide technical assistance to the change processes occurring in these two sectors or anywhere else you should know what really is going oin I therefore must first try to knock down what seems to me a false image of the peasant which I call the myth of the passive peasant This is the notion that the peasant is bound by trashydition he is conservative and he sticks to his old customs So if anything is going to change on the country side it will be from some kind of outside intervention either by community developers supshy
This paper is based on field studies in Peru undertaken in collaboration with Dr L Williams of Cornell University and the Institute of Peruvian Studies of Peru
ported by AID or by political agitators or revolushytionists
In Peru the younger social scientists differ in what the long-run objectives are but they do agree in accepting what I quite dogmatically call a myth-the myth that it you do not get out there you middle-class intellectuals and guide the peasshyants or stir them up they will just sit there and nothing will happen
Changes have been observed some slow but some quite rapid and dramatic in various parts of rural Peru where the government has not intervened and where there has been no planned intervention from the outside The peasants have joined toshygether and learned how to manipulate the power structure and have achieved in some cases basic transformations Those peasant families who have been living on haciendas as serfs have managed to combine together to oust the landlord to take over the lands and to operate their own farming entershyprises
We have been trying to observe how this takes
place Visualize what we call the baseless triangle where the hacendado the landlord is at the apex of the triangle and the peasants are at the bottom all linked to the apex by lines coming down from the landlord And when we say the baseless trishyangle we have an image of a lack of interconnecshytion among the peasants horizontally This is a vershytical system and the hacendado has done his best in the past to keep this that way and it means that anything that the peasants need in the economic system and the political system and any wants they have they have had to try to fulfill by acting through the landlord who has been quite unrecepshytive to their initiatives which have always been on an individual basis That is you would ask the landshylord for a favor to you and your family but there would not be concerted organized action The landshy
65
lord was the gatekeeper between you and the outshyside society
When we find this structure changing we find more or less simultaneously new links are formed links across the base of the triangle which we call the closing of the triangle base But this is not enough We find that the peasants begin to estabshylish independent connections with politicians maybe there are competing political parties which they can use to advantage
In some cases the landlord has outstanding loans with the agricultural development bank which he has not been repaying The peasants discover this and with the assistance perhaps of lawyers apshy
proach the bank to see if they can take over the loan and therefore take over the estate
In other cases the peasants discover that the landshylord has been required by law to provide educashytion for their children and lie has not complied or has just done so in a token way So the peasants apshy
peal to the Ministry of Education they offer to build a schoolhouse if they can get help The procshyess of transformation and development therefore involves not only the banding together of the peasshyants to close the base of the triangle but the develshyoping of upward links with power figures in society
As this process takes place the hacendados posishytion becomes more difficult and lie is likely to have
problems himself in the decline of his agricultural operations especially if lie has been an absentee landlord letting someone else run the operations Frequently there are legal fights among the hacenshydado group for the control of land When the old man dies his sons are likely to fight for control then the peasants at times can move in and take OVer
This seems to have one implication for developshyment and for training needs The process of popushylar participation aJparently requires the developshyment by the peasauts of direct links with bankers
politicians and people in the field of education If this is so it seems to mie the technical assistance process ought to be oriented to some extent around helping peasants understand how this world outshyside their little estate works and how to establish connections and deal with these power figures indeshy
pendent of the landlord or boss Then there is a second phase that is likely to
arise and present another set of problems When you first look at the typical Sierra hacienda you have a picture of the landlord being at the top and the pcasants all at the same level at the bottom but
this is not always the case The landlord maintains his control not only by dealing with each peasant individually but by having his favorite There are certain itidividual peasants certain families that he feels are particularly loyal to him and they get the breaks which means different treatment in the distribution of land that the peasant is able to work for his own family So you frequently find sitshynations where a small minority of peasants under this hacendado has two or three times as much land or even more under their own immediate conshytrol than the rank and file
Now when this hacienda system breaks up when the peasants are able to unite against the hacendado and are successful in ousting him an interesting issue arises This issue relates to whether the part of the hacienda directly under the immediate conshytrol of the landlord should be divided among the
peasants or whether the whole estate shall be redishyvided Those who have had the greater amounts of land feel that they have worked hard improved the land and built their houses on it and that they have earned the land So they prefer to maintain the existing distribution The rank and file leaders counter with the point that this is inequitable disshytribution and everyone should start from the same
base line It was not until the present military govshyernment came into power that there was no longer any difference of opinion on this matter between the Executive and Congress This solution was achieved by dismissing the Congress and then it was finally possible to settle the distribution of land issue
This type of problem involving peasant solidarshyity and intergroup conflict is going to become more
prevalent Yet most of the persons working on agrarian reform are assistance and agricultural production specialists with no knowledge or backshy
ground about social organization or processes
about intergroup conflicts and negotiation
How do you handle a situation that involves basic differences of interest that have to be fought out negotiated mediated or arbitrated Some unshyderstanding on that front should be provided or
our technical assistance efforts will go awry
Another possible training focus involves comshymunity development In Peru there is a long tradishy
tion of community self-help buildings schools roads and so forth However there is also a long history in which these communal efforts lead to inshy
creased wealth at one particular time but the
problem of maintenance is not handled That is
66
you build a school and the initial cost is taken care of then there is the problem of supplying teachers maintaining the school and so on So you can readshyily have a situation in which the more successful the community development program the more the expense burden falls upon the national governshymient which is alost the only supplier of tax money Work has been started but more needs to be (lone to develop the community revolving fund concept The idea is to tie together the impulses of conunities to build physical improvements to make investments in their community with sonic continuing commitment of the community to assess itself to maintain this particular facility
It seems to me that technical assistance training can be very helpful in exploring possibilities of linking the community development effort to the development of local government
On the coast there is a quite different transforshyimation problem than in the Sierra Technology and scientific knowledge are used much more on the coast Greater division of labor and more union organization exists on the coast
The Peruvian government objective is to transshyform the haciendas of the Sierra into self-governing
peasant communiities really dividing the land up among the peasants but also trying to maintain a communal organization for mutual help On the coast the government recognizes this is not practishycal You can not just divide the sugar estates and the cotton plantations into small farmer plots so the approach has been to transform the agro-industrial complex into a producers cooperative This inshyvolves a major structural transformation which will also have an impact on the workers In the first stage the goverinment administrators have been running everything It is just a transfer of power from private land owner to government But the ideology is to have the peasants take over Here you run into political questions because on the coast of Peru the unions have generally been organized by another political party and the government is very leery of doing anything to encourage this political group it would rather (10 the opposite
The social scientists feel that something could be worked through the already existing union strucshyture This cannot be (lone automatically because the Peruvian unions do not aict in quite the same way that the unions do in the US The unions in Peru tend to be more centralized there is less activshyity at the lower levels On the other hand you do
have a degree of mobilization of workers around the unions The Peruvian government therefore has to determine whether or not it can build on this established organization the development of
producers cooperatives Peru is trying to carry out a structural transforshy
mation in these coastal haciendas for which there is no parallel in history It is not just a question of communicating what is a cooperative the officers needed and- what do they do but drastic changes
in peoples roles have to be developed and a new type of organization has to be established A signifshyicant social and cultural transformation is inshyvolved a change with which our best experts on
producers cooperatives and agriculture are not familiar
I am also not suggesting that sociologists such as myself should provide the technical assistance However I do think it is important to shift our
priorities here and say that a major transformation
process has been launched and is going to be going on for a long time with some successes a lot of failshyures many difficulties and that maybe the best help we can provide is some assistance on the reshysearch side to study and try to understand what is going on and feed this information back to Peshyruvian agrarian reform programs
The nature of this process is to develop training materials which can be used to train present and future administrators on these estates It can train incipient peasant leaders so that they will become able to deal with the complexities technical as well as social of the new type of organization
In this connection I think outside help can be useful to Peru but in financial form rather than direct investment in research talent because I have found that Peru has very able social scientists who understand what is going on much better than most experts in this field who could be imported Instead of thinking simply in terms of experts to go in and tell people what ought to be done about manpower and related problems we recognize the complexity of these problems and try to learn about these transformations as they are taking
place so that out of this learning process can be
provided teaching materials for training programs for work in the colleges and universities that will
give Latin Americans a much more realistic picture of the problems of social reforms and development than they camn obtain from the US models that are ordinarily imposed on them
67
Discussion
Questions from the floor How can free and unshytrammeled research in the field of power relationshyships be placed in a military regime which may feel itself rightly or wrongly threatened as for example in the program of land reform How do you collashyborate with these free researchers in Peru in raisshying these questions
Mr Whyte comments We have so far had no difficulty at all under the present government in doing research and in publishing But the time may conic particularly as we try to publish more and more studies on land reform because what we have been doing so far has helped to highlight the evils of the preexisting system that the government is committed to change If we do get into studiesshy
as we are hoping to-of the governments present efshyforts of land reform in certain areas I am sure we are going to run into a problem ie the governshyment has intervened and knocked out the preshyexisting power ligures and starts to undertake the transformation of society from the top down We think not only we in the US but also our Peshy
ruvian social science associates that there are limishytations to this approach It is going to break down
in certain predictable ways When we get to the
point of observing these breakdowns and reporting
on them analyzing them we will then face the
problem you have raised by the question We have
been completely free so far but when we look at
the impact of the present government in certain
areas we are getting into something much more
delicate
68
MOBILIZING THE PARTICIPATION OF YOUTH IN MANPOWER AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT-A UNIVERSAL CHALLENGE
by William Mirengoff
I am rather intrigued by this Symposiums emshyphasis on popular participation in manpower proshygrams although I must confess I find the term a little ambiguous Just what do we mean by popular
participation Does it mean the involvement of state and local
officials as the democratically elected representashytives of the populace
Or does it mean the direct involvement of that segment of the populace to whom the program is directed independent of the local political strucshyture indeed sometimes challenging the elected power structure
And if we mean the latter how do we bring this
participation about There are some rather broad philosophical issues
involved here For the purposes of todays discussion I view
participation as three-dimensional
1 Participation in the fruits of the program-as recipients This is essentially a passive role and the results can be quantified in terms of people served and benefits received
2 Participation in decision-making This is esshysentially an active role-helping to determine program policies and targets
3 Participation in implementing the program and delivering the services This is a manashygerial and administrative role
I Trend Toward Popular Participationin Manshypower Programs
One of the lessons we have learned over the last decade is that the Federal Government bureaucracy alone despite all its resources cannot guarantee soshylutions to all of the complex problems facing our nation Rather experience has shown that deep inshyvolvement by all the sectors of the society affected
by a particular problem is essential This not only includes involvement by orgnizations that can conshytribute resources and services but also full particishypation in program development and decision-makshying by the very people for whom the programs are being provided
The Economic Opportunity Act embodied the clearest expression of popular participation by reshyquiring the maximum feasible participation of the poor in its program The Community Action Agencies went out and organized the poor so that they could participate effectively in detision-makshying In some areas insistence of program clients on a voice in activities affecting their welfare was viewed as a threat to established power structures In general however involvement of the poor led to a healthy exchange of ideas and combination of efshyforts that fostered creative programs
Building on the experience of the Economic Opshyportunity Act the Model Cities Program also reshyquires the direct involvement of the population in the target area
Manpower Administration programs stress this too-particularly the involvement of staff from the client group and the target area In addition there has been a clear trend toward decentralization which strengthens participation in administration at the local level
It may be of some interest to trace the evolution of popular participation in the manpower and reshylated human resources programs I think of this evolution as passing through three stages-Prolifershyation Cooperation and Consolidation
1 ProliferationWe started with the Area Reshydevelopment Act of 1961 then the Manpower Development Training Act of 1962 then an explosion of manpower programs-The Neighshyborhood Youth Corps Operation Mainstream New Careers the JOBS Program etc-based
69
on the Economic Opportunity Act Later came the WIN Program Public Service Careers and other programs
Unrelated fragmented programs proliferated each with its own organizational structure funding eligibility requirements and apshyproaches
But in the last analysis programs all take place on some piece of real estate-in a state city or community They all converge on the people in an area with a minimum of planning and coordination competing for local resources for local clients for public attention and support
2 CooperationRecognizing the need for rationshyalization and coordination below the Fedshyeral level major efforts were made to achieve cooperation among the individual programs We tried joint funding-with independent
programs joining voluntarily in combined efshyforts We tried to pull the Department of Labor programs together in the Concenshytrated Employment Program-a coordinated effort to focus available services on specific low-income areas We tried to bring together all human resource programs of all governshyment agencies plus non-government involveshyment through the CAMPS program--essenshytially a system of local planning and coordishynation through a network of state and local interagency committees
All of these efforts had a measure of success but all were hampered by a timeless adminisshytrative problemi-the suspicions and cautious protectiveness of centrally operated program agencies that are asked to yield some autonshyomy in the interests of a cooperative effort and greater involvement by people at the local level
3 Consolidation We are now at the third stageshyconsolidation This stage is best epitomized by the proposed Manpower Training Act (MTA) This legislation is currently before the Congress where it has bi-partisan supshyport
We are firmly committed to the MTA which will be a milestone in the development of manshypower policy in this country It will
Decategorize our present fragmented programs
Decentralize the planning and delivery system for manpower services
Move programs toward maximum participashytion by state and local governments-Govershynors Mayors and other popularly elected repshyresentatives
The MTA would supersede the Manpower Deshyvelopment and Training Act (MDTA) and manshy
power sections of the Economic Opportunity Act Under the ITA most of the individual manpower programs that are currently operated from Washshyington as highly centralized separately adminisshytered activities would be merged into one overall manpower effort Program categories such as MDTA Neighborhood Youth Corps the Concenshytrated Employment Program Operation Mainshystream and others would lose their identities in the consolidated effort Responsibility for planning and administering the new comprehensive manshy
power program would be delegated to a large exshytent to the Governors of the States and to local
prime sponsors (primarily Mayors and other heads of local governments)
Each year the prime sponsors would be required to prepare comprehensive manpower plans for their areas proposing manpower services tailored to the
special needs of local problem groups The Govershynors would be responsible for submitting consolishydated manpower plans for their states State and local advisory and planning bodies composed of representatives of business labor welfare groups agriculture education local and state government agencies and other community elements are to play key roles in developing the plans Upon approval of the state plans by the federal governshyment the Governors and local prime sponsors would assume major responsibilities for impleshymenting approved programs
As you can see unification and decentralization of programs under the MT are directly related to the principle of fuller particilition by non-Federal groups The MTA would mobiii e the experience and resources of ou- pluralistic network of local governments and commununity interests to support all states of manpower activity
II Need For Youth Manpower Programs
I would like now to turn specifically to youth
programs to explore how the principle of particishy
pation is being applied in manpower services for young people As most of you know there has been
70
a mounting interest in youth manpower problems in this country Many new programs for young peoshyple entering or preparing for the labor force have been introduced during the last decade At present youth accounts for well over one-third of the enshyrollment and expenditures in Federally assisted manpower activities
In large part this emphasis represents a growing awareness of the alienation and frustration of
many young people who are unable to participate effectively in the labor market We are faced with
the rejection of prevailing values youthful cynishycism and sucli symptoms of social disorganization as caipus unrest high crimc rates racial tensions and drug abuse
In the US probleis encountered by youth in the labor market reflect basic population labor force and educational trends
A Population Upsurge There has been a sharp
increase in the youth population during the last decade as the post-World War II baby crop came to maturity Between 1960 and 1969 the number of youths aged 11-24 increased by 12 million from 27 to 39 million Thuis fl4 increase was four times larger than the rate for the population as a whole Ten years ago only one out of seven people were 1-1-24 years old today close to one oit of five Is it any wonder that this sharp upsurge of youth reachshying employable age has created stresses in the labor market stresses in the school system stresses in the
streets for those who are not in school or in jobs and stresses throughout our social fabric
Most tragic of all in my opinion is the collapse of the school system in the inner-city Inundated by waves of disadvantaged youth faced with shortages of teacliers and facilities burdened with problems inherited ftoni fainily economic and governmental institutions groping for ways to overcome the handicaps of low-income youngsters-the inner-city school system faces a major challenge
B Ulnemploynent Although the economy has shown marked strengii in absorbing most of the new job seekers unemployment among young peoshyple particularly disadvantaged youths who are most in need of steady jobs and incomes is a signifshyicant problem Among youths 16-21 who are in the labor force
1 12 or about 1300000 were unemployed in February of 1970 compared to a 45 rate for the labor force as a whole
2 Among nonwhites the rate was even highershy20
Unemployment rates are still higher in some
pockets of urban and rural poverty
To a large extent the substantial unemployment rate reflects diminishing opportunities for jobs with low skill requirements Such jobs have tradishytionally served as an entree into the labor market for many youngsters Recently however low skilled jobs have become scarcer as labor requirements in agriculture dropped off and as l-abor needs in inshydustry shifted from manual workers to highershyskilled technical occupations As the country turned the corner from a goods-producing to a servshyice-oriented economy a strong back and willingshyness to work no longer were adequate tickets to a job
C Labor Force Entrants Without Adequate Voshycational Skills A significant number-perhaps as many as one-third-of our young people enter the labor force without adequate job skills They face
special problems in a job market with rising skill requirements
The problem may be expressed in this paradox
The US keeps a larger proportion of its population in school longer than any other country-to ensure their preparation for lifeshytime activity
Yet the unemployment rate among youth is far higher than in any other nation and has been rising rapidly over the last four decades
And this paradox persists in the face of unushysual prosperity high levels of employment and skill shortages
Students who do pot complete at least a high school education encounter special difficalties In 1968 almost one million youth 14-17 were not enshyrolled in school Dropouts aged 16-21 had a 15 unemployment rate during that year-twice the rate of comparable high school graduates For nonshywhite dropouts the unemployment rate was 25 Even those who complete high school are not necesshysarily prepared for a vocation There is a disparity between educational credentials and performance levels with many high school graduates unable to read write work or reason properly
Manpower programs can be viewed as repair shops for those young people who have come out of the school system without adequate preparation for the world of work We get the toughest casesshy
71
the rejects This poses a major challenge in deshyveloping creative techniques for rebuilding the skills interests and character traits of the disadvanshytaged youngsters
All of this gives you some idea of the dimension of the problem-the universe of need Now I would like to turn to our response to these needs
III A Conprehensive Program of Manpower Servshyices to Meet Youth Needs
To what extent (o youth participate in manshypower programs as recipients-as an example of popshyular participation in the benefits of public proshygrains
In the last decade the US has reached out to the youth population with an array of innovative and creative programs to alleviate labor market probshylems These programs are designed to help youth find worthwhile jobs at decent wages to experience a sense of fill participation in our productive life and to develop their personal potentials so as to avoid frustration and to maximize their contribushytions to society
A major feature of the comprehensive manpower effort is recognition of the significant differences among the categories of youth who need assistance
1 Many out-of-school unemployed young people simply require help in obtaining vocational trainshying in a good school setting For these the Manshy
power Development and Training Act passed in 1962 provides classroom training opportunities supplemented by subsistence allowances to help the trainee support himself and his family Last year about 35000 youths under 22 received this MDTA institution training-28 of all MDTA institushytional trainees
2 Recognizing that many youngsters are having difficulty in adapting to vocational training in a school setting and aware of the school dropout
problem the Congress authorized a program of training and experience in a work setting for jobshyless youth in the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 Currently termed the Out-of-School composhynent of the Neighborhood Youth Corps the proshygram helps youths aged 16-18 to prepare for steady employment In Fiscal Year 1971 the NYC Out-of-School program is expected to serve 36500 youths at a cost of $125 million
3 To reduce the dropout problem among poverty-stricken youngsters the Neighborhood Youth Corps In-School and Summer Programs
provide part-time employment and earnings opporshytunities for needy youngsters who are still attending school In FY 1971 these components are expected to serve almost 500000 youths aged 14-21 at a cost of $235 million
4 What about young people who simply cannot adjust to vocational training in a formal classroom setting or even in a setting of routine work experishyence Included in this category are young people whose social and physical environments are so unshyfavorable that their capacities for training and job seeking are severely curtailed As our experience with youth manpower services has expanded it beshycame evident that this group can be helped by reshymoval from adverse school and home settings to a new residential environment where training methshyods and stipl)portive services can be adapted to their
special needs This group is the target population for the Job
Corps The Job Corps provides occupational trainshying remedial education and a wide variety of charshyacter-building and supplemental services geared to the special needs of disadvantaged youngsters 16-21 in residential centers around the country Enrollshyrment in Job Corps Centers has also proven useful for many youths who come from rural areas where alternative local manpower development facilities are not available The unique aspect of this proshygran is its raidential character its provision of truly comprehensive services (from health care to clothing from vocational training to monthly alshylowances) and its effort to combine all necessary manpower services (from initial selection of enrolshylees to final placement of graduates on the job) into an integrated manpower delivery system
In FY 1971 the Job Corps expects to accommoshy(late 25000 youths at a tinre in 75 centers at a cost of $180000000
5 Of course prevention is the best cure for the
problenis of youth in the labor market The greatshyest priority must be given to improvement of vocashytional education in the regular school system where the majority of young people are expected to
prepare adequately for the world of work The schools niust redirect some of their effort from endshylessly preparing pupils for more schooling to preshy
paring tie average youngster for the demands of tire working world
The Vocational Education Act amendments of 1968 represent an advance in meeting the needs of school youth for quality vocational preparation
72
As amended the Act greatly strengthens vocational training in local secondary schools providing asshysistance for better equipment teachers and facilishy
ties and for gearing courses realistically to todays cormiplex occupational requirements In FY 1971 the Federal Government will invest over
$300000000 in this program State and local govshyerninents will contribute one billion dollars in matching funds
6 Many other programs are components of the
comprehensive manpower effort for youth Among the most important may be
a Efforts to increase opportunities in apprenticeshyable trades for minority group youths
b Efforts to help young military dischargees make the transition to civilian life eg pre-disshy
charge training in Project Transition and post-disshycharge school benefits for veterans
c Opportunities for youths in broad-gauge proshygrams which serve both youths and adults eg the Concentrated Employment Program the JOBS Proshy
gran the Public Service Careers Program Last year more than a third of the CEP enrollees and
almost one-half of all JOBS enrollees were under
22 years of age
d Expansion of programs to train prison mshy
mates for post-release employment-a major contrishybution to efforts to rehabilitate young offenders
Together these forward looking measures constishytute a comprehensive manpower program for youth They will be significant achievements in bridging the discontinuity between school and work strengthening the participation of youth in
the economic process and combating alienation and frustration attributable to labor market probshy
lems
IV Expanding Participation in Decisionmaking
Having discussed the quantitative or passive asshy
pects of popular participation ie participation of youth as beneficiaries of program services I would like now to turn to the qualitative or active aspect
of participation This involves direct participation in decision-making-in the actual planning of proshygrams by the very persons they are designed to serve
We have learned that young people like everyshyone else want to be directly involved in decisions affecting their welfare Moreover experience shows that such participation results in more effecshy
tive and realistic programs As a result a major efshyfort has been made to give enrollees a voice
In the Job Corps for example all training cenlshyters are required to organize student governments The enrollees take these governments very serishyously and so (10 the center staffs Constitutions generally written by the enrollees themselves deshyscribe the responsibilities and organization of the student government duties of officers and election and removal procedures They provide for student councils and other officers usually elected at sixshymonth intervals who legislate rules for dress conshyduct grievance-handling and other aspects of group life in a residential setting Also the center constitutions usually establish a judicial system for
judging and penalizing mi nor offenders Center administrators meet with the student
councils at least once each week to plan improveshyments in the training program enrollee activity schedules and center procedures Some councils have jurisdiction over special funds maintained for recreational or welfire purposes Often they set up subconumittees on such subjects as instruction comshyplaints recreation community relations and food Service
Qualifications for election to the student offices vary Most centers have minimum residence reshy
quiremlents In at least one center candidates for election are required to attend special classes in center government for one week
V Participationin Adninistering Programs
Let me now turn to the third form of popular
participaitioii-pamrticipatioii in day-to-day adminisshytration of programs This aspect of manpower proshygrams has also received substantial emphasis Mainly it has taken two forms (a) use of disadshyvantaged persons as staff members and (b) involveshynient of sectors of ou- society other than the Federal Government I would like to say a word about each of these in turn
A Utilizing disadvantaged persons as staff nenbers As social work counseling teaching emshy
ployment services and other helping professions have beconie more and more professionalized there have developed significant communication barriers between the professional and his disadvantaged client The accumulation of professional skills and insights has been accompanied paradoxically by difficulties in establishing rapport and influencing the very people who require assistance To overshy
73
come this problem Community Action Agencies manpower programs housing programs and others serving disadvantaged people have found that comshymunication can be restored through the employ ment of target group members to serve their disadshyvantaged neighbors The new employces working as para-professional aides under skilled professional people are able to gain the confidence of the clients to explain prograims to discuss the advanshytages and disadvantages of participation and to enlist support in language and actions that disadshyvantaged clients can understand At the same time the aides are in a position to feed back to the proshyfessionals the problems and needs of the inarticushylate masses of people who are to be served
Involvement of target group members on the staffs of agencies serving the disadvantaged has
proven beneficial for the professionals the aides
and program clients alike
B Broader Comm unity Involvement The secshyond form of popular participation in administrashytion of youth manpower programs is the deep inshyvolveient of non-government organizations
At an early stage of the development of our comshyit became clearprehlensive manpower program
that Federal Government action alone could not
provide all solutions for the problems of youth Training for jobs without involvement of emshyployers and labor unions would be unrealistic Dushy
plication of facilities and other services already available in the community would be wasteful and time-consuming Manpower programs therefore have drawn upon the skills and resources of an array of community groups
1 The Business Sector Private industry has been heavily involved not only in an advisory cashy
pacity but also in direct operation of employment and training programs In the case of the JOBS
program and the Sununer Youth Campaign for exshyample industry has provid ed leadership in direct training and placement of hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged people Experience has clearly shown that jobless young people trained in a realshylife work setting for jobs and employers identified in advance are most likely to succeed at their trainshying and employment In the Job Corps industry has applied its mnanagement and technical skills to the actual operation of Job Corps Centers
2 Labor Unions Unions are participating in expanding employment opport unities for disadvanshy
taged people and providing vocational and pre-voshycational training
In the Job Corps five building trades unions are
presently playing a major role in training at Civilshyian Conservation Centers These unions are curshyrently training about one-fourth of the youths in such centers and are cooperating in having their graduates placed into the building trades apprenshyticeship programs Great stress is being placed on this activity for completers are almost guaranteed a job in well-paid shortage occupations and the
program is helping minority group youths move into occupations in which their numbers have trashyditionally been low
3 Nonprofit Community Organizations A wide variety of community organizations which have specialized knowledge and contacts with respect to
particular disadvantaged groups are participating heavily in youth manpower programs These groups may be involved in programs to recruit counsel and arrange job and training opportunishyties for low-income youngsters or in pioneering new ways of training and orienting disadvantaged
people in numerous cities around the country Other groups are providing special youth services for the physically or mentally handicapped rural
people dropouts and other categories with special needs Also some residential centers of Job Corps are managed directly by nonprofit groups
Related to work with nonprofit organizations is our extensive community relations program In the Job Corps it is mandatory for every center to take the initiative in establishing a Community Relashytions Council These Councils include local comshymunity leaders in business labor education the church welfare recreation and government as well as Job Corps Center enrollees and staff They consider matters of ntitual concern In many areas outstanding examples of community-Center coopershyation occur eg use of Center gymnasium and shop facilities for community needs participation of enrollee volunteers in child care clean-tip and other community tasks participation in parades and fairs and use of community volunteers as tushytors entertainers and other helpers in Center proshygrams
4 Universities Broad involvement of universishyties in research and evaluation of programs has been the rule from the beginning of the manpower effort There is a continuous give and take of ideas between the university researcher and the living
74
program laboratories In the Job Corps universishyties have also been actively involved in the operashytion of training centers
VI Conclusion The stability of our society will depend upon the
strong sense of involvement felt by the younger generation in government activities affecting their welfare In the new arsenal of manpower programs for youths we have tried to implement this princishy
ple by providing services that will reduce the alienshyation of youth by providing opportunities to parshyticipate more fully in the benefits of our economic system by involving youth in decision-making and by using them in the delivery of services
In addition Federal youth programs are increasshyingly operating on the principle that the non-govshyernment sector and our local and State governments must be mobilized to expand and strengthen Fedshyeral efforts Decentralization community relations cooperation with business and labor-these are corshynerstones of our comprehensive manpower policy The Administrations support of the proposed Manpower Training Act underscores its commitshyment to this approach
I hope that this summary of our experience will
prove useful to you and can be applied with realisshytic adaptations to the needs of other countries with similar problems
75
MANPOWER AND YOUTH PROGRAMS IN THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES OF ERICA
by Max R Lum Jr
Many of us assume that pe alar participation is a right For example the youth in the Job Corps assume as a right participation in the control of certain monies that are removed from their pay as fines for minor violations of the rules They have a student government control over these funds Howshyever from discussions at the ILO-sponsored youth conference in Geneva (from which I have just reshyturned) it appears that participation of youth in manpower programs as a right is still an open quesshytion at least among the African countries This Poshysition was reflected by the type of resolutions that came out of the African caucus at the conference
One resolution stated that the manpower proshygrais for youth should be of the kind that facilishy
tate the contribution of youth to development and
to insure that their efforts are directed to feasible
ends which are a relevant and integral part of the total development plan The integral part of a development plan of course can be something that is superimposed from above in the decision-making
process A second resolution (which infers volunshytarism) related to the need to strengthen the motivashytion of young people to participate and contribute to the programs of self-help and mutual assistshyance (They appear to have the same problems we do regarding motivation) Another resolution of the caucus (which seems at least in part to contrashydict the first listed above) stressed the necessity to
protect young people from exploitation and excesshysive participation in development schemes Howshy
ever this resolution appears to be in response to
the fact that in Africa some countries are withshydrawing certain mechanized systems because of the serious surplus labor conditions among the youth Whether this nicans that a youth has to enter the work force at 13 because lie is available or whether he participates at a later age is not clear The withshyholding of mechanized programs to take advantage of this surplus labor also raises a question about
the extent to which youth participation resulting from such action is voluntary
Now to turn to the major purpose of this paper a report on my visit to Africa to look at what the National Youth Services in these countries were doing particularly with respect to what kinds of programs were being developed to let youth particishy
pate in the decision-making process Nineteen African countries have National Youth
Services although in some countries they may have another title For example in Ghana and the Ivory Coast they are called Pioneers Emphasis of these services may be on rural development or multipurshy
pose schemes such as vocational andor general edshyucational training or it can be a centralized trainshying-program geared to accomplish a single purpose
I also found that there were certain problems or questions which were fairly common to all of the prograins In all programs there is concern about
participation of youth-about how much control thc youth themselves should have over the system in which they are operating Similarly there is the need felt in all of the programs (which we share with them) for the development of a specific list of objectives that should be or need to be accomshy
plishied during the period the youths are in the
program this is particularly difl_ult in Africa Anshyother coinnion problem cccurs in those programs that are divided in terms of tribal or sectional groups there are gaps among these programs which need to be filled in order to make them more comshy
parable and to build some kind of national idenshytity among these groups Finally the youth in Afshyrica represent great pools not only of resources but of political power For example they were imporshytant factors in the downfall of the government in Sudan and they almost brought down the Seneshygalese government Youth also had direct participashytion in the new constitution for Ghana
The specific youth programs in the African counshy
77
tries vary widely as may be seen from the followshying examples Nigeria for example is building a huge program of vocational training This program is directed towards taking some of the military pershysonnel and giving th2m vocational training before they are released to find civilian jobs In Zambia on the other hand there is a broader program The Zambia job corps although it is a large centralized camp is definitely a voluntary service It takes youth from all over the country into this center In determining whether the youth would participate in agricultural or in vocational training programs it takes into account the government needs as well as the youths needs When this determination is made they are sent to specific camps to be trained The agricultural graduates when they finish their program which may last as much as two years are given plots of land to develop The entire first twoshyyear graduating class (graduation actually occurred while we were there) was drafted into the army beshycaue of the need Zambia feels to defend its border The program therefore in practice appears to have been a pre-military training program However when the youngsters muster out of the army they will be we were informed given plots of land and in other cases given additional training to be
placed in vocational programs While we were in Tanzania where it appears
they are going their own way in youth planning the biggest controversy among the youth-a very centralized group-was the mi ni-skirt controversy The African youth feel this is an important issue The discussions regarding the length of mni-skirts actually were being addressed to the Europeans who were wearing mini-skirts shorter and shorter The mini-skirt apparently became an issue in Zamshybia also
In the Ivory Coast where there is a particushylarly encouraging program the youth come to one camp in one area of the country and then exshychanges occur within the youth camps to mix the
population and to give it some uniformity of trainshying In Ghana there is another type of programshythe Young Pioacer Gliding Schools Some three or four hundred youths (Young Pioneers) will be given special training in flying gliders for fun The National Youth Group of the country which is sepshyarate from the government but government financed is taking over this school and actually using the facility for a residential training proshygram
On the basis of what I have observed and the opshy
portunity I had to talk with various persons at the Geneva meeting where there must have been some 15 proposals from youth groups within Africa for aid both technical and administrative as well as for actual financial aid for the development of furshyther youth services there appears to be no question but that the development of youth services is going to be highly important in Africa Moreover unless the problem of youth services within these counshytries is solved within a short time there can be imshy
portant impact upon the future political developshyment of many of the African countries
Discussion
Question from the floor Title IX of the Forshyeign Assistance Act states that emphasis shall be placed on assuring maximum participation in the task of economic development on the part of the people of developing countries through the encouragement of democratic private and local governmental institutions This mandate would indicate that the type of youth programs we should support should be ones in which their objectives are obtained without the element of coercion or forced labor Yet it appears that in some African programs there are work brigades-coercion compulsion no choice Furthermore some of these programs may be underwritten by the US through our surplus agshyricultural connodities under the Food for Work program Since the youth programs in the US and Africa appear to have essentially the same objecshytives how in your opinions Mr Mirengoff and Mr Lum is it possible to achieve these objectives without the element of compulsion Do you give freedom of choice on the recruitment side or on the training side Do you use some elements of compulsion for a limited perod of time in order to prepare the youth to move on a free choice basis into a world of work
Mr Mirengoffs comments I can only give part of the answer to this question as it relates to the Job Corps program It is a voluntary program Nobody is coerced into Job Corps They come in of their own free will From our point of view this is good Those who come into Job Corps have a sense of motivation and a sense of purpose which is reshyflected in what they do once they get in Job Corps as contrasted to a situation where they have to be in public school until the age of 16 whether they like it or not In the latter situation when they do
78
not like it there is trouble Our whole premise is based upon voluntarism which we hold very near and dear
In a voluntary program popular involvement has meaning In a controlled society it has no meanshying I wish there was someone who could explain the philosophy or develop the concept of popular involvement in a totalitarian country I cannot do it
Mr Lums comments Certainly in some African countries the youth programs are not fully volunshytary and may often also include political indoctrishynation In other countries the programs are really voluntary although they may be run in a military manner
The question of actual forced labor is a real and difficult issue at least in the expressed opinions on the African youth problem These youth want to say that we should live up to the ILO and the UN conventions to end forced labor but we have tremendous pools in some of the countries of 12 to 15 years olds roaming the streets and we do not know what to do about then One solution for exshyample has been to organize them in a nonvolunshytary system to build roads I do not know what this trains youth to do but maybe it brings them up to a point where eventually they are able to enter volshyuntary training programs This is an area in which it appears the African youth themselves have not yet really reached a final decision
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THE ROLE OF TRADE UNIONS AND EMPLOYER ORGANIZATIONS IN THE EFFICIENT UTILIZATION OF MANPOWER
by Everett M Kassalow
Dealing with the problem of trade unions and manpower planning and other forms of economic planning in the context of the less developed counshytries is especially difficult All of us who have grown up in and around the American trade union movement and around trade union movements generally in the Western world have done so in a certain setting and atmosphere which I would call (for want of a better word) conflictive in characshyter
Trade unions and the American unions are a classic example have always been in a certain sense outside of the mainstream of economic developshyment The unions have been beating against the development process in order to protect their memshybers They are almost driven to conflictive posishytions because they were reacting to a process which was doing damage or making dislocations in the lives of people
This kind of reactive trade unionism was successshyful in the Western World But such unionism does not lend itself immediately or too directly as a model or mechanism for learning about what trade unions canl or should do in connection with the
problemn cf shaping and implementing developshyment policy However I also believe that trade unshyions in any but a totalitarian society or a highly authoritarian society will always have to perfori tihe reactive and conflictive role of protecting their workers against the impact and the plocess of inshydustrialization However if trade unions are to play a more positive role or more participating role in the development process we do have to reexamshyine the nature of the function and the character of trade unionism in the light of the kinds of things trade unions can should or might do in the less developed countries
When I say can should or might do I am satshyisfied to use those words I am satisfied that one can approach the development process in a new society
with a sense of trying to change things and to conshyceive of new combinations because they are going to be new These societies are not going to develop the way American or European society has develshyoped or hopefully not the way Soviet society has developed There are going to be different roles to be played different emphasis different compulshysions in the situation
As we try to reconstruct the role of trade unions for these purposes a large part of Western trade unionism may not be directly relevant For exshyample in the post World War II period one can begin to see the emergence of a new kind of trade union posture to some extent in the United States but more clearly in Western Europe which did put the trade union into a more participative role and thus placed it in the mainstream of ecoshynomic and social policy making As a result of broad historical social and economic changes the trade unions are now more fully but not comshy
pletely integrated into their own societies in Westshyern Europe and to an important extent in the United States than has ever been true before
Bargaining has not ceased nor has the role of adshyvocacy which a trade union must play in negotiashytion disappeared in either Western Europe or in the United States This role however is increasshyingly added to the positive role of sharing in the key economic and social policy imaking decisions An example in the US is the Iole which has slowly alshymost painfully emerged for the AFL-CIO and some of its constituent unions in the last 10 or 15 years on nationlal conmnissions such as those on aushytomatiotn juvenile delinquency or foreign trade
In assuming these new roles the US trade union movement has not cast off its old role It has attempted to suppleiment what it was doing in the way of its militant advocacy at the job level or the industry level with this additional set of functions It is not easy when you have spent a lifetime being
81
on the outside to suddenly step into the middle of things and have to take the role of policy advocate This kind of new responsibility is not at all easy and yet this is happening
In relating Western trade union experience to the developing countries it is essential to recognize that process of economic development will be difshyferent from that in the West Capitalism and inshydustrialization in the United States and in Western Europe grew unplanned for the most part spontashyneously one step tumbling upon another Growth of industrialization and moderization in Asia and Africa will not be spontaneous A large part of the process will be guided and conditioned Under these circumstances it seems pretty clear that unshyionism as a purely reactive force simply will be unacceptable It will have that role to play but inshyevitably it will be called upon (it seems to me shoild be called ulpon) to play a participatory role and a more integrated role almost from the beginshyning of the industralization process In this sense it is difficult I believe for American trade unionists especially to take a full measure of the problems which confront a less developed countrys trade unshyions
What kinds of experience am I considering when I say that one can look to new roles and a new posshyture for trade unionism in the less developed socishyeties What kinds of experience are relevant in the West What experience has there been in the less developed countries which bears upon this probshylem
Well in the West if you look at Western Europe there is a whole series of activities that Western European trade unions engage in which seem to me are relevant to the question of union participashytion in manpower training manpower developshyment economic development and social developshyment in the less developed countries
There have sprung up for example in the last few decades a uilber of so-called national ecoshynomic and social councils such as those of the Netherlands and France (and in Austria if one wants to include lie so-called chambers of labor and chambers of industry which are semi-governshymental in character) The trade unionists and the trade union movement are called upon to play a role sitting in national bod ics with consultative powers and sometimes with decision making powshyers in the case of the Netherlands and to some exshytent in the case of France
Some people are inclined to dismiss this role of
making of national social and economic policy They say that the unions have just been there as a kind of front in the various levels of the French planning process whether it was the Economic and Social Council or the commissariat and the same charge is made of the unions in the Nethershylands It seems to me this is a rather short-sighted view of the unions experience in this function It is so new and since to some extent runs against what has been the conflictive tradition and the pure advocacy of a particular point of view of the trade union movement that it would have been a miracle to have expected the trade unions overshynight to have made major contributions to ecoshynomic and social planning in these societies of Western Europe
My own feeling is that as these processes growshyand I think they will grow because traditional parliamentary bodies no longer seem adequate to deal with these top level social and economic decishysions that have to be made in society-planning bodies different in each country will grow and the trade unions will increase their sophistication in these roles and will increasingly measure up to these tasks and opportunities
In any event in somewhat different circumshystances similar bodies are already being created in a number of the African countries Trade unions have representation oin all kinds of planning bodshyies It was one of the heritages of the French coloshynial administration Planning and economic counshycils were established in Algeria Tunisia-down through French West Africa
In a number of these countries the trade union movement is wemk Therefore their influence in these planning councils could be expected to be limited To the extent this can be determined from the meager information currently available this apshypears to be a reasonable conclusion Unfortunately no one has gone into any of the African nations to see what has happened to these councils But if popshyular participation in development is to mean anyshything these are important experiments I would strongly recommend that the American AID agency andor the US Department of Labor as well as others take a rather (lee) interest in trying to find out what is happening in these kinds of institushytions I believe that the very nature of economic development in these countries means that these councils and these planning authorities will grow in importance and we should be looking into them
82
to see what can be done and what are the lessons that can be learned
There are other lessons that we can begin to see in this broad experience ranging from Western Europe on to Africa and to some extent Asia First any union representation on social economic or national planning bodies as they may happen to be identified must be a real one In India for exshyample one of the reasons why there is almost total trade union discontent with the planning is that the trade unions have always been pretty much shut out Each time a new national plan was in the making the planning minister whether he is a soshycialist or a conservative goes through the motions of consulting on a formal basis with the trade union movement and that is the end of it
If you are to enlist the support and interest and to educate this important institution that we call trade unionism regarding the problems the possishybilities and the opportunities of economic planshyning it must be accorded a genuine role in the opshyerating machinery I know that planners are often horrified at the thought that they with their reshyfined techniques (really not so refined but they think they are) are going to have to consult with these grubby fellows who they feel have never really had enough formal education as well as to take them into their councils and give them voting rights in the setting of goals and the determining of
priorities for the society This situation is usually something the planners feel they cannot accept If this position by the planner is correct you can almost forget the whole process because unless the trade union has responsibility in the decision makshying machinery the function will usually decline or never even come to life
Success of trade union participation on planning councils I believe also re(luires some form of govshyernment aid I can think of three countries-France Austria and Great Britain (to choose three disparate examples)-where such aid is proshyvided to strengthen for example the research and economic facilities of the trade union movement In Austria for forty or fifty years now the chambers of labor have been supported by the government and they are really the most important research weapon or arm of Austrian labor
In France such effective participation as the trade unions have done recently in the planning
process and earlier in the social and economic area has been to a substantial measure due to governshyment assistance Under the urging of the US AID
mission France in the early and mid-fifties began to provide subsidies to the French trade unions to build up their research facilities
To an American this seems impossible How can a trade union take money from a government to build up its research facilities Will not such aid compromise the research Apparently it has not Apparently it is now recognized that both governshyment and unions are sophisticated enough so that once you invite a body like the trade union into the planning or development process you can afshyford them some measure of financial support withshyout compromising their independence
It must be recognized that the very fact of particshyipation in the planning pocess is in a certain sense a compromise of independence Neither labor nor management can participate in a joint
planning process unless they do so on the basis of respect of somebody elses rights and the recognishytion of some shared common gains and programs It seems to me that this notion is understood and that acceptance of financial ad to conduct research and training to help further participation is feasishyble
Legislation has been pending (and may already have been passed) in Great Britain which will iake available certain funds for research and for training assistance to the British trade union moveshyment Thus one of the oldest Western trade union movements and perhaps the most independent of governments along with the American trade union movement is now willingly increasing its acceptance of some form of financial aid to enable it to play its new role in society
The advantages to the government especially of less eveloped countries of these new roles that the trade unions can play are enormous If human reshysource institutions are critical in development as is now increasingly agreed what better vehicle or channel to exercise influence and increase popular
participation and understanding is there than the trade unions This is true even weak as they may be in many of these countries Moreover if they did not exist they ought to be created
In recognition of the importance of this human factor some governments of course have not been above creating the trade unions I can think of a number of Asian and African governments where the trade unions have been created largely with government benevolence or government assistance Even though we accept these trade unions with caution there exist present advantages They at
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least will help ensure communication and particishypation as well as other assistance to the governshyments of less developed countries which are overshyburdened with the tasks they face Most of these governments have to assume the responsibility for economic development activities including the major central planning role and allocation of critishycal investment resources (to some extent) and of foreign exchange To the extent these governments can look to trade unions or other intermediate inshystitutions to carry on many of the tasks such as training the administration of social security proshygrams and the joint encouragement of productivshyity programs they can be relieved of much of the weight which otherwise will fall on them This should help increase the viability and prospects for democracy because it is the overburdening of the whole process of government which it seems to me is one of the dangers that confront the African and the Asian nations
Trade unions therefore have this very useful vital possibility and related to this of course is the opportunity if you will of diverting what might otherwise be the all-out concentration by trade unshyions on wage and hour gains I do not mean that they should be deterred from their interest in wage and hour bargaining and gains but it could at least diffuse some of that all-out thrust which is trashyditionally all the trade unions do in the early stages of (levelopment
This change in trade union outlook it seems to me siiouild be sufficient inducement for new counshytry goverminents to take a real look at this process
Ilese issues I have discussed are tentative The experience that can be drawn upon is limited But the fact that we are calling for things that can hardly be itaglled or dreaied of in some peoples world shiotuld not (eter tis We have found to date
o b that what we know about institutions and the pr shylem of building institutions and especially subinshystittitions in developieit has not served us suffishyciently well Tlie ttIle union movement strikes me Is a most signifi ant factor if popular participaition is to imeanl someiting and if there is to be a hope for sonie kind of deomtcratic development process
DISCUSSANT Paul Fisher
Profesor Kassalows paper has very clearly stated that our preseit experience of trade unions with labor participation in various councils has been uneven to put it Mildly My experience leads to similar contclusions
What are the labor people really good at They are good when it comes to affairs which are of conshycern to them such as wages or working conditions But what have these matters to do with manpower Manpower as studied here is a very technical subshyject requiring a considerable degree of sophisticashytion in statistics mathematics and also in economshyics Now what has this to do with lets assume the German Works Council or a participation of a trade union representative in one of the other councils It has something to do because quite obvishyously the working hours working conditions and the wages have an allocative function They alloshycate labor not only the present labor but also the future labor and therefore direct people by the inshycentives offered by the system to a particular occushy
pation So in a way these people who are interested in these mundane affairs are instruments of manshy
power policy Where are the labor people not so good They
are not so good when it comes to technical subjects as for instance the economic planning mechanism the manpower mechanism the social security adshyministration details But should not we feel that the important issue in all three areas is the large decisions and the large decisions are rather easily understood and are basically political decisions Labor in all of these countries has the opportunity to influence political decisions
Employment is (tite obviously of interest to the trade union It is of interest to the workers or the sons of workers and employment is necessarily linked to the investment function As a conseshy
quence labor has an interest to participate in those governmental bodies which influence the employshyment function and the investment function Thereshyfore you find labor not only in the large bodies but the small ones as well which are based on the functioning of a specific industry a specific localshyity
Now what form does this participation take It takes the form of information or consultation and if you want co-deterinination But which is really the important fun(lion at the present time as disshytinguisled from the future Thelpresent function which is very important is information It is very useful from the viewpoilit of the body politic to have trade union leaders trade union representashylives not only participating in the decisions and therefore knowing why or how a decision is reaclhed to let us assume establish a dam in one
part of the country or an industry in another part
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but it is also useful for them to transmit this knowledge to their organization and therefore inshyfluence the wage policy and the manpower policy of the trade union itself
Consultation fulfills the same purpose Co-deter-Imiination depends on the subject but it can be said that co-determination has been a success precisely in that area where it was of immediate concern to the union representatives and to the labor director
Mr Kassalow sums it up by saying that the peoshyple who have the money to innovate normally the government make the employment and investshyment decisions in less developed countries thereshyfore it becomes important that the people do parshyticipate in those decisions of the government which really affect their lives and the lives of the organishyzations
DISCUSSANT Leonard Sandman
My experience suggests that it is not only diffishycult but may also be unwise to assign to unions in developing countries a role that diverts them friom the conflictive posture The following briefly disshycusses some of these experiences
In Korea I visited ain automotive manufacturing Company I was particularly impressed with tlhe large numbers of workers employed by the comshypany and that many of them appeared to be to say the least inefficiently utilized After touring the plant I asked tle manager about labor relations generally and the role of the union He recounted tle unions annual demands for wage increases and otherwise dismissed them as having only a nuishysance role because he could manipulate and control the union
I coiniented oi the large numbers of workers that lie employed and asked if possibly with sonie arrangement with tle union the workers could be engagedl more efficiently with the resulting savings in labor costs being distributed to the workers in tle form of hiigler wages and to the owners of the plant in tie fori of higher profits I quickly disshycovered that this was rather a naive suggestion beshycause as lie showed miie whetn various components of thiis cost and tle variables that influenced profit were considered wages were a very small proporshytioin of the cost of his production about 10 percent
With this kind of aii experience of which we see much in Asia a general lack of concern on the part of management with the efficient utiliation of commodities which are cheap and plentiful that is unskilled workers and often semi-skilled workers is
to be expected Obviously under such conditions little concern is to be expected on the part of the unions with the problem of how unions can coopshyerate with management to effect a more efficient utilization of workers I believe it is only when unshyions are successful in raising wages that is in pursuing their conflictive roles that management is compelled to use manpower more efficiently and then become concerned with productivity And this perhaps is one of the most effective ways that unions contribute to the efficient use of manpower
Experience in India with union participashytion in management also illustrates the difficulty of assigning to unions a role that diverts them from the conflictive posture The Minister of Labor who pioneered the program of labor particishy
pation had the feeling that if only we could give the workers a sense of management a sense of idenshytification with the industry the fact that their wages were so low would beconie less intolerable (I guess this could be called psychic income) Joint labor management councils were formed in a number of private and public sector plants Their experiments in union participation with manageshymient were getierally failures For the most part the discussions in the joint councils which were supshyposed to center on ways of increasing efficiency imshyproving management or improving the productivshyit) of the plant were centered generally on items of wages gi ievances and related interests They dushyplicated the collective bargaining function
Even with centralized planning in many of the Asian countries the unions there have generally
played atn indirect role if any in the basic quesshytions of settingpriorities determining targets and devising the strategies of employment After all ecshyonotnic development programis often represent a strategy of staying in power to the government Where unions have political influence the governshy
nient development plans may concein themselves seriously with employment and with income distrishybution problems but where they lack such influshyence development plans tend to place low priorishyties oi funding programs which promote the human goals of development
I think that popular participation should be a goal of every society It no doubt provides a system for the soundest kinds of economic and social deshyvelopment but the political realities of how growth gets distributed cannot be ignored Hence diverting union energy away from the conflictive
85
roles should be examined very carefully so that we ment having a formal role rather than substance in do not end up with union participation in develop- participation
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MAIOR PARTICIPATION IN SOCIAL SECURITY
by Paul Fisher
The history of social security started off with mutual aid societies in Europe which were in esshysence trade union societies-societies of workers They had their origin in medieval German associashytions Out of this tradition developed a participashytion of trade unions of workers in the administrashytion of individual social security funds
It was important to know about how much sick pay the worker would get what would be the unshyemployment benefit that could be expected from this particular group and what would be the fushyneral grant Later as Social Security developed it became important to have some say in income sysshytems as a whole in sickness systems because they affected productivity
It is true that social security covered more than the workforce in industry and commerce It covshyered the total population The trade union represhysentative took on a new role and became not only the representative of the workers (the workers he organized and those for which he spoke) but he becane the representative of the popilation at large a very interesting goal which fits very well in the concept of a trade union as it exists in many countries developed and under-developed
What has all this to do with manpower Social security seems to be a transfer payment which you exact between one generation of workers and the next one between the healthy and the sick or beshytween the people who have small families and those who have large families
The interesting part is that many of these things have something to do with deferred wages In a way a social security contribution an individual makes today is a deferred wage which he will touch when he reaches the retirement age and this has been very well understood by the trade unions all around the globe and as a consequence it was the trade unions that fought for the advances in Social Security in this country as well as in other counshytries
The famous labor uprising in May 1968 in France was a revolution against some of De Gaulles attempts to reduce benefits De Gaulle was forced into the attempts because he felt the social security system which has very meager old age benefits was paying too much money in sick beneshyfits Labor in Franc was successful in its revolution The reform measures of Mr De Gaulle were largely discarded The same thing happened in Italy Labor as a whole has an interest in social security because it considers the social security benefits as nothing more than a part of total lifetime earnings from work
What form has it taken The usual form which has been an advisory function The advisory funcshytion is very well expressed in the United States
What is then the effectiveness of the participashytion of labor and the Social Security Administrashytion The effectiveness is quite interesting It deshypends upon the political strength and the economic strength of the labor movement If the labor is forceful it will yield results which surpass the reshysults of any other interest group
Who gets something out of it The first one who gets something out of it is quite obviously the union because the union can gain power The union can gainposts The union can occasionally see that funds which are accumulated in social seshycurity systems are deposited in the worker banks and worker banks become then the more powerful tool of making loans and investments where loans and investments are desirable Evidently trade union representatives can see to it that this particushylar function is not disregarded The power of the unions can also be abused and one of the famous examples is again in France in 1945 when the Comshymunist labor movement under the first De Gaulle government was able to conquer the social security administration and it took years before the purely politic-l interest of the Communist party of France
87
was eradicated or at least minimized in the French social security system
Now who else gets something out of it The public because if trade unions do not talk about the public nobody else does It is quite true that in the original French system for instance the organshyizations of large families the organization of social security beneficiaries were also represented but if you looked at the people who represented this orshyganization it would be the same people from the French trade unions which existed and appeared from the other side of the table representing their organizations
Who else gets something out of it The governshyment The government because some of the meashysures which social security imposes some of the regulations some of the rules of the game are so
complicated that unless the system has a ready mechanism for transmitting this information to the public the public will not gain anything from a social security system The trade unions and anyshybody else representing the public are a very excelshylent a far better motivated and a far more effecshytive means of having this information transmitted than any other
The last point is what has this to do with manshypower The feeling has always been that the particshyipation of the public in manpower planning and in manpower organization must be divorced from the particular aspect which is studied here It must be linked to the final goal of a manpower policy and participation can therefore be better able to coshydetermine or to influence at least the goals of a manpower policy
US GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1972 0-469-452
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
These proceedings were prepared by Gabriel Cherin University of Houston The Symposium was planned by Morris Pollak under the supervision of Joe White Acting Director of the International Manpower Institute
VII
SYMPOSIUM ON POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN MANPOWER EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT
AND
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS V
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Wednesday April 291970
Morning Session Chairman Leo R Werts Assistant Secretary for Adminshy
istration US Department of Labor
KEYNOTE ADDRESS POPULAR PARTICIPATION DEVELOPMENT
Princeton N Lyman Chief Title IX Division Office of Program amp Policy Coordination Agency for International Development Discussion
AND
POPULAR PARTICIPATION AND MANPOWER AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT
Charles D Stewart Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Affairs Bureau of International Labor Affairs US Department of Labor
5
TITLE IX AND MANPOWER PROGRAMS OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Burnie Merson Chief Planning and Evaluation Division Office of Labor Affairs Agency for International Development
Afternoon First Session Chairman Harold Wool Director Office of the Assistant
Secretary for Policy Evaluation and Research US Deshypartment of Labor
11
SEVEN SIGNS FOR THE 1970s Seymour Wolfbein Dean School of Business Administration
Temple University Afternoon Second Session
Chairman Edwin J Cohn Title IX Division Office of Program and Policy Coordination Agency for Internashytional Development
15
ix
MOBILIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF INSTITUTIONS TO ASSIST IN EXPANDING THE POTENTIALS FOR GREATER EMPLOYMENT COMMUNITY AND PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS ROLE IN JOB CREATION
JOB CREATION IN AGRICULTURE Thomas F Carroll Agricultural Economic Section
American Development Bank Intershy
19
UNITED STATES EXPERIENCE WITH UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDEREMPLOYMENT
William Batt Consultant on Manpower Development Office of Economic Opportunity
24
ROLE OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BUSINESSMEN IN JOB C REATIO N
William Haas Vice President in Charge of Operations National Alliance of Businessmen
go
PRIVATE INVESTMENT AND JOB CREATING POSSIBILITIES Harriet S Crowley Director Office of Overseas Private Programs
Agency for International Development
27
Thursday April 30 1970
Morning First Session Chairman John F Hilliard Director Office of Education
and Human Resources Technical Assistance Buseau Agency for International Development
DEVELOPING ABILITIES THE LINK BETWEEN POPULAR PARTICIPATION AND INSTITU-TIONS INVOLVED IN EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT
POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN THE UNITED STATES
Samuel M Burt Director Understanding Program American University
IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION Business Council for International College of Continuing Education
29
TAIWAN AND KOREAN EFFORTS IN MANPOWER DEVEL-OPMENT THROUGH SCHOOL AND INDUSTRY COOPER-ATION
James D Murray Vocational Education Advisor Agency for International Development
a5
Morning Second Session Chairman Kenneth J Kelley Deputy Director Office
Labor Affairs Agency for International Development of
x
10R AND MANAGEMENTS SOCIAL POLICY INTERESTS IN TRAINING
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES WITHIN PRI-VATE INDUSTRY 9
Clayton J Cottrell Deputy Regional Manpower Administrator Atlanta Georgia US Department of Labor
Discussants J Julius F Rothman President Human Resources Development
Institute AFL-CIO Richard L Breault Manager Community and Regional Develshy
opment Group US Chamber of Commerce
Afternoon First Session Chairman Ealton L Nelson Manpower Advisor Planning
and Evaluation Division Office of Labor Affairs Agency for International Development
MATCHING WORKERS AND JOBS POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN STRENGTHENING OF JOB MARKET MECHANISMS AND INSTITUTIONS
NEW CONCEPTS OF THE EMPLOYMENT SERVICE ROLE TO MEET THE CHALLENGE OF THE 1970s 45
Malcolm R Lovell Jr Deputy Assistant Secretary for Manshypower and Manpower Administrator Manpower Administrashytion US Department of Labor
CREATION OF A CONSOLIDATED MANPOWER DELIVERY SYSTEM DECENTRALIZED TO THE STATES AND METRO-POLITAN AREAS-A WAY OF ACHIEVING INCREASED PAR-TICIPATION RESPONSIVE TO LOCAL NEEDS 49
Cyril D Tyson Deputy AdministratorCommissioner Manpower and Career Devciopment Agency New York City
Discussion 51
THE PROBLEM OF EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNI-TIES FOR W OM EN 53
Grace Farrell Chief oC the Labor Law Branch Womens Bureau US Department of Labor
Afternoon Second Session Chairman Ealton L Nelson
CASE STUDY-JOBS FOR PROGRESS Inc (OPERATION SER) 55 Seymour Brandwein Acting Associate Director Office of Research
and Development Manpower Administration US Departshyment of Labor
Discussion 58
Friday May 1 1970
Morning First Session Chairman Thomas E Posey Policy Planning and Evalushy
ation Staff Office of International Training Agency for International Development
xi
NEW DIRECTIONS FOR POPULAR PARTICIPATION TO DEAL WITH PROBLEMS ON MANPOWER UTILIZATION
PARTICIPATION OF THE WORKING POOR-UTILIZATION OF HUMAN RESOURCES IN ANTI-POVERTY PROGRAMS 61
Philip J Rutledge Director Department of Human Resources District of Columbia
COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN LATIN AMERICA LEAD-ING TO SOCIAL CHANGE AND INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOP-MENT RELATED TO MANPOWER 65
William F Whyte Professor Department of International and Comparative Labor Relatic s New York School of Industrial Relations Cornell University
Discussion 67 Morning Second Session
Chairman John E Blake Deputy Manpower Administrator for Employment Security Manpower Administration US Department of Labor
MOBILIZING THE PARTICIPATION OF YOUTH IN MAN-POWER AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT-A UNIVER-
SAL CHALLENGE 69 William Mirengoff Director JOB CORPS Manpower Adminisshy
tration US Department of Labor
MANPOWER AND YOUTH PROGRAMS IN THE DEVELOP-ING COUNTRIES OF AFRICA 77
Max R Lum Jr JOB CORPS Manpower Administration US Department of Labor
Discussion 78
Afternoon Session Chairman John E Dillon Chief Program Coordination
Division Office of Labor Affairs Agency for International Development
PARTICIPATION IN EFFORTS TO INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY AND TO PROMOTE THE WELFARE OF WORKERS
THE ROLE OF TRADE UNIONS AND EMPLOYER ORGANI-ZATIONS IN THE EFFICIENT UTILIZATION OF MANPOWER 81
Everett M Kassalow Professor of Economics University of Wisshyconsin
D iscussan ts 84 Paul Fisher Chief International Staff Office of Research and
Statistics Social Security Administration Department of Health Education and Welfare
Leonard Sandman Labor Advisor Bureau Near East and South A-la Affairs Department of State
LABOR PARTICIPATION IN SOCIAL SECURITY 87 Paul Fisher
Xii
OUJAAJ PARTICIPATION AND DEVELOPMENT
Princeton N Lyman
Title IX of the Foreign Assistance Act calls upon the Agency for International Development (AID) to encourage the growth of democratic private and local government institutions in carrying out its programs of assistance This paper briefly reviews the considerations being given and the things that are being done by the AID to carry out this injuncshytion Before proceeding with this review however several comments need to be made on the attitudes developing regarding local participation among other groups interested in development and on the nature and status of AIDs efforts in this area at this time I believe it liighly significant that there is growing recognition of the problems of particishypation and the need for their solution among orshyganizations concerned with development as well as within the AID There is increasing awaireness in many countries of the world that the problems of participation are not problems that can be put off until a certain higher level of modernization is achieved ever though this belief may seem (or seemed so a few years ago) an easier or more pracshytical path to development
With regard to AIDs activities we are not yet as deeply involved in the probleams of popular particishypation as we would like to be We are still searchshying for practical answers to these questions (1) How should popular participation be defined (2) How should it be applied and (3) What should AIDs role be in increasing local participation in the development process in general as well as in the manpower areaThese are difficult questions to anshyswer and I hope that the discussions during this conference will be helpful in developing answers to them
The concept of participation is a highly complex one We recognized this and appreciate the coMshyplexity of the concept in our attempt to think through the meaning of Title IX Is it political deshyvelopment or a new twist to the community develshyopment emphasis in economic aid Or just peopleshy
to-people programs What does this Title involve We chose quite specifically to emphasize the concept of participation because it is so broad The advanshytage of choosing a concept like participation is that it cuts across economic social and political factors It is probably the only concept that does cut across all these facets of the development process Not only that but we are convinced that the type of participation the degree of participation and the nature of participation that will be taking place in the development process in different countries is going to have to be decided by those societies based on the conditions that they face There are potenshytial trade-offs between economic participation and
political participation There are societies in which people are willing to accept some degree of authoritarianism for substantial economic benefits
There are other societies where that simply is not true people are most interested in owning a
piece of their own land than in higher wages as tenants or agricultural laborers These are probshylems that the society of a country will themselves have to think and argue through and then come up with a concept of participation The decision therefore should not be directed from the US preshydisposed point of view but from the point of view of that society We can appreciate the problems of
participation for developing societies by simply looking at otir own society where we have had a relatively large degree of participation However the growth in participation has been gradual and often difficult
If you look at the history of the United States since independence you can see that there have been gradual increasing waves of participation Each wave has been a difficult one for the United States to absorb even with its wealth its relatively stable democratic institutions How much more then is the problem of participation in countries which have very meager resources extraordinarily crowded conditions on the land and are desper-
I
ately concerned with obtaining even the basic reshysources for development These are problems that simply cannot be swept under the rug by general rhetoric about democratic institutions or principles or about participation Yet the interesting thing about the Title IX or perhaps the most dramatic and challenging thing about it is that it enjoins us to find ways of assisting in the development procshyess that will allow for greater participation earlier rather than later in the development process What Title IX says is that you cannot accept the simple doctrine that participation is a luxury of the develshyoped countries or of the richer countries or of tle more advanced modernizing countries None of the
people of the developing countries will accept it nor does it inake sense in terms of modern developshyment as opposed to whatever experience the Euroshy
pean countries and the United States may have gone through
Carrying through these objectives of Title IX is a challenge and it is not an easy one but I think it is terribly important and a dramatic one and I think a viable one We are capable if we set our minds to it to find development strategies which allow small farmers as well as large farmers which allow landless laborers as well as land owners unshyskilled as well factory workers to have some sense of participation and see some place for themselves in the development process economically socially and politically It is when we get down to the techshynical details when we get down to manpower training prograns thlat the real problems face us One of the things that I tiink is interesting about the problems in tile field of man power development is that it presents a lot of related problems Let me touch on just a few It seems to me that one of the
problems is clearly the question of relationship beshytween wages capital investnent and employment ft is a real symbolic and ideological problem It is a real problem in the senise tiat many countries are planning or are already developing by taking adshyvantage of developing industry In some cases they are taking advantage of the low cost labor in agrishyculture and particularly in relation to export prices However tlhese countries and some of their AID donor agencies are terribly concerned about the effect of rising wages on this pattern of developshyment at least in the short run This condition is reflected in most of the countries int uneasiness about labor organization and furtherance of labor unions For the AI) donors the problem arises beshycause whenever wages seem to go ip or threaten to
go up there is the temptation to shift to more capishytal intensive industries which is precisely where the AID resources are available Foreign exchange from AID will finance much of the capital investshyment but it is domestic resources whichi must finance labor costs and thus AID donors are faced with tile making of a difficult decision do they or do tile) not provide the foreign exchange for inshyvestment in capital This is becoming particularly serious in agriculture where such investment may displace mal) workers Even if this is only a prob lem in the short run-or as some may argue emshyployment in the tertiary sector will rise and offset the loss in agriculture-it still is a very big one for
people who are out of work because the siort rtuni for them is their lives today tomorrow and maybe for the next year A second dilemma it seems to me is the types of manpower training that we go into or that the countries that we assist are going into One of the things that we are becoming
painfully aware of in AID is the fact that educashytion structures and the formal educational systems that we have been working on in the -ountries abroad are simply inadequate to keep up with the growth of population of school age children and tile training of older people
In some instances the growth of the school age
population outruns the growth of educational facilshyities despite tremendous bursts of expenditures on education This situation raises a lot of problems and mainy difficult choices Sonic countries would argue (and you call see this in the development
pattern of many countries) tiat there is simply nothing tile) cal do about it They believe they have to concentrate on training those people who are going to go to the top those people who are to be administrators the managers the industrial elite all the way down to tile middle level It is not
possible for them they feel to be responsible not in this decade or generation for the training or giving of any kind of really meaningful education to the majority of people in the country Some peoshy
ple believe the latter is the only choice There is however an alternative approach which is fraught with all kinds of com 1plexities but attracts many people and that is to move much more heavily into what is called Informal Systems of Education These are systems of education that do not rest on the formal schoolhouse system or the trained colshylege-educated teacher or which are even related to training persons to take their place in the elite role What this system can do is to give people the
O)
ability to cope with the situation that is changing around them or to have some sense of ability to cope with their immediate environment Now these programs whether carried out by labor unions by priests by cooperatives or by innovative educators are very experimental They are also highly controshyversial because when you systematically go at trainshying a mass of people to have a share in a society in which they are not the elite you are challenging sometimes the very social structure of that society
I would take some issue with the position held by some regarding the dangers of more participashytion I think there are dangers in mass participashytion that could lead to frustration and violence But on the other hand participation is not only a means to an organized end it is very often the sum and substance of a mans dignity his ability to say I am a man that I have some part of control over my own destiny Even if he does not have the right technical solution his right to have someshything to say about how those technical solutions are applied gives him dignity How we blend that technical information with that dignity is an exshytremely difficult challenge for all of us who are soshycalled professionals in the development field The fact that people demand that element of parshyticipation or that element of control and that they have to demand it often in very dramatic ways to wake us up to the fact of how little they control their own destiny is perhaps a good thing
We are unquestionably in a very controversial difficult and perhaps dangerous area and yet parshyticipation and the injunction upon us to become inshyvolved in participation carries us purposefully into that area
I would like to touch on one other subject that I think is perhaps somewhat underplayed in our disshycussions of manpower and that is the question of rural manpower Very often when we talk about manpower training and labor we talk about the urban or perhaps the semi-urban groups However I just recently reviewed a number of papers on land reforms and land tenure and from this mateshyrial it becomes increasingly obvious that one of the great manpower problems facing most of the develshyoping countries is rural manpower It is not just a question of dividing up the land because in some countries there simply is not enough land to divide up (I say this as a strong advocate of land redistrishybution) We cannot even if we support land reform avoid the fact that there is another class of people that needs to be dealt with as well-the vast
amount of landless laborers tenant farmers or tiny landowners who need to be given some sense of efshyficacy and ability to participate in the development process
Organizing rural manpower giving them some stake in society has proven extraordinarily diffishycult even for the revolutionaries who go out into the countryside to organize the rural workers as well as for the more moderate or conservative reshygimes when they try to find some path to give those workers a stake in as well as a ieason to purshysue agricultural modernization I think this is a task which all of us have neglected too long and one that is going to be upon all of us in the develshyopment business in the next decade Moreover as the Green Revolution spreads accompanied by high yield varieties of crops which will change the
pace of agricultural production in many developshying countries it will become an increasing and most vexing problem
AID is also deeply concerned with the question of the organizations and institutions needed in deshyveloping countries to bring all or as many persons as possible into meaningful participation roles This question is especially important since one thing we have done about Title IX so far is to give it a straight people-to-people approach What Title IX is really all about is getting participation down to the little man the individual farmer or the individual village However we also know that the present AID programs are not reaching nor are the developing countries capable of reaching on a pershyson-to-person basis the hundreds of millions of
people we are talking about To persons in the manpower field I do not have to dwell on the imshyportance of the organizational and institutional factors that must be faced to accomplish this goal In the whole area of labor-both urban and ruralshythese factors are vital ones
I might also note in connection with the labor field that labor unions should be able to play an important role in broadening the participation base
Clearly labor unions play a very critical role in defining openess in political society However we also have some indications though still vague that labor unions may play an even more important role in such matters in the early stages of modernishyzation I think that it is terribly important that this matter be looked into much more deeply There are of course other institutional and organishyzational questions in the manpower area which are
3
beyond the scope of the labor unions which must be considered These include rather broad but still significant questions concerning the general nature and scope of over-all manpower development on how to reach organize and provide access to reshysources for vast numbers of people These as well as the other problems I raised in this paper are some of the challenges of applying participation in the manpower area
Discussion
Question from the floor This comment is in reshygard to the problem you noted concerning capital imports from donor countries and their possible adverse effects on employment opportunities in the developing country Has any consideration been given to the development of guidelines by the AID for use in the analysis of the impact of public works construction in developing countries which would allocate the cost of labor using a shadow cost formula for determining the feasibility or desirashybility of importing capital equipment versus using local labor If there is unemployment in the counshytry local labor costs could be considered as zero for determining economic and social feasibility of imshyporting capital equipment
Mr Lymans comment Your suggestion is inshyteresting but it raises certain practical problems In most cases the cost of labor for a project has to come out of domestic resources of the country Thus large labor intensive projects will require substantial amounts of such resources which most developing countries simply do not have or are not too willing to mobilize for such purposes They prefer therefore to find a combination which reshyduces the burden on domestic resources and places the larger burden upon the capital side which will be financed by the AID donor The AID donor also tends to look upon such financing favorably beshycause the financing of capital expenditures usually is done in the form of financing export of US equipment
Question from the floor I should like to make the following comment with respect to participashytion particularly in Latin or Central America There is a degree of participation in these counshytries far beyond that which we reL gnize For exshyample certainly in the universities of Latin Amershy
ica there is substantial participation of the students and faculty in decisions regarding university polshyicy Also in the rural areas of some of the Latin American countries and in the health programs of these countries there is a considerable amount of participation of the local population It seems to me that the degree of participation in most of the Latin American countries has been related to the resources available for such participation If you do not have resources your extent of participation is going to be rather limited it seems rather futile to spend time discussing a new well or developing new labor supply or new jobs if the resources are not available to support these programs These are really comments rather than any criticisms or quesshytions regarding your talk
Mr Lymans comment I think your comment is highly relevant to development strategy If you are trying to devise a practical approach to participashytion and development you have to try to deal with increasing ways of participation as they are going to be generated or should be generated by the stages of development
Question from the floor For some time the Farmers Union International Development Services has been involved in participation programs throughout Latin America We have found that in the agricultural field problems of clearance with the mission may develop which sometimes seriously restrict our efforts because the programs that we are conducting are offset by counterproductive official programs which are supported by the AID mission
Mr Lymans comment Your points are well taken I think one of the really difficult practical problems for AID agencies and the US in popular participation is that we are caught between the fact that we are a US government agency dealing with the host governments which as you point out may or may not be sympathetic with the participation of peasants unions or rural workers However it is a problem that is now recognized I believe in the recent legislation establishing the Inter-American Social Development Institute which is designed by Congress to set up a social development institute separate from the regular AID program and which will operate as relatively autonomous in the areas of social change
4
TOIPULAR PARTICIPATION AND MANPOWER AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT
Charles D Stewart
As I understand my task in this symposium I am supposed to provide the linkage between the aspirashytions of Title IX which I suppose are intended for domestic consumption as well as export and the more workaday objectives of manpower policy All of this I take it is within a framework of ecoshynomic policy namely for economic development in the LDCs and full employment without inflashytion in the developed countries Hopefully I will succeed in lihking social participation and the obshyjectives of manpower policy (called manpower and employment development by the sponsors of the symposium)-and do so without trying you and myself particularly with a repetition of the verities of our trade (ressed up in the mantle of social parshyticipation
If I may be excused I will take my text for the day not from Title IX or the original statement or introduction for this symposium which I agree with almost entirely but find somewhat heady Inshystead I will take my text from William Fellner in his 1969 presidential address to the American Ecoshynomic Association-wrenched perhaps somewhat outof context but I think suggestive for our purshyposes
Fellner attempted to sum up the pros and cons of what has come to be known as the Residual Factor or Investment in Education or Knowledge-to apshypraise the differential yield of what he calls progshyress-generating inputs (for education and knowlshyedge) that produce additional output indirectly via their effect upon conventionally defined producshytion functions relative to ordinary investment I extrapolate to include social investments in particishypatory democracy as progress-generating inputs Fellner argues that public decisions of a non-marshyket variety depend for viability upon how well in the West the political mechanism is capable of bridging the differences in subjective evaluations of competing groups My text is his final sentence
Is it realistic to expect that the propensity to reach compromises can be increased by making the bargaining parties aware of the fact that the joint payoff on reaching an agreement is high
I was tempted by an alternative text whose aushythor I dont know You cant move the Phillips curve to the left in a country that is going to the right Its a nice quip but not true insofar as manshypower policy in a market economy can remove imshyperfections in knowledge and competition and orshyganization to achieve a better functioning labor market Yet even so the final outcome could deshypend on willingness of workers to participate in soshycial decisions-my extrapolation of Fellners quesshytion in bargaining theory
What I intend to do using this as a jumping off point is to examine the question of social particishypation as it has been raised in manpower policy (much to the credit of our fraternity) in the conshytext of economic stabilization in the North and ecshyonomic development in the South How critical is social participation for success of economic policy in the two worlds
Now I know ivhat with increasing disappointshyment in the economic payoff of development plans in the LDCs commonly blamed on the economists in charge or at large it is increasingly popular to say that development is not simply increasing ecoshynomic production but also achieving fundamental social objectives-as President Caldera of Venezuela said in opening the recent ILO Conference in Cashyracas This is essentially the same as in the North where it is now popular to say that quantitative gains in GNP are not the end of economic policy
If I may return -lefly to Title IX it is one of the virtues of that leclaration of American foreign assistance policy nat it conceives of social particishypation not only as an end but as an instrument of economic development I have said earlier that I
5
find much of what has been said in praise of Title IX somewhat heady-a new expression of American missionary zeal more praised abroad than perhaps at home and somewhat naive with respect to the political dynamics or implications of social transshyformation of backward if not corrupt political reshygimes The cultivation of social participation on the labor market called industrial democracy by an earlier generation may no doubt contribute in time-if we have a long enough time perspectiveshyto the toppling of reactionary political and social structures But success is more likely in a society where social participation finds expression in a countrys constitutional structure It would have been difficult if I may illustrate to have imagined the gains in collective bargaining in the United States in the thirties an adventure in social parshyticipation if there ever was one without the conshystitutional presuppositions of the American system (which in other countries may exist only in intershynational declarations of human and trade union rights) Even so one must hurry to say there was much that was fortuitous in the American developshyment much that would never have happened withshyout self-help on the labor markets much that was not quite yet legal that transformed American law and American society
I suppose there is no need to push my argument to the point of the obvious Any political system is a system of social participation It may be more demshyocratic or less democratic It may have more or less of a market economy It may rely less on legislative means and more on rules for the labor market worked out by the social partners on the labor marshyket and then extended or reinforced by legislation as to some degree in the French and German sysshytems It is perhaps a matter of taste or culture or circumstance or relative efficiency whether a counshy-fry may favor a welfare system in which benefits are handed down or favor the socialization of sectors or processes by means of cooperatives or trade unshyions or codetermination or new forms of public corporations or instrumentalities for active as against passive participation in a political democshyracy It is also a matter of tactics and the stage of development how the disadvantaged or disposshysessed in any society can organize their strength for social and economic advancement and status
What is not guaranteed by Title IX or by any transformation of the political or social structure by land reform by cooperation by collective barshygaining by industrial democracy-is economic sucshy
cess Whether economic success is simply a matter of time or some elements of capitalist spirit or trashydition of entrepreneurship or a free market still has to be tested I wish only to note that there is an essential tension between social participation and a market-oriented and motivated economy which is critical both for economic growth and for social deshymocracy both in the North and the South
Now I will try to be concrete and incidentally strive to cover part of the ground that the managshyers of this symposium hope will contribute to some kind of systematic survey of social or popular parshyticipation in the attainment of manpower and emshyployment development Since my specific topic is identical with that of the symposium as a whole I may be forgiven if I touch some matters I think most suggestive while leaving to others including my discussant what they are better prepared than I to discuss Fortunately for me and perhaps for you it has been suggested that it might be useful if I bring into focus some of the experience of the North as it may be relevant by my intuitions to the problems of developments in the South
To do this in the most concrete way I wish to use Sweden and France as two case studies-beginning as it were with the idyll of the Garden of Eden and going on perhaps to things which must come to pass shortly in the Apocalypse of the Western world
To Americans Sweden has been thought of since at least the publication of Marquis Childs Sweden the Middle Way as the perfect example of a participatory democracy There was not only the popular participation of ordinary people in the cooperative movement which Childa thought of as the heart of the Swedish way there was also the broad-based trade union movement that carried over to the political scene and completed the trilshyogy in a government responsive to its power base in the trade unions and cooperative movement
But the institutionalization of social participashytion in Sweden didnt stop with these achieveshyments One leading Swedish economist Lindbeck writing a brief history of economic thought and ecshyonomic policy in postwar Sweden itemized the two historic developments as (1) the adoption of modshyern fiscal monetary policy at the macro level and (2) the adoption of Rehns conception of an active manpower policy at the micro level I will not stop here to elaborate the connection between the two except to say that an active manpower policy preshysupposed if it were to succeed a carefully managed
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general demand policy holding short of full emshy
ployment in order to avoid inflation suppleshymented by selective demand and labor market supshyply policies in order to maintain stable levels of full employment
These economic presuppositions of Swedish polshyicy since the late Fifties have been no more or less fulfilled than in other countries and Swedish acshytive manpower policy has had to engage in fireshyfighting operations and has not always been equal to the task of overcoming mistaken demand polshyicies But these matters are not our immediate conshycern
What is relevant to our purposes are two things (1) the social environment that made possible the formulation of an active manpower policy-by the trade unions it so happened-as a means of comshybating postwar inflation in order to escape authorishytarian wages and incomes policy that would have in the view of the LO undermined a free trade union movement and a policy of free collective barshygaining with employers on the labor market and (2) the creation of a tripartite Labor Market Board
What I want to say about the first-the social enshyvironment in Sweden-brings me back to my text from Fellner Nowhere perhaps is there a greater propensity to reach compromises and to do so beshycause of an awareness that the joint payoff of an agreement is high
What I want to say about the second point-the creation of a multipartite labor market boardshygives me a chance to cover some of the ground that the managers of this symposium had in mind in constructing the symposium But I will try to do this without touching all the bases in literal fashshyion I trust my umpire will he indulgent
I must concede that the social participation repshyresented by active tripartite management of the Labor Markct Board is a compromise between
popular participation and efficient administration I really dont know how much of a New England town meeting a Parent Teachers Association a community swimnuing pool organization a housing cooperative a stibiiban civic association or Group Health let alone a community action agency is inshyvolved in what appears to be a well-organized articshyulation of community interests via the tripartite Labor Market Board
But the fact is that the administration of Swedshyish labor market policy and programs is not solely in the hands of a government bureaucracy with adshy
visory committees but is in the hands of what we would call a quasi-public organization from the top in Stockholm down to every provincial labor marshyket board The Board and the boards play an essenshytial role in the economic planning process longshyterm and conjunctural and in actual administration of the labor market If the constituencies of the three parties have any complaints which I suppose they do remedies presumably lie within the rules of the trade unions the employer organizations and the Rikstag but I cant quite imagine a mass demonstration
On substantive matters the Board and the local boards deal wih all of the problems of human reshysources development employment creation mobilshyity and relocation There is of course the usual difficulties of coordination between the school aushythorities and the vocational authorities and pershyhaps some doubts as Sweden moves in the direction of the American nonvocationally oriented high school Otherwise the business of the Labor Marshyket Board is (1) to facilitate the restructuring of the Swedish economy which involves fortunately for Sweden chiefly the movement of workers from the low-productivity forest-based activities of the North to the modern technology of the South and (2) to minimize cyclical fluctuations in the economy
We need only note the new emphasis which may be siuimarized by saying that aside from the wellshyknown mobility features of the program the aim is to provide a combination of training requirements involved in the restructuring c the economy and at the same time furthcr human resource developshyment by providing constructive substitutes for tinshyemployment in recession The result is that trainshying and quasi-training activities rise a5 the demand for employment declines and-in the recession of 1966-68-rose more than the rise in unemployment
But is all right in the Garden of Eden Does the social participation represented by th e tripartite Labor Market Board the friendly collaboration of the unions and the employer associations the discishypline of world competitioi on wage and price polshyicy the continued success of the popular based Soshycial Democratic party at the polls-does this sophistishycated form of social participation satisfy the needs of popular participation It may be only a trivial
phenomenon but the worrisome question in Sweden is how to explain wildcat strikes by workers with few economic complaints who feel neglected by their trade union and political represhysentatives
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Even before this little breach in paradise Charles De Gaulle anticipated what was to become in France the explanatory factor-the Events of May in 1968 For many years De Gaulle intishymated the need for social participation of workers in what lie conceived to be some kind of a comshypromise with a capitalist society What he meant was never too clear but some specifics touching on profit sharing worried French businessmen and never aroused much enthusiasm in the trade unshyions or support within the party or the bureaucshyracy But De Gaulle must be credited with some kind of intuition of the dissatisfaction of workers with their role in French society and n economic life Profit-sharing codetermination industrial deshymocracy were not anything new but I think it was De Gaulle and the Events of May that brought the need for social participation to the forefront in the North in much the same way as the proponents of Title IX had done in American AID policy at about the same time
What was the situation in France that accounted for De Gaulles solitary premonitions France was viewed by many as almost the perfect model of the welfare state I remember Patrick Moynihans inshyterest in family allowances when lie visited France while Assistant Secretary of Labor He did see povshyerty in St Denis but responded Well at least everyshybody is at work But as the Events of May were to demonstrate in 1968 what matters is not simply full employment (there was of course a little reshycession in 1966-67) or levels of living or family alshylowances in the welfare state or pretty regular gains in real living (although there had been some disappointments on this score as a result of stabilishyzation policy in France during those years) What mattered in France way underneath was the feelshying of French workers that they had no influence in French policy or French society-not only that they were not sharing fairly in the gains of French economic policy (a point which is arguable)
I may recall that the student and worker demonshystrations brought France to the verge of collapse in May of 1968 De Gaulle left the country and reshyturned only after he had secured the support of the French military abroad The alienation of the stushydents was to be explained in no small part by their dissatisfaction with French educational and manshypower policy vhicli they thought was designed to allocate them to slots in the staffing pattern of a capitalist French society Neither the young nor the older generation were enthusiastic about the
new economic society of the Fifth Plan Despite some interconnections the workers demonstrated on their own and wished to have nothing to do with the students Their gripe was their isolation at the plant level from the machinery the goals and the preoccupations of their unions and their national union leadership
Most French workers probably never heard of codetermination in Germany probably had little idea what De Gaulle meant by social participation probably knew or cared little about the niceties of French planning or economic policy and probably didnt want to run their companies businesses To understand their feeling of isolation I need only to mention that French unionism is fragmented along political and religious lines the so-called Workers Councils are legislative creations and generally unshyused at most plants for grievance or other purposes There is ordinarily little union organization at the plant level even where most workers belong to one political union or another Wage levels are genershyally above the negotiated national or regional rates and are set largely by employers in response to marshyket factors and not by negotiation In brief the union is not preeminently an instrument for setshyting wages or settling grievances
At the Labor Ministers office on the Rue de Greshynelle the then Prime Minister Mr Pompidou neshygotiated the Grenelle Agreement in the final days of May 1968 with representatives of the French emshyployers and trade unions who running scared sat together for the first time took steps to raise real wages promote plant unionism and to appease French workers who at the very moment were takshying things into their own hands at their work places The results subsequently on the labor marshyket have been quite creditable The government also capitulated to the university s adents who are now again in 1970 demonstrating at Nanterre against the very university self-government that Faurd was villified for having forced the Assembly to accept in 1968
What then can we say is the experience of the North that may be relevant to maximizing popular participation as a means-in the language of Title IX-for sustained economic and social progress What is the role of manpower and employment policy in the process of social democratization
We have seen clearly in recent years that manshypower policy has an essential complementary role to economic policy-for human resource developshynient and more particularly for training to meet
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the opportunities and needs of the labor market and for solving the structural problems involved in the continuous restructuring of the modern econshyomy which means both concern for the producshytivity and for minimization of unemployment
But this limited conception of manpower and employment policy is I think it fair to say someshywhat neutral with respect to social goals In authorshyitarian societies it is possible to imagine an efficient manpower and labor market policy quite inconsistent with a democratic society But even in Western societies we have more than a few intishymations that economic progress can be frustrated by frustrations of workers who feel alienated from soliety who feel they have no responsible role no share in decision-making no recognition no social status
The problem of the LDCs is more difficult and I must defer to those with more experience in these
special probleis As implied in Title IX the task is to develop democratic social institutions where they dont exist and where they may be in fact reshysisted by the beneficiaries of the old order I supshy
pose the experience of the North is that it is a slow process Nonetheless the democratic institutions of the North have evolved out of self help in the
creation of instruments of self governance not only in civil arrangements of local government and the political state but in the productive process and on the labor market We should not ignore or undershyestimate the democratic aspects of a free labor marshyket of a market economy or a capitalist society even if we dont wish to press the historic connecshytions between a market economy and political deshymocracy in the West
It is the special virtue of the policy expressed in Title IX that while trying not to impose our preshyconceptions on others we take a long view and fosshyter those elements of education training cooperashytivism land reform and trade unionism that are instruments for self help for both the political and economic man
To come back to my text it is a slow proCess but the only prospect for responsible bargaining the essence of the political process in a democracy is for the dispossessed to become possesse(l to have a stake-and to know the payoff is high-in the viashybility of the economy and the political state Which means to have confidence in their own strength and a sense of responsibility and participashytion in the adjustment processes of society Rememshyber Sweden and remember Francel
9
TITLE IX AND MANPOWER PROGRAMS OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
by Burnie Merson
The goals of Title IX of the Foreign Assistance planning level nationally regionally and locally of Act are stated in general terms These goals are to workers farm and employer organizations in deshydevelop citizen participation in the creation of the velopment of policy and programs to achieve full goods and services needed for economic develop- prodtctive freely chosen employment These and ment and their participation in the fruits of the in- other regional eriployment and manpower planshycreased produictivity resulting from economic ning programs have set the basic structure of world growth However before it is possible to develop and regional manpower plans which stress not the required policies and programs to achieve the only full employment but freely chosen employ objectives of Title IX it is necessary to clearly de- nient fine what is meant by citizen participation and to The achievement of popular participation restate the objectives of Title IX in more specific through productive and freely chosen employment terms will be limited without the opportunity on the
Restatement of Title IX in terms of specific ob- part of the labor force of all ages youth as well as jectives with respect to manpower would relate to adult workers for further educational and occupashycitizen participation in the development process of tional training Also to widen the employment op a country through such matters as job developshy portunities of the workers there must be a broadenshynuent skill development increased worker produc- ing of the occupational choice available to the tivity and improvement of the labor market mech- labor force Qualified jo) seekers may be barred anism This paper briefly discusses the major kinds from available job openings as a result of a number of manpower programs and objectives which I be- of factors These include improper functioning of lieve will help meet the objectives of Title IX It the labor market which impedes matching of men also discusses some of the activities of the interna- and jobs discrimination because of race creed tional and regional organizations which are related color an( unreal educational standards which go to these programs far beyond the needs of the job
One basic element of popular participation The above impediments -are found in virtually should be the development of prpductive jobs every developing country in which I have had some Provision of both full and productive employment experience and in all cases these impediments lead enables those seeking work to have the opportunity to frustrations To cite several examples illtistratshyto obtain remunerative jobs which are essential not ing these impediments to matching of men and only to enable the workers to obtain income jobs In one country because of family structure needed for basic food shelter and clothing but certain good jobs are only available to those who also to permit them to participate in the benefits of conie from the right families In another country any increased outitput of goods and services in the tnless you have the right diplomas front the right country university you are barred from jobs at certain lev-
Another basic element of popular participation els in the government This is so despite the fact is the idea of workers freely choosing their employ- that there are often highly competent people who ment The International Labor Office Basic Con- get education training and experience on-the-job vention 122 the Ottawa Plan for Resource Devel- and are quite qualified for these other jobs Yet opment the Asian plan and the Jobs and Skills they cannot move up to them because they do not program for Africa call for the participation at the have theproper credentials
11
There also can be important impacts on popular participation in the development process through tie minimum wage and social security programs
Minimum wages appropriately administered and
established can play a significant role in establishshy
ing levels of staldards of living consistent with the
objectives of welfare and ians dignity However the minimumn wage levels if raised too high can
have significant adverse effects on employment pro)spects for certain segments of the p pIlation
For example youths seekiiig summer jobs -nd pershysons with low skills and inadequate training may be priced out of the job market Social security simishy
larly can have an important and valuable impact on the standard of living of a country However its value depends upon the incidence of the tax and
how it results in the redistribution of the fruits of production to various segments of the population
The workers sense of participation in the develshyoping process is significantly enhanced if there is
participation through the trade union Trade unshyions can be important not only because of direct
participation in the economic development of a
cotintry but also because they van develop cooperashytion with other sectors of the p 2ation as represhyselited by employer associations and farm groups Similarly the government in its operations through ilh labor miiinistries is an important factor
inl deveiopinent of the institutioinal capabilities for matching men and jobs and developing skills as well as establishiig safety and labor standards And there also is the whole gamut of government reshy
lated institutions which help bring the workers in
closer con tact with tlie government and with the
developmenclt process
The programs aid objectives of the various inshy
ternational orgainiatiolis such as the 110 Convenshy
tion 122 and the Declaration of Cundinamarca
have in my judgment important goals consistent
with the objectives of Titll IX For example the Declaration of Cundinamarca notes that there
Can be no effective cconoinmic and social developshy
ment unless the legitimate rights of labor are recshy
ognized aind the aopirations of the workers are
expressed in terms of concrete achievements involvshy
ing wages eliployimieit working con(ditions social
security health housing and education In accomshy
plishing these tasks the Ministries of Labor have a
vital role to play They should be the ones to take
appropriate steps toward the establislument in each
of their coiintries of a National Council of Human
Resources at the highest level This Council should
be structured to conform with the constittition of the particular country The participation of a wide number of groups should he contemplated includshying universities representatives of employers minshyistries of education vocational training centers national planning offices bureaus of statistics nashytional productivity (cliters and other pertinent agencies that may exist in a given country The Declaration had particularly strong recommendashytions regarding the inclusionl of re 1 resentatives of democratic trade unions employer organizations aud ministries of labor to study and evaluate tile degree of trade union freedom and participation of the workers in the formulation and execution of national development programs
Any) popular participation on the international scene is represented by the ILO and OAS resolushytion predate Title IX of the Foreign Assistance Act In some respects the tying of the manpower program to a broad participation policy is easier than in other fields Manpower has always had a wide or horizonital iniput into almost all sectors of the economy It is it only coicerned with the varshyious industrial sectors-agriculture nonagriculture
bti also public adm inistration edtication health and military sectors This may often be forgotten becatise depending upon specific needs one may look at manpower solely from a single sectorial
stanlpoint Also it is difficult to handle and to look at manpower as ani interrelated system For examshy
ple an emiiployieit service Imay runia teacher
placelelit scrvice a farm placement service and services to the private andillpblic sectors It may also be concenlied with occupational safety both in the public and private sectors Also when an agency attem pts to measure uinemploymen t it usually covshyers all sectors of the population it does not ignore one or aiiot her if possible
Finally a comninet is required on the possibility of developing participation of various groups ill maiipower programs My experience in Korea and Taiwan iidicates that it is possible to do So with considera ble success In developilng plais for mallshy
power we enlisted the consmtiiers of the output of vocational schools anid the various trailing agenshycies as well as the public aul private sector groups We brought together people from the educatioial sector government in general as well as business
an(d commerce with tle vocatiollal and technical training agencies Of course for special problems arising out of the nature of the country and their social and political customs there was cooperation
12
both in providing indication of the nature of their needs as well as providing in some irstances finan-cial support In other instances industry provided shop teachers and brought foremen in from plants in order to show teachers the way things were done in industry
Rcview of the current international manpower
activities in my judgment indicates that in this syea there is at least tle beginning of programs and
actions which can help bring into fruition thc obshyjcdvcs of Title IX if thcy are broadened and dishyrcid more specifically towards the goals of full citizen participation in thcountrys development programs
13
SEVEN SIGNS FOR THE 1970s
by Seymour Wolfbein
In many years of study of manpower developshyments in the United States I have found that one can single out certain trends and changes in the economy which are highly significant as signposts or directional signs for probable future developshyments I would like to submit that there are a handful of such trecnds on which we can concenshytrate as playing sig~nificant roles in the manpower developments over the next decade Although these developments may have different importance and different values for devcloping countries I would also submit that they are of sufficient importance to be given serious consideration in any nalysis of manpower developments in the developing counshytries The following lists the seven developments that I believe are of greatest importance at present
1 Tcchnological change
2 Industrial an(d occupational change
3 Geographic change
4 Educational change
5 Population change
6 Manpower change
7 Disaggregation
Technological change Although the various items are not listed according to their relative imshyportance I would say that it is not possible to talk about moving ahead in any discussion of manshy
power or economic development without first conshysidering the problem oi technological change and its impact upon not only manpover but all aspects of life In the United States over the last 25 years output per man hour has been going ill) at about
the rate of 3 a year Thus over this period outshyput in the United States per man hour has doushybled Over the long run this is really only a blink of time A number of rather startling examples of the impact of such change in the United States can be found Let us look at agriculture for example
In that sector for the last 20 years in a row the United States has lost 200000 jobs per year off the farm Yet farm output over the period has inshycreased by more than 40 It was also during this
period that we were able to land a man on the l11OO1i
Industrial and occupational change Developshyments in the industrial-occupational area is one that most certainly cannot be ignored when conshysidering problems of popular participation Even in the United States most people are startled when it is pointed out that two out of every three people who work for a living in the United States produce services rather than goods As a result of these changes the number of professhysional workers now outnumber all of the skilled workers-one out of three persons who work for a living in the country are either professional personshynel or they are clerical workers such as secretaries stenographers and typists These conditions are also reflected in the dynamics of the working popushylation with the result that the proportion of the working population organized by the trade union movement has been going down since the end of World War II This trend apparently seems to be continuing It is therefore to be expected that in the next several years the major industrial relations actions will be going On in the service-producing side
Geographic change We are all aware that there has been tremendous migration out of the rural areas and tremendous growth in urbanization in this country since World War II The scope of these developments may be more fully understood when it is noted that three States in the United States (California Texas and Florida) account for one out of every six jobs Moreover these States in 1969 accounted for one-fifth of all the personal inshycome as neasured in the Gross National Product acounts With such concentrations of population
15
what does it do to the problem of job creation How does one handle this kind of dynamics in reshylation to this problem To further complicate the matter there is this tremendous intracity migration ie exodus to the suburbs Thus the geographic parameter of job development in itself is an amazshying phenomena
Educational change Formal education in this country has expanded substantially to the point where at present some 60 of the persons three to 31 years of age are formally registered in school When one looks at the so-called professional pershysonnel one finds that for the group as a whole the median years of school completed is seventeenshythat is equivalent to a masters degree Remember this is the median We must also remember that the professional category includes beauticians and opticians as well as physicians and physicists Thus even with ccrtaii occupations which require relatively few years of schooling the median is still 17 years But the most important factor here is that there is a world of difference betwcen median years of school completed and educational achievement The real question is what is the quality and the nashyture of the output to be obtained from these years of schooling Is the schooling being directed toshywards those occupations and activities which will be most needed in the 1970s It is estinatel by the Department of Labor that in the 1970s we are going to need as much manual talent as academic talent but will we be getting it
Will our vocational training program be realistishycally geared to meet the current needIs or to conshytinue as some of them are to provide training that is of little relationship to the industrial world of today
Population change We have experienced in the United States as in iost other countries since World War II a phenomenal rise in (he populashytion The birth rate in the United States showed sul)stantial increases until recently and has now deshyclined substantially But it lutist be noted that this lower birth rate is being applie(l as the demograshyphers say to an increasing number in the cohort of females of child-bearing age Therefore although the rate of births may be low the number of births is still high The growth in population since 1915 in this country for example has been such that in this 25 years half of the population of the United States was horn-a little over 100 million Accordshying to the 1970 population preliminary estimates the population at present is some 205 million as
compared to 170 million in 1960 or an increase over the decade of over ten liercent Another way of looking at it is that one out of every three people alive today in the United States was not born yet fifteen years ago We are already aware of the growth in the youth population and the problems that developed in connection with youth but it would seen that this problem may be further inshytensified
Manpower change The Labor Department proshyjections for the 1970s indicate that we may expect a 22 increase in the labor force during this decshyade This is an unprecelented and unparalleled inshycrease in the labor force never experienced before in the United States Most important of course in this increase is what it will do to the composition of the labor force Two changes come to mind readshyily First despite the so-called population and labor force explosion there is a decline in the popshytilation age group 35 to 44 We know that the soshycalled manpower profile in the Unitd States looks like an hour glass-there is a big batch of young people coming tip and a big batch of older
people It has vital implications for manpowertraining and for employers who wish to hire people in the age group that has had some work experishyence or career development This sector of the popshyulation is declining The second factor of equal importance is that one out of seven new workers coming up in the 1970s is going to be black
Disaggregation For the lack of finding a better term I use disaggregation By that I mean that it is necessary to look at the previous six developshyments and to consider them in some specific kinds of detail The point that is of particular imporshytance in the context of population participation and of job creation is that these six trends could be very beneficial for economic development But there is a large part of the population not only in the United States but in many other countries of the world which have not benefited from these trends and it is with these groups that in the imshymediate years ahead the problens will be greatest in terms of job creation and job development The
question will be bow to get the various parts of the
population together and to participate in these particular tasks
It may very well be right to say as I did preshyviously that we are now a service-producing econshyomy that we are a white collar group but in terms of the problems to be faced in connection with parshyticipation we must recognize the fact that a subshy
16
stantial part of the population even in the United States is not part of these what we have called mainstream developments Let us turn to some specific illustrations of what I mean For example the fact of the matter is that over 25 of all Negro males who work in this country are in one
occupation group while almost 50 of all Negro women are in one occupational group The males
are conacentrated in the operatives group occupashytion this is the occupation in this country which it
is anticipated will be declining in terms of employshyment opportunities in the 1970s Negro womens employment is concentrated in the service occupashytions
Let us disaggregate another general figure that is given continual attention-the unemployment rate In May (1970) the aggregate unemployment rate
was 50 seasonally adjusted But when one looks at nonwhite teenage males we find that the unemshyploymnent rate for this group ranges between 25 and
30 more than five times higher than the aggreshygate rate We can i am sure find many other exshyamuples of instances where certain groups of the population have benefited from the latest developshyments
To turn to the developing countries where in many instances the kinds of development we have discussed in the United States have not reached the same levels I would say that if in these countries they do not have the same discrete and distinguishshyable movements in the direction that the Western World has gone they will not have the kind of growth we are attempting to stimulate and foster
Certainly we will have dismally failed to learn from our own experiencc if we do not attempt or recognize that rts must be made as the developshying countries groi and as these basic trends imporshytant to growth begin to become more apparent to continuously watch the developments to determine if there are any groups in society who are not parshyticipating and benefiting from the trends and are falling by the wayside If it is at all possible we should be trying to bring these people in at the earliest stages of the developiment rather than wait until there are wide disparities among various paris of the population such as have developed in the Western World In this sense the purpose of
participation is vital in that if the idea is accepted and developed in the developing countries it should avoid what occurred in the Western World
17
JOB CREATION IN AGRICULTURE
by Thomas F Carroll
This paper presents what might be called a posishytion of agricultural fundamentalism with respect to policy for employment creation-deliberate employshyment creation in the developing countries
Up to very recently development economists and developers in general have been emphasizing growth theories that stress global GNP growth It is only now that questions on how GNP is distribshyuted and on how various groups in the developing countries benefit from development are becoming increasingly asked The employment and income distribution issue is becoming a fashionable foreshyfront topic among development planners This is reflected in such material as the Pearson Report Professor Myrdals report on Asia and the Peterson Report and one that is about to appear on Latin America by Professor Prebisch
We have had a great deal of theorizing and of practice from developing countries which can be characterized as the trickle down theory of deshyvelopment that has left those who are most able to use resources to develop them The AID organization and in particular the World Bank have followed this approach of putting resources where in the short run they will produce the largshyest output and then let the governments tax or otherwise acquire some of the surplus and redistribshyute it among the poorer urban and rural sectors
It is an attack on the whoe trickle down theshyory of development that I see now among developshymentalists It appears that in many recent studies this trickle down theory does not seem to work because even if some of the surplus can be captured for injection into education social welfare and other low-income support programs there is a gross inefficiency in the process Since government takes such a predominant place in managing these reshysources these inefficiencies are very noticeable
Since my recent work has been particularly strong on Latin America my illustrations and emphasis are on that particular continent
A great deal of the surplus gets stuck at the middle and upper level consumption patterns which increasingly are modeled on the consumpshytion patterns of the middle classes in the developed countries Thus if you go to a Latin American city you will find that the middle classes consume about the same basket of commodities-automobiles teleshyvision sets gadgets of all sorts-as we do in US suburbia This has put an enormous pressure on the developing countries infant industries and also on the balance of payments because a great deal of these products had to be imported
Another reason why the trickle down theory has not worked is that it ignored the labor potenshytials of an overwhelming proportion of the populashytion In such countries as Brazil or India 50 to 70 percent of the population is in the underdeveloped portion of the population in the urban and rural sectors the most important resource in this type of country is the labor resource This labor resource is very poorly utilized under the trickle down theshyory of development In the US and other develshyoped countries only a fraction of the labor force and population is in this poor range
I shall not dwell in length upon the inadequacies of industrial and urban jobs to absorb significant amounts of the migrant rural population There is increasing evidence that industry is becoming more capital intensive The types of industry that have been developing especially after the import substishytution drive has been satisfied offer very few jobs The lower productivity service sector while genershyally absorbing more labor than manufacturing has expanded in a very inadequate fashion and much of it has been disguising very large amounts of semi-employed people
Hence it is desirable to think not only of overshyall economic policies of development which are more labor-absorbing but it is desirable to have
specific rural policies that absorb productively
19
rural people so as to reduce migration to the urban areas
With respect to Latin America with a very high population growth-somewhere between 3 and 3 12 percent-in the late sixties the rural labor force is estimated to grow at the rate of about I million people annually even after assuming somewhat speeded-up migration rates Moreover there are no policies to productively absorb these people in agrishyculture On the contrary recent policies have beshycome increasingly capital intensive and the whole development strategy is generally strongly biased toward a rather labor extensive type of agricultural development as well
Let me briefly mention some of the policy defishyciencies that we have found not only in Latin America but Africa and Asia as well There is an overemphasis on commodity targets and balance of payment considerations in development planning There is very little attention to manpower planshyning in the various planning agencies and the tarshygets that are listed for development are very heavshyily oriented toward output-global macro-economic output-and commodity targets rather than institushytional targets which would involve human reshysource planning and income targets
There is a great deal of encouragement for capital intensive production techniques in public investment We see this in the development banks where much of the investment takes place in indusshytries with lines of pi oduction that offer very few jobs Perhaps the lending process itself with its emshyphasis on the project approach encourages this capshyital intensive bias
There is a strong urban bias in providing social services which encourages the out-migration from rural areas and which places great difficulties in the way of attracting and retaining qualified civil servshyants and leaders in rural areas There is a bias in the provision of social services jobs schools and other conditions that encourage not only job-wise but living level-wise the selective out-migration of competent rural people and prevents the return-mishygration of competent government officials teachers and others needed for the development of the rural areas
With respect to Latin America there is a lack of agrarian reform which is a fundamental defect in job creation in rural areas (This is not so true of Africa which has a more tribal and peasant-orishyented rural sector) There is very little recognition of the segmented nature of agriculture in developshy
ment planning They treat agriculture as a monoshylithic sector I can distinguish at least three differshyent sectors within agriculture such as the plantation sector which is export-oriented and for which deshyvelopment and employment policies will have to parallel the industrial planning techniques There is the semi-modern sector which is producing comshymodities for the market and has to some extent also a self-sufficient subsector And there is finally a really self-sufficient sector of a vast number of peasshyants who market very little and whose livelihood is within the traditional villages I think the developshyment policies and of course employment generashytion programs will have to be quite different for each of these sectors
Finally there is a strong emphasis on labor-reshyplacing types of technology particularly mechanizashytion that is imported intact from the developed countries wlere it serves a very good purpose A great deal of the pricing taxing subsidy policies as well as the activities of machinery companies are detrimental to a kind of development that would emphasize a slower transition from primitive agrishyculture to a very mechanized type of agriculture
Now to turn to policy recommendations let me briefly list certain suggestions for using simple iabor intensive labor absorbing techniques in deshyvelopment planning One of these is the recognishytion that in research and development on which we spend a great (eal of money and which developshying countries are just beginning to recognize as an investment item increasing stress should be placed on what many people are beginning to call intershymediate technology There is a great deal of reshysearch needed on micro-level agricultural developshyment ratier- than ihicro-level development and work of field economists anthropologists socioloshygists manpower planners is very much needed
There should be inter-disciplinary approaches to these micro-planning techniques and here I would like to enter a plea for not only technological planshyning but integrated social scince planning and research in the field of employment generating techshyniques I would emphasize very strongly developshyment of rural cooperatives and cooperative-like institutions in the rural areas that have the capashybility of mobilizing local people and to achieving economies of scale in development that normally individual type programs do not achieve These inshystitutions would be particularly valuable in such fields as credit marketing some types of producshytion and in machine services Also stronger emphashy
20
sis has to be placed on rural unions and syndicates particularly in Latin America This -is a very touchy problem because it is linked with the politishycal power structure
I also would like to point out the importance of decentralized agro-industrial planning I do not think we have touched upon the potentials of bringing jobs to rural people not only in agriculshyture but in agriculturally-related enterprises loshycated in or near urban areas This is something into which very little talent imagination and efshyfort and money has gone You will find that most of the industries are located in the large urban censhyters Very little is done to process agricultural prodshyucts or to create industrially-related enterprises
around primary production centers such as forests
pasture lands and crops which can be industrialshyized In this connection also I think there is a
great deal of learning to be done in stimulating
part-time and full-time industrial and semi-inshyclustrial employment opportunities in conjunction
with rural development programs A final point which needs to be strongly emphashy
sized I believe that it is not necessary to separate
or set up hardline criteria to distinguish between wealth-creating jobs and welfare (or income-subshy
sidy) jobs Acceptance of this dichotomy results in directing investment towards the activities with relatively high output potential Those of us who have been running agricultural credit programs find that among the small farmers we have the best credit risks We have farmers who have incredibly small businesses and repay their loans regularly while the larger landowners are always in arrears
Recent studies have repeatedly pointed out the big advantages of small irrigation works rather than big dams Studies have pointed out that entershyprise based on small peasant units is also highly productive because they utilize the peasants labor They are able to create wealth from work and to stimulate people to develop
I think that we have to take another look and a great deal of effort should go into the discovery of this middle ground where development projects particularly rural development or rurally-oriented deveopment projects can be both productive and socially satisfactory and at the same time soak up during the next few decades the surplus employshyment that is threatening not only the rate of growth but the basic political stability of many countries
21
UNITED STATES EXPERIENCE WITH UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDEREMPLOYMENT
by William Batt
We have no greater capital investment in any country in the world than we have in this country but we also have wide disparities in income It is true that we have more of a middle class than most developing countries but we still have dreadful problems of misdirection of funds For example if one looks at the national income data for all secshytions of the United States the District of Columbia appears as one of the wealthiest areas of the counshytry yet right in the middle of this city we have a section with desperate unemployment and tindershyemployment We have areas in the United States with unemployment rates as high as 25 to 30 pershycent
Although unemployment is an important ecoshynomic indicator it is not a particularly meaningful measure of economic conditions in rural areas beshycause of the problem of underemployment The data on unemployment developed in the 1950s by the Department of Labor focused attention on that 1roblem of depressed areas more effectively than had ever been done before And in recent studies concerned with ghetto unemployment attention was focused on the unemployment in the central cities as was national policy But it appears that we do not have similar extensive studies focused on the rural underemployment problem in the United States
We have this (lesperate rural underemployment in the United States today It exists in Eastern North Carolina and will probably worsen because of the automation in the tobacco industry This deshyvelopment will start immigrition by totally unpreshypared people to the cities of the North Among parts of ouir Indian population the unemployment data also reveal desperate poverty which even makes the Mississippi Delta look prosperous by comparison
When I read advertisements in the international edition of the New lork Times placed by developshy
ing governments such as Come put your factories in Nigeria or Come put your factories in Colomshybia or Uruguay I realize that the depressed areas of the world want the same thing that deshypressed areas in the United States want They want more job opportunities they want more industry so that there will be enough jobs there for which
people could train A study sponsored by the Area Redevelopment
Administration on what Western Europe was doing in the area of development indicates that they are ahead of us I believe that we might get more ideas from Western Europe to help South America than we do from the United States For exshyample Italy is investing 10 percent of its total inshycome in trying to make southern Italy more viable so that everybody in southern Italy does not have to leave the country to make a living I think that some combination of what the Italians are doing is what we also ought to be doing to a greater extent Of course the countries of Africa and the Southern Hemisphere do not have that tremendous inshydlustrial potential of northern Italy but the princishypIe is not invalid The principle is to help make these regions that are now depressed become ecoshynomically viable
The coal and steel community in Europe is doing a beautiful job for a very limited group It seems to me that the coal and steel community is doing ver-y well what we are doing not well at all in North Carolina Southern Italy is also doing things rather better than we are
The Secretary of Defense has announced an exshyceptionally large number of jobs are going to be cut in defense It seems to me that we must be able to figure out some better way than laying off people in aircraft companies in different parts of the counshytry When I was connected with economic developshyment work in Detroit many layoffs occurred every third year When I was running the Labor and Inshy
23
dustry Department in Pennyslvania one of the reshycessions in the 1950s cost us $400 million in unemshyployment insurance Thus the costs of doing nothing are pretty phenomenal
We are trying to do something to reduce these fantastic barriers to employment that keep people in an expanding economy from sharing the benefits of that economy We have classic cases in the public sector of jobs going begging by the hundreds because of absurd and irrelevant prereqshyuisites to employment To be a dog catcher in one city and they need a number of such workers you have to have a high school diploma and two years experience handling animals
I strongly agree with the following statement that if development does not produce more jobs and a fuller role in society for the working man (and I hope by the working man is meant someshybody besides the dues-paying member of unions) it can disrupt the world we know instead of buildshying a new one Improvements in GNP and exports investments have little meaning for the hundreds of millions who continue to live in conditions of barest subsistence squalor disease and despair Inshydeed in such circumstances the term developshyment would seem to be a serious misnomer if not a cruel delusion You may be leading people up the garden path and creating more problems than you are solving
24
ROLE OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BUSINESSMEN IN JOB CREATION
by William Haas
The National Alliance of Businessmen (NAB) was created in the manpower message of President Johnson to Congress on January 23 1968 He asked the private sector of the economy to take on the reshysponsibility of meeti major national challengeshyfinding jobs and providing job training for the hard core unemployed and under-employed
In response to this request the NAB was orgashynized by concerned leaders of the business comshymunity When President Nixon took office one of his first acts was to pledge his administrations comshy
plete and unqualified support to the NAB In fact the role of the business community and that of the NAB has been made even more important than beshyfore by President Nixons proposal for extensive changes in the national welfare and manpower training programs
The Presidents proposed plan is aimed directly at getting people off the welfare roles and onto payshyrolis and this puts the responsibility squarely on businessmen They must prove that the private secshytor of the economy with the appropriate governshyment assistance to cover the extra costs of hiring and training unskilled disadvantaged workers can provide the job opportunities that will make the Presidents program work
Orgainiationally the National Alliance of Busishy
nessmen is tinique It is an independent nonprofit corporation The Executive Board is composed of topflight businessmen from each geographic region of the nation Tiis lBoard established overall polshyicy The Executive Vice Chainn is responsible for the operations of NAB similar to that of a presshyident of a corporation and the Chief Executive Ofshyficers are from the ten regional offices across the nashytion
We are now expanding from 131 metropolitan offices to 200 metropolitan offices since we are now going nationwide and these offices are staffed by volunteers from industry and officials on loan from
government with approximately three people at each regional level and five at the metropolitan level In addition literally thousands of volunteers from business assist in carrying out the mission for which NAB was formed
The question may be asked Why should busishyness take on this challenge of finding jobs and job training for the unemployed and upgrading opporshytunities for under-employed people The most imshy
portant reason is that basically six out of every seven jobs in our country are in the private sector of the economy The businessmen are the ones who have the jobs
Businessmen are also the ones who know best what a worker should learn in order to do a job
properly If we can place the unemployed and unshyderemployed in meaningful jobs teach them how to (10 these jobs znd keep them employed we will have made a major inroad on poverty in our nashytion We will be giving new hope for productive lives to many people We will be helping our young people including many Vietnam veterans reshyturning to civilian life to build satisfying lives in their own home community
Bringing the unemployed into the mainstream of outr economy is not humanitarianism It pays off in dollars and cents for the company who gains a worker It pays off for the government by both savshying on welfare costs and gaining a taxpayer
The propran of the NAB is called JOBS which stand for Job Opportunities in the Business Sector As the title indicates this program is dishyrected towards the hiring training and retraining and upgrading meni and women for jobs in the prishyvate sector of the economy Out- initial goal was to
place 100000 hard core unemployed in meaningful jobs by July I of 1969 and that was more than met The new nationwide target for July 1 1971 is to
place 611000 hard core unemployed in productive jobs Against this objective approximately 25000
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employers have already hired sonic 432800 persons Of this total hired approximately 305700 were hired by 21000 companies participating in the non-contract portion of the JOBS program and 127100 were hired by approximately 4000 compashynies participating under a NAB JOBS contract Of the 432800 persons hired about 228400 have reshymained on the job
We have also obtained the characteristics of the employee trainees from the simple hiring card emshyployers participating in the JOBS program are asked to submit This information shows that 73 percent of the trainees are male 27 percent are female About 75 percent of the workers aie beshytween 19 and 44 years of age 21 percent are under 19 and 4 percent over 45 or an average age of 247 years Also about 70 percent of the trainees are Negro 21 percent are white 6 percent Mexican-American 2 percent Puerto Rican and I percent of other origin The average family size of employee trainees is 36 persons Their education attainment averages about 10 12 grades of school They were unemployed an average of 212 weeks in the last year Their annual family income was approxishymately $2505
Hiring training retraining and upgrading the disadvantaged is not an easy task nor do we preshytend that it is When we ask a businessman to join with us in this program we do not want him to unshydertake a task under any illusions about the diffishyculties of the task
This is not any ordinary industry-hiring proshygram To aid us in these efforts the Department of Labor offers specific types of assistance programs These programs are designed to provide practical ways for all employers large and small to train inshyexperienced new employees without losing money on the cost involved in bringing these workers up to an average level of productivity
In response to the current economic slowdown NAB is giving increased emphasis to the upgrading portion of the JOBS program Employers particishypating under the contract part of the NABs job entry and upgrading program are compensated by the government for extraordinary training expenshyses to provide such support services as orientation basic job-related education special counselling and on-the-job training skills
If the employer believes that he does not have the in-house capability to provide these support services he can subcontract this phase to professhysional companies However the on-the-job skill training cannot be subcontracted This must be provided by the employers
Other areas that may be compensated include extra administrative and overhead costs supervishysory andl human relations training medical and dental services child care assistance and transporshytation assistance
The NAB JOB efforts in my opinion is one of the best manpower programs It offers real advanshytages to employers and job applicants
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PRIVATE INVESTMENT AND JOB CREATING POSSIBILITIES
by Harriet S Crowley
I interpret private investment to mean any kind of private investment which has a payoff whether it is for profit or social reasons This rather broad definition of private investment is necessary for two reasons when related to job creating possibilishyties First since private profit investment area per se is a fairly limited one in the less developed counshytries its job creating effects will also be limited Secondly I believe that at present the private techshynical assistance program will be a more important source for job opportunities
I would like to diaw a backdrop with respect to investment n developing countries against which manpower planning and employment as well as the many other fields of development have to be considered A landimark which has gone pretty much unnoticed is that for the first time in the history of the international development effort the flow of private and public resources is about equal For the I year coniesUnited States about $2 billion a from the government and SI 12 billion is from private investment in profit-making enterprises Much of tlie latter is still in the extractive fields but increasingly more is in the manufacturing and service fields and in private technical assistance Proshygrams We now therefore do have a different set of flows of resouices than in earlier years
Anot her important backgrotnd factor is the fact that we are in a period of change in the United States ill altitludes toward the AID program The Peterson Report is an excellent example of this change Pat of the recommendations of that report is already in being tle creation in last years legshyislation of a new instrument for private investment to manage and conduct lie incentive programs and to get ioie private investment into the less develshyoped comiti ies This is now known as the Overseas Piivate I nvestment Corporation (OPIC) which will runt tle progranis of guarantees (extended risk guarantees) as well as surveys and related activishyties The formet programs are in operation and are
writing half a billion dollars worth of insurance a year roughly one-third of the total flow of private investment capital
The two other recommendations of the Peterson Report which probably affect most of the programs that we are interested in are the creation of a bank and the creation of the technical institute What is clearly implied by these changes is that there will be a reduced official presence overseas and that the US policy of development is going to be more reshy
sponsive and less aggressive and carried out to at least sonic extent within the framework of the multilateral analytical base and guidelines
Congress is not expected to act on any new proshy
posal uintil next year sometime The specific legislashytion is scheduled to be before Congress shortly after tihe first of the year There will clearly be a transishytion period between the enactment of that legislashytion and any new structures of organization There may be a period of almost two years in which peoshyple are not going to know whether they can comshymit funds for long range programs Durng this peshyriod it seems to metle private field should become More important partly because it is time for it to play a greater role and because there is going to be this vacuum In the manpower field it seems to me that all opportunity is being created for us to test sone of the programs which we have been supportshying at least partially if not completely For examshy
ple in tie case of cooperatives it should be possible to test their usefulness now in moving into this vacuum Can they with their modest amount of public funds attract private resources in addition to those they are beginning to put into their projshyects from others such as labor
Now to turn to the activities of private business One can find estimates of job creation of private investment ranging from $300 per manyear of emshy
ployment u) to about $7500 according to the Nashytional Industrial Conference Boards exercise in this field Clearly the record of employment vis-ashy
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vis direct private investment is not very great Figshyures available for Latin America only show that in 1957 private investment of US private subsidishyaries were supposed to have created 830000 jobsshywhile in 1966 roughly ten years later the number of such jobs rose to 1230000 It had not even doulshybled in ten years
I think we do not know enough about the intanshygible results of direct private investment We have attempted on several occasions to get from corporashytions their social overhead spending in less develshyoped countries by their affiliates Estimates of 2 to 7 percent of their annual direct investment have been arrived at )) a variety of means including a Senate Subconunittee and special research projects This could really represent a tremendous amount of jobs in the aggregate
Aside from the training which individual corposhyrations carry on all the time there is a good deal of other social overhead investment in housing in edshytication healthi community development and conshytributions to things like the National Development Foundation Peace Corps projects and Voluntary Agency projects But we (o not know enough about these activities and about the results of cooperashytive efforts and credit unions in terms of job creashyion
There has been a movement in the last year or so in what for want of a better term I call the mini-investment field This is the very small capshyital investmient kind of a project with usually a very quick turiover They are springing out genershyally from non1-profit programs overseas which have reached a plateau in their normal technical assistshyance activities They ale recognizing that they can go no further witlouit somel productive capacity input into their programs whatever they may be There have appeae(l on the scene tlini gs like Tech noserve-a nonrlofit institution supported by the chirrclies Tlhey do feasibility studies to find small lprojects anI then they raise the needed capishytal They have had prezty good luck at such activities so far There ate also emerging small inshyvestment corporations stpported by Protestant reshy
ligiotis grams The Mennonites for several years have had such an investment corporation and have maintained porifolios between $300000 and s100000 overseas all the time This group puts it
in one project and takes it out perhaps in a couple of years sometimes even less and then puts it in another one They are able to (1o this bccause of their own people overseas who see these opportunishyties and who generally either have the skills needed for the project or know where to get a volunteer with the needed skills to give the technical assistshyance that may be necessary
Joint ventures are another set of activities that are just starting The Pan-American Development Foundation has been doing this in the small loan business for a while and I think it has quite a good record
Another one is Kodel which was started up by the Catholics but now has broadened to membershyship of a good sized number of other religious and non-religious groups This is a trend toward conshysortia action on the part of the private agencies all of whom jealously like their independence and their own identity That has been a very hard block for them to overcome but they are overcomshying it and they are putting together their varied resources to direct them into major projects I think this is very encouraging because all of these
projects are at the grass roots small in nature pershyhaps but if there are enough of these they begin to expand and spread
Some 80 of these registered voluntary agencies are operating programs of around $600 million three-quarters of which is their own and the rest is from government support
In conclusion I should like to make two brief comments regarding our activities in the private sector First we are very happy to go out and use
private organizations for contract purposes often as substitute for direct hire-a better substitute in many cases This is something we should be able to do These are national resources and we have some responsibility it seems to me in this field However we often do not do a very good job of guidance for th~m Secondly I also believe that private organizashytions are going to have to demonstrate a much greater management capability on their own and a better ability to negotiate with those governments to implement their own programs without support services il) to now generally being offered by our missions and embassies
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POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES
by Samuel H Burt
Among the major distinguishing features of the American public education system is the fact that its schools have always been considered as belongshying to the public as being in the service of the public and to be served by the public on a volunshyteer basis as a matter of civic and communityr reshysponsibility The desire to be involved in puiblic education stems in part from the special status prestige and power accorded to educated persons as well as to persons connected with education in any way In many communities the chairman of a local board of education has more prestige than the elected mayor
The current furor unrest and criticism of our public schools is proof that the American publicshyor rather the many publics which comprise Amershyica-still demand a high degree of responsiveness to their need from public education administrators and professional staff In the finest tradition of our democratic society these various publics have eishyther voluntarily organized citizens school commitshytees or been organized by school administrators to serve on Volunteer advisory committees in order to help improve one or more aspects of public educashytion
The major rationale for such service is that our public schools are seen as societys major vehicle for tralsimitting to youth those precepts concepts and traditions on whi h our society has flourished in the past and must depend upon for continuing growth and success in the future
There is also a growing recognition that the problems of public education are basic central to and inextricably intertwined with other major problems of modern society-housing urbanization crime inlustrialiation civil rights jobs for mishynorities narrow professionalization and all the other factors which make or break the American Dream for each individual in our nation
Among all the publics comprising our national
life none has been more aware of the critical role and potential of public education than businessshymen manufacturers labor leaders and employers in agriculture and the professions-hereinafter reshyferred to in the aggregate as industry Motivated by the need for a continuing flow of well-educated and well-trained youth industry has voluntarily asshysisted schools to enrich expand and improve those
programs in the public schools directly related to industrys manpower needs-vocational and technishycal education For over 50 years industry has been involved in a variety of activities and services deshysigned to gear vocational education to industrial
operations But it is upon the same 20000 formally orgashy
nized industry-education cooperating and advisory committees composed of some 100000 volunteer industry representatives that sophisticated vocashytional educators depend for sustained and meanshyingful involvement in the schools It is this orgashynized involvement which is credited with making vocational education programs relevant to the needs of students and employers While there are
many authorities in the field of vocational educashytion who would argue this responsiveness there is general agreement that proper and effective utilishyzation of industry-education cooperating and adshyvisori y committees could indeed achieve this goal
So strong and pervasive is this belief that by 1965 every state had either passed a law or issued regulashytions requiring public schools to utilize volunteer advijory committees for all vocational programs in the schools Despite the fact that such laws have been honored more in the breach than in practice the 1968 Amendments to the Vocational Education Act of 1963 mandated the establishment of a Nashytional Advisory Council on Vocational Education
and State Advisory Councils on Vocational Educashytion for each state receiving federal vocational edushy
cation funds These Councils are composed of volshy
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unteer representatives from the general public inshydustry and education As a consequence vocational education has become the only field of public edishycation which by law must utilize volunteer coMshymittees of interested citizens at the national state and local levels There has been an abiundance of voluntcers to serve on these committecs One reashyson for such service was discussed earlier ie the prestige which accrues to volunteer service in public education A second motivating factor is rooted in the hope that involvement in a vocashytional education program will not only help imshyprove that program hut will abo serve as a direct source of trained manpower supply for those comshypanics working with the school people There are also such motivational factors as the desire of adults to help young people in starting their cashyreers to receive 1 ublic recognition (personally and for the company) as a concerned citizen to be acshyknowledged as an expert and leader in ones field and to be considered altruistic and even philanshythropic by ones friends business associates and family circle through volunteer involvement in edshyucation
It is because people (o respond to organized appeals to these motivational factors that it has been possible for vocational educators to deshyvelop in the US a national system of cooperating and advisory commitcees and councils to forge an industry-education partnership in cooperation with government-for the purpose of developing manshypower skills creating jobs and the matching of workers with jobs
This system is as yet but dillily perceived and litshytle understood Our remaining discussion will cenlshyter around the roles responsibili ties and relationshy
ships of the various levels of these committees and councils as they are currently being utilized for achieving popular participation in public vocashytional education
1 The National Advisory Council on Vocashytional Education
The 1968 Amendments to the Vocational Educashytion Act of 19(33 established a National Advisory Council on Vocational Education composed of 21 leading national representatives from industry edshy
For a disrcusion of legisiation affecting vocational eiicashytion advisory conunitlies e Sanmnel Mf Burt 7ndustry and floratIionalTehil Iuration York McGraw-HillI lltit (New Book Co 1967) ant Smnnutl N1 Burl The Sate Advifory Councils on Iawational Eduration (Kalamizoo The W E Upjohin Institute for Employment Research 1968)
ucation and the general public Members are apshypointed by the President of the US Functions of the Council are broadly stated in the Act as to
(a) Advise the US Commissioner of Educashytion concerning the administration of preparashytion of general regulations for and operation of vocational education programs receiving federal funds
(b) Review the administration operation and effectiveness of vocational education proshygrams make recommendations thereto and publish reports of its findings and recommenshydations to the Secretary of the Department of Health Education and Welfare for transmittal to Congress
(c) Conduct independent evaluations of voshycational education programs and publish and distribute reports of such evaluations
(d) Review possible duplications of vocashytional education programs and publish and distribute reports and recommendations to the Secretary of HEW
The Act also provides funds for staff to be emshyployed by the National Council in conducting its activities and carrying out its t esponsibilities
While the National Council has no operational nor administrative responsibilities for the conduct of vocational education programs its independent status and legislative authority for review and evalshyuation does give it strong investigatory powers Furthermore since its findings and recommendashytions are required to be published and distributed the ouncil can be expected to have considerable impact on Congressional deliberations concerning all facets of vocational education at the national level
Although tlie relationship established by the Act between the National Council and tle State Advisshyory Councils on Vocational Education is one of reshyceiving reports from the State Councils as deshyscribed below the National Coumicil carly opted to work closely with tle State Councils As a matter of fact at the requcest of the State Councils the Nashylional Council is providing a considerabie degree of leadership to the State Councils It appears that much of the voik of the National Council will be based on reports submitted by the State Councils The National Council ii also serving as a clearing hdouse of imiforIuationl and conununiilications for tie various State Councils includinug conduct of speshycial studies for use by the Staic Councils in the deshyvelopment of their activities
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2 The State Advisory Councils on Vocational 3 Local Advisory Committee on Vocational Ed-Education ucation
In addition to establishing the National Advishysory Council the 1968 Amendments to the Vocashytional Education Act of 1963 also mandated the establishment of a State Advisory Council on Vocashytional Education by every State receiving federal funds for vocational education Members of the State Councils are appointed by the Governor or in those states in which State Boards of Education are elected members of the Advisory Council are appointed by the Board
The functions of the State Councils as specified by the Act are to
1 Evaluate the effectiveness of the vocational education programs services and activities throughout the state
2 Assist the State Board through consultation initiated by the Board in preparing the State Plans for Vocational Education
3 Advise the State Board on the development of
policy matters arising in the administration of vocational education programs
4 Prepare anid submit through the State Board to the US Commissioner of Education and the National Advisory Council on Vocational Education an annual evaluation report of voshycational cducation programs with recommenshydations for such changes as may be considshyered appropriate and warranted
The Act also provides funds for staff to be emshy
ployed by the State Councils While tile State Councils have no administrative
or operating responsibilities they are independent of albeit advisory to the State Boards of Educashytion amid to the State Departments of Education Ilici published reports an( recommendations can I)e expected to not only have an impact on vocashytional education decisions of state governors and state legislators State Boards and Departments of Education but also on the US Office of Education and the National Advisory Council on Vocational Education It is still too soon to determine how successful the State Councils will be in functioning independently of and at the same time interdeshy
pendently with the established bureatucracy of the State Departments of Education and other state agencies dealing with vocational education trainshying and manpower development
Within the states the use of advisory committees of industry people by vocational educators is manshydated in every state either by state law or by rules an(d regulations issued by State Departments of Edshyucation Except for a few states advisory commitshytees are required only for occupational education
programs conducted in a school receiving federal funds Requirements are usually met by the school listing the names of the advisory committee memshybers when requesting funds from the State Departshyment of Education Rarely is provision made by the state for special staff to service the committees or to promote industry-education cooperation Guidelines provided by the State Departments of Education stress the advisory nature of the commitshytees and warn the educators not to allow the comshymittees to become involved in administrative or operational matters Despite the lack of positive and constructive leadership on the part of most State Departments of Education in the field of efshyfective utilization of industry committees at the local levels sophisticated vocational educators and industry groups have developed various types of non-legally required advisory committees as effecshytive instrumentalities and strategies for involving industry and vocational education It is these nonshymandated committees which when added to the leshygally required committees provide the characterisshytics and format of the nationally organized system discussed in the paper
(a) The School System General Advisory Comshymittee
A number of large school systems throughout the country have appointed General Advisory Comshymittees on Vocational Education to serve in an advisory capacity to the Director of Vocational Edshyucation the superintendent of schools and occashysionally to the Board of Education This type of committee is used in helping plan long-range school system policy and objectives for vocational educashytion and to help determine relative emphasis and
priorities that should be given to various elements of the program at any particular time Once policy and priorities have been agreed upon the commitshytee may engage in activities to obtain public supshyport and any needed legislation and funds These activities of course go beyond the advisory stashytus which marks the planning and policy determishynation assistance functions for which the commitshytee was established
31
Membership in these committees is usually drawn from the ranks of top level management in the community and includes leaders of community and industry groups economic development agenshycies and government agencies concerned with manshypower development Appointment is usually made by the school superintendent sometimes by the chairman of the school board The Director of Voshycational Education usually serves as secretary to the committee
(b) The School General Advisory Committee Many large area vocational schools technical inshy
stitutes and community colleges have established general advisory committees on vocational educashytion to assist in formulating general plans and polshyicies for the school These committees have proven invaluable in helping determine what programs should be offered by the schools priorities to be asshysigned in initiating and expanding programs and in obtaining industry-wide and public support for the school Membership is usually composed of pershysonnel directors plant superintendents vice-presishydents of large companies owners of medium size businesses trade association and labor organizashytions minority groups representatives and represhysentatives of economic development agencies and government agencies concerned with manpower deshyvelopment The assistant president dean of inshystruction or assistant director of the school usually serves as secretary to the general advisory commitshytee Since the committee is established to serve a
particular institution it is rare unfortunately for the committee to become involved in or knowlshyedgeable about what other similar institutions are doing or what other vocational education and training programs are being offered in the geoshygraphic area generally served by the school
(c) Departmental Advisory Committees
If a vocational school is offering several related industry courses eg bricklaying carpentry and construction electricity these courses may be orgashynized into a Construction Technology Department supervised by a department head and perhaps served by a departmental advisory committee
Membership of a departmental advisory commitshytee usually consists solely of representatives of the industry for which the courses are being offered The major responsibility of the departmental adshyvisory committee is to make certain that the school provides for and properly supports the educational and training program needed by the industry The
departmental advisory committee not only serves in an advisory capacity to the department head but also supports him in any requests to his supervisors for program improvement and expansion The committee may also meet with the several occupashytional cooperating committees serving the instrucshytors within the department
(d) Occupational Cooperating Committees Practically all discussions literature laws and
regulations dealing with vocational education adshyvisory committees are concerned with the concept and practices of the occupational committee insistshying that such committees are advisory only Despite such statements these committees function in fact as instrumentalities for achieving cooperation beshytween education and industry rather than as a deshyvice for educators to obtain advice from industry This dichotomy between theory and practice is the source of considerable confusion among both vocashytional educators ahd industry people Nevertheless these occupational cooperating committees have been and are responsible for the bulk of industry people voluntarily involved in vocational educashytion and for annually contributing millions of dolshylars and even more millions of hours in the service of vocational education
School officials look to membership on these comshymittees from frontline supervisory staff owners of small companies and representatives from unions and trade associations connected with a particular occupation Members of the committees are usually those individuals in a company who are directly reshysponsible for hiring and training new employees
Over 30 specific cooperative service activities have been identified as being offered by occupashytional committees They can be classified under the headings
1 Engaging in student recruitment selection and placement activities
2 Improvement of instructional program offershyings through evaluation and enrichment
3 Providing assistance to teachers for personal and professional growth
4 Providing prizes financial aid scholarships and other forms of honors to outstanding stushydents
5 Engaging in industry and public relations support of the school program
The occupational cooperating committees are the foundation and strength of the national advishy
32
sory committee system described in this discussion They provide the opportunity for industry people and vocational educators to engage in cooperative action and involvement at the local community levshyel-where the real action takes place-in the schools
Summary
In a society in which a persons work is a prishymary determinant of his personal and social status there is ar obvious relationship between the world of school and the world of work This relationship calls for a high degree of compatability and coopershyation between industry and school people to make vocational education relevant to the manpower needs of the economy and to make industry responshysive to the mission and needs of vocational educashytion
In pursuit of these mutually beneficial goals inshydustry and education in the US have developed over a period of some 50 years the concept and practice of a national system of formally organized advisory and cooperating committees at the nashytional state community school and individual
program levels At each level we find different groups of leading citizens involved because of difshyfering demands from and services to be provided For example a general advisory committee to a local school system calls for representation from community minority groups but an advisory-coopshyerating committee for an occupational program in a school requires representation from front-line sushypervisors directly engaged in hiring and training new employees While this national system is far from being fully recognized and fully utilized a framework-established by law-does exist and the potential is perceived by mur nations leaders in both industry and education
Laws written by professional administrators and lawyers concerning utilization of volunteer citishyzens can and do leave yt to be desired Despite the fact that many professional educators are disshytrustful of volunteer citizen participation in such a complex field as public education so many benefits have accrued to youth adults schools industry local communities and our nation as a result of inshydustry-education cooperative partnerships as to warrant efforts to increase such cooperation manyshyfold
33
TAIWAN AND KOREAN EFFORTS IN MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT THROUGH SCHOOL AND INDUSTRY COOPERATION
by James D Murray
Although the skilled labor force of a country is developed in a number of ways the public and prishyvate vocational schools play a very important role The primary purpose of this part of the educashytional program is to prepare the student for useful employment Vocational education means more than training for specific job skills It develops abilities understandings attitudes work habits and appreciations which contribute to a satisfying and productive life This breadth of training makes it possible for the graduates of the vocashytional schools to adjust to rapid technological changes in their fields and advance quickly on the job In due time those graduates with leadership abilities can achieve supervisory positions Vocashytional education also has the responsibility of proshyviding supplementary training in occupational skills and related technical knowledge to make emshyployed adults more productive This is usually accomplished through an evening program
This paper discusses my experiences (using Taishywan as an example) in developing school and inshydustry cooperation through advisory committees in designing realistic vocational educational programs geared to the manpower needs of a developing conitry The paper also comments on the use of skill contests and participation in the Skill Olymshy
pics (with particular reference to Korea) to gain acceptance for vocational education and to build status for the skilled workers
The Taiwan Program
In the Taiwan program I worked with the Vocashytional Teacher Training Institution eight technishycal high schools and the Institute of Technology which is a post-high school in most respects With regard to the Institute of Technology my assignshyment to reorganize this old established institution to properly equip it and train the faculty provides a good example of the nature of problems involved
in developing a meaningful and iiseful advisory committee
The first step in this undertaking was to have the
president of the school and the faculty obtain an understanding of what an advisory committee should do and how it should operate I was fortushynate in being able to obtain the full cooperation of the president of the school It was therefore possible for me to put before the president of the Institute material from the many US pamphlets on how to organize a school industry advisory committee which I adapted as best I could to (he local situashytion He in turn gave it to his department heads they read it we discussed it and I thought I would run -t little check and do a little role playing with the president of the Institute calling the meeting going through all the procedures including writing of invitations to prospective members of the comshymittee
We got off to a reasonably good start but then additional progress became difficult We could see that the true understanding of what an advisory committee should do and how it should operate was not getting through Fortunately (not by inshytention) I made the comment during a meeting that in this assembled group was perhaps the most knowledgeable group on how a school industry adshyvisory committee should be organized and opershyated This group is perhaps the most knowledgeashyble in Taiwan Therefore would it not be to our advantage (and to the advantage of the country) to make this available to others who perhaps are not so well acquainted with this advisory commitshytee concept by translating the information I had developed into Chinese The group agreed to this
proposal We went through the whole procedure line by line It took a lot of time but when we got through the group understood the need for and
purposes of an advisory committee It was now possible to proceed with the organizashy
35
tion of the General Advisory Committee for the institution We brought in the public sector prishyvate sector large medium and small industries also some things that we would not include in the US such as the Ministry of Education Provincial Deshypartment of Education and the military It was successful we were able to assemble a very fine committee The committee brought forth to the institute things which I could very well have said but it was much more meaningful coming from their own people than from an outsider
The process of actually organizing the committee was a bit slow I worked with the president with the departmnt heads and we madle calls on indusshytry gave them a little pamphlet explained how the committee should operate
At the first meeting the members were informed about the purpose of the reorganized institution the type of equipment it would have the type of
buildins planned for the future and that they were going to be involved in the planning of this reorganization
Subsequent to this niceting we proceeded to the organization of the craft committees again bringing n the military and some of our AID
people in various specialties The committees were organized and committee members sat in on the planning of the courses of study The school would prepare the plai and send it out to the adshyvisory committee beforehand The committee havshying been exposed to the plain would then offer comshyments and criticism it worked beautifully Since this i rocedureiworketi so well for the Institute we
thought we would niow see what could be done for the eight technical high schools Here we practiced what we talked about in the Institutes industry adshyvisory commititees regarding the organization of the comm it tee If we just send an educator to work with the schools for this purpose we have the picshyture from one side Therefore why not have one person from the industry side as well as a person from the school side And we dlid this
The Taiwan Power Company furnished their director of training and the provincial governshyment brouight ill ole of their school-indlist ry coorshydinators They worked with each of time eight vocashytional schools in reorganizing their school industry advisory committee We chose electricity as the first committee to organize because each of the eight schools had the school industry advisory committee and we happened to get this mai from Taiwan Power Company Also the Taiwan Power Coishy
pany had an office in each of these eight cities with which we were working
A final interesting comment regarding the Taishywan experience-after four meetings attended by the coordinator from the provincial department of education and the training director from the Taishywan Power Company they issued a report which contained useful suggestions which took into acshycount the local situation
A few of the suggestions made to the schools in this report incluied the following Planned visits and in-plant practice should be arranged for the graduating class mathematics related to the ocshycuipation should be taught shop practice of gradshyntitig students to be based on Taiwan Power
Company regulations a safety boo issued by the Quason Training Center schools foi reference
The Korean Program
In Korea basically similar procedures were used in developing industry advisory committees As in Taiwan procedires were developed and accepted regarding establishment of national provincial and school advisory conumittees These are conshytained in the by-laws promulgated in June 1963 of the Industrial Education Advisory Committee Adshyvisory comnittees are operating in Korea they are operating even thoughlithey are not as sophisticated as the ones in the United States Effective advisory committees were also established for the agriculshytural program
It Korea as in many other countries the advishysory committees lead to other participation proshygrais One exaimple is the school industry cooperashyive program where the student spends part time in
school and part time iworking in industry The proshygrais are operating quite siccessfully
Other programins which I believe particularly imshyportant as a means of fostering popular participashytion are tihe National Skill Contests and the Skill Olympics which art described in the section that follows
National Skill Conitests and the Skill Olympics
The National Skill Contest In 1963 USAID asshysisted the Ministry of Education and the Korean Technical Edunication Association in tie organizashytion and operation of the First National Technical High School Skill Contest The objectives of this activity were to encourage the students and teachshyers to strive for better workmanship to gain public
acceptance of vocational education and to improve
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the image of the skilled worker in society The conshytest is similar to an athletic tournament but in this activity the students from participating high schools compete with each other for honors in the various trades Suitable contest problems and projshyects are prepared by a committee representing inshydustry and education and the contest is conducted under very strict supervision The completed conshytest projects are evaluated in terms of precision finish working speed logical procedure economishycal use of materials and proper use of tools Ilie winners are given appropriate awards and pibshylicly honored Since the program was started in 1963 five contests have been held and each year he test problems have become inucreasingly difficult and the judges more severe in their evaluation
The National Technical High School Skill Conshytests were quite successful and generated considerashyble interest within education circles as well as in the public and private industrial sectors However a group of imaginative and aggressive Koreans were not satisfied and begaii to explore ways to expand and improve this program Ini 1966 they heard about the International Vocational Training competition which is connionly referred to as the Skill Olympics andldecided to seek admittance into this internaiionial event
The Interinational focational Trainig Compeshytition The International Vocational Training Competition originated in Spain shortly after World War II It began as a national skill conshytest similar to the national skill contests that were condicteld in tie Republic of Korea The colipetition in Spain proved to be so successful that the Spainish invited their neighliboing cotutry Portugal to coipete in the Madrid conitest The joint conitests ield in Madrid ini 1950 and 1951 were atteirlded by iany meinlbers of the diplomatic
rls Twy weie imiipressed with the spirit of comshy)Ctitioni atnd the healthy xc lanige of training ideas
which took place at the contest As a coise(ulience they indi crd the training agencies inl their respecshytive couiitries to joili inl the coimpetition In auldi tion to Spain the list of nations now participating is (Iuite imtipiessive Atistiia lelgium Deninark West Germlanity lolland Ireland Italy ILuxeishyburg Portugal Switverland United Kingdom Japan and Koiea The first six international conshytests were held in Spain but since 1958 the contest has been held in various Eiiopeaii countries
The member co(nries may choose their particishy
pants for tie International Vocational Training
Competition in any manner but it is usually done through a national skill contest The International Vocational Training Competition lasts about three weeks During the first week the technical represhysentatives and experts make the necessary preparashytions select test items and prepare the necessary bltieprints At the end of the first week the contesshytants arrive and the competition starts the second week The testing time may be as much as 35 hours Judging is completed in the third and final week after which the winners are awarded medalsshynormally a gold silver aiid bronze medal for each trade
Korea Eners the Skill Olympics The Korea Committee-International Vocational Training Competition (IVTC) was organized in 1966 to preshy
pare for entrance ini the 1967 Skill Olympics Using the experience gained in the organization of the National Technical High School Skill Compeshytition five regional elimination contests were held thn rotighou t Korea with the winners meeting in the Ntional Contest in Seoul The competitors (1300) came from technical high schools aid industry The maxintin age limit set by international regushylations is 19 years (not to have readied 20th birthshyday) Extetlding tile cotipelitiont to include young skill workers from industry has provided crossshyfertilization of training techniques between school and industry anl entrance into international comshy
petition has escalated the standards of evaluation Korea sent niine contestants to the 1967 Skill
OlyIipirs which was held inl Spain July 10 to July 17 Tlieie were 231 coimpetitors front 12 countries com11peting inl 31 different tracles Korea won gold
niedals in tailoring and shoemaking a silver nedal in wood patern making and bronze medals in sheet metal and sign painting Uponl their reshytin to Scoul these winiels were given an enthuishysiast ic welcomie at the airport and later a recognishytion ceremotiy was held inl Citizenis IHTall The Prime Minister was the principal speaker and preshysented each winner with appropriate awards Later Ilie President of Korea personiall) congratulated the group onl their success Inl the past high level govshyernment officials have participated ini the National Teciial High School Skill Competition activishyties but Iris event far exceeded any previous occashy5100is
The success of the Korean contestanits in the
19ti7 Skill Olympics spread throughout tie country motivating more young craftsmen and students to compete for the honor of representing their coutishy
37
try in the international competition The Korean team that competed in the 1968 Skill Olympics in Switzerland was even more successful than its
predecessors Korea-Taiwan Cooperation Inspired by the
Korean and Japanese success in the Skill Olympics the Republic of China decided to improve and exshypand their Vocational Industrial High School Skill Competition Taiwan has held annual skill conshytests for vocational high school students for the
past 15 years and in 1967 they decided to prepare
for entrance into the Skill Olympics An exchange of information and technical assistance was arshyranged with the Korea Committee for Inernashytional Vocational Training Competition As a reshystilt of this cooperative effort Taiwan conducted their First National Vocaiional Training Competishytion in Novenber of 1968 The competition was very siccessful and the Chinese Government is now
considering entering the International Vocational Training Competition in 1970
38
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES WITHIN PRIVATE INDUSTRY
by Clayton J Cottrcll
Two urgent needs have met each other within our society during the last 15 years The first is the need of industry for skilled and semiskilled workers The second is the need for poor people for both jobs and the opportunity for better jobs We cannot freeze _to pernlan2nce the existence of two Americas the one rich and the other poor sepashyrate and unequal Our whole society is responding to these needs
State and federal programs have been expanded an( many new oies started to bring the indi vidtishyals and the jobs together In many US communishyties the problenms of cliage in urban life have been attacked by local government school systems colshyleges church groups neighborhood grou ps and civic organiatiolns Conicern has grown ald still is
growing that the future and even the safety of an urban industrial society depends on solving the problem of getting iiore people gainfully eishyployed
All these goals and problems come together at a single point That point is the absorption by inldu1sshytry of the hard-core ulnemploye( who are for historshyical reasons mostly meibers of mi nority racial groups Federal state and community efforts are necessary to deal with many aspects of the problem But the heart of the matter liesin our factories where maln lnees job and1 relates to it well or badly As one who has spent his adult life in indusshytry I can siuinnarie what indlistry call do and is doing The why the how the what anil the who
Let us look at the situnation through the eyes of a persol who sees hiimself inl relation to his personial problem and as lie thiinks it through
I quit school before I learned a trade lie says I now have a family I have bills to pay kids to clothe and I want to be better off next year than I am right iiow To get eiiough income I will work two jobs and maybe oie or two unskilled jobs or part-time jobs for the wife But even this work will
not bring in enough money to provide for the famshyily There must be another way
There is another way The Labor Department has created many opplortulities through such onshyilie-job traiing programs as National Youth Corps Model Cities and others But what about
private industry The typical American community today has a straige pattern of buildings both busishyness an1d resident ial in the middle of the city surshyrounidied by a ring of mediumn-age residential-inshydnustrial arear which in turn is surrounded by more industrial and residential suburbs The irner city in a Europeian city is kept up through periodic reiiewal programs it remains the heart of the city Whenu it deteriorates soimueth ing is dlone about it We inl America are only beginning to follow that
patternl In a single community we may find an available
1)001 of labor on one side of town while the availashyble jobs are in another part of the area Yet there may he the problem of labor shortage inl this comshy
ni it) because the available workers and jobs though right beside each other were not brought together )oes induistry briniig thei together More aiid lmore industry is doiig just that It has to today if it wants to stay in business Titere is also anohllir imiotve husiniessllel especially manageshyment rightly feel responisible toward the economy aid the lationi They also want to solve their own
probleii of eiarging an(1 improviig the labor force ald they walt to solve tlie liations problem of brinmgiig the hard-core iiieiployed inmto the mailnstreall of our iatiolnal life ManIaigemeut knows it is to its advantage to hell the chronically uineiployed aind that with a lot of help and pashytieice they will help themselves
Vhat happens whenllan automobile manufacturer accepts an obligatioi to hire 750 of the hard-core inemployed and make them into productive em-
Ilayees First these people have to be brought up
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to an acceptable level of literacy A number of peoshyple who sign up for programs never show up This is disappointing frustrating and even demoralizshying for the people in industry who are trying to make a success of a training program Is it reasonashyble to conclude that these pcople do not want to work The car manufacturer did a follow-up study and some startling things came to light People who cannot read cannot read the destination signs on buses The company now has follow-up men to show the trainees how to catch the right bus and how to transfer cnroite
There was also the problem of tardiness Only one in five had alarm clocks Why They had never before had to be at any particular place at any parshyticular time Once these hard-core people knew how and why to come to work their attendance and tardiness record was 500 percent better than the average of all other employees
There were far fewei hopeless cases than had been expected The nonperformers are now pershyforming and performing well and are devoting hours of their own time to company-conducted sesshysions after work oi things like personal hygiene and efficient maniagement of their money
We went through a similar experience in anshyother company in Rochester New York where we worked with an industry-supporued employment agency Rochester Jobs Incorporated to recruit apshyplican ts from the inner city We found that a high number of hard-core people cannot pass physical examinations Out of 635 applicants during an eight-week period as many as 220 failed physicals
There was a big proportion of rejects and dropshyouts Only about 170 of the original 635 comshy
pleted the training and got permanent jobs A large aiount of tinie and money was spent in inshyterviewing examining and training people who never became employed with the result that the cost per person hired was far greater than in norshymal hiring We nevertheless consider it a worthshywhile program for we were convinced of the need to create new job opportunities for the unemployed of the inner city of Rochester and to assist them to qualify for these jobs Everyone who can and will work deserves the opportunity
In both cases the story is the ame management felt the same obligation to deal with a large social
problem many tribulations were involved in hanshydling the proLlems but management emerged conshyvinced not only of the obligation but also of the conclusion that the in-house development of
human resources was definitely good business It is good business because it produces good workers In similar programs at other companies the broadest conclusion of all was that management learned more than the trainees did more about people more about motivation and training more about minority groups
Management learned other things too First they learned that trainees require an enormous amount of attention to financial family and vocational
problems which interfere with learning Second one way to insure built-in motivation is to hire heads of households They learned that tests are not always good predictors of success The will to sucshyceed is just as necessary on the part of management as it is on the part of the hard-core trainee In each case an economic social and psychological cripple is transformed into a whole man or woman
The transformation of these people is not the only training problem which confronts industry today Members of minority groups are not the only people in our country who require attention and merit concern Every member of the industrial working team has something to learn about his own job that lie ought to learn in his best interests This is recognized by indtustry for there are many seminars and university courses many high-level management study groups especially set up for top and middle management In the factory laboratory the drafting room and in the office training reshymains an ongoing and virtually necessary activity
One teaching technique used by industry known as programmeld slides helps employees to improve their skill right on the job It takes advantage of the fact that four-filhs of all learning is visual It makes each lesson part of a practically subconscious reflex pattern like driving a car and painlessly trains the memory in the way that it should go
Let me state a paradox which like many parashydoxes also happens to he true Industry should alshyways leave the path open for an employee to upshygrade his ability and move up in relation to his growing skill and productivity but industry must not make perpetual upgrading a condition of emshy
ployment There are such things as plateaus levels of acshy
complishment on which a person temporarily or
permanently comes to a rest It is unfair and unshywise to pretend that an employee must visibly be climbing higher if lie is to continue to be useful but it is equally unfair and unwise to close off or fail to provide an upward path for employees who
40
want to follow it Small companies are plagued by the dilemma of forcing the level of performance upshyward at too fast a pace versus letting the level of performance stay flat for too long They cannot afshyford many mistakes in personal selection and trainshying What can they do Part of their question has been answered by the US Departinent of Labor but another part of their answer may come from joining locally sponsored training institutions to do the job for them
Community colleges which are usually oriented toward the needs of local industries are natural places for training to take place Small companies help to insure their own future when they help to support the institutions and when their executives and engineers help to run them Community colshyleges serve a need magnificently to an extent that all too oftn goes unrecognized because its results are not spectacular
Summing up then I return to where I began American industry needs workers and more producshytive workers in greater numbers all the time and this trend will continue Many Americans are there for the seeking ready and able to supply the work when properly trained and motivated Industry has developed the ability to do this job industry is also improving its ability to keep career opportunishyties open for average men as well as the excepshytionally talented Industry is using and continuing to use its in-house capabilities for the development of hunan resources In short industry really is doing a job and after all what else is industry for
DISCUSSANT Julius F Rothman
In the 1960s Americans learned that the key to any stuategy against poverty was a program that ofshyfered jobs at decent wages with an opportunity for advancement For those living in poverty the deshyspair of the ghetto is rooted in unemployment unshyderemployment and in being less than a full parshyticipant in the society It is clear that the way out of poverty for the disadvantaged of our society is through training in skills that will prepare them for the job market
Today there is general agreement that our manshypower policies must be integrally related to our over-all economic planning and policies
The nations manpower policies as they have evolved over the past eight years have moved from a central concern for the needs of the technologishycally displaced worker to a much broader and more basic concern with the unemployed underemshy
ployed and disadvantaged worker In this process they have had substantial impact on programs reshylated to welfare poverty and the urban crisis Planshyning for manpower policies and programs has in a real sense moved to center-stage in economic decishysion-making
It is also generally recognized that a realistic manpower policy can only be developed within the framework of a national economy that is growing rapidly enough to provide job opportunities for all
persons who are able to work and seeking employshyment This in effect means a full employment economy with unemployment rates somewhere beshytween 2 and 2 12 percent With the unemployment rate at 14 percent it is clear that new approaches to the utilization of manpower must be considered
There are several essential elemcnts that must go into a national manpower policy if we are to preshy
pare the disadvantaged unemployed for the work force
(1) There is a need for a coordinated and comshyprehensive manpower policy The absence of such a
policy has led to a proliferation of manpower proshygrams many of them inadequately funded and freshy
quently failing to meet the needs of the workers for whom they were intended
(2) For those who cannot be absorbed into existing jobs and who desire to work either in the
private or public sectors of the economy there must be a large-scale public service employment and training program subsidized by the Federal Government
(3) To effectively implement national manshypower policies and programs the US Employment Service should be federalized Until this is achieved the fifty state employment services need to be strengthened and upgraded
(4) Greater emphasis must b- placed on upshygrading programs that provide workers with the opportunity to achieve greater skills larger inshycomes and dded status
(5) The federal minimum wage should be raised to at least $200 an hour and the Fair Labor Standards Act be extended to cover all workers
While about one million people per year are helped by current manpower programs this is but a fraction of those who require help An expansion of existing programs through the creation of addishytional training opportunities in private industry is clearly indicated but it has been demonstrated that the private sector has not met the job and training needs of all of the disadvantaged
41
The AFL-CIO has long maintained that public service employment provides the best avenue for those who cannot find a place in the private sector of our economy At least three studies have amply documented the sulbtantial number of job openshyings in the public sector that could be filled if sufshyficient funds were made available to the local and state governments Nor are these jobs of the leafshyraking variety Opportunities exist in such areas as anti-pollution enforcement educational institushytions general administration health and hospitals highway and traflic control libraries police fire recreation and sanitation
The Commission on Technology Automation and Economic Progress estimated in 1966 that 53 million new jobs could be created through public service employment An Office of Economic Opporshytunity study by Greenleigh Associates suggested the
possibility of 43 million such jobs And a 1969 study by tihe Upjohn Institute indicated that the mayors of 130 cities with populations over 100000 could use another 280000 persons on their municishy
pal payrolls iminediately If America is to help the working poor and find
jobs for the uneniployed why not use federal funds to improve the quality of essential community services
In a period of rising unemployment increased emphasis should be placed on upgrading the skills of those who are currently employed Upgrading programis would perform a twofold purpose They would provide a ladder for presently employed workers seeking advancement from low-paying enshytry-level jobs and at the same time would provide entry-level openings for the unemployed who could also look to future upward mobility
In the past too much emphasis has been directed towards placing workers in enury-level low-wage jobs which require little or no formal training In too many instances manpower activities have been viewed as a substitute for welfare programs with the result that neither manpower nor welfare needs are adequately met The main thrust of training must be directed toward helping individuals deshyvelop their maximum potential skills for employshyment opportunities that actually exist in the job market This means training for skills beyond the entry-level
There is currently a great deal of talk about reorshyganizing the existing manpower programs and placshying the operating responsibility in the hands of the
states The AFL-CIO is convinced that placing major responsibility for the unemployment probshylems of the poor and the disadvantaged in the hands of the States is a serious mistake The
problems of employment and unemployment are complex and national in scope The individual states have no mechanisms for coping with these
problens The work force is highly mobile Joblessshyness and underemployment require national solushyiLOns not fifty diflerent approaches
Those who advocate this approach would make the key operating mechanism the State Employment Agency The past record of most of these State agenshycies does not suggest they will aggressively press for either job placeient or job development for the
poolr or members of minority groups What is needed to create an effective manpower
training system was stated succinctly by the Nashytional Manpower Policy Task Force in a report reshyleased early this year which said available
manpower services should be provided on the basis of need not impeded by diverse eligibility requireshyments varying administrative practices or competshying agencies The separate programs must be fused into a single comprehensive federal manpower proshygram--providing a variety of services in varying mixes depending upon national conditions and local need preferably funded by a single federal source
Manpower programs are a crucial component of any broad strategy for the elimination of unemployshyment and poverty As long as we have some 45 milshylion unemployed and some 15 million underemshy
ployed-who together with their dependents acshycount for most of the 25 million who live in povershyty-there is an urgent need to move rapidly toward the creation of effective manpower policies and
programs The 1960s was a period of innovation and exshy
perimlentation in the manpower training field Many programs were tried some failed and others met with varying degrees of success The net result was something less than a coordinated and compreshyhensive approach to manpower training We now have the opportunity to streamline existing manshy
power programs into a coinpreliensive program and to add to our manpower policies those elements which past experience has indicated are essential to meet the needs of the disadvantaged
To this end the AFL-CIO proposes that any changes in manpower policy be measured against the following criteria
42
(1) Consolidate existing job training programs into a single flexible program which can be taishylored to the needs of the unemployed and to the labor market in which they live
(2) Create a completely new upgrading program designed to encourage employers to develop upshygrading programs either within a company or within an industry and at the same time to fill job vacancies at the entry-level
(3) Establish a system of public service employshyment with State or local government and private nonprofit agencies operating under federal conshytract which would undertake to absorb those who have not been placed in private employment or training in the performance of community imshy
provemen projects in health education public safety recreation bIeatitification etc
We lelieve that these policies if followed would put the United States on the high road toward elimshyinating the unemployment that exists in our slums and urban ghettos and would bring the disshyadvantaged into the econonic mainstream
The Employment Act of 1916 said All Amerishycans able to work and seeking work have the right to useful reuninerative regular and full-time emshyployment and it is the policy of the United States to assure the existence at all times of sufficient emshyployment opportunities to enable all Americans to freely exercise this right
The rhetoric of the 1940s must become the realshyity of the 1970s
DISCUSSANT Richard L Breault
The National Chamber of Commerce for a numshyber of years has been promoting among its menishybers the importance of creating in their own comshymunities a process for bringing together diverse groups that need to become involved in dealing with community problems These probleis might range from pollution to poverty and even to ecoshynomic developmlenti The latter although at a local level I gather relates to the In-pose of Title IX of the Foreign Aid Act We have developed guideshylines for such community action projects which are being used by some of our members
There are in the United States some rather intershyesting conuiiiuity-wide projects that have brought together a wide variety of )articipants For examshyplc in Rochester Minnesota literally h1undreds of citizens are involved in looking at the goals for the community and determining priorities and alternashytive ways these objectives and priorities may be achieved The Goals for Dallas project is an exshy
ample in a much larger city where a rather difficult yet feasible process has been worked out to get thousands of persons involved in determining what Dallas should be now and in the next ten or fifteen years where it should go and what needs to be done to get where they want to go There are a number of examples of other cities that also are supporting such programs to a greater or lesser exshytent
There also have been some excellent examples of
puillic participation in specific manpower proshygrams in addition to other broad community efshyforts such as in Rochester and Dallas The whole manpower outreach program to poverty areas that many businessmen are now using is an example They will go to local organizations and ghetto groups and literally ask them to go out and help find the people who can benefit from training and
jobs The cooperative efforts in the buddy system are an example of individuals becoming involved In this effort one person assumes the responsibility to be a friend and advisor to a disadvantaged per-Soil
In some cities local Chambers of Commerce have been organizing neighborhood recruitment centers right in the ghetos manned by people from these areas In each of the cities the success of the proshygram depends upon the degree to which the key leadership elements of the community are inshyvolved You literally have to start with one two or three persons to get a system of this kind working I would certainly say that here in the United States the businessman particularly through his orgashynized channel of communication which in most cases is a local or a State Chamber of Commerce is indispensable As one looks around the country at this sort of back to people involvement and parshyticipation one finds that where failures have ocshycurred it has been because some of the key eleshyments-business labor the churches ethnic groups or the political part of the community-were left out
It is often noted that it is difficult to get the
pieces of a community together to do a job We have found this to be true in our work
There is a natural fragmentation among comshymunity groups in this country The labor groups may not talk too often to the businessmen the buisinessmen might miot get along too well with sonic other group and so on There is also the fear that getting together in a cooperative project may result in some loss of independence as an organizashy
43
tion or as an individual Compromises would have to be made which one would just as soon not have to make Difficult as this process may be in the US I imagine that it would probably be even more difficult in developing countries In the US the communication media are intensively develshyoped enabling one to reach out to people In many of the developing countries one would not expect to have these media as well developed
The Chamber of Commerce has prepared an adshydition to a publication we call Where the Action Is This pamphlet is a compilation of brieflyshy
stated examples of projectsthat involve cooperative efforts with business and other groups in the comshymunity usually taking a major role It is divided into a number of categories such as education manpower crime housing and minority business enterprise In each case the name is given of a pershyson who may be contacted to obtain more informashytion about that particular project This material
put together with the guidelines we provide our members gives at least the basic steps that are necesshysary to get people to cooperate in a community These guidelines could also work for others
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NEW CONCEPTS OF THE EMPLOYMENT SERVICE ROLE TO MEET THE CHALLENGE OF THE 1970s
by Malcolm R Lovell Jr
Recently there has been in the United States a good deal of criticism of the Employment Service Such criticism may have resulted in part from the fact that more has been expected of the Employshyment Service than it could produce The problem has been that we have never set realistic goals for the Employment Service Its broad charter is to serve all people in manpower programs with funds which may appear substantial but are still limited when considered in terms of the cost of a program required to meet the needs of all the people
Some changes are taking place however One is the growing recognition that manpower programs can play a very significant part in overall economic progran and in fighting poverty and discriminashytion Therefore I believe that this nation is preshypared to put more resources into the manpower area than ever before
What are the nature and extent of the resources required to do an effective job Currently some 16 billion dollars have been allocated for training and other assistance to the disadvantaged These proshygrams are serving approximately a million people We estimate that the universe of need according to current poverty criteria is about ten million peoshyple These are the people in serious need of manshypower services if they are to realize their own poshytential in the labor market And they also are the people who are currently at substandard incomes
Of course if you take into consideration non-disshyadvantaged people in need of manpower services the spectrum can broaden out to all of the people in the labor market soae eighty million But asshysuming ten million people are in need our serving one million people is just scratching the surface
Probably the most important breakthrough that is on the horizon is the Family Assistance Plan (FAP) that was proposed by President Nixon last year This plan in my judgment is probably one of the most far reaching pieces of social legislation presented to Congress since the 1930s
The implications of the FAP program are treshymendous The proposed bill would require the Emshyployment Service to serve 29 million people startshying with some 425000 the first year after passage of the bill However those that would be mandatorishyally included in the program are about three milshylion people And then there ate another three milshylion people that have the option of obtaining the manpower services provided in the program Thus the bill contemplates the rendering of manpower services to roughly six million people
This is a sizeable proportion of the estimated universe of need of ten million In addition I would hope that through the proposed Manpower Training Act (NITA) we would be able to help a large part of the remaining individuals who are not eligible under the Family Assistance Plan This group would include for example certain 3ingle people individuals without dependents and youth over a certain age without dependents I beshylieve therefore that we are beginning to see the posshysibility over tle next five years of serving a major segment of our population who are in most drastic need of manpower services
How do you go about organizing a progam of such a magnitude It may properly be compared with the operation of our medical system We need hospitals to deal with medical problems We recogshynize that people can be put in the hospitals with a variety of administrative procedures The Medishycare program allows people to go into the hospitals and it pays the costs Medicaid is similar There is also a large private insurance program which pershymits people to have the hospital cost paid There are of course other patients who must pay their own hospital costs What must be emphasized howshyever is that all of these people are treated in the same hospital regardless of the program financing them
Manpower services are becoming so complex as to require that specific institutions be identified as
45
providing certain basic services similar in nature as the hospitals do In the manpower area there is no institution that is as prepared and qualified to provide these services as the Employment Service The kinds of broad services which I believe should rest with the Employment Service are of the nature which may in general terms be described as covershying the functions connected with the process of matching people to jobs and providing and arrangshying for services which an individual may need in order to become employable This definition of the Employment Services responsibility includes a vashyriety of services The following briefly reviews some of them
Serving the FAP Th2 Employment Service should have responsibility for serving persons who are eligible under the FAP program The eligible individuals as defined by the law will have to preregister at Social Security offices Thus the ES will have a waiting list of persons to work on of roughly 3 million-the number of estimated preshyregistrants
It would seem to me that the system which will have to be set up to provide the required manshy
power services to this group of persons should also be the system used as the hospitals are to serve other individuals who are in need of manpower services This would mean oireach into areas not covered by the FAP as well as to people eligible for assistance but who for some reason have not been willing to come in by themselves
Occupational Choice The Employment Service should also be responsible for assisting individuals in making occupational choices The person himshyself however has to make the final decision on what ie wants to do Once the occupational judgshyment has been made by the individual the Emshyployment Service should make arrangements for the worker to receive appropriate instruction or on-the-job training Upon the completion of trainshying he should be referred to a job We however do not expect the Employment Service to do the trainshying
Job Information It is more important now than ever before that the ES be the resting place for inshyformation on job opportunities as well as containshying data on the individual seeking employment or training A number of the new federal programs will create a substantial number of job opportunishyties within the ES itself as well as among other public employers There will also be a substantial
number of training opportunities available as a reshysuilt of these programs For these programs to funcshytion effectively and efficiently it is essential that there be a central point where these jobs can be tabulated and put on a computer and where the inshydividuals know they can go to be exposed to the kinds of work opportunities and training opporshytunities available
Cooperation with Others We see the possibility of Employment Service contracts for services The
programs under the jurisdiction of ES may be of such a magnitude that without subcontracts the ES may not be able to properly perform its responsibilshyities Such contracts may be to community groups or private nonprofit institutions There are a numshyber of functions that are measurable and controllashyble so that theii performances can be watched and
properly monitored
Organization of the Employment Service
One of the problems of the Employment Service is the fact that in terms of social institutions of today it is a relatively old institution-some thirty years old The leadership of the organization has been in the hands of those who joined the organishyzation during the 1930s and most of them have been white Civil Service rules as well as other obshystacles to change have made it difficult for the Emshy
ployment Service to get the kind of minority represhysentation that we think it should have Currently minority groups account for about 14 percent of the Employment Service staff Although this proshy
portion does not appear to be too bad when viewed in terms of the population mix of the country we think it is bad when you consider the nature of the work involved Now Stite agencies have to submit
plans toward achieving a staff racial mix goal which reflects the population the local employment offices serve Each agency is going to set target goals and develop plans on how to achieve these goals
We have also found that the local offices are orshyganized in much the same way that they were thirty years ago except for a change made eight years ago This change unfortunately tended to reshyduce the responsiveness of the ES to the needs of the disadvantaged since it set up a system of speshycialized offices conceived to serve the employer rather than the candidate for employment
A study is now being conducted in eleven oflices directed towards changing that organizational structure and developing a structure which can more effectively serve the disadvantaged As a
46
model we are using the employability team concept developed and used in the Work Incentive Proshygram (WIN) and which also will be used in the Family Assistance Plan
We have found that the attitudes of the State Agencies which have long been reported as an obshystacle to effectively participating in modern manshypower efforts have been changing One of the things that we think has been influential in this change is a greater interest on the part of mayors and governors in manpower programs A year ago we funded and offered opportunities to every govershynor to have some manpower staff attached to the manpower programs in his State This action has substantially increased interest in the manpower organizations of the StateWe just recently have ofshyfered a similar opportunity to the mayors of 150 citshy
ies As part of the Presidents new federalism conshyceptwe plan through the Manpower Training Act to involve mayors and governors to an even larger degree The involvement of these public officials in the basic judgments of how Employment Service assets will be used will in our opinion have a very useful effect and will vigorously help in speeding up the changes already taking place in the organishyzational structure
We are investing considerable resources in the Employment Service system We will be expecting performance on the part of the State agehciesectW are proceeding on this road with the assumption that we will have some opposition Those that have distrusted the Employment Service in the past need to be shown by actual achievement of the goals that have been set We hope to achieve them
47
CREATION OF A CONSOLIDATED MANPOWER DELIVERY SYSTEM DECENTRALIZED TO THE STATES AND METROPOLITAN AREAS-
A WAY OF ACHIEVING INCREASED PARTICIPATION RESPONSIVE TO LOCAL NEEDS
by Cyril D Tyson
This paper presents a model manpower delivery system developed for New York City which is releshyvant to the problems of the major urban areas The major cities in many instances have had to develop their own administrative mechanisms to deal speshycifically with the problems of the city and over and above Federal and State resources allocate city reshysources to that effort
At the municipal level New York City to my knowledge has the only comprehcnsive nan)ower
program in the country When the present Manshy
power and Career Development Agency was set up there were sonie 85 different manpower programs in the city Some of these manpower agencies were run by the city and some by nonprofit corporashytions resources came from the Federal Government the State and the city No one could determine how the resources were allocated how many people were trained with these resources and what hapshypened to people after training
In recognition of these and related problems we attempted to set up a manpower agency in a new and unique way The first determination made was that it was necessary to set up a comprehensive manpower system to meet our responsibility to tie together those agencies man(ated by legislation to some aspects of manpower as well as other agencies or groups who have been in this field de facto but were doing a creditable job We wanted to bring together all of these instititions whiile maintaining their own individual institutional identity and their own internal liies of administration In efshyfect we wanted to define ourselves as the manager of the manpower system and the determiner of the kind of specifications that these institutions would have to utilize in order to develop adequately the pruduct produced by this system and which would
have to be marketed in the free enterprise system I was not interested in becoming directly involved in operating specific training or educational agenshycies nor in developing a manpower bureaucracy I thought of myself as a businessman with a $45000000 budget and a company that would deshyvelop the appropriate kinds of tools to insure that the product produced was marketable and that there were effective kinds of returns I wanted also to develop accountability in order to identify the cause of ineffectiveness Finally I wanted to define the objectives of the agency in terms of the unishyverse of need and in terms of the kind of resources available
In the City of New York 45 agencies andor orshyganizations have been tied together into a compreshyhensive manpower system In the community parshyticipation area this means there are 26 poverty areas or 26 community action agencies The smallshyest poverty area has a population the size of most normal cities and the largest has more people in it than Newark Each of these 26 community action agencies funded with both City and OEO money administers Neighborhood Manpower Servshyice Centers (NMSC) No training goes on in those Centers they are the intake points the testshying and counselling points and the points of detershymination of the educational andor vocational
plans of individuals All of the resources in the City are available to these NNISCs We have Cityshywide training programs and as appropriate proshygrams inl specific regional opportunity centers so that a person may go close to home for training People are given an option for the first time We are thus beginning to provide interest options so that a person participates in a program because that is where lie belongs and not to fill program quotas
49
We believe we have the only program and the first in tie country in which an institution of highcr education is an integrated part of a manshypower system The City University of New York and all of its junior colleges one in each borough provides the major portion of the educational coishyponent and the skilled training component within our system This educational component includes English as a second language basic education edushycation related to skilled training and preparation for high school equivalency
In addition the Board of Education provides basic education and English as a second language in a number of the I I regions which encompass the 26 poverty areas The State Dep-rtment of Vocational Rehabilitation alo is tied into that system Prior to their involvement they had only one office in New York City while they now have a staff in every one of our regional opportunity centers The) are beginning to relate their activities in a more releshyvant way to the popuilation that comes under their jurisdiclion In addition (hie Stale Employment
Service is a part of this system in New York City Ve informed the State Employment Service that
we wantied their staff inl all of lie 11 regions and that we would make city futds available so they could hire the Peronnel to staff the counselling fuinctions in these training facilities In tis procshyess the Stae Eiployment Service wotild become more relevant to tlie needs of the community and in tle process of expansion tle) (ould hire people who aie reflective of the community they serve
The Opportunities Industrialization Center and aI number of other institutions and organizations are involved in the progran Fifty percent of the
people who pailiipate are former welfare recipishyents We have over 300 people who started in public service career plograis in college and we provide for release Itimne funds to insure that people in ptiblic service carees cani pursue higher educashytion related to tle job they have or will tilimately have
The whole recruitment mechanism is contracted out to antipoverty agencies Also contracted out are the skilled training tile educational component and the counselling component This raised the question about wiat is needed to insure accountashybility We have used a ceitral data processing censhytet belonging to an antipoverty agency with terinishynals into all of our NMSCs A person is interviewed tested and lie intake form is filled out If it is deshyterinied that tie person is ready for a job the
counsellor or the person at that terminal provides basic kinds of infoniation to match tlhis person with a job If theie is an appropriate job in seven seconds the name of lie company the hourly rate location etc come over the terminal For a year and a half we have been placing people in jobs through direct on-line access against a batch-match system
Training opportunities are also on the comshyputer Wheni we allocate the training resources of the city into tie communities they also have access to time information tile) need from the computer All of our job developers and counsellors are placed on the computer by code This enables us to obtain information for example on number and kind of people and jobs handled on any one day This brings accointability into the process We know who is getting what kind of job at what rate and the relevancy of those jobs to the people we are serving
We have also developed a management informashylion system ours will be tihe first Intitiicipal agency ini New York City to have a completely computershyized management information system With this system we will be able to cross the program inforshymation with the fiscal information and do cost benshyefit analysis
Our tiniverse of need consists of the five most difshyficult categories in the labor market welfare recipishyents chronically unemployed Iigh school dropshyouts minority underemployed an(l employable handicapped Ve now understand that most of liese people need itraining of one kind or another
only a small proportion can go directly on to jobs We Ilust consider how best to train these people low do )oui traini people inl the community to
provide service to themselves I low do you train those people for example in a way ini which they can begin to handle sophisticated information sysshytems We canl tell you inl oir system who is in what kind of training prograi ini what agency in what area what their reading levels are thei age range tleir job development activity the activity of the Neighborhood Manpower Centers including whet her tiey are late ini the flow of that informashytion through that system With otit regional system maliagers and the related staff inl our regional censhyts who imatnage not only that aclivity and the inshy
stittitions that are part of it but also the contract of the Neighborhood Manpower Ceiters we are in a position to tal in specific terms about what the
problems are and how they can be eliminated
50
When you make a commitment to involve comshymunity people in the process of any service you should be prepared to provide them the tools Those tools have to be designed at a level of the people who are participating in that system in
order to make their participation relevant For Cxshyaiple we developed a processing and procedural
mautial and flow chart so that any onie at any part of that system knows his responsibility inl that sysshyten as far as the Neighborhood 11anpower Centers ale COnceied
The iaini objective is to involve tie Community so that they develop whole sets of new tools and skills that make it possible for then to intersect our econoimy at another lcvel When we involve coimshymn1lity people we build up a set of skills for them that has applicability within a broader context of our society At the sanie timie that we are providing
manpower services we help the conunity develop a certain orider of technology that to ily knowledge does not exist in any other Connility in the counshy
try If we are coniceriel about the rational use of reshy
solices inl this couitriy we muiiistfind ways in which to iiilie those resources ms way in which they have a multiplier effect There will never he elnough miolley to solve somne of the iost pressing
problems that we have uinless We beginl to redesign olr insituiions begin to create linkages by the inshy
volvement of the City Univeisity of New York for example ill imianpower In the future probably any
pelsol in a imanpower pjrograil who has received a high school equivalancy in that process will have access to a college education at City University In effect by linking (ity University of New York into the systciim we are forcing a certaini ortder of intershynal institutional ianige
We want to lie degree possible to maximize the participation of the people who need the serviees in tile process of pirovidiiig the services for themshyselves It is possible to do hat It is possible to get institutions even ill the context of history that iight have been slightly recalci irani to conie toshy
gether in ieii of a larger scheiiata as long as we are prepared to help them in very real kinds of ways to master the new kinds of technology in order to run a more effective and efficient system
Discussion
Question from the floor One of the major purshy
poses of thiis Symposium is to extract fron Amerishycan experiences the aphplicability of popular particshyipation in a less developed economy These discusshysions have pointed out that there are underlying
principles which can be applied one being a coinshymitment to invlve those people left out of the iainstreain back into society Title IX of the Forshy
eign Assistance Art says that people in the develop mng countries nust he given a sense of participation in development of their country in order to achieve fle basic goals of political stability social progress and growth
What do you think are the basic underlying
principles for bringing about (lie involvement of
people in theircountrys development plocess
Mr Trvons ronments I think this is a relevant question and I am going to make the formulation
in power terms We like to feel in a detiocratic soshytiety that power is negotiated Certain institushytional arrangenients are set ill) that make it possishyble for those in power to negotiate with others in ain exchange People who have no power and thereshyfore no participation in pr1ograns have to be orgashynized
flow uslit inust bepeople le organized They organized into instittitional arrangenients because in the fiial analysis tlie iransfer of power is done in institutional ways People who are out of the mainshystream imiiust in in which theybe organied a way caii express their (oncern within the context of an institution that they either contirol or play a major role in
Also if this is to be a viable situation we must equip thei with tools tech hiq ies methodology and resoirt es so that when tile) negotiate there is soimnetliIng to iiegotiate about The strategy in our agelnty was to provide tools of a ceitain order of technology in aiiinstiititional context so that these tools could be used as leverage against a whole set of other inst itutions Therefore you use the tools and the technology as an instruieint of changing
powver and resource ielationships The people onut of thei mainstreani must be
trained amd given adequate resources and approshypriate technology If a poor person is put ol a polshyicy board and is not taught the difference between policy and adi in istration lie should not be blamed for failure They must understand their reshysponsibility in terms of policy
51
THE PROBLEM OF EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN
by Grace Farrell
We hear a great deal in the United States today about the need for equal employment opportunity But it is often forgotten that the equal employment opportunity principle applies regardless of sex as well as inl the more customary areas of race crced color anid national origin
Women have come a long way in tie world of work In the US they make up an extremely signifshyicant part of the labor force about 30 million or 38 percent of the labor force Today it is expected that nine out of ten women will work at some point in their lives and for most of them for a considerable period of time The employment pattern for women is no longer that of out of high school or college alul into an ofllice for a couple of years until they marry and then to usually leave the labor force perimaien tly
The greater participation of women in the work force however is not reflected cither in the kind of work they do or in the pay they receive This tindershyitilization of a substantial body of workers constishy
tutes one of tile greatest wastes of our manpower resources today Women need not only the opporshytiility for employment but of course to get into and participate in tile training programs that lead to elliploymeint
In the 19fiWs a imtilliber of laws were passed to
help solve some of these pioblems Anilg tile Fedshy
cral laws was the Equpal Pay Act of 1963 which
prohibits ain cimployer froill discriminating in tile
payment of wages based on sex for all of his emshy
ployces who are subject to the ilinilltim wage provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act Also the Fair Labor Standards Amendment of 1966 whicl illcreased the Federal illinilium wage also
broadened the coverage of the Equal Pay Act Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibshy
its discrimination ill all phases of employment by employers employllent agencies and certain trainshying committees The discrimination prohibited is
tilat based on sex as well as race religion color or national origin Although not strictly speaking a law Executive Order 11375 amended an early Ex ecutive Order which prohibited discrimination by government contractors and subcontractors and federally assisted construction contracts to include discrimination against women Alany states have elacted similar laws also This is very important because it seems that no law is passed without a nillber of exceptions exemptions or exclusions This is true of the Federal laws that I have just enumerated as it is of much other legislation
One of the problems often occurs when the
public employment service is attempting to place women in jobs and relates to such factors as not being able to refer a woman out to work in a facshy
tory because the job requires her to work sixty hours a week and there is a State law which says women can only work forty-eight hours a week Similarly tilroulgh tile years originally for some rather good purposes there were eiacted by the States protective labor legislation which limited womlens hours of work or being in jobs which reshy
quire lifting more thalln iwelty-five pounds With
respect to the latter a mother will often tell you
this is ridiculous because ler baby at the age of
two weighed more than 25 pouinids Such laws are still oil the books in most cases These laws were a
major problem in applying sections of the Federal laws As a result last August the Equal Employshynient Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a revised Sex-Discrimination Guideline which states that State protective legislation including laws which limit womens oturs prohibit her from
working nights restrict her occupation or restrict tie weights they may lift now act as a barrier to
equal employment opportunity and are superseded
by the sections of the law under which the EEOC operates
Since thou about a half dozen States have indishy
53
cated that they will not contest this ruling They agreed that in order to achieve equal employment o0)lx)0rtillities for woien they will no longer enshyforce their protective labor laws There also have been several court decisions which have held siniishylarly
I think nhimately this whole problem will reach a higher court than it has now and it may be solved through a combination of State action and court action EEOC s position remains however in a State regardless of what a State labor department or the equivalent agency has held that labor laws
and hours laws may not be used as a defense to an otherwise illegal employment practice The EEOC has issued a number of decisions on a State-by-State basis on this point
All of these Federal laws and regulations are a step in the right direction and I think it is an imshy
portant one But what they are really getting at is a change in attitude which hopefully changes in laws will help to bring about Not only is a change in attitudes toward the working woman needed but also an understanding of her competence and abilshyity
54
CASE STUDY-JOBS FOR PROGRESS TNC (OPERATION SER)
by Seymour Brandwein
Operation SER (the Spanish word to be) was created as a self-help instrument designed to solve the most pressing manpower problems of the Mexishycan-Anierican population It is run by an organizashytion called Jobs for Progress sponsored by two of the largest civic organizations of Mexican-Amerishycans the League of United Latin American Citishyzens (LULAC) and the American GI Forum Its central staff is financed by the Federal Government Jobs for Progress is operating in five states in the Southwest The administrative structure consists of a regional board which sets the policy for a reshygional office under which local boards and local
projects areguided and monitored There is a maxshyinum of conununity self-involvement and the local
projects are free to adapt themselves to community needs within established guidelines for recruitment and development
This paper traces the development of this effort in an over-simplified and selective form Unnecesshysary details are avoided in order to illustrate clearly some of the special issues and problems of
popular participation in government manpower programs
There are some ten million Mexican-Americans in the Southwest This minority largely bilingual and bicultural has a disproportionately large share of the unemployment and poverty The new manpower programs initiated in the 1960s were frequently criticized by Mexican-Americans The criticism was sometimes merited sometimes uninshyformed However it was also quite clear that some of the programs run by the public agencies hadldifshyficulty with this minority group because of lanshyguage and cultural differences and problems of inshysensitivity of the non-Nlexican-American staff There were also problems of trainee attitudes toshyward government and particularly toward Anglo staff
The Labor Departments Experimental and Demonstration staff jointly with the Office of Ecoshy
nomic Opportunity (OEO) undertook an experishymental program to determine whether it was feasishyble and useful to bring into the manpower proshygrams some of the strengths feelings and cultural sensitivities of the minority group We visualized this also as an opportunity to convert protest acshytivity into constructive program action and as a way to develop understanding of and participation
in program development The following briefly deshysci ibes the way this program was developed
The first question that required an answer was who represents this minority We began with the major national organizations already active in soshycial civic affairs LULAC GI Forum and the Comshymiinity Service organization-a California-based orshyganization-which later withdrew from the Board We recognized the limitations in turning to thes groups since their membership did not include many of the very poor Each organization had limshyited resources and organizational skills But they were broad-based and they were an available strucshyture They had responsible records Their leaders were widely respected even though they might not be speaking for the total community A LULAC Chapter had already run an employment center in Houston with a volunteer staff
In late 1965 meetings were held with representashytives of these groups to encourage them to set up an organization and staff (which we would finance) to develop mianpower programs It took some months to develop agreement on appropriate relative represhysentation of the several groups on the governing board It was also agreed that the initial efforts should be concentrated in eleven major areas of Mexican-American population in the Southwest rather than dispersed over that region or the nashytion
At first there was over-emphasis on structure More time was devoted to charts of -everal layers of boards and to job descriptions and to relationships than any serious consideration of what specifically
55
should be done We knew that there would be problems but we went along with their own prefershyences We were concerned that the Mexican-Amerishycan leaders involved looked upon this as getting their share of the money and as a matter of dealing with Washington in spite of what was said about working with State and local agencies Before the initial funding we brought together the Mexican-American leaders regional and State agency officials of tile Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) Department of Health Education and Welfare and the Labor Department to explain the objectives of tile program and to allow them to raise their concerns and to have them start dealing with Mexican-Americans It was also our purpose to give the Mexican-Americans an awareness of the nature of the Federal-State relationship and its conshystraints the ainouint of resources tie limits on the resources and how decisions were nade on their alshylocation In this way the State and SER leaders were forewarned of the many technical and intershyagency relationship difficulties
The program was launched in mid-1966 We disshycussed types of staff needed and SER leaders cited the names of four possible executive directors Each had considera)le background and stature and were all acceptable Each of the four declined and a pershysonnel committee selected as executive director a young man from one of the organizations and a deiputy from one of the other organizations There was disagreement about tile choice of a person to be staff head We had to explain to the top leaders that neither they nor we could permit the selection to be a patronage activity and that the man seshylected while hie was promising oil paper and might be very good as a local project director simply was unequipped to work with regional and state govshyernment officials They reluctantly accepted this aid selected a man with some experience who in retrospect turned out to be the tower of strength in technical direction that was needed in the initial years in the effort Tile staff assemlbled by the new chief were young and willing Despite cautions from us the new staff rushed ambitiously to draft the proposals for large-scale new programs to give to Washington The proposals were in general terms and were justified simply as being needed They did not take into account the complex probshylems and lead-in time requirements inherent in the launching of any comprelensive programn For exshyample there was one proposal for an Employment Center in one State to be financed by $37 million
at a time when the total allocation for this entire State for Manpower training was approximately $25 million We had to explain in a quite turbushylent session that such funds were not available that the programs had to be linked with others of the State and local manpower agencies and that speshycific account had to be taken of operational probshylems of building up a sizeable scale program Thus through the hard way the staff became familiar with funding and operational constraints under manpower agencies and what was meant by develshyoping a program
The next problem we focused on was the quesshytion of separate SER programs versus programs jointly run with public agencies We identified apshy
proximate suis that we thought we could obtain1 from uncommitted resources in Washington We also made clear to the SER staff and to the State agency that such funds would be provided over and beyond the funds regularly allocated to the States if the programs were jointly developed if the State agencies would conduct certain functions requirshying their technical skill and if SER would be given authority and responsibility for operating acshytivities for which bilingual staff and Mexican-American sponsorship would be particularly useful The SER staff was now able to begin to examine
program specifics to proceed oil the technical tasks involved and find out what was literally involved in manpower development programs Issues did arise The SER staff came to us with questions about some State agency procedures We offered inshyformation and illade suggestiolls but with a couple of rare exceptions we did not intervene We told them they would have to work it out themselves
In the spring of 1968 new SER training projects with agencies in five States were funded with apshy
proximately $5 million There were 2500 trainees in the target areas where there were high proporshytions of Mexican-Americans unemployed The projshyects varied by locality but generally tile SER was responsible for or directly involved in recruitment and selection of trainees counseling pre-job orienshytation basic education relations with employers to obtain jobs for trainees and in coaching of trainshyees during training and after placement particushylarly where Spanish-speaking capability was reshyquired The State employment services did testing counseling job placement work and the State voshycational education agencies conducted or arranged for the formal skill training
We now graduated to a new level of problems
56
We moved from proposal development planning relations with State agencies and mastering of funding procedures to the specifics of program opshycration staff development technical assistance and linking to other programs These proceeded reasonshyably well in comparison to the earlier public
agency programs There were problems but a dedishycated enthusiastic staff was assembled and there was a clear affirmative response in the Mexican-American community and among potential trainshyces The State igencies respond(ed responsibly
But several types of problems are wortn noting There were questions of authority between the overall SER Board and the local SER Board and between the local Boards authority as against that of the staffs to which they were giving policy direcshytion I take particular credit for the fact that we reshysisted the temptation to be the big bosses We took the position that SER had to resolve its internal reshylations or be discredited in the eyes of the Governshyment and the public If they were serious about
private minority ability to decide and stand on their decisions
Another problen was that as the staff gained in capability t became the only identifiable major center of organized lexican-American program acshytivity and was pulled toward other potential activishyties such as housing minority entrepreneurship and education Universities and government agenshycies wanted to see how they could get Mexican-American involvement through SER We took a middle course There has been OEO funding in
part that has permitted this relatively easy stance But we insisted that there be primary and overshywhelming concentration on the manpower activishyties for which they were funded
On another front we had hoped that the initial Board would serve as a base for broader participashytion by drawing in additional Mexican-American groups Its example has provided some impetus for generating and developing various other activities at the local level by locally organized Mexican-American groups
To conclude I think it would be useful to note without overdramatizing several results that have become apparent during this fourth year of activshyity I think beyond question the program has heightened not only the interest but the undershystanding of miany Mexican-American leaders both of the potential and of the limitations of manshy
power programs-how they function and how they
can be used to meet the problems of unemployed Alexican-Americans
The programs have developed a knowledgeable Mexican-American staff who whatever their limishytations initially are now on a basis quite comparashyble to that of public agency staffs and are equipped to participate constructively in program planning development and operations In addition in the
process of negotiating with the public agencies they have influenced and generated some changes in program development to take more rational acshycount of unique problems of Mexican-Americans And for the first time on any scale they have led agencies in the manpower field into a direct sharshying a direct partnership of operating responsibility with minority organizations to the mutual benefit of both
One of the initial criticisms was that the areas we were concentrating in were urban areas and that we were not paying any attention to the Mexishycan migrants The observation was sound but it was our judgment that until a capability developed in a difficult enough area there was little sense in releasing another set of factors in the exceedingly complex and dispersed migrant problem
In the most recent years programs hive broadened SER is now conducting basic edtucationI programs for Mexican-American migrant in sevshyeral areas with financial support from OEO Beshy
yond the funds that we arranged over and above State resources as some initial ability was develshyoped the group was turned to for on-the-job trainshying contracts and to take on responsibility for certain functions in so-called Concentrated Employshynent Programs Also there has begun to be a drawshymig on this capability without regard to funds conshying directly from Washington For example a skills baink operation which accounted for some very large numbers of placements is probably the most significant of these activities
Beyond getting from the participation of the mishynority groups some of the special strengths it had
to offer particularly bilingual capability and a bishy
cultural understanding the SER program has
served as the resource for staff to enter the public
agencies so that by now perhaps a third of the initial group are working in State agencies and have brought within the public programs in other
areas and types of activities some of the special mishynority capability which was lacking at the outset of this program
57
Discussion
Question from the Floor What are the qualifishycations required for board members How are they selected or elected What was the background of some of the early staff including the staff director
Mr Brandweins comments On qualifications of the national board members we left the selection wholly to the organizations involved Similarly at the local level we made that matter the business of the local SER Boards Two problems in the initial years arose out of that practice where it was clear that we were not intervening and that it was not a matter of handpicking of members by the Governshyment The first problem was that as some of the novelty wore off as age crept up some of the boards original leaders replacements moved down to a more limited level and background Secondly we had an unusually sharp distinction between the board and the staff The board members were lawshyyers middle-level lower-income businessmen or real estate agents professional men in the communshyity The staff as a result of the first struggle in which we undertook to make clear that we would not proceed on a patronage basis were largely men in their twenties with college training and backshyground in sonic social activities In short order even at modest pay levels $12000-$1l1000 we had a problem of staff twenty years the junior of the board members earning higher incomes and chalshylenging the board members with lack of knowledge of program detail That has presented and continshyties to present friction For staff selection we have relied on two sets of procedures One is a wide cirshyculation of notice of vacancies to Mexican-Amerishycan organizations and the second is insistence on a fairly broad based selection committee in the boards themselves All things considered I think these procedures have worked out reasonably well
Question from the Floor What were the specific qualifications of the man who ultimately was seshylected as staff director
Mr Brandweins comments The man selected as staff director was a regional compliance officer with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commisshysion He had been consulted in the preparation of this was familiar with agency structures and had a record of active participation in one or both of the national organizations We focused on a cross reshygional basis and thus attracted capable leaders so
the original board operations were on the level of the most able leadership in this community The language element happened to be a particularly identifiably useful one here Also our focus was on the major metropolitan areas where we had greater access to potentially able young staff with a broader base from which to select
Question from the Floor How does a less develshyoped country take a small amount of money and conduct experimental activities to find out if they work and if they do to get a fair share of the reshysources of that country in order to mount larger
programs At what level did MDTA start and to what level has it now grown
Mr Brandweins comments I think I would
like to build on what you raise two ways Implicit
in all I said was a certain attitude of government Now governments are the people who are in them
The shepherding for MDTA was in a unit which everyone recognized had some flexibility reaching for examples of what might be done and it genershyated an element of let us try let us see what the
next steps will bring We also helped generate through this attitude somewhat different attitudes to government Thus irrespective of the amount of resources what resources there were were applied with some sense of We are not sure of what the
best way is This is the beginning We are going to build but we have the opportunity and where else can we go We were breeding through this type of combined public-private activity some developshyment of private group assertiveness understanding and self-generated expansion of activities We were also developing flexibility on the part of the public agencies to go further with available resources I believe these are potential products of any effort to combine public and private activity
Question from the Floor Why was on-the-job training chosen rather than training beforehand
Mr Brandweins comments There are two
points to make in answer to this question What we might have wanted to do was limited by the conshystraints of what we could do Therefore half by deshysire and half by necessity we relied on a learn-asshyyou-go basis What we undertook to do is to make available and insist on specific times and places for reassessment of what we did learn and I think this was the tool that we consciously relied on most This was very costly and at the periodic Board
58
meeings staff were brought together and State re- brought together promoted a high degree of intershygional and Federal agency officials were also in- change In addition there were realistic timetables vited Workshops in which project staff were of development
PARTICIPATION OT THE WORKING POOR-UTILIZATION OF HUMAN RESOURCES IN ANTI-POVERTY PROGRAMS
by Philip J Rutledge
The last several years we have seen in this counshytry a rather unusual development of programs parshyticularly in ghetto communities aimed at a kind of uplifting of these communities The efforts really are not completely new antipoverty efforts have a long history Certainly many of the best traditions of our philanthropy have grown up out of attempts to do something about and for those persons who have been less fortunate in the competitive struggle in our system
We have however developed a tradition that says organized private philanthropy may be good but the Government doing it is not so good In fact the Governments assistance to individuals who can not make it is inappropriate because if these individuals had any ambition any skills or tried to develop themselves they could make it on their own We have not had this type of tradition however about helping either private enterprise or the farmers or many other groups in the country as long as they were not identified with certain other
personal characterisitcs some of which have had distinct ethnic and racial identification
During the late fifties many of the private founshydations began to take a little different approach to human resources and community development These efforts were sometimes called antipoverty deshyvelopments Some rather comprehensive and wideshyspread efforts were funded which were concerned with changing things and opening doors of opporshytunity not only through outside help but also by stimulating people in groups to take actions someshytimes even disruptive and offensive action to change the nature of their situation Many of our more respected foundations funded such programs Also in the 1960s we have seen a spate of programs to assist the disadvantaged started by the Office of Economic Opportunity and Manpower Administrashytion and to some extent through efforts of the Manshypower Development and Training Act The latter
in my judgment was not really directed to any sigshynificant extent toward the disadvantaged and the occupants of the ghetto until relatively recently
I have spent much of my working career in the public health field particularly in the area of public health education It was our job to organize persons who may be concerned with immunization or x-ray programs and to get them involved in conshyvincing other people to come in for x-rays and imshymunizations These were really efforts in retroshyspect to use the people of these ghetto communities to achieve certain goals which we had in mind and which we knew-and I think with some validityshywere good for them However it never occurred to us while we were doing this that perhaps the peoshyple might have some other ideas about whether it was good for them or not
There has been I would suggest in whatever area we have used citizen involvement community involvement or the inexpert in our program activishyties a kind of tension between what might be an elitest approach in whieh -a group would say Now these are the facts I know how it -ought to be done and all I want you to do is come over and help me do it and get some of those others to come and help do it Or This subject or this area is just too complicated for you to understand so you just go and do it the way I want you to do it Sometimes such a position was valid
On the other hand we have had coming along at the same time in this country another approach which might be entitled egalitarian This apshyproach suggests that Well maybe they do have some ideas about some of these areas Maybe they do know something about how we ought to proshygram and organize in their community Maybe they do know something about training persons in manpower programming or the kind of skills or the kinds of materials that ought to be prepared
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But what must we do to prepare them or indoctrishynate them into our particular philosophy
The efforts to accommodate these two apshy
proaches I think has created most of our probshylems The movements in this area in the early sixshyties changed the conditions a little bit because many of the persons who were being organized chose to make political instruments rather than soshycial instruments out of the organization techshyniques They tried to use their power of organizashytion for control and redirection of the resources that were being made available Such conditions made it difficult for the Government who wanted to involve -sidents particularly residents of the ghettos in vast social prograims The Government unlike sonic of the private philanthropic agencies and social work agencies that have been involved in this area in the past has other constituencies-it has a responsibility to the overall citizenry and above all responsibilities to the Congress and to the taxpayers
Thus we have seen in the sixties a great upsurge of interest in popular participation in a variety of
programs including manpower And now we have reached a point in our history where there is a tendency to back off fromn this concept by the Govshyernment I do not regard this backing off as necesshysarily an evil conspiracy on the part of the adminisshytration that happens to be in power It is perhaps one of the natural things that occurs when a new concept appears It grows and expands to one point reaches a plateau and falls back a little bit while liome retrenchment and redevelopment takes place Then after a while it moves on to another plashyteau In any process of change progress is not alshyways continuous
We are only now at a point where we are beginshyning to look for a different theoretical basis for
participation The concept of participation in
public and in private programming that we have been using has been largely an upper middle class one Therefore we accept the fact that there has not been any significant input or contribution from the class that we are trying to help Having worked in this area a long while I am not sure that we know enough about how to change this concept I think it is appropriate that we take not only the concept of participation but the concept of social programming in the ghetto back to the drawing board and take another look at them Some things have not worked some things have worked in spite
of what we were doing and some things just hapshypened accidentally
In the area of citizen participation I think it is rather significant that such groups as the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) and its professional offshoot the National Academy of Public Aministration (NAPA) are now beginning to take hard and serious professional looks at where we are in terms of government programming in utilizing citizens particularly disadvantaged resshyidents of the ghetto in our public programs The National Academy of Public Administration for example recently held a special conference on this problem of participation
A paper by John Strange of the ASPA which looked at citizen participation in programs funded through the Economic Opportunity Act found that the purposes in terms of the participants in these social programs-manpower and the like-included such goals as (1) the creation of a sense of group identity solidarity and power based on ethnicity economic class status and the use of Government programs or services and (2) to overcome a sense of powerlessness enhance life opportunities and to publicly affirm individual worth or to provide a job Ih terms of affecting the participants the purposes were (1) to train and educate and inform them of Government programs (2) to educate parshyticipants in the way the Government system works and develop political or administrative skills and (3) to alter social behavior in order to establish conditions for effective individual and family life
Another objective noted by Strange relating to participants which needs to be emphasized is that an institutional device must be provided which will enable the participants to settle for less than they want One of the important mechanisms that has held the American society together-holds all socieshyties together-is finding some means to compromise potentially incompatible differences and bringing into the decision-making process people who have different value systems and objectives This often provides an institutional device to enable them to settle for less
I also believe we have to take another look at the way we are redistributing power in our public proshygrams Certainly citizen participation community control of schools police precinct projects and other programs are basically ways of redistributing the power Whether we are talking about manshypower programs social programs educational sysshy
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tems or what have you the major consideration bashysically is how can we redistribute the power so that the people in that system feel that they can yield it and use it as they believe best This feeling is someshytimes more important psychologically than the job itself
There are a number of ingredients needed to achieve meaningful and successful citizen particishypation but in summary I wish to note two which are of particular importance The first is the tendshyency in this country and perhaps in foreign areas as well to back off from assisting people if they do not seem to appreciate adequately what we are doing for them Second I do not think that we can develop in the ghettos which I am familiar with
and I doubt if we could develop that kind of popushylar participation in similar areas in foreign counshytries if we think that participation is simply going to be a means of promoting stability and promotshying a maintenance of the existing situation
I believe the nature of our society today is changed and in this country as well as developing nations citizen participation and community orshyganizations and popular involvement can provide as John Strange has suggested that mechanism for compromise and change if it is used properly If we give them some victories this might be more imshyportant than any other thing we might be able to do to keep our system and that of other countries together
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COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN LATIN AMERICA LEADING TO SOCIAL CHANGE AND INSTITUTIONAL
DEVELOPMENT RELATED TO MANPOWER
by William F Whyte
The Peruvian government has a massive and amshybitious social and economic change program going on and there are opportunities to observe very inshyteresting changes and possibly to help these proshygressive changes to come about
This paper discusses changes in two rural sectors of Peru One is the Sierra Hacienda which has in the past been run very much like the feudal manor of the Middle Ages the peasants largely of Indian extraction served very much as serfs tied to the land owing labor services to the patron the hacenshydado The second sector is the coastal plantations which are quite a different style of operation from the Sierra where the haciendas have been pretty much in the subsistence economy with very small surpluses The coastal plantations have been enshygaged in large scale modern agriculture sugar cane cotton etc largely for the export market These large agro-industrial enterprises are either Peruvian owned or foreign owned
Unions have been rather effective on the coast due to the cohesive organization that exists there In the Sierra there have been sporadic peasant movements but the cohesive organization is lackshying
To properly provide technical assistance to the change processes occurring in these two sectors or anywhere else you should know what really is going oin I therefore must first try to knock down what seems to me a false image of the peasant which I call the myth of the passive peasant This is the notion that the peasant is bound by trashydition he is conservative and he sticks to his old customs So if anything is going to change on the country side it will be from some kind of outside intervention either by community developers supshy
This paper is based on field studies in Peru undertaken in collaboration with Dr L Williams of Cornell University and the Institute of Peruvian Studies of Peru
ported by AID or by political agitators or revolushytionists
In Peru the younger social scientists differ in what the long-run objectives are but they do agree in accepting what I quite dogmatically call a myth-the myth that it you do not get out there you middle-class intellectuals and guide the peasshyants or stir them up they will just sit there and nothing will happen
Changes have been observed some slow but some quite rapid and dramatic in various parts of rural Peru where the government has not intervened and where there has been no planned intervention from the outside The peasants have joined toshygether and learned how to manipulate the power structure and have achieved in some cases basic transformations Those peasant families who have been living on haciendas as serfs have managed to combine together to oust the landlord to take over the lands and to operate their own farming entershyprises
We have been trying to observe how this takes
place Visualize what we call the baseless triangle where the hacendado the landlord is at the apex of the triangle and the peasants are at the bottom all linked to the apex by lines coming down from the landlord And when we say the baseless trishyangle we have an image of a lack of interconnecshytion among the peasants horizontally This is a vershytical system and the hacendado has done his best in the past to keep this that way and it means that anything that the peasants need in the economic system and the political system and any wants they have they have had to try to fulfill by acting through the landlord who has been quite unrecepshytive to their initiatives which have always been on an individual basis That is you would ask the landshylord for a favor to you and your family but there would not be concerted organized action The landshy
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lord was the gatekeeper between you and the outshyside society
When we find this structure changing we find more or less simultaneously new links are formed links across the base of the triangle which we call the closing of the triangle base But this is not enough We find that the peasants begin to estabshylish independent connections with politicians maybe there are competing political parties which they can use to advantage
In some cases the landlord has outstanding loans with the agricultural development bank which he has not been repaying The peasants discover this and with the assistance perhaps of lawyers apshy
proach the bank to see if they can take over the loan and therefore take over the estate
In other cases the peasants discover that the landshylord has been required by law to provide educashytion for their children and lie has not complied or has just done so in a token way So the peasants apshy
peal to the Ministry of Education they offer to build a schoolhouse if they can get help The procshyess of transformation and development therefore involves not only the banding together of the peasshyants to close the base of the triangle but the develshyoping of upward links with power figures in society
As this process takes place the hacendados posishytion becomes more difficult and lie is likely to have
problems himself in the decline of his agricultural operations especially if lie has been an absentee landlord letting someone else run the operations Frequently there are legal fights among the hacenshydado group for the control of land When the old man dies his sons are likely to fight for control then the peasants at times can move in and take OVer
This seems to have one implication for developshyment and for training needs The process of popushylar participation aJparently requires the developshyment by the peasauts of direct links with bankers
politicians and people in the field of education If this is so it seems to mie the technical assistance process ought to be oriented to some extent around helping peasants understand how this world outshyside their little estate works and how to establish connections and deal with these power figures indeshy
pendent of the landlord or boss Then there is a second phase that is likely to
arise and present another set of problems When you first look at the typical Sierra hacienda you have a picture of the landlord being at the top and the pcasants all at the same level at the bottom but
this is not always the case The landlord maintains his control not only by dealing with each peasant individually but by having his favorite There are certain itidividual peasants certain families that he feels are particularly loyal to him and they get the breaks which means different treatment in the distribution of land that the peasant is able to work for his own family So you frequently find sitshynations where a small minority of peasants under this hacendado has two or three times as much land or even more under their own immediate conshytrol than the rank and file
Now when this hacienda system breaks up when the peasants are able to unite against the hacendado and are successful in ousting him an interesting issue arises This issue relates to whether the part of the hacienda directly under the immediate conshytrol of the landlord should be divided among the
peasants or whether the whole estate shall be redishyvided Those who have had the greater amounts of land feel that they have worked hard improved the land and built their houses on it and that they have earned the land So they prefer to maintain the existing distribution The rank and file leaders counter with the point that this is inequitable disshytribution and everyone should start from the same
base line It was not until the present military govshyernment came into power that there was no longer any difference of opinion on this matter between the Executive and Congress This solution was achieved by dismissing the Congress and then it was finally possible to settle the distribution of land issue
This type of problem involving peasant solidarshyity and intergroup conflict is going to become more
prevalent Yet most of the persons working on agrarian reform are assistance and agricultural production specialists with no knowledge or backshy
ground about social organization or processes
about intergroup conflicts and negotiation
How do you handle a situation that involves basic differences of interest that have to be fought out negotiated mediated or arbitrated Some unshyderstanding on that front should be provided or
our technical assistance efforts will go awry
Another possible training focus involves comshymunity development In Peru there is a long tradishy
tion of community self-help buildings schools roads and so forth However there is also a long history in which these communal efforts lead to inshy
creased wealth at one particular time but the
problem of maintenance is not handled That is
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you build a school and the initial cost is taken care of then there is the problem of supplying teachers maintaining the school and so on So you can readshyily have a situation in which the more successful the community development program the more the expense burden falls upon the national governshymient which is alost the only supplier of tax money Work has been started but more needs to be (lone to develop the community revolving fund concept The idea is to tie together the impulses of conunities to build physical improvements to make investments in their community with sonic continuing commitment of the community to assess itself to maintain this particular facility
It seems to me that technical assistance training can be very helpful in exploring possibilities of linking the community development effort to the development of local government
On the coast there is a quite different transforshyimation problem than in the Sierra Technology and scientific knowledge are used much more on the coast Greater division of labor and more union organization exists on the coast
The Peruvian government objective is to transshyform the haciendas of the Sierra into self-governing
peasant communiities really dividing the land up among the peasants but also trying to maintain a communal organization for mutual help On the coast the government recognizes this is not practishycal You can not just divide the sugar estates and the cotton plantations into small farmer plots so the approach has been to transform the agro-industrial complex into a producers cooperative This inshyvolves a major structural transformation which will also have an impact on the workers In the first stage the goverinment administrators have been running everything It is just a transfer of power from private land owner to government But the ideology is to have the peasants take over Here you run into political questions because on the coast of Peru the unions have generally been organized by another political party and the government is very leery of doing anything to encourage this political group it would rather (10 the opposite
The social scientists feel that something could be worked through the already existing union strucshyture This cannot be (lone automatically because the Peruvian unions do not aict in quite the same way that the unions do in the US The unions in Peru tend to be more centralized there is less activshyity at the lower levels On the other hand you do
have a degree of mobilization of workers around the unions The Peruvian government therefore has to determine whether or not it can build on this established organization the development of
producers cooperatives Peru is trying to carry out a structural transforshy
mation in these coastal haciendas for which there is no parallel in history It is not just a question of communicating what is a cooperative the officers needed and- what do they do but drastic changes
in peoples roles have to be developed and a new type of organization has to be established A signifshyicant social and cultural transformation is inshyvolved a change with which our best experts on
producers cooperatives and agriculture are not familiar
I am also not suggesting that sociologists such as myself should provide the technical assistance However I do think it is important to shift our
priorities here and say that a major transformation
process has been launched and is going to be going on for a long time with some successes a lot of failshyures many difficulties and that maybe the best help we can provide is some assistance on the reshysearch side to study and try to understand what is going on and feed this information back to Peshyruvian agrarian reform programs
The nature of this process is to develop training materials which can be used to train present and future administrators on these estates It can train incipient peasant leaders so that they will become able to deal with the complexities technical as well as social of the new type of organization
In this connection I think outside help can be useful to Peru but in financial form rather than direct investment in research talent because I have found that Peru has very able social scientists who understand what is going on much better than most experts in this field who could be imported Instead of thinking simply in terms of experts to go in and tell people what ought to be done about manpower and related problems we recognize the complexity of these problems and try to learn about these transformations as they are taking
place so that out of this learning process can be
provided teaching materials for training programs for work in the colleges and universities that will
give Latin Americans a much more realistic picture of the problems of social reforms and development than they camn obtain from the US models that are ordinarily imposed on them
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Discussion
Questions from the floor How can free and unshytrammeled research in the field of power relationshyships be placed in a military regime which may feel itself rightly or wrongly threatened as for example in the program of land reform How do you collashyborate with these free researchers in Peru in raisshying these questions
Mr Whyte comments We have so far had no difficulty at all under the present government in doing research and in publishing But the time may conic particularly as we try to publish more and more studies on land reform because what we have been doing so far has helped to highlight the evils of the preexisting system that the government is committed to change If we do get into studiesshy
as we are hoping to-of the governments present efshyforts of land reform in certain areas I am sure we are going to run into a problem ie the governshyment has intervened and knocked out the preshyexisting power ligures and starts to undertake the transformation of society from the top down We think not only we in the US but also our Peshy
ruvian social science associates that there are limishytations to this approach It is going to break down
in certain predictable ways When we get to the
point of observing these breakdowns and reporting
on them analyzing them we will then face the
problem you have raised by the question We have
been completely free so far but when we look at
the impact of the present government in certain
areas we are getting into something much more
delicate
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MOBILIZING THE PARTICIPATION OF YOUTH IN MANPOWER AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT-A UNIVERSAL CHALLENGE
by William Mirengoff
I am rather intrigued by this Symposiums emshyphasis on popular participation in manpower proshygrams although I must confess I find the term a little ambiguous Just what do we mean by popular
participation Does it mean the involvement of state and local
officials as the democratically elected representashytives of the populace
Or does it mean the direct involvement of that segment of the populace to whom the program is directed independent of the local political strucshyture indeed sometimes challenging the elected power structure
And if we mean the latter how do we bring this
participation about There are some rather broad philosophical issues
involved here For the purposes of todays discussion I view
participation as three-dimensional
1 Participation in the fruits of the program-as recipients This is essentially a passive role and the results can be quantified in terms of people served and benefits received
2 Participation in decision-making This is esshysentially an active role-helping to determine program policies and targets
3 Participation in implementing the program and delivering the services This is a manashygerial and administrative role
I Trend Toward Popular Participationin Manshypower Programs
One of the lessons we have learned over the last decade is that the Federal Government bureaucracy alone despite all its resources cannot guarantee soshylutions to all of the complex problems facing our nation Rather experience has shown that deep inshyvolvement by all the sectors of the society affected
by a particular problem is essential This not only includes involvement by orgnizations that can conshytribute resources and services but also full particishypation in program development and decision-makshying by the very people for whom the programs are being provided
The Economic Opportunity Act embodied the clearest expression of popular participation by reshyquiring the maximum feasible participation of the poor in its program The Community Action Agencies went out and organized the poor so that they could participate effectively in detision-makshying In some areas insistence of program clients on a voice in activities affecting their welfare was viewed as a threat to established power structures In general however involvement of the poor led to a healthy exchange of ideas and combination of efshyforts that fostered creative programs
Building on the experience of the Economic Opshyportunity Act the Model Cities Program also reshyquires the direct involvement of the population in the target area
Manpower Administration programs stress this too-particularly the involvement of staff from the client group and the target area In addition there has been a clear trend toward decentralization which strengthens participation in administration at the local level
It may be of some interest to trace the evolution of popular participation in the manpower and reshylated human resources programs I think of this evolution as passing through three stages-Prolifershyation Cooperation and Consolidation
1 ProliferationWe started with the Area Reshydevelopment Act of 1961 then the Manpower Development Training Act of 1962 then an explosion of manpower programs-The Neighshyborhood Youth Corps Operation Mainstream New Careers the JOBS Program etc-based
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on the Economic Opportunity Act Later came the WIN Program Public Service Careers and other programs
Unrelated fragmented programs proliferated each with its own organizational structure funding eligibility requirements and apshyproaches
But in the last analysis programs all take place on some piece of real estate-in a state city or community They all converge on the people in an area with a minimum of planning and coordination competing for local resources for local clients for public attention and support
2 CooperationRecognizing the need for rationshyalization and coordination below the Fedshyeral level major efforts were made to achieve cooperation among the individual programs We tried joint funding-with independent
programs joining voluntarily in combined efshyforts We tried to pull the Department of Labor programs together in the Concenshytrated Employment Program-a coordinated effort to focus available services on specific low-income areas We tried to bring together all human resource programs of all governshyment agencies plus non-government involveshyment through the CAMPS program--essenshytially a system of local planning and coordishynation through a network of state and local interagency committees
All of these efforts had a measure of success but all were hampered by a timeless adminisshytrative problemi-the suspicions and cautious protectiveness of centrally operated program agencies that are asked to yield some autonshyomy in the interests of a cooperative effort and greater involvement by people at the local level
3 Consolidation We are now at the third stageshyconsolidation This stage is best epitomized by the proposed Manpower Training Act (MTA) This legislation is currently before the Congress where it has bi-partisan supshyport
We are firmly committed to the MTA which will be a milestone in the development of manshypower policy in this country It will
Decategorize our present fragmented programs
Decentralize the planning and delivery system for manpower services
Move programs toward maximum participashytion by state and local governments-Govershynors Mayors and other popularly elected repshyresentatives
The MTA would supersede the Manpower Deshyvelopment and Training Act (MDTA) and manshy
power sections of the Economic Opportunity Act Under the ITA most of the individual manpower programs that are currently operated from Washshyington as highly centralized separately adminisshytered activities would be merged into one overall manpower effort Program categories such as MDTA Neighborhood Youth Corps the Concenshytrated Employment Program Operation Mainshystream and others would lose their identities in the consolidated effort Responsibility for planning and administering the new comprehensive manshy
power program would be delegated to a large exshytent to the Governors of the States and to local
prime sponsors (primarily Mayors and other heads of local governments)
Each year the prime sponsors would be required to prepare comprehensive manpower plans for their areas proposing manpower services tailored to the
special needs of local problem groups The Govershynors would be responsible for submitting consolishydated manpower plans for their states State and local advisory and planning bodies composed of representatives of business labor welfare groups agriculture education local and state government agencies and other community elements are to play key roles in developing the plans Upon approval of the state plans by the federal governshyment the Governors and local prime sponsors would assume major responsibilities for impleshymenting approved programs
As you can see unification and decentralization of programs under the MT are directly related to the principle of fuller particilition by non-Federal groups The MTA would mobiii e the experience and resources of ou- pluralistic network of local governments and commununity interests to support all states of manpower activity
II Need For Youth Manpower Programs
I would like now to turn specifically to youth
programs to explore how the principle of particishy
pation is being applied in manpower services for young people As most of you know there has been
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a mounting interest in youth manpower problems in this country Many new programs for young peoshyple entering or preparing for the labor force have been introduced during the last decade At present youth accounts for well over one-third of the enshyrollment and expenditures in Federally assisted manpower activities
In large part this emphasis represents a growing awareness of the alienation and frustration of
many young people who are unable to participate effectively in the labor market We are faced with
the rejection of prevailing values youthful cynishycism and sucli symptoms of social disorganization as caipus unrest high crimc rates racial tensions and drug abuse
In the US probleis encountered by youth in the labor market reflect basic population labor force and educational trends
A Population Upsurge There has been a sharp
increase in the youth population during the last decade as the post-World War II baby crop came to maturity Between 1960 and 1969 the number of youths aged 11-24 increased by 12 million from 27 to 39 million Thuis fl4 increase was four times larger than the rate for the population as a whole Ten years ago only one out of seven people were 1-1-24 years old today close to one oit of five Is it any wonder that this sharp upsurge of youth reachshying employable age has created stresses in the labor market stresses in the school system stresses in the
streets for those who are not in school or in jobs and stresses throughout our social fabric
Most tragic of all in my opinion is the collapse of the school system in the inner-city Inundated by waves of disadvantaged youth faced with shortages of teacliers and facilities burdened with problems inherited ftoni fainily economic and governmental institutions groping for ways to overcome the handicaps of low-income youngsters-the inner-city school system faces a major challenge
B Ulnemploynent Although the economy has shown marked strengii in absorbing most of the new job seekers unemployment among young peoshyple particularly disadvantaged youths who are most in need of steady jobs and incomes is a signifshyicant problem Among youths 16-21 who are in the labor force
1 12 or about 1300000 were unemployed in February of 1970 compared to a 45 rate for the labor force as a whole
2 Among nonwhites the rate was even highershy20
Unemployment rates are still higher in some
pockets of urban and rural poverty
To a large extent the substantial unemployment rate reflects diminishing opportunities for jobs with low skill requirements Such jobs have tradishytionally served as an entree into the labor market for many youngsters Recently however low skilled jobs have become scarcer as labor requirements in agriculture dropped off and as l-abor needs in inshydustry shifted from manual workers to highershyskilled technical occupations As the country turned the corner from a goods-producing to a servshyice-oriented economy a strong back and willingshyness to work no longer were adequate tickets to a job
C Labor Force Entrants Without Adequate Voshycational Skills A significant number-perhaps as many as one-third-of our young people enter the labor force without adequate job skills They face
special problems in a job market with rising skill requirements
The problem may be expressed in this paradox
The US keeps a larger proportion of its population in school longer than any other country-to ensure their preparation for lifeshytime activity
Yet the unemployment rate among youth is far higher than in any other nation and has been rising rapidly over the last four decades
And this paradox persists in the face of unushysual prosperity high levels of employment and skill shortages
Students who do pot complete at least a high school education encounter special difficalties In 1968 almost one million youth 14-17 were not enshyrolled in school Dropouts aged 16-21 had a 15 unemployment rate during that year-twice the rate of comparable high school graduates For nonshywhite dropouts the unemployment rate was 25 Even those who complete high school are not necesshysarily prepared for a vocation There is a disparity between educational credentials and performance levels with many high school graduates unable to read write work or reason properly
Manpower programs can be viewed as repair shops for those young people who have come out of the school system without adequate preparation for the world of work We get the toughest casesshy
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the rejects This poses a major challenge in deshyveloping creative techniques for rebuilding the skills interests and character traits of the disadvanshytaged youngsters
All of this gives you some idea of the dimension of the problem-the universe of need Now I would like to turn to our response to these needs
III A Conprehensive Program of Manpower Servshyices to Meet Youth Needs
To what extent (o youth participate in manshypower programs as recipients-as an example of popshyular participation in the benefits of public proshygrains
In the last decade the US has reached out to the youth population with an array of innovative and creative programs to alleviate labor market probshylems These programs are designed to help youth find worthwhile jobs at decent wages to experience a sense of fill participation in our productive life and to develop their personal potentials so as to avoid frustration and to maximize their contribushytions to society
A major feature of the comprehensive manpower effort is recognition of the significant differences among the categories of youth who need assistance
1 Many out-of-school unemployed young people simply require help in obtaining vocational trainshying in a good school setting For these the Manshy
power Development and Training Act passed in 1962 provides classroom training opportunities supplemented by subsistence allowances to help the trainee support himself and his family Last year about 35000 youths under 22 received this MDTA institution training-28 of all MDTA institushytional trainees
2 Recognizing that many youngsters are having difficulty in adapting to vocational training in a school setting and aware of the school dropout
problem the Congress authorized a program of training and experience in a work setting for jobshyless youth in the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 Currently termed the Out-of-School composhynent of the Neighborhood Youth Corps the proshygram helps youths aged 16-18 to prepare for steady employment In Fiscal Year 1971 the NYC Out-of-School program is expected to serve 36500 youths at a cost of $125 million
3 To reduce the dropout problem among poverty-stricken youngsters the Neighborhood Youth Corps In-School and Summer Programs
provide part-time employment and earnings opporshytunities for needy youngsters who are still attending school In FY 1971 these components are expected to serve almost 500000 youths aged 14-21 at a cost of $235 million
4 What about young people who simply cannot adjust to vocational training in a formal classroom setting or even in a setting of routine work experishyence Included in this category are young people whose social and physical environments are so unshyfavorable that their capacities for training and job seeking are severely curtailed As our experience with youth manpower services has expanded it beshycame evident that this group can be helped by reshymoval from adverse school and home settings to a new residential environment where training methshyods and stipl)portive services can be adapted to their
special needs This group is the target population for the Job
Corps The Job Corps provides occupational trainshying remedial education and a wide variety of charshyacter-building and supplemental services geared to the special needs of disadvantaged youngsters 16-21 in residential centers around the country Enrollshyrment in Job Corps Centers has also proven useful for many youths who come from rural areas where alternative local manpower development facilities are not available The unique aspect of this proshygran is its raidential character its provision of truly comprehensive services (from health care to clothing from vocational training to monthly alshylowances) and its effort to combine all necessary manpower services (from initial selection of enrolshylees to final placement of graduates on the job) into an integrated manpower delivery system
In FY 1971 the Job Corps expects to accommoshy(late 25000 youths at a tinre in 75 centers at a cost of $180000000
5 Of course prevention is the best cure for the
problenis of youth in the labor market The greatshyest priority must be given to improvement of vocashytional education in the regular school system where the majority of young people are expected to
prepare adequately for the world of work The schools niust redirect some of their effort from endshylessly preparing pupils for more schooling to preshy
paring tie average youngster for the demands of tire working world
The Vocational Education Act amendments of 1968 represent an advance in meeting the needs of school youth for quality vocational preparation
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As amended the Act greatly strengthens vocational training in local secondary schools providing asshysistance for better equipment teachers and facilishy
ties and for gearing courses realistically to todays cormiplex occupational requirements In FY 1971 the Federal Government will invest over
$300000000 in this program State and local govshyerninents will contribute one billion dollars in matching funds
6 Many other programs are components of the
comprehensive manpower effort for youth Among the most important may be
a Efforts to increase opportunities in apprenticeshyable trades for minority group youths
b Efforts to help young military dischargees make the transition to civilian life eg pre-disshy
charge training in Project Transition and post-disshycharge school benefits for veterans
c Opportunities for youths in broad-gauge proshygrams which serve both youths and adults eg the Concentrated Employment Program the JOBS Proshy
gran the Public Service Careers Program Last year more than a third of the CEP enrollees and
almost one-half of all JOBS enrollees were under
22 years of age
d Expansion of programs to train prison mshy
mates for post-release employment-a major contrishybution to efforts to rehabilitate young offenders
Together these forward looking measures constishytute a comprehensive manpower program for youth They will be significant achievements in bridging the discontinuity between school and work strengthening the participation of youth in
the economic process and combating alienation and frustration attributable to labor market probshy
lems
IV Expanding Participation in Decisionmaking
Having discussed the quantitative or passive asshy
pects of popular participation ie participation of youth as beneficiaries of program services I would like now to turn to the qualitative or active aspect
of participation This involves direct participation in decision-making-in the actual planning of proshygrams by the very persons they are designed to serve
We have learned that young people like everyshyone else want to be directly involved in decisions affecting their welfare Moreover experience shows that such participation results in more effecshy
tive and realistic programs As a result a major efshyfort has been made to give enrollees a voice
In the Job Corps for example all training cenlshyters are required to organize student governments The enrollees take these governments very serishyously and so (10 the center staffs Constitutions generally written by the enrollees themselves deshyscribe the responsibilities and organization of the student government duties of officers and election and removal procedures They provide for student councils and other officers usually elected at sixshymonth intervals who legislate rules for dress conshyduct grievance-handling and other aspects of group life in a residential setting Also the center constitutions usually establish a judicial system for
judging and penalizing mi nor offenders Center administrators meet with the student
councils at least once each week to plan improveshyments in the training program enrollee activity schedules and center procedures Some councils have jurisdiction over special funds maintained for recreational or welfire purposes Often they set up subconumittees on such subjects as instruction comshyplaints recreation community relations and food Service
Qualifications for election to the student offices vary Most centers have minimum residence reshy
quiremlents In at least one center candidates for election are required to attend special classes in center government for one week
V Participationin Adninistering Programs
Let me now turn to the third form of popular
participaitioii-pamrticipatioii in day-to-day adminisshytration of programs This aspect of manpower proshygrams has also received substantial emphasis Mainly it has taken two forms (a) use of disadshyvantaged persons as staff members and (b) involveshynient of sectors of ou- society other than the Federal Government I would like to say a word about each of these in turn
A Utilizing disadvantaged persons as staff nenbers As social work counseling teaching emshy
ployment services and other helping professions have beconie more and more professionalized there have developed significant communication barriers between the professional and his disadvantaged client The accumulation of professional skills and insights has been accompanied paradoxically by difficulties in establishing rapport and influencing the very people who require assistance To overshy
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come this problem Community Action Agencies manpower programs housing programs and others serving disadvantaged people have found that comshymunication can be restored through the employ ment of target group members to serve their disadshyvantaged neighbors The new employces working as para-professional aides under skilled professional people are able to gain the confidence of the clients to explain prograims to discuss the advanshytages and disadvantages of participation and to enlist support in language and actions that disadshyvantaged clients can understand At the same time the aides are in a position to feed back to the proshyfessionals the problems and needs of the inarticushylate masses of people who are to be served
Involvement of target group members on the staffs of agencies serving the disadvantaged has
proven beneficial for the professionals the aides
and program clients alike
B Broader Comm unity Involvement The secshyond form of popular participation in administrashytion of youth manpower programs is the deep inshyvolveient of non-government organizations
At an early stage of the development of our comshyit became clearprehlensive manpower program
that Federal Government action alone could not
provide all solutions for the problems of youth Training for jobs without involvement of emshyployers and labor unions would be unrealistic Dushy
plication of facilities and other services already available in the community would be wasteful and time-consuming Manpower programs therefore have drawn upon the skills and resources of an array of community groups
1 The Business Sector Private industry has been heavily involved not only in an advisory cashy
pacity but also in direct operation of employment and training programs In the case of the JOBS
program and the Sununer Youth Campaign for exshyample industry has provid ed leadership in direct training and placement of hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged people Experience has clearly shown that jobless young people trained in a realshylife work setting for jobs and employers identified in advance are most likely to succeed at their trainshying and employment In the Job Corps industry has applied its mnanagement and technical skills to the actual operation of Job Corps Centers
2 Labor Unions Unions are participating in expanding employment opport unities for disadvanshy
taged people and providing vocational and pre-voshycational training
In the Job Corps five building trades unions are
presently playing a major role in training at Civilshyian Conservation Centers These unions are curshyrently training about one-fourth of the youths in such centers and are cooperating in having their graduates placed into the building trades apprenshyticeship programs Great stress is being placed on this activity for completers are almost guaranteed a job in well-paid shortage occupations and the
program is helping minority group youths move into occupations in which their numbers have trashyditionally been low
3 Nonprofit Community Organizations A wide variety of community organizations which have specialized knowledge and contacts with respect to
particular disadvantaged groups are participating heavily in youth manpower programs These groups may be involved in programs to recruit counsel and arrange job and training opportunishyties for low-income youngsters or in pioneering new ways of training and orienting disadvantaged
people in numerous cities around the country Other groups are providing special youth services for the physically or mentally handicapped rural
people dropouts and other categories with special needs Also some residential centers of Job Corps are managed directly by nonprofit groups
Related to work with nonprofit organizations is our extensive community relations program In the Job Corps it is mandatory for every center to take the initiative in establishing a Community Relashytions Council These Councils include local comshymunity leaders in business labor education the church welfare recreation and government as well as Job Corps Center enrollees and staff They consider matters of ntitual concern In many areas outstanding examples of community-Center coopershyation occur eg use of Center gymnasium and shop facilities for community needs participation of enrollee volunteers in child care clean-tip and other community tasks participation in parades and fairs and use of community volunteers as tushytors entertainers and other helpers in Center proshygrams
4 Universities Broad involvement of universishyties in research and evaluation of programs has been the rule from the beginning of the manpower effort There is a continuous give and take of ideas between the university researcher and the living
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program laboratories In the Job Corps universishyties have also been actively involved in the operashytion of training centers
VI Conclusion The stability of our society will depend upon the
strong sense of involvement felt by the younger generation in government activities affecting their welfare In the new arsenal of manpower programs for youths we have tried to implement this princishy
ple by providing services that will reduce the alienshyation of youth by providing opportunities to parshyticipate more fully in the benefits of our economic system by involving youth in decision-making and by using them in the delivery of services
In addition Federal youth programs are increasshyingly operating on the principle that the non-govshyernment sector and our local and State governments must be mobilized to expand and strengthen Fedshyeral efforts Decentralization community relations cooperation with business and labor-these are corshynerstones of our comprehensive manpower policy The Administrations support of the proposed Manpower Training Act underscores its commitshyment to this approach
I hope that this summary of our experience will
prove useful to you and can be applied with realisshytic adaptations to the needs of other countries with similar problems
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MANPOWER AND YOUTH PROGRAMS IN THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES OF ERICA
by Max R Lum Jr
Many of us assume that pe alar participation is a right For example the youth in the Job Corps assume as a right participation in the control of certain monies that are removed from their pay as fines for minor violations of the rules They have a student government control over these funds Howshyever from discussions at the ILO-sponsored youth conference in Geneva (from which I have just reshyturned) it appears that participation of youth in manpower programs as a right is still an open quesshytion at least among the African countries This Poshysition was reflected by the type of resolutions that came out of the African caucus at the conference
One resolution stated that the manpower proshygrais for youth should be of the kind that facilishy
tate the contribution of youth to development and
to insure that their efforts are directed to feasible
ends which are a relevant and integral part of the total development plan The integral part of a development plan of course can be something that is superimposed from above in the decision-making
process A second resolution (which infers volunshytarism) related to the need to strengthen the motivashytion of young people to participate and contribute to the programs of self-help and mutual assistshyance (They appear to have the same problems we do regarding motivation) Another resolution of the caucus (which seems at least in part to contrashydict the first listed above) stressed the necessity to
protect young people from exploitation and excesshysive participation in development schemes Howshy
ever this resolution appears to be in response to
the fact that in Africa some countries are withshydrawing certain mechanized systems because of the serious surplus labor conditions among the youth Whether this nicans that a youth has to enter the work force at 13 because lie is available or whether he participates at a later age is not clear The withshyholding of mechanized programs to take advantage of this surplus labor also raises a question about
the extent to which youth participation resulting from such action is voluntary
Now to turn to the major purpose of this paper a report on my visit to Africa to look at what the National Youth Services in these countries were doing particularly with respect to what kinds of programs were being developed to let youth particishy
pate in the decision-making process Nineteen African countries have National Youth
Services although in some countries they may have another title For example in Ghana and the Ivory Coast they are called Pioneers Emphasis of these services may be on rural development or multipurshy
pose schemes such as vocational andor general edshyucational training or it can be a centralized trainshying-program geared to accomplish a single purpose
I also found that there were certain problems or questions which were fairly common to all of the prograins In all programs there is concern about
participation of youth-about how much control thc youth themselves should have over the system in which they are operating Similarly there is the need felt in all of the programs (which we share with them) for the development of a specific list of objectives that should be or need to be accomshy
plishied during the period the youths are in the
program this is particularly difl_ult in Africa Anshyother coinnion problem cccurs in those programs that are divided in terms of tribal or sectional groups there are gaps among these programs which need to be filled in order to make them more comshy
parable and to build some kind of national idenshytity among these groups Finally the youth in Afshyrica represent great pools not only of resources but of political power For example they were imporshytant factors in the downfall of the government in Sudan and they almost brought down the Seneshygalese government Youth also had direct participashytion in the new constitution for Ghana
The specific youth programs in the African counshy
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tries vary widely as may be seen from the followshying examples Nigeria for example is building a huge program of vocational training This program is directed towards taking some of the military pershysonnel and giving th2m vocational training before they are released to find civilian jobs In Zambia on the other hand there is a broader program The Zambia job corps although it is a large centralized camp is definitely a voluntary service It takes youth from all over the country into this center In determining whether the youth would participate in agricultural or in vocational training programs it takes into account the government needs as well as the youths needs When this determination is made they are sent to specific camps to be trained The agricultural graduates when they finish their program which may last as much as two years are given plots of land to develop The entire first twoshyyear graduating class (graduation actually occurred while we were there) was drafted into the army beshycaue of the need Zambia feels to defend its border The program therefore in practice appears to have been a pre-military training program However when the youngsters muster out of the army they will be we were informed given plots of land and in other cases given additional training to be
placed in vocational programs While we were in Tanzania where it appears
they are going their own way in youth planning the biggest controversy among the youth-a very centralized group-was the mi ni-skirt controversy The African youth feel this is an important issue The discussions regarding the length of mni-skirts actually were being addressed to the Europeans who were wearing mini-skirts shorter and shorter The mini-skirt apparently became an issue in Zamshybia also
In the Ivory Coast where there is a particushylarly encouraging program the youth come to one camp in one area of the country and then exshychanges occur within the youth camps to mix the
population and to give it some uniformity of trainshying In Ghana there is another type of programshythe Young Pioacer Gliding Schools Some three or four hundred youths (Young Pioneers) will be given special training in flying gliders for fun The National Youth Group of the country which is sepshyarate from the government but government financed is taking over this school and actually using the facility for a residential training proshygram
On the basis of what I have observed and the opshy
portunity I had to talk with various persons at the Geneva meeting where there must have been some 15 proposals from youth groups within Africa for aid both technical and administrative as well as for actual financial aid for the development of furshyther youth services there appears to be no question but that the development of youth services is going to be highly important in Africa Moreover unless the problem of youth services within these counshytries is solved within a short time there can be imshy
portant impact upon the future political developshyment of many of the African countries
Discussion
Question from the floor Title IX of the Forshyeign Assistance Act states that emphasis shall be placed on assuring maximum participation in the task of economic development on the part of the people of developing countries through the encouragement of democratic private and local governmental institutions This mandate would indicate that the type of youth programs we should support should be ones in which their objectives are obtained without the element of coercion or forced labor Yet it appears that in some African programs there are work brigades-coercion compulsion no choice Furthermore some of these programs may be underwritten by the US through our surplus agshyricultural connodities under the Food for Work program Since the youth programs in the US and Africa appear to have essentially the same objecshytives how in your opinions Mr Mirengoff and Mr Lum is it possible to achieve these objectives without the element of compulsion Do you give freedom of choice on the recruitment side or on the training side Do you use some elements of compulsion for a limited perod of time in order to prepare the youth to move on a free choice basis into a world of work
Mr Mirengoffs comments I can only give part of the answer to this question as it relates to the Job Corps program It is a voluntary program Nobody is coerced into Job Corps They come in of their own free will From our point of view this is good Those who come into Job Corps have a sense of motivation and a sense of purpose which is reshyflected in what they do once they get in Job Corps as contrasted to a situation where they have to be in public school until the age of 16 whether they like it or not In the latter situation when they do
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not like it there is trouble Our whole premise is based upon voluntarism which we hold very near and dear
In a voluntary program popular involvement has meaning In a controlled society it has no meanshying I wish there was someone who could explain the philosophy or develop the concept of popular involvement in a totalitarian country I cannot do it
Mr Lums comments Certainly in some African countries the youth programs are not fully volunshytary and may often also include political indoctrishynation In other countries the programs are really voluntary although they may be run in a military manner
The question of actual forced labor is a real and difficult issue at least in the expressed opinions on the African youth problem These youth want to say that we should live up to the ILO and the UN conventions to end forced labor but we have tremendous pools in some of the countries of 12 to 15 years olds roaming the streets and we do not know what to do about then One solution for exshyample has been to organize them in a nonvolunshytary system to build roads I do not know what this trains youth to do but maybe it brings them up to a point where eventually they are able to enter volshyuntary training programs This is an area in which it appears the African youth themselves have not yet really reached a final decision
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THE ROLE OF TRADE UNIONS AND EMPLOYER ORGANIZATIONS IN THE EFFICIENT UTILIZATION OF MANPOWER
by Everett M Kassalow
Dealing with the problem of trade unions and manpower planning and other forms of economic planning in the context of the less developed counshytries is especially difficult All of us who have grown up in and around the American trade union movement and around trade union movements generally in the Western world have done so in a certain setting and atmosphere which I would call (for want of a better word) conflictive in characshyter
Trade unions and the American unions are a classic example have always been in a certain sense outside of the mainstream of economic developshyment The unions have been beating against the development process in order to protect their memshybers They are almost driven to conflictive posishytions because they were reacting to a process which was doing damage or making dislocations in the lives of people
This kind of reactive trade unionism was successshyful in the Western World But such unionism does not lend itself immediately or too directly as a model or mechanism for learning about what trade unions canl or should do in connection with the
problemn cf shaping and implementing developshyment policy However I also believe that trade unshyions in any but a totalitarian society or a highly authoritarian society will always have to perfori tihe reactive and conflictive role of protecting their workers against the impact and the plocess of inshydustrialization However if trade unions are to play a more positive role or more participating role in the development process we do have to reexamshyine the nature of the function and the character of trade unionism in the light of the kinds of things trade unions can should or might do in the less developed countries
When I say can should or might do I am satshyisfied to use those words I am satisfied that one can approach the development process in a new society
with a sense of trying to change things and to conshyceive of new combinations because they are going to be new These societies are not going to develop the way American or European society has develshyoped or hopefully not the way Soviet society has developed There are going to be different roles to be played different emphasis different compulshysions in the situation
As we try to reconstruct the role of trade unions for these purposes a large part of Western trade unionism may not be directly relevant For exshyample in the post World War II period one can begin to see the emergence of a new kind of trade union posture to some extent in the United States but more clearly in Western Europe which did put the trade union into a more participative role and thus placed it in the mainstream of ecoshynomic and social policy making As a result of broad historical social and economic changes the trade unions are now more fully but not comshy
pletely integrated into their own societies in Westshyern Europe and to an important extent in the United States than has ever been true before
Bargaining has not ceased nor has the role of adshyvocacy which a trade union must play in negotiashytion disappeared in either Western Europe or in the United States This role however is increasshyingly added to the positive role of sharing in the key economic and social policy imaking decisions An example in the US is the Iole which has slowly alshymost painfully emerged for the AFL-CIO and some of its constituent unions in the last 10 or 15 years on nationlal conmnissions such as those on aushytomatiotn juvenile delinquency or foreign trade
In assuming these new roles the US trade union movement has not cast off its old role It has attempted to suppleiment what it was doing in the way of its militant advocacy at the job level or the industry level with this additional set of functions It is not easy when you have spent a lifetime being
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on the outside to suddenly step into the middle of things and have to take the role of policy advocate This kind of new responsibility is not at all easy and yet this is happening
In relating Western trade union experience to the developing countries it is essential to recognize that process of economic development will be difshyferent from that in the West Capitalism and inshydustrialization in the United States and in Western Europe grew unplanned for the most part spontashyneously one step tumbling upon another Growth of industrialization and moderization in Asia and Africa will not be spontaneous A large part of the process will be guided and conditioned Under these circumstances it seems pretty clear that unshyionism as a purely reactive force simply will be unacceptable It will have that role to play but inshyevitably it will be called upon (it seems to me shoild be called ulpon) to play a participatory role and a more integrated role almost from the beginshyning of the industralization process In this sense it is difficult I believe for American trade unionists especially to take a full measure of the problems which confront a less developed countrys trade unshyions
What kinds of experience am I considering when I say that one can look to new roles and a new posshyture for trade unionism in the less developed socishyeties What kinds of experience are relevant in the West What experience has there been in the less developed countries which bears upon this probshylem
Well in the West if you look at Western Europe there is a whole series of activities that Western European trade unions engage in which seem to me are relevant to the question of union participashytion in manpower training manpower developshyment economic development and social developshyment in the less developed countries
There have sprung up for example in the last few decades a uilber of so-called national ecoshynomic and social councils such as those of the Netherlands and France (and in Austria if one wants to include lie so-called chambers of labor and chambers of industry which are semi-governshymental in character) The trade unionists and the trade union movement are called upon to play a role sitting in national bod ics with consultative powers and sometimes with decision making powshyers in the case of the Netherlands and to some exshytent in the case of France
Some people are inclined to dismiss this role of
making of national social and economic policy They say that the unions have just been there as a kind of front in the various levels of the French planning process whether it was the Economic and Social Council or the commissariat and the same charge is made of the unions in the Nethershylands It seems to me this is a rather short-sighted view of the unions experience in this function It is so new and since to some extent runs against what has been the conflictive tradition and the pure advocacy of a particular point of view of the trade union movement that it would have been a miracle to have expected the trade unions overshynight to have made major contributions to ecoshynomic and social planning in these societies of Western Europe
My own feeling is that as these processes growshyand I think they will grow because traditional parliamentary bodies no longer seem adequate to deal with these top level social and economic decishysions that have to be made in society-planning bodies different in each country will grow and the trade unions will increase their sophistication in these roles and will increasingly measure up to these tasks and opportunities
In any event in somewhat different circumshystances similar bodies are already being created in a number of the African countries Trade unions have representation oin all kinds of planning bodshyies It was one of the heritages of the French coloshynial administration Planning and economic counshycils were established in Algeria Tunisia-down through French West Africa
In a number of these countries the trade union movement is wemk Therefore their influence in these planning councils could be expected to be limited To the extent this can be determined from the meager information currently available this apshypears to be a reasonable conclusion Unfortunately no one has gone into any of the African nations to see what has happened to these councils But if popshyular participation in development is to mean anyshything these are important experiments I would strongly recommend that the American AID agency andor the US Department of Labor as well as others take a rather (lee) interest in trying to find out what is happening in these kinds of institushytions I believe that the very nature of economic development in these countries means that these councils and these planning authorities will grow in importance and we should be looking into them
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to see what can be done and what are the lessons that can be learned
There are other lessons that we can begin to see in this broad experience ranging from Western Europe on to Africa and to some extent Asia First any union representation on social economic or national planning bodies as they may happen to be identified must be a real one In India for exshyample one of the reasons why there is almost total trade union discontent with the planning is that the trade unions have always been pretty much shut out Each time a new national plan was in the making the planning minister whether he is a soshycialist or a conservative goes through the motions of consulting on a formal basis with the trade union movement and that is the end of it
If you are to enlist the support and interest and to educate this important institution that we call trade unionism regarding the problems the possishybilities and the opportunities of economic planshyning it must be accorded a genuine role in the opshyerating machinery I know that planners are often horrified at the thought that they with their reshyfined techniques (really not so refined but they think they are) are going to have to consult with these grubby fellows who they feel have never really had enough formal education as well as to take them into their councils and give them voting rights in the setting of goals and the determining of
priorities for the society This situation is usually something the planners feel they cannot accept If this position by the planner is correct you can almost forget the whole process because unless the trade union has responsibility in the decision makshying machinery the function will usually decline or never even come to life
Success of trade union participation on planning councils I believe also re(luires some form of govshyernment aid I can think of three countries-France Austria and Great Britain (to choose three disparate examples)-where such aid is proshyvided to strengthen for example the research and economic facilities of the trade union movement In Austria for forty or fifty years now the chambers of labor have been supported by the government and they are really the most important research weapon or arm of Austrian labor
In France such effective participation as the trade unions have done recently in the planning
process and earlier in the social and economic area has been to a substantial measure due to governshyment assistance Under the urging of the US AID
mission France in the early and mid-fifties began to provide subsidies to the French trade unions to build up their research facilities
To an American this seems impossible How can a trade union take money from a government to build up its research facilities Will not such aid compromise the research Apparently it has not Apparently it is now recognized that both governshyment and unions are sophisticated enough so that once you invite a body like the trade union into the planning or development process you can afshyford them some measure of financial support withshyout compromising their independence
It must be recognized that the very fact of particshyipation in the planning pocess is in a certain sense a compromise of independence Neither labor nor management can participate in a joint
planning process unless they do so on the basis of respect of somebody elses rights and the recognishytion of some shared common gains and programs It seems to me that this notion is understood and that acceptance of financial ad to conduct research and training to help further participation is feasishyble
Legislation has been pending (and may already have been passed) in Great Britain which will iake available certain funds for research and for training assistance to the British trade union moveshyment Thus one of the oldest Western trade union movements and perhaps the most independent of governments along with the American trade union movement is now willingly increasing its acceptance of some form of financial aid to enable it to play its new role in society
The advantages to the government especially of less eveloped countries of these new roles that the trade unions can play are enormous If human reshysource institutions are critical in development as is now increasingly agreed what better vehicle or channel to exercise influence and increase popular
participation and understanding is there than the trade unions This is true even weak as they may be in many of these countries Moreover if they did not exist they ought to be created
In recognition of the importance of this human factor some governments of course have not been above creating the trade unions I can think of a number of Asian and African governments where the trade unions have been created largely with government benevolence or government assistance Even though we accept these trade unions with caution there exist present advantages They at
83
least will help ensure communication and particishypation as well as other assistance to the governshyments of less developed countries which are overshyburdened with the tasks they face Most of these governments have to assume the responsibility for economic development activities including the major central planning role and allocation of critishycal investment resources (to some extent) and of foreign exchange To the extent these governments can look to trade unions or other intermediate inshystitutions to carry on many of the tasks such as training the administration of social security proshygrams and the joint encouragement of productivshyity programs they can be relieved of much of the weight which otherwise will fall on them This should help increase the viability and prospects for democracy because it is the overburdening of the whole process of government which it seems to me is one of the dangers that confront the African and the Asian nations
Trade unions therefore have this very useful vital possibility and related to this of course is the opportunity if you will of diverting what might otherwise be the all-out concentration by trade unshyions on wage and hour gains I do not mean that they should be deterred from their interest in wage and hour bargaining and gains but it could at least diffuse some of that all-out thrust which is trashyditionally all the trade unions do in the early stages of (levelopment
This change in trade union outlook it seems to me siiouild be sufficient inducement for new counshytry goverminents to take a real look at this process
Ilese issues I have discussed are tentative The experience that can be drawn upon is limited But the fact that we are calling for things that can hardly be itaglled or dreaied of in some peoples world shiotuld not (eter tis We have found to date
o b that what we know about institutions and the pr shylem of building institutions and especially subinshystittitions in developieit has not served us suffishyciently well Tlie ttIle union movement strikes me Is a most signifi ant factor if popular participaition is to imeanl someiting and if there is to be a hope for sonie kind of deomtcratic development process
DISCUSSANT Paul Fisher
Profesor Kassalows paper has very clearly stated that our preseit experience of trade unions with labor participation in various councils has been uneven to put it Mildly My experience leads to similar contclusions
What are the labor people really good at They are good when it comes to affairs which are of conshycern to them such as wages or working conditions But what have these matters to do with manpower Manpower as studied here is a very technical subshyject requiring a considerable degree of sophisticashytion in statistics mathematics and also in economshyics Now what has this to do with lets assume the German Works Council or a participation of a trade union representative in one of the other councils It has something to do because quite obvishyously the working hours working conditions and the wages have an allocative function They alloshycate labor not only the present labor but also the future labor and therefore direct people by the inshycentives offered by the system to a particular occushy
pation So in a way these people who are interested in these mundane affairs are instruments of manshy
power policy Where are the labor people not so good They
are not so good when it comes to technical subjects as for instance the economic planning mechanism the manpower mechanism the social security adshyministration details But should not we feel that the important issue in all three areas is the large decisions and the large decisions are rather easily understood and are basically political decisions Labor in all of these countries has the opportunity to influence political decisions
Employment is (tite obviously of interest to the trade union It is of interest to the workers or the sons of workers and employment is necessarily linked to the investment function As a conseshy
quence labor has an interest to participate in those governmental bodies which influence the employshyment function and the investment function Thereshyfore you find labor not only in the large bodies but the small ones as well which are based on the functioning of a specific industry a specific localshyity
Now what form does this participation take It takes the form of information or consultation and if you want co-deterinination But which is really the important fun(lion at the present time as disshytinguisled from the future Thelpresent function which is very important is information It is very useful from the viewpoilit of the body politic to have trade union leaders trade union representashylives not only participating in the decisions and therefore knowing why or how a decision is reaclhed to let us assume establish a dam in one
part of the country or an industry in another part
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but it is also useful for them to transmit this knowledge to their organization and therefore inshyfluence the wage policy and the manpower policy of the trade union itself
Consultation fulfills the same purpose Co-deter-Imiination depends on the subject but it can be said that co-determination has been a success precisely in that area where it was of immediate concern to the union representatives and to the labor director
Mr Kassalow sums it up by saying that the peoshyple who have the money to innovate normally the government make the employment and investshyment decisions in less developed countries thereshyfore it becomes important that the people do parshyticipate in those decisions of the government which really affect their lives and the lives of the organishyzations
DISCUSSANT Leonard Sandman
My experience suggests that it is not only diffishycult but may also be unwise to assign to unions in developing countries a role that diverts them friom the conflictive posture The following briefly disshycusses some of these experiences
In Korea I visited ain automotive manufacturing Company I was particularly impressed with tlhe large numbers of workers employed by the comshypany and that many of them appeared to be to say the least inefficiently utilized After touring the plant I asked tle manager about labor relations generally and the role of the union He recounted tle unions annual demands for wage increases and otherwise dismissed them as having only a nuishysance role because he could manipulate and control the union
I coiniented oi the large numbers of workers that lie employed and asked if possibly with sonie arrangement with tle union the workers could be engagedl more efficiently with the resulting savings in labor costs being distributed to the workers in tle form of hiigler wages and to the owners of the plant in tie fori of higher profits I quickly disshycovered that this was rather a naive suggestion beshycause as lie showed miie whetn various components of thiis cost and tle variables that influenced profit were considered wages were a very small proporshytioin of the cost of his production about 10 percent
With this kind of aii experience of which we see much in Asia a general lack of concern on the part of management with the efficient utiliation of commodities which are cheap and plentiful that is unskilled workers and often semi-skilled workers is
to be expected Obviously under such conditions little concern is to be expected on the part of the unions with the problem of how unions can coopshyerate with management to effect a more efficient utilization of workers I believe it is only when unshyions are successful in raising wages that is in pursuing their conflictive roles that management is compelled to use manpower more efficiently and then become concerned with productivity And this perhaps is one of the most effective ways that unions contribute to the efficient use of manpower
Experience in India with union participashytion in management also illustrates the difficulty of assigning to unions a role that diverts them from the conflictive posture The Minister of Labor who pioneered the program of labor particishy
pation had the feeling that if only we could give the workers a sense of management a sense of idenshytification with the industry the fact that their wages were so low would beconie less intolerable (I guess this could be called psychic income) Joint labor management councils were formed in a number of private and public sector plants Their experiments in union participation with manageshymient were getierally failures For the most part the discussions in the joint councils which were supshyposed to center on ways of increasing efficiency imshyproving management or improving the productivshyit) of the plant were centered generally on items of wages gi ievances and related interests They dushyplicated the collective bargaining function
Even with centralized planning in many of the Asian countries the unions there have generally
played atn indirect role if any in the basic quesshytions of settingpriorities determining targets and devising the strategies of employment After all ecshyonotnic development programis often represent a strategy of staying in power to the government Where unions have political influence the governshy
nient development plans may concein themselves seriously with employment and with income distrishybution problems but where they lack such influshyence development plans tend to place low priorishyties oi funding programs which promote the human goals of development
I think that popular participation should be a goal of every society It no doubt provides a system for the soundest kinds of economic and social deshyvelopment but the political realities of how growth gets distributed cannot be ignored Hence diverting union energy away from the conflictive
85
roles should be examined very carefully so that we ment having a formal role rather than substance in do not end up with union participation in develop- participation
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MAIOR PARTICIPATION IN SOCIAL SECURITY
by Paul Fisher
The history of social security started off with mutual aid societies in Europe which were in esshysence trade union societies-societies of workers They had their origin in medieval German associashytions Out of this tradition developed a participashytion of trade unions of workers in the administrashytion of individual social security funds
It was important to know about how much sick pay the worker would get what would be the unshyemployment benefit that could be expected from this particular group and what would be the fushyneral grant Later as Social Security developed it became important to have some say in income sysshytems as a whole in sickness systems because they affected productivity
It is true that social security covered more than the workforce in industry and commerce It covshyered the total population The trade union represhysentative took on a new role and became not only the representative of the workers (the workers he organized and those for which he spoke) but he becane the representative of the popilation at large a very interesting goal which fits very well in the concept of a trade union as it exists in many countries developed and under-developed
What has all this to do with manpower Social security seems to be a transfer payment which you exact between one generation of workers and the next one between the healthy and the sick or beshytween the people who have small families and those who have large families
The interesting part is that many of these things have something to do with deferred wages In a way a social security contribution an individual makes today is a deferred wage which he will touch when he reaches the retirement age and this has been very well understood by the trade unions all around the globe and as a consequence it was the trade unions that fought for the advances in Social Security in this country as well as in other counshytries
The famous labor uprising in May 1968 in France was a revolution against some of De Gaulles attempts to reduce benefits De Gaulle was forced into the attempts because he felt the social security system which has very meager old age benefits was paying too much money in sick beneshyfits Labor in Franc was successful in its revolution The reform measures of Mr De Gaulle were largely discarded The same thing happened in Italy Labor as a whole has an interest in social security because it considers the social security benefits as nothing more than a part of total lifetime earnings from work
What form has it taken The usual form which has been an advisory function The advisory funcshytion is very well expressed in the United States
What is then the effectiveness of the participashytion of labor and the Social Security Administrashytion The effectiveness is quite interesting It deshypends upon the political strength and the economic strength of the labor movement If the labor is forceful it will yield results which surpass the reshysults of any other interest group
Who gets something out of it The first one who gets something out of it is quite obviously the union because the union can gain power The union can gainposts The union can occasionally see that funds which are accumulated in social seshycurity systems are deposited in the worker banks and worker banks become then the more powerful tool of making loans and investments where loans and investments are desirable Evidently trade union representatives can see to it that this particushylar function is not disregarded The power of the unions can also be abused and one of the famous examples is again in France in 1945 when the Comshymunist labor movement under the first De Gaulle government was able to conquer the social security administration and it took years before the purely politic-l interest of the Communist party of France
87
was eradicated or at least minimized in the French social security system
Now who else gets something out of it The public because if trade unions do not talk about the public nobody else does It is quite true that in the original French system for instance the organshyizations of large families the organization of social security beneficiaries were also represented but if you looked at the people who represented this orshyganization it would be the same people from the French trade unions which existed and appeared from the other side of the table representing their organizations
Who else gets something out of it The governshyment The government because some of the meashysures which social security imposes some of the regulations some of the rules of the game are so
complicated that unless the system has a ready mechanism for transmitting this information to the public the public will not gain anything from a social security system The trade unions and anyshybody else representing the public are a very excelshylent a far better motivated and a far more effecshytive means of having this information transmitted than any other
The last point is what has this to do with manshypower The feeling has always been that the particshyipation of the public in manpower planning and in manpower organization must be divorced from the particular aspect which is studied here It must be linked to the final goal of a manpower policy and participation can therefore be better able to coshydetermine or to influence at least the goals of a manpower policy
US GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1972 0-469-452
188
SYMPOSIUM ON POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN MANPOWER EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT
AND
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS V
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Wednesday April 291970
Morning Session Chairman Leo R Werts Assistant Secretary for Adminshy
istration US Department of Labor
KEYNOTE ADDRESS POPULAR PARTICIPATION DEVELOPMENT
Princeton N Lyman Chief Title IX Division Office of Program amp Policy Coordination Agency for International Development Discussion
AND
POPULAR PARTICIPATION AND MANPOWER AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT
Charles D Stewart Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Affairs Bureau of International Labor Affairs US Department of Labor
5
TITLE IX AND MANPOWER PROGRAMS OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Burnie Merson Chief Planning and Evaluation Division Office of Labor Affairs Agency for International Development
Afternoon First Session Chairman Harold Wool Director Office of the Assistant
Secretary for Policy Evaluation and Research US Deshypartment of Labor
11
SEVEN SIGNS FOR THE 1970s Seymour Wolfbein Dean School of Business Administration
Temple University Afternoon Second Session
Chairman Edwin J Cohn Title IX Division Office of Program and Policy Coordination Agency for Internashytional Development
15
ix
MOBILIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF INSTITUTIONS TO ASSIST IN EXPANDING THE POTENTIALS FOR GREATER EMPLOYMENT COMMUNITY AND PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS ROLE IN JOB CREATION
JOB CREATION IN AGRICULTURE Thomas F Carroll Agricultural Economic Section
American Development Bank Intershy
19
UNITED STATES EXPERIENCE WITH UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDEREMPLOYMENT
William Batt Consultant on Manpower Development Office of Economic Opportunity
24
ROLE OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BUSINESSMEN IN JOB C REATIO N
William Haas Vice President in Charge of Operations National Alliance of Businessmen
go
PRIVATE INVESTMENT AND JOB CREATING POSSIBILITIES Harriet S Crowley Director Office of Overseas Private Programs
Agency for International Development
27
Thursday April 30 1970
Morning First Session Chairman John F Hilliard Director Office of Education
and Human Resources Technical Assistance Buseau Agency for International Development
DEVELOPING ABILITIES THE LINK BETWEEN POPULAR PARTICIPATION AND INSTITU-TIONS INVOLVED IN EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT
POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN THE UNITED STATES
Samuel M Burt Director Understanding Program American University
IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION Business Council for International College of Continuing Education
29
TAIWAN AND KOREAN EFFORTS IN MANPOWER DEVEL-OPMENT THROUGH SCHOOL AND INDUSTRY COOPER-ATION
James D Murray Vocational Education Advisor Agency for International Development
a5
Morning Second Session Chairman Kenneth J Kelley Deputy Director Office
Labor Affairs Agency for International Development of
x
10R AND MANAGEMENTS SOCIAL POLICY INTERESTS IN TRAINING
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES WITHIN PRI-VATE INDUSTRY 9
Clayton J Cottrell Deputy Regional Manpower Administrator Atlanta Georgia US Department of Labor
Discussants J Julius F Rothman President Human Resources Development
Institute AFL-CIO Richard L Breault Manager Community and Regional Develshy
opment Group US Chamber of Commerce
Afternoon First Session Chairman Ealton L Nelson Manpower Advisor Planning
and Evaluation Division Office of Labor Affairs Agency for International Development
MATCHING WORKERS AND JOBS POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN STRENGTHENING OF JOB MARKET MECHANISMS AND INSTITUTIONS
NEW CONCEPTS OF THE EMPLOYMENT SERVICE ROLE TO MEET THE CHALLENGE OF THE 1970s 45
Malcolm R Lovell Jr Deputy Assistant Secretary for Manshypower and Manpower Administrator Manpower Administrashytion US Department of Labor
CREATION OF A CONSOLIDATED MANPOWER DELIVERY SYSTEM DECENTRALIZED TO THE STATES AND METRO-POLITAN AREAS-A WAY OF ACHIEVING INCREASED PAR-TICIPATION RESPONSIVE TO LOCAL NEEDS 49
Cyril D Tyson Deputy AdministratorCommissioner Manpower and Career Devciopment Agency New York City
Discussion 51
THE PROBLEM OF EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNI-TIES FOR W OM EN 53
Grace Farrell Chief oC the Labor Law Branch Womens Bureau US Department of Labor
Afternoon Second Session Chairman Ealton L Nelson
CASE STUDY-JOBS FOR PROGRESS Inc (OPERATION SER) 55 Seymour Brandwein Acting Associate Director Office of Research
and Development Manpower Administration US Departshyment of Labor
Discussion 58
Friday May 1 1970
Morning First Session Chairman Thomas E Posey Policy Planning and Evalushy
ation Staff Office of International Training Agency for International Development
xi
NEW DIRECTIONS FOR POPULAR PARTICIPATION TO DEAL WITH PROBLEMS ON MANPOWER UTILIZATION
PARTICIPATION OF THE WORKING POOR-UTILIZATION OF HUMAN RESOURCES IN ANTI-POVERTY PROGRAMS 61
Philip J Rutledge Director Department of Human Resources District of Columbia
COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN LATIN AMERICA LEAD-ING TO SOCIAL CHANGE AND INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOP-MENT RELATED TO MANPOWER 65
William F Whyte Professor Department of International and Comparative Labor Relatic s New York School of Industrial Relations Cornell University
Discussion 67 Morning Second Session
Chairman John E Blake Deputy Manpower Administrator for Employment Security Manpower Administration US Department of Labor
MOBILIZING THE PARTICIPATION OF YOUTH IN MAN-POWER AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT-A UNIVER-
SAL CHALLENGE 69 William Mirengoff Director JOB CORPS Manpower Adminisshy
tration US Department of Labor
MANPOWER AND YOUTH PROGRAMS IN THE DEVELOP-ING COUNTRIES OF AFRICA 77
Max R Lum Jr JOB CORPS Manpower Administration US Department of Labor
Discussion 78
Afternoon Session Chairman John E Dillon Chief Program Coordination
Division Office of Labor Affairs Agency for International Development
PARTICIPATION IN EFFORTS TO INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY AND TO PROMOTE THE WELFARE OF WORKERS
THE ROLE OF TRADE UNIONS AND EMPLOYER ORGANI-ZATIONS IN THE EFFICIENT UTILIZATION OF MANPOWER 81
Everett M Kassalow Professor of Economics University of Wisshyconsin
D iscussan ts 84 Paul Fisher Chief International Staff Office of Research and
Statistics Social Security Administration Department of Health Education and Welfare
Leonard Sandman Labor Advisor Bureau Near East and South A-la Affairs Department of State
LABOR PARTICIPATION IN SOCIAL SECURITY 87 Paul Fisher
Xii
OUJAAJ PARTICIPATION AND DEVELOPMENT
Princeton N Lyman
Title IX of the Foreign Assistance Act calls upon the Agency for International Development (AID) to encourage the growth of democratic private and local government institutions in carrying out its programs of assistance This paper briefly reviews the considerations being given and the things that are being done by the AID to carry out this injuncshytion Before proceeding with this review however several comments need to be made on the attitudes developing regarding local participation among other groups interested in development and on the nature and status of AIDs efforts in this area at this time I believe it liighly significant that there is growing recognition of the problems of particishypation and the need for their solution among orshyganizations concerned with development as well as within the AID There is increasing awaireness in many countries of the world that the problems of participation are not problems that can be put off until a certain higher level of modernization is achieved ever though this belief may seem (or seemed so a few years ago) an easier or more pracshytical path to development
With regard to AIDs activities we are not yet as deeply involved in the probleams of popular particishypation as we would like to be We are still searchshying for practical answers to these questions (1) How should popular participation be defined (2) How should it be applied and (3) What should AIDs role be in increasing local participation in the development process in general as well as in the manpower areaThese are difficult questions to anshyswer and I hope that the discussions during this conference will be helpful in developing answers to them
The concept of participation is a highly complex one We recognized this and appreciate the coMshyplexity of the concept in our attempt to think through the meaning of Title IX Is it political deshyvelopment or a new twist to the community develshyopment emphasis in economic aid Or just peopleshy
to-people programs What does this Title involve We chose quite specifically to emphasize the concept of participation because it is so broad The advanshytage of choosing a concept like participation is that it cuts across economic social and political factors It is probably the only concept that does cut across all these facets of the development process Not only that but we are convinced that the type of participation the degree of participation and the nature of participation that will be taking place in the development process in different countries is going to have to be decided by those societies based on the conditions that they face There are potenshytial trade-offs between economic participation and
political participation There are societies in which people are willing to accept some degree of authoritarianism for substantial economic benefits
There are other societies where that simply is not true people are most interested in owning a
piece of their own land than in higher wages as tenants or agricultural laborers These are probshylems that the society of a country will themselves have to think and argue through and then come up with a concept of participation The decision therefore should not be directed from the US preshydisposed point of view but from the point of view of that society We can appreciate the problems of
participation for developing societies by simply looking at otir own society where we have had a relatively large degree of participation However the growth in participation has been gradual and often difficult
If you look at the history of the United States since independence you can see that there have been gradual increasing waves of participation Each wave has been a difficult one for the United States to absorb even with its wealth its relatively stable democratic institutions How much more then is the problem of participation in countries which have very meager resources extraordinarily crowded conditions on the land and are desper-
I
ately concerned with obtaining even the basic reshysources for development These are problems that simply cannot be swept under the rug by general rhetoric about democratic institutions or principles or about participation Yet the interesting thing about the Title IX or perhaps the most dramatic and challenging thing about it is that it enjoins us to find ways of assisting in the development procshyess that will allow for greater participation earlier rather than later in the development process What Title IX says is that you cannot accept the simple doctrine that participation is a luxury of the develshyoped countries or of the richer countries or of tle more advanced modernizing countries None of the
people of the developing countries will accept it nor does it inake sense in terms of modern developshyment as opposed to whatever experience the Euroshy
pean countries and the United States may have gone through
Carrying through these objectives of Title IX is a challenge and it is not an easy one but I think it is terribly important and a dramatic one and I think a viable one We are capable if we set our minds to it to find development strategies which allow small farmers as well as large farmers which allow landless laborers as well as land owners unshyskilled as well factory workers to have some sense of participation and see some place for themselves in the development process economically socially and politically It is when we get down to the techshynical details when we get down to manpower training prograns thlat the real problems face us One of the things that I tiink is interesting about the problems in tile field of man power development is that it presents a lot of related problems Let me touch on just a few It seems to me that one of the
problems is clearly the question of relationship beshytween wages capital investnent and employment ft is a real symbolic and ideological problem It is a real problem in the senise tiat many countries are planning or are already developing by taking adshyvantage of developing industry In some cases they are taking advantage of the low cost labor in agrishyculture and particularly in relation to export prices However tlhese countries and some of their AID donor agencies are terribly concerned about the effect of rising wages on this pattern of developshyment at least in the short run This condition is reflected in most of the countries int uneasiness about labor organization and furtherance of labor unions For the AI) donors the problem arises beshycause whenever wages seem to go ip or threaten to
go up there is the temptation to shift to more capishytal intensive industries which is precisely where the AID resources are available Foreign exchange from AID will finance much of the capital investshyment but it is domestic resources whichi must finance labor costs and thus AID donors are faced with tile making of a difficult decision do they or do tile) not provide the foreign exchange for inshyvestment in capital This is becoming particularly serious in agriculture where such investment may displace mal) workers Even if this is only a prob lem in the short run-or as some may argue emshyployment in the tertiary sector will rise and offset the loss in agriculture-it still is a very big one for
people who are out of work because the siort rtuni for them is their lives today tomorrow and maybe for the next year A second dilemma it seems to me is the types of manpower training that we go into or that the countries that we assist are going into One of the things that we are becoming
painfully aware of in AID is the fact that educashytion structures and the formal educational systems that we have been working on in the -ountries abroad are simply inadequate to keep up with the growth of population of school age children and tile training of older people
In some instances the growth of the school age
population outruns the growth of educational facilshyities despite tremendous bursts of expenditures on education This situation raises a lot of problems and mainy difficult choices Sonic countries would argue (and you call see this in the development
pattern of many countries) tiat there is simply nothing tile) cal do about it They believe they have to concentrate on training those people who are going to go to the top those people who are to be administrators the managers the industrial elite all the way down to tile middle level It is not
possible for them they feel to be responsible not in this decade or generation for the training or giving of any kind of really meaningful education to the majority of people in the country Some peoshy
ple believe the latter is the only choice There is however an alternative approach which is fraught with all kinds of com 1plexities but attracts many people and that is to move much more heavily into what is called Informal Systems of Education These are systems of education that do not rest on the formal schoolhouse system or the trained colshylege-educated teacher or which are even related to training persons to take their place in the elite role What this system can do is to give people the
O)
ability to cope with the situation that is changing around them or to have some sense of ability to cope with their immediate environment Now these programs whether carried out by labor unions by priests by cooperatives or by innovative educators are very experimental They are also highly controshyversial because when you systematically go at trainshying a mass of people to have a share in a society in which they are not the elite you are challenging sometimes the very social structure of that society
I would take some issue with the position held by some regarding the dangers of more participashytion I think there are dangers in mass participashytion that could lead to frustration and violence But on the other hand participation is not only a means to an organized end it is very often the sum and substance of a mans dignity his ability to say I am a man that I have some part of control over my own destiny Even if he does not have the right technical solution his right to have someshything to say about how those technical solutions are applied gives him dignity How we blend that technical information with that dignity is an exshytremely difficult challenge for all of us who are soshycalled professionals in the development field The fact that people demand that element of parshyticipation or that element of control and that they have to demand it often in very dramatic ways to wake us up to the fact of how little they control their own destiny is perhaps a good thing
We are unquestionably in a very controversial difficult and perhaps dangerous area and yet parshyticipation and the injunction upon us to become inshyvolved in participation carries us purposefully into that area
I would like to touch on one other subject that I think is perhaps somewhat underplayed in our disshycussions of manpower and that is the question of rural manpower Very often when we talk about manpower training and labor we talk about the urban or perhaps the semi-urban groups However I just recently reviewed a number of papers on land reforms and land tenure and from this mateshyrial it becomes increasingly obvious that one of the great manpower problems facing most of the develshyoping countries is rural manpower It is not just a question of dividing up the land because in some countries there simply is not enough land to divide up (I say this as a strong advocate of land redistrishybution) We cannot even if we support land reform avoid the fact that there is another class of people that needs to be dealt with as well-the vast
amount of landless laborers tenant farmers or tiny landowners who need to be given some sense of efshyficacy and ability to participate in the development process
Organizing rural manpower giving them some stake in society has proven extraordinarily diffishycult even for the revolutionaries who go out into the countryside to organize the rural workers as well as for the more moderate or conservative reshygimes when they try to find some path to give those workers a stake in as well as a ieason to purshysue agricultural modernization I think this is a task which all of us have neglected too long and one that is going to be upon all of us in the develshyopment business in the next decade Moreover as the Green Revolution spreads accompanied by high yield varieties of crops which will change the
pace of agricultural production in many developshying countries it will become an increasing and most vexing problem
AID is also deeply concerned with the question of the organizations and institutions needed in deshyveloping countries to bring all or as many persons as possible into meaningful participation roles This question is especially important since one thing we have done about Title IX so far is to give it a straight people-to-people approach What Title IX is really all about is getting participation down to the little man the individual farmer or the individual village However we also know that the present AID programs are not reaching nor are the developing countries capable of reaching on a pershyson-to-person basis the hundreds of millions of
people we are talking about To persons in the manpower field I do not have to dwell on the imshyportance of the organizational and institutional factors that must be faced to accomplish this goal In the whole area of labor-both urban and ruralshythese factors are vital ones
I might also note in connection with the labor field that labor unions should be able to play an important role in broadening the participation base
Clearly labor unions play a very critical role in defining openess in political society However we also have some indications though still vague that labor unions may play an even more important role in such matters in the early stages of modernishyzation I think that it is terribly important that this matter be looked into much more deeply There are of course other institutional and organishyzational questions in the manpower area which are
3
beyond the scope of the labor unions which must be considered These include rather broad but still significant questions concerning the general nature and scope of over-all manpower development on how to reach organize and provide access to reshysources for vast numbers of people These as well as the other problems I raised in this paper are some of the challenges of applying participation in the manpower area
Discussion
Question from the floor This comment is in reshygard to the problem you noted concerning capital imports from donor countries and their possible adverse effects on employment opportunities in the developing country Has any consideration been given to the development of guidelines by the AID for use in the analysis of the impact of public works construction in developing countries which would allocate the cost of labor using a shadow cost formula for determining the feasibility or desirashybility of importing capital equipment versus using local labor If there is unemployment in the counshytry local labor costs could be considered as zero for determining economic and social feasibility of imshyporting capital equipment
Mr Lymans comment Your suggestion is inshyteresting but it raises certain practical problems In most cases the cost of labor for a project has to come out of domestic resources of the country Thus large labor intensive projects will require substantial amounts of such resources which most developing countries simply do not have or are not too willing to mobilize for such purposes They prefer therefore to find a combination which reshyduces the burden on domestic resources and places the larger burden upon the capital side which will be financed by the AID donor The AID donor also tends to look upon such financing favorably beshycause the financing of capital expenditures usually is done in the form of financing export of US equipment
Question from the floor I should like to make the following comment with respect to participashytion particularly in Latin or Central America There is a degree of participation in these counshytries far beyond that which we reL gnize For exshyample certainly in the universities of Latin Amershy
ica there is substantial participation of the students and faculty in decisions regarding university polshyicy Also in the rural areas of some of the Latin American countries and in the health programs of these countries there is a considerable amount of participation of the local population It seems to me that the degree of participation in most of the Latin American countries has been related to the resources available for such participation If you do not have resources your extent of participation is going to be rather limited it seems rather futile to spend time discussing a new well or developing new labor supply or new jobs if the resources are not available to support these programs These are really comments rather than any criticisms or quesshytions regarding your talk
Mr Lymans comment I think your comment is highly relevant to development strategy If you are trying to devise a practical approach to participashytion and development you have to try to deal with increasing ways of participation as they are going to be generated or should be generated by the stages of development
Question from the floor For some time the Farmers Union International Development Services has been involved in participation programs throughout Latin America We have found that in the agricultural field problems of clearance with the mission may develop which sometimes seriously restrict our efforts because the programs that we are conducting are offset by counterproductive official programs which are supported by the AID mission
Mr Lymans comment Your points are well taken I think one of the really difficult practical problems for AID agencies and the US in popular participation is that we are caught between the fact that we are a US government agency dealing with the host governments which as you point out may or may not be sympathetic with the participation of peasants unions or rural workers However it is a problem that is now recognized I believe in the recent legislation establishing the Inter-American Social Development Institute which is designed by Congress to set up a social development institute separate from the regular AID program and which will operate as relatively autonomous in the areas of social change
4
TOIPULAR PARTICIPATION AND MANPOWER AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT
Charles D Stewart
As I understand my task in this symposium I am supposed to provide the linkage between the aspirashytions of Title IX which I suppose are intended for domestic consumption as well as export and the more workaday objectives of manpower policy All of this I take it is within a framework of ecoshynomic policy namely for economic development in the LDCs and full employment without inflashytion in the developed countries Hopefully I will succeed in lihking social participation and the obshyjectives of manpower policy (called manpower and employment development by the sponsors of the symposium)-and do so without trying you and myself particularly with a repetition of the verities of our trade (ressed up in the mantle of social parshyticipation
If I may be excused I will take my text for the day not from Title IX or the original statement or introduction for this symposium which I agree with almost entirely but find somewhat heady Inshystead I will take my text from William Fellner in his 1969 presidential address to the American Ecoshynomic Association-wrenched perhaps somewhat outof context but I think suggestive for our purshyposes
Fellner attempted to sum up the pros and cons of what has come to be known as the Residual Factor or Investment in Education or Knowledge-to apshypraise the differential yield of what he calls progshyress-generating inputs (for education and knowlshyedge) that produce additional output indirectly via their effect upon conventionally defined producshytion functions relative to ordinary investment I extrapolate to include social investments in particishypatory democracy as progress-generating inputs Fellner argues that public decisions of a non-marshyket variety depend for viability upon how well in the West the political mechanism is capable of bridging the differences in subjective evaluations of competing groups My text is his final sentence
Is it realistic to expect that the propensity to reach compromises can be increased by making the bargaining parties aware of the fact that the joint payoff on reaching an agreement is high
I was tempted by an alternative text whose aushythor I dont know You cant move the Phillips curve to the left in a country that is going to the right Its a nice quip but not true insofar as manshypower policy in a market economy can remove imshyperfections in knowledge and competition and orshyganization to achieve a better functioning labor market Yet even so the final outcome could deshypend on willingness of workers to participate in soshycial decisions-my extrapolation of Fellners quesshytion in bargaining theory
What I intend to do using this as a jumping off point is to examine the question of social particishypation as it has been raised in manpower policy (much to the credit of our fraternity) in the conshytext of economic stabilization in the North and ecshyonomic development in the South How critical is social participation for success of economic policy in the two worlds
Now I know ivhat with increasing disappointshyment in the economic payoff of development plans in the LDCs commonly blamed on the economists in charge or at large it is increasingly popular to say that development is not simply increasing ecoshynomic production but also achieving fundamental social objectives-as President Caldera of Venezuela said in opening the recent ILO Conference in Cashyracas This is essentially the same as in the North where it is now popular to say that quantitative gains in GNP are not the end of economic policy
If I may return -lefly to Title IX it is one of the virtues of that leclaration of American foreign assistance policy nat it conceives of social particishypation not only as an end but as an instrument of economic development I have said earlier that I
5
find much of what has been said in praise of Title IX somewhat heady-a new expression of American missionary zeal more praised abroad than perhaps at home and somewhat naive with respect to the political dynamics or implications of social transshyformation of backward if not corrupt political reshygimes The cultivation of social participation on the labor market called industrial democracy by an earlier generation may no doubt contribute in time-if we have a long enough time perspectiveshyto the toppling of reactionary political and social structures But success is more likely in a society where social participation finds expression in a countrys constitutional structure It would have been difficult if I may illustrate to have imagined the gains in collective bargaining in the United States in the thirties an adventure in social parshyticipation if there ever was one without the conshystitutional presuppositions of the American system (which in other countries may exist only in intershynational declarations of human and trade union rights) Even so one must hurry to say there was much that was fortuitous in the American developshyment much that would never have happened withshyout self-help on the labor markets much that was not quite yet legal that transformed American law and American society
I suppose there is no need to push my argument to the point of the obvious Any political system is a system of social participation It may be more demshyocratic or less democratic It may have more or less of a market economy It may rely less on legislative means and more on rules for the labor market worked out by the social partners on the labor marshyket and then extended or reinforced by legislation as to some degree in the French and German sysshytems It is perhaps a matter of taste or culture or circumstance or relative efficiency whether a counshy-fry may favor a welfare system in which benefits are handed down or favor the socialization of sectors or processes by means of cooperatives or trade unshyions or codetermination or new forms of public corporations or instrumentalities for active as against passive participation in a political democshyracy It is also a matter of tactics and the stage of development how the disadvantaged or disposshysessed in any society can organize their strength for social and economic advancement and status
What is not guaranteed by Title IX or by any transformation of the political or social structure by land reform by cooperation by collective barshygaining by industrial democracy-is economic sucshy
cess Whether economic success is simply a matter of time or some elements of capitalist spirit or trashydition of entrepreneurship or a free market still has to be tested I wish only to note that there is an essential tension between social participation and a market-oriented and motivated economy which is critical both for economic growth and for social deshymocracy both in the North and the South
Now I will try to be concrete and incidentally strive to cover part of the ground that the managshyers of this symposium hope will contribute to some kind of systematic survey of social or popular parshyticipation in the attainment of manpower and emshyployment development Since my specific topic is identical with that of the symposium as a whole I may be forgiven if I touch some matters I think most suggestive while leaving to others including my discussant what they are better prepared than I to discuss Fortunately for me and perhaps for you it has been suggested that it might be useful if I bring into focus some of the experience of the North as it may be relevant by my intuitions to the problems of developments in the South
To do this in the most concrete way I wish to use Sweden and France as two case studies-beginning as it were with the idyll of the Garden of Eden and going on perhaps to things which must come to pass shortly in the Apocalypse of the Western world
To Americans Sweden has been thought of since at least the publication of Marquis Childs Sweden the Middle Way as the perfect example of a participatory democracy There was not only the popular participation of ordinary people in the cooperative movement which Childa thought of as the heart of the Swedish way there was also the broad-based trade union movement that carried over to the political scene and completed the trilshyogy in a government responsive to its power base in the trade unions and cooperative movement
But the institutionalization of social participashytion in Sweden didnt stop with these achieveshyments One leading Swedish economist Lindbeck writing a brief history of economic thought and ecshyonomic policy in postwar Sweden itemized the two historic developments as (1) the adoption of modshyern fiscal monetary policy at the macro level and (2) the adoption of Rehns conception of an active manpower policy at the micro level I will not stop here to elaborate the connection between the two except to say that an active manpower policy preshysupposed if it were to succeed a carefully managed
6
general demand policy holding short of full emshy
ployment in order to avoid inflation suppleshymented by selective demand and labor market supshyply policies in order to maintain stable levels of full employment
These economic presuppositions of Swedish polshyicy since the late Fifties have been no more or less fulfilled than in other countries and Swedish acshytive manpower policy has had to engage in fireshyfighting operations and has not always been equal to the task of overcoming mistaken demand polshyicies But these matters are not our immediate conshycern
What is relevant to our purposes are two things (1) the social environment that made possible the formulation of an active manpower policy-by the trade unions it so happened-as a means of comshybating postwar inflation in order to escape authorishytarian wages and incomes policy that would have in the view of the LO undermined a free trade union movement and a policy of free collective barshygaining with employers on the labor market and (2) the creation of a tripartite Labor Market Board
What I want to say about the first-the social enshyvironment in Sweden-brings me back to my text from Fellner Nowhere perhaps is there a greater propensity to reach compromises and to do so beshycause of an awareness that the joint payoff of an agreement is high
What I want to say about the second point-the creation of a multipartite labor market boardshygives me a chance to cover some of the ground that the managers of this symposium had in mind in constructing the symposium But I will try to do this without touching all the bases in literal fashshyion I trust my umpire will he indulgent
I must concede that the social participation repshyresented by active tripartite management of the Labor Markct Board is a compromise between
popular participation and efficient administration I really dont know how much of a New England town meeting a Parent Teachers Association a community swimnuing pool organization a housing cooperative a stibiiban civic association or Group Health let alone a community action agency is inshyvolved in what appears to be a well-organized articshyulation of community interests via the tripartite Labor Market Board
But the fact is that the administration of Swedshyish labor market policy and programs is not solely in the hands of a government bureaucracy with adshy
visory committees but is in the hands of what we would call a quasi-public organization from the top in Stockholm down to every provincial labor marshyket board The Board and the boards play an essenshytial role in the economic planning process longshyterm and conjunctural and in actual administration of the labor market If the constituencies of the three parties have any complaints which I suppose they do remedies presumably lie within the rules of the trade unions the employer organizations and the Rikstag but I cant quite imagine a mass demonstration
On substantive matters the Board and the local boards deal wih all of the problems of human reshysources development employment creation mobilshyity and relocation There is of course the usual difficulties of coordination between the school aushythorities and the vocational authorities and pershyhaps some doubts as Sweden moves in the direction of the American nonvocationally oriented high school Otherwise the business of the Labor Marshyket Board is (1) to facilitate the restructuring of the Swedish economy which involves fortunately for Sweden chiefly the movement of workers from the low-productivity forest-based activities of the North to the modern technology of the South and (2) to minimize cyclical fluctuations in the economy
We need only note the new emphasis which may be siuimarized by saying that aside from the wellshyknown mobility features of the program the aim is to provide a combination of training requirements involved in the restructuring c the economy and at the same time furthcr human resource developshyment by providing constructive substitutes for tinshyemployment in recession The result is that trainshying and quasi-training activities rise a5 the demand for employment declines and-in the recession of 1966-68-rose more than the rise in unemployment
But is all right in the Garden of Eden Does the social participation represented by th e tripartite Labor Market Board the friendly collaboration of the unions and the employer associations the discishypline of world competitioi on wage and price polshyicy the continued success of the popular based Soshycial Democratic party at the polls-does this sophistishycated form of social participation satisfy the needs of popular participation It may be only a trivial
phenomenon but the worrisome question in Sweden is how to explain wildcat strikes by workers with few economic complaints who feel neglected by their trade union and political represhysentatives
7
Even before this little breach in paradise Charles De Gaulle anticipated what was to become in France the explanatory factor-the Events of May in 1968 For many years De Gaulle intishymated the need for social participation of workers in what lie conceived to be some kind of a comshypromise with a capitalist society What he meant was never too clear but some specifics touching on profit sharing worried French businessmen and never aroused much enthusiasm in the trade unshyions or support within the party or the bureaucshyracy But De Gaulle must be credited with some kind of intuition of the dissatisfaction of workers with their role in French society and n economic life Profit-sharing codetermination industrial deshymocracy were not anything new but I think it was De Gaulle and the Events of May that brought the need for social participation to the forefront in the North in much the same way as the proponents of Title IX had done in American AID policy at about the same time
What was the situation in France that accounted for De Gaulles solitary premonitions France was viewed by many as almost the perfect model of the welfare state I remember Patrick Moynihans inshyterest in family allowances when lie visited France while Assistant Secretary of Labor He did see povshyerty in St Denis but responded Well at least everyshybody is at work But as the Events of May were to demonstrate in 1968 what matters is not simply full employment (there was of course a little reshycession in 1966-67) or levels of living or family alshylowances in the welfare state or pretty regular gains in real living (although there had been some disappointments on this score as a result of stabilishyzation policy in France during those years) What mattered in France way underneath was the feelshying of French workers that they had no influence in French policy or French society-not only that they were not sharing fairly in the gains of French economic policy (a point which is arguable)
I may recall that the student and worker demonshystrations brought France to the verge of collapse in May of 1968 De Gaulle left the country and reshyturned only after he had secured the support of the French military abroad The alienation of the stushydents was to be explained in no small part by their dissatisfaction with French educational and manshypower policy vhicli they thought was designed to allocate them to slots in the staffing pattern of a capitalist French society Neither the young nor the older generation were enthusiastic about the
new economic society of the Fifth Plan Despite some interconnections the workers demonstrated on their own and wished to have nothing to do with the students Their gripe was their isolation at the plant level from the machinery the goals and the preoccupations of their unions and their national union leadership
Most French workers probably never heard of codetermination in Germany probably had little idea what De Gaulle meant by social participation probably knew or cared little about the niceties of French planning or economic policy and probably didnt want to run their companies businesses To understand their feeling of isolation I need only to mention that French unionism is fragmented along political and religious lines the so-called Workers Councils are legislative creations and generally unshyused at most plants for grievance or other purposes There is ordinarily little union organization at the plant level even where most workers belong to one political union or another Wage levels are genershyally above the negotiated national or regional rates and are set largely by employers in response to marshyket factors and not by negotiation In brief the union is not preeminently an instrument for setshyting wages or settling grievances
At the Labor Ministers office on the Rue de Greshynelle the then Prime Minister Mr Pompidou neshygotiated the Grenelle Agreement in the final days of May 1968 with representatives of the French emshyployers and trade unions who running scared sat together for the first time took steps to raise real wages promote plant unionism and to appease French workers who at the very moment were takshying things into their own hands at their work places The results subsequently on the labor marshyket have been quite creditable The government also capitulated to the university s adents who are now again in 1970 demonstrating at Nanterre against the very university self-government that Faurd was villified for having forced the Assembly to accept in 1968
What then can we say is the experience of the North that may be relevant to maximizing popular participation as a means-in the language of Title IX-for sustained economic and social progress What is the role of manpower and employment policy in the process of social democratization
We have seen clearly in recent years that manshypower policy has an essential complementary role to economic policy-for human resource developshynient and more particularly for training to meet
8
the opportunities and needs of the labor market and for solving the structural problems involved in the continuous restructuring of the modern econshyomy which means both concern for the producshytivity and for minimization of unemployment
But this limited conception of manpower and employment policy is I think it fair to say someshywhat neutral with respect to social goals In authorshyitarian societies it is possible to imagine an efficient manpower and labor market policy quite inconsistent with a democratic society But even in Western societies we have more than a few intishymations that economic progress can be frustrated by frustrations of workers who feel alienated from soliety who feel they have no responsible role no share in decision-making no recognition no social status
The problem of the LDCs is more difficult and I must defer to those with more experience in these
special probleis As implied in Title IX the task is to develop democratic social institutions where they dont exist and where they may be in fact reshysisted by the beneficiaries of the old order I supshy
pose the experience of the North is that it is a slow process Nonetheless the democratic institutions of the North have evolved out of self help in the
creation of instruments of self governance not only in civil arrangements of local government and the political state but in the productive process and on the labor market We should not ignore or undershyestimate the democratic aspects of a free labor marshyket of a market economy or a capitalist society even if we dont wish to press the historic connecshytions between a market economy and political deshymocracy in the West
It is the special virtue of the policy expressed in Title IX that while trying not to impose our preshyconceptions on others we take a long view and fosshyter those elements of education training cooperashytivism land reform and trade unionism that are instruments for self help for both the political and economic man
To come back to my text it is a slow proCess but the only prospect for responsible bargaining the essence of the political process in a democracy is for the dispossessed to become possesse(l to have a stake-and to know the payoff is high-in the viashybility of the economy and the political state Which means to have confidence in their own strength and a sense of responsibility and participashytion in the adjustment processes of society Rememshyber Sweden and remember Francel
9
TITLE IX AND MANPOWER PROGRAMS OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
by Burnie Merson
The goals of Title IX of the Foreign Assistance planning level nationally regionally and locally of Act are stated in general terms These goals are to workers farm and employer organizations in deshydevelop citizen participation in the creation of the velopment of policy and programs to achieve full goods and services needed for economic develop- prodtctive freely chosen employment These and ment and their participation in the fruits of the in- other regional eriployment and manpower planshycreased produictivity resulting from economic ning programs have set the basic structure of world growth However before it is possible to develop and regional manpower plans which stress not the required policies and programs to achieve the only full employment but freely chosen employ objectives of Title IX it is necessary to clearly de- nient fine what is meant by citizen participation and to The achievement of popular participation restate the objectives of Title IX in more specific through productive and freely chosen employment terms will be limited without the opportunity on the
Restatement of Title IX in terms of specific ob- part of the labor force of all ages youth as well as jectives with respect to manpower would relate to adult workers for further educational and occupashycitizen participation in the development process of tional training Also to widen the employment op a country through such matters as job developshy portunities of the workers there must be a broadenshynuent skill development increased worker produc- ing of the occupational choice available to the tivity and improvement of the labor market mech- labor force Qualified jo) seekers may be barred anism This paper briefly discusses the major kinds from available job openings as a result of a number of manpower programs and objectives which I be- of factors These include improper functioning of lieve will help meet the objectives of Title IX It the labor market which impedes matching of men also discusses some of the activities of the interna- and jobs discrimination because of race creed tional and regional organizations which are related color an( unreal educational standards which go to these programs far beyond the needs of the job
One basic element of popular participation The above impediments -are found in virtually should be the development of prpductive jobs every developing country in which I have had some Provision of both full and productive employment experience and in all cases these impediments lead enables those seeking work to have the opportunity to frustrations To cite several examples illtistratshyto obtain remunerative jobs which are essential not ing these impediments to matching of men and only to enable the workers to obtain income jobs In one country because of family structure needed for basic food shelter and clothing but certain good jobs are only available to those who also to permit them to participate in the benefits of conie from the right families In another country any increased outitput of goods and services in the tnless you have the right diplomas front the right country university you are barred from jobs at certain lev-
Another basic element of popular participation els in the government This is so despite the fact is the idea of workers freely choosing their employ- that there are often highly competent people who ment The International Labor Office Basic Con- get education training and experience on-the-job vention 122 the Ottawa Plan for Resource Devel- and are quite qualified for these other jobs Yet opment the Asian plan and the Jobs and Skills they cannot move up to them because they do not program for Africa call for the participation at the have theproper credentials
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There also can be important impacts on popular participation in the development process through tie minimum wage and social security programs
Minimum wages appropriately administered and
established can play a significant role in establishshy
ing levels of staldards of living consistent with the
objectives of welfare and ians dignity However the minimumn wage levels if raised too high can
have significant adverse effects on employment pro)spects for certain segments of the p pIlation
For example youths seekiiig summer jobs -nd pershysons with low skills and inadequate training may be priced out of the job market Social security simishy
larly can have an important and valuable impact on the standard of living of a country However its value depends upon the incidence of the tax and
how it results in the redistribution of the fruits of production to various segments of the population
The workers sense of participation in the develshyoping process is significantly enhanced if there is
participation through the trade union Trade unshyions can be important not only because of direct
participation in the economic development of a
cotintry but also because they van develop cooperashytion with other sectors of the p 2ation as represhyselited by employer associations and farm groups Similarly the government in its operations through ilh labor miiinistries is an important factor
inl deveiopinent of the institutioinal capabilities for matching men and jobs and developing skills as well as establishiig safety and labor standards And there also is the whole gamut of government reshy
lated institutions which help bring the workers in
closer con tact with tlie government and with the
developmenclt process
The programs aid objectives of the various inshy
ternational orgainiatiolis such as the 110 Convenshy
tion 122 and the Declaration of Cundinamarca
have in my judgment important goals consistent
with the objectives of Titll IX For example the Declaration of Cundinamarca notes that there
Can be no effective cconoinmic and social developshy
ment unless the legitimate rights of labor are recshy
ognized aind the aopirations of the workers are
expressed in terms of concrete achievements involvshy
ing wages eliployimieit working con(ditions social
security health housing and education In accomshy
plishing these tasks the Ministries of Labor have a
vital role to play They should be the ones to take
appropriate steps toward the establislument in each
of their coiintries of a National Council of Human
Resources at the highest level This Council should
be structured to conform with the constittition of the particular country The participation of a wide number of groups should he contemplated includshying universities representatives of employers minshyistries of education vocational training centers national planning offices bureaus of statistics nashytional productivity (cliters and other pertinent agencies that may exist in a given country The Declaration had particularly strong recommendashytions regarding the inclusionl of re 1 resentatives of democratic trade unions employer organizations aud ministries of labor to study and evaluate tile degree of trade union freedom and participation of the workers in the formulation and execution of national development programs
Any) popular participation on the international scene is represented by the ILO and OAS resolushytion predate Title IX of the Foreign Assistance Act In some respects the tying of the manpower program to a broad participation policy is easier than in other fields Manpower has always had a wide or horizonital iniput into almost all sectors of the economy It is it only coicerned with the varshyious industrial sectors-agriculture nonagriculture
bti also public adm inistration edtication health and military sectors This may often be forgotten becatise depending upon specific needs one may look at manpower solely from a single sectorial
stanlpoint Also it is difficult to handle and to look at manpower as ani interrelated system For examshy
ple an emiiployieit service Imay runia teacher
placelelit scrvice a farm placement service and services to the private andillpblic sectors It may also be concenlied with occupational safety both in the public and private sectors Also when an agency attem pts to measure uinemploymen t it usually covshyers all sectors of the population it does not ignore one or aiiot her if possible
Finally a comninet is required on the possibility of developing participation of various groups ill maiipower programs My experience in Korea and Taiwan iidicates that it is possible to do So with considera ble success In developilng plais for mallshy
power we enlisted the consmtiiers of the output of vocational schools anid the various trailing agenshycies as well as the public aul private sector groups We brought together people from the educatioial sector government in general as well as business
an(d commerce with tle vocatiollal and technical training agencies Of course for special problems arising out of the nature of the country and their social and political customs there was cooperation
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both in providing indication of the nature of their needs as well as providing in some irstances finan-cial support In other instances industry provided shop teachers and brought foremen in from plants in order to show teachers the way things were done in industry
Rcview of the current international manpower
activities in my judgment indicates that in this syea there is at least tle beginning of programs and
actions which can help bring into fruition thc obshyjcdvcs of Title IX if thcy are broadened and dishyrcid more specifically towards the goals of full citizen participation in thcountrys development programs
13
SEVEN SIGNS FOR THE 1970s
by Seymour Wolfbein
In many years of study of manpower developshyments in the United States I have found that one can single out certain trends and changes in the economy which are highly significant as signposts or directional signs for probable future developshyments I would like to submit that there are a handful of such trecnds on which we can concenshytrate as playing sig~nificant roles in the manpower developments over the next decade Although these developments may have different importance and different values for devcloping countries I would also submit that they are of sufficient importance to be given serious consideration in any nalysis of manpower developments in the developing counshytries The following lists the seven developments that I believe are of greatest importance at present
1 Tcchnological change
2 Industrial an(d occupational change
3 Geographic change
4 Educational change
5 Population change
6 Manpower change
7 Disaggregation
Technological change Although the various items are not listed according to their relative imshyportance I would say that it is not possible to talk about moving ahead in any discussion of manshy
power or economic development without first conshysidering the problem oi technological change and its impact upon not only manpover but all aspects of life In the United States over the last 25 years output per man hour has been going ill) at about
the rate of 3 a year Thus over this period outshyput in the United States per man hour has doushybled Over the long run this is really only a blink of time A number of rather startling examples of the impact of such change in the United States can be found Let us look at agriculture for example
In that sector for the last 20 years in a row the United States has lost 200000 jobs per year off the farm Yet farm output over the period has inshycreased by more than 40 It was also during this
period that we were able to land a man on the l11OO1i
Industrial and occupational change Developshyments in the industrial-occupational area is one that most certainly cannot be ignored when conshysidering problems of popular participation Even in the United States most people are startled when it is pointed out that two out of every three people who work for a living in the United States produce services rather than goods As a result of these changes the number of professhysional workers now outnumber all of the skilled workers-one out of three persons who work for a living in the country are either professional personshynel or they are clerical workers such as secretaries stenographers and typists These conditions are also reflected in the dynamics of the working popushylation with the result that the proportion of the working population organized by the trade union movement has been going down since the end of World War II This trend apparently seems to be continuing It is therefore to be expected that in the next several years the major industrial relations actions will be going On in the service-producing side
Geographic change We are all aware that there has been tremendous migration out of the rural areas and tremendous growth in urbanization in this country since World War II The scope of these developments may be more fully understood when it is noted that three States in the United States (California Texas and Florida) account for one out of every six jobs Moreover these States in 1969 accounted for one-fifth of all the personal inshycome as neasured in the Gross National Product acounts With such concentrations of population
15
what does it do to the problem of job creation How does one handle this kind of dynamics in reshylation to this problem To further complicate the matter there is this tremendous intracity migration ie exodus to the suburbs Thus the geographic parameter of job development in itself is an amazshying phenomena
Educational change Formal education in this country has expanded substantially to the point where at present some 60 of the persons three to 31 years of age are formally registered in school When one looks at the so-called professional pershysonnel one finds that for the group as a whole the median years of school completed is seventeenshythat is equivalent to a masters degree Remember this is the median We must also remember that the professional category includes beauticians and opticians as well as physicians and physicists Thus even with ccrtaii occupations which require relatively few years of schooling the median is still 17 years But the most important factor here is that there is a world of difference betwcen median years of school completed and educational achievement The real question is what is the quality and the nashyture of the output to be obtained from these years of schooling Is the schooling being directed toshywards those occupations and activities which will be most needed in the 1970s It is estinatel by the Department of Labor that in the 1970s we are going to need as much manual talent as academic talent but will we be getting it
Will our vocational training program be realistishycally geared to meet the current needIs or to conshytinue as some of them are to provide training that is of little relationship to the industrial world of today
Population change We have experienced in the United States as in iost other countries since World War II a phenomenal rise in (he populashytion The birth rate in the United States showed sul)stantial increases until recently and has now deshyclined substantially But it lutist be noted that this lower birth rate is being applie(l as the demograshyphers say to an increasing number in the cohort of females of child-bearing age Therefore although the rate of births may be low the number of births is still high The growth in population since 1915 in this country for example has been such that in this 25 years half of the population of the United States was horn-a little over 100 million Accordshying to the 1970 population preliminary estimates the population at present is some 205 million as
compared to 170 million in 1960 or an increase over the decade of over ten liercent Another way of looking at it is that one out of every three people alive today in the United States was not born yet fifteen years ago We are already aware of the growth in the youth population and the problems that developed in connection with youth but it would seen that this problem may be further inshytensified
Manpower change The Labor Department proshyjections for the 1970s indicate that we may expect a 22 increase in the labor force during this decshyade This is an unprecelented and unparalleled inshycrease in the labor force never experienced before in the United States Most important of course in this increase is what it will do to the composition of the labor force Two changes come to mind readshyily First despite the so-called population and labor force explosion there is a decline in the popshytilation age group 35 to 44 We know that the soshycalled manpower profile in the Unitd States looks like an hour glass-there is a big batch of young people coming tip and a big batch of older
people It has vital implications for manpowertraining and for employers who wish to hire people in the age group that has had some work experishyence or career development This sector of the popshyulation is declining The second factor of equal importance is that one out of seven new workers coming up in the 1970s is going to be black
Disaggregation For the lack of finding a better term I use disaggregation By that I mean that it is necessary to look at the previous six developshyments and to consider them in some specific kinds of detail The point that is of particular imporshytance in the context of population participation and of job creation is that these six trends could be very beneficial for economic development But there is a large part of the population not only in the United States but in many other countries of the world which have not benefited from these trends and it is with these groups that in the imshymediate years ahead the problens will be greatest in terms of job creation and job development The
question will be bow to get the various parts of the
population together and to participate in these particular tasks
It may very well be right to say as I did preshyviously that we are now a service-producing econshyomy that we are a white collar group but in terms of the problems to be faced in connection with parshyticipation we must recognize the fact that a subshy
16
stantial part of the population even in the United States is not part of these what we have called mainstream developments Let us turn to some specific illustrations of what I mean For example the fact of the matter is that over 25 of all Negro males who work in this country are in one
occupation group while almost 50 of all Negro women are in one occupational group The males
are conacentrated in the operatives group occupashytion this is the occupation in this country which it
is anticipated will be declining in terms of employshyment opportunities in the 1970s Negro womens employment is concentrated in the service occupashytions
Let us disaggregate another general figure that is given continual attention-the unemployment rate In May (1970) the aggregate unemployment rate
was 50 seasonally adjusted But when one looks at nonwhite teenage males we find that the unemshyploymnent rate for this group ranges between 25 and
30 more than five times higher than the aggreshygate rate We can i am sure find many other exshyamuples of instances where certain groups of the population have benefited from the latest developshyments
To turn to the developing countries where in many instances the kinds of development we have discussed in the United States have not reached the same levels I would say that if in these countries they do not have the same discrete and distinguishshyable movements in the direction that the Western World has gone they will not have the kind of growth we are attempting to stimulate and foster
Certainly we will have dismally failed to learn from our own experiencc if we do not attempt or recognize that rts must be made as the developshying countries groi and as these basic trends imporshytant to growth begin to become more apparent to continuously watch the developments to determine if there are any groups in society who are not parshyticipating and benefiting from the trends and are falling by the wayside If it is at all possible we should be trying to bring these people in at the earliest stages of the developiment rather than wait until there are wide disparities among various paris of the population such as have developed in the Western World In this sense the purpose of
participation is vital in that if the idea is accepted and developed in the developing countries it should avoid what occurred in the Western World
17
JOB CREATION IN AGRICULTURE
by Thomas F Carroll
This paper presents what might be called a posishytion of agricultural fundamentalism with respect to policy for employment creation-deliberate employshyment creation in the developing countries
Up to very recently development economists and developers in general have been emphasizing growth theories that stress global GNP growth It is only now that questions on how GNP is distribshyuted and on how various groups in the developing countries benefit from development are becoming increasingly asked The employment and income distribution issue is becoming a fashionable foreshyfront topic among development planners This is reflected in such material as the Pearson Report Professor Myrdals report on Asia and the Peterson Report and one that is about to appear on Latin America by Professor Prebisch
We have had a great deal of theorizing and of practice from developing countries which can be characterized as the trickle down theory of deshyvelopment that has left those who are most able to use resources to develop them The AID organization and in particular the World Bank have followed this approach of putting resources where in the short run they will produce the largshyest output and then let the governments tax or otherwise acquire some of the surplus and redistribshyute it among the poorer urban and rural sectors
It is an attack on the whoe trickle down theshyory of development that I see now among developshymentalists It appears that in many recent studies this trickle down theory does not seem to work because even if some of the surplus can be captured for injection into education social welfare and other low-income support programs there is a gross inefficiency in the process Since government takes such a predominant place in managing these reshysources these inefficiencies are very noticeable
Since my recent work has been particularly strong on Latin America my illustrations and emphasis are on that particular continent
A great deal of the surplus gets stuck at the middle and upper level consumption patterns which increasingly are modeled on the consumpshytion patterns of the middle classes in the developed countries Thus if you go to a Latin American city you will find that the middle classes consume about the same basket of commodities-automobiles teleshyvision sets gadgets of all sorts-as we do in US suburbia This has put an enormous pressure on the developing countries infant industries and also on the balance of payments because a great deal of these products had to be imported
Another reason why the trickle down theory has not worked is that it ignored the labor potenshytials of an overwhelming proportion of the populashytion In such countries as Brazil or India 50 to 70 percent of the population is in the underdeveloped portion of the population in the urban and rural sectors the most important resource in this type of country is the labor resource This labor resource is very poorly utilized under the trickle down theshyory of development In the US and other develshyoped countries only a fraction of the labor force and population is in this poor range
I shall not dwell in length upon the inadequacies of industrial and urban jobs to absorb significant amounts of the migrant rural population There is increasing evidence that industry is becoming more capital intensive The types of industry that have been developing especially after the import substishytution drive has been satisfied offer very few jobs The lower productivity service sector while genershyally absorbing more labor than manufacturing has expanded in a very inadequate fashion and much of it has been disguising very large amounts of semi-employed people
Hence it is desirable to think not only of overshyall economic policies of development which are more labor-absorbing but it is desirable to have
specific rural policies that absorb productively
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rural people so as to reduce migration to the urban areas
With respect to Latin America with a very high population growth-somewhere between 3 and 3 12 percent-in the late sixties the rural labor force is estimated to grow at the rate of about I million people annually even after assuming somewhat speeded-up migration rates Moreover there are no policies to productively absorb these people in agrishyculture On the contrary recent policies have beshycome increasingly capital intensive and the whole development strategy is generally strongly biased toward a rather labor extensive type of agricultural development as well
Let me briefly mention some of the policy defishyciencies that we have found not only in Latin America but Africa and Asia as well There is an overemphasis on commodity targets and balance of payment considerations in development planning There is very little attention to manpower planshyning in the various planning agencies and the tarshygets that are listed for development are very heavshyily oriented toward output-global macro-economic output-and commodity targets rather than institushytional targets which would involve human reshysource planning and income targets
There is a great deal of encouragement for capital intensive production techniques in public investment We see this in the development banks where much of the investment takes place in indusshytries with lines of pi oduction that offer very few jobs Perhaps the lending process itself with its emshyphasis on the project approach encourages this capshyital intensive bias
There is a strong urban bias in providing social services which encourages the out-migration from rural areas and which places great difficulties in the way of attracting and retaining qualified civil servshyants and leaders in rural areas There is a bias in the provision of social services jobs schools and other conditions that encourage not only job-wise but living level-wise the selective out-migration of competent rural people and prevents the return-mishygration of competent government officials teachers and others needed for the development of the rural areas
With respect to Latin America there is a lack of agrarian reform which is a fundamental defect in job creation in rural areas (This is not so true of Africa which has a more tribal and peasant-orishyented rural sector) There is very little recognition of the segmented nature of agriculture in developshy
ment planning They treat agriculture as a monoshylithic sector I can distinguish at least three differshyent sectors within agriculture such as the plantation sector which is export-oriented and for which deshyvelopment and employment policies will have to parallel the industrial planning techniques There is the semi-modern sector which is producing comshymodities for the market and has to some extent also a self-sufficient subsector And there is finally a really self-sufficient sector of a vast number of peasshyants who market very little and whose livelihood is within the traditional villages I think the developshyment policies and of course employment generashytion programs will have to be quite different for each of these sectors
Finally there is a strong emphasis on labor-reshyplacing types of technology particularly mechanizashytion that is imported intact from the developed countries wlere it serves a very good purpose A great deal of the pricing taxing subsidy policies as well as the activities of machinery companies are detrimental to a kind of development that would emphasize a slower transition from primitive agrishyculture to a very mechanized type of agriculture
Now to turn to policy recommendations let me briefly list certain suggestions for using simple iabor intensive labor absorbing techniques in deshyvelopment planning One of these is the recognishytion that in research and development on which we spend a great (eal of money and which developshying countries are just beginning to recognize as an investment item increasing stress should be placed on what many people are beginning to call intershymediate technology There is a great deal of reshysearch needed on micro-level agricultural developshyment ratier- than ihicro-level development and work of field economists anthropologists socioloshygists manpower planners is very much needed
There should be inter-disciplinary approaches to these micro-planning techniques and here I would like to enter a plea for not only technological planshyning but integrated social scince planning and research in the field of employment generating techshyniques I would emphasize very strongly developshyment of rural cooperatives and cooperative-like institutions in the rural areas that have the capashybility of mobilizing local people and to achieving economies of scale in development that normally individual type programs do not achieve These inshystitutions would be particularly valuable in such fields as credit marketing some types of producshytion and in machine services Also stronger emphashy
20
sis has to be placed on rural unions and syndicates particularly in Latin America This -is a very touchy problem because it is linked with the politishycal power structure
I also would like to point out the importance of decentralized agro-industrial planning I do not think we have touched upon the potentials of bringing jobs to rural people not only in agriculshyture but in agriculturally-related enterprises loshycated in or near urban areas This is something into which very little talent imagination and efshyfort and money has gone You will find that most of the industries are located in the large urban censhyters Very little is done to process agricultural prodshyucts or to create industrially-related enterprises
around primary production centers such as forests
pasture lands and crops which can be industrialshyized In this connection also I think there is a
great deal of learning to be done in stimulating
part-time and full-time industrial and semi-inshyclustrial employment opportunities in conjunction
with rural development programs A final point which needs to be strongly emphashy
sized I believe that it is not necessary to separate
or set up hardline criteria to distinguish between wealth-creating jobs and welfare (or income-subshy
sidy) jobs Acceptance of this dichotomy results in directing investment towards the activities with relatively high output potential Those of us who have been running agricultural credit programs find that among the small farmers we have the best credit risks We have farmers who have incredibly small businesses and repay their loans regularly while the larger landowners are always in arrears
Recent studies have repeatedly pointed out the big advantages of small irrigation works rather than big dams Studies have pointed out that entershyprise based on small peasant units is also highly productive because they utilize the peasants labor They are able to create wealth from work and to stimulate people to develop
I think that we have to take another look and a great deal of effort should go into the discovery of this middle ground where development projects particularly rural development or rurally-oriented deveopment projects can be both productive and socially satisfactory and at the same time soak up during the next few decades the surplus employshyment that is threatening not only the rate of growth but the basic political stability of many countries
21
UNITED STATES EXPERIENCE WITH UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDEREMPLOYMENT
by William Batt
We have no greater capital investment in any country in the world than we have in this country but we also have wide disparities in income It is true that we have more of a middle class than most developing countries but we still have dreadful problems of misdirection of funds For example if one looks at the national income data for all secshytions of the United States the District of Columbia appears as one of the wealthiest areas of the counshytry yet right in the middle of this city we have a section with desperate unemployment and tindershyemployment We have areas in the United States with unemployment rates as high as 25 to 30 pershycent
Although unemployment is an important ecoshynomic indicator it is not a particularly meaningful measure of economic conditions in rural areas beshycause of the problem of underemployment The data on unemployment developed in the 1950s by the Department of Labor focused attention on that 1roblem of depressed areas more effectively than had ever been done before And in recent studies concerned with ghetto unemployment attention was focused on the unemployment in the central cities as was national policy But it appears that we do not have similar extensive studies focused on the rural underemployment problem in the United States
We have this (lesperate rural underemployment in the United States today It exists in Eastern North Carolina and will probably worsen because of the automation in the tobacco industry This deshyvelopment will start immigrition by totally unpreshypared people to the cities of the North Among parts of ouir Indian population the unemployment data also reveal desperate poverty which even makes the Mississippi Delta look prosperous by comparison
When I read advertisements in the international edition of the New lork Times placed by developshy
ing governments such as Come put your factories in Nigeria or Come put your factories in Colomshybia or Uruguay I realize that the depressed areas of the world want the same thing that deshypressed areas in the United States want They want more job opportunities they want more industry so that there will be enough jobs there for which
people could train A study sponsored by the Area Redevelopment
Administration on what Western Europe was doing in the area of development indicates that they are ahead of us I believe that we might get more ideas from Western Europe to help South America than we do from the United States For exshyample Italy is investing 10 percent of its total inshycome in trying to make southern Italy more viable so that everybody in southern Italy does not have to leave the country to make a living I think that some combination of what the Italians are doing is what we also ought to be doing to a greater extent Of course the countries of Africa and the Southern Hemisphere do not have that tremendous inshydlustrial potential of northern Italy but the princishypIe is not invalid The principle is to help make these regions that are now depressed become ecoshynomically viable
The coal and steel community in Europe is doing a beautiful job for a very limited group It seems to me that the coal and steel community is doing ver-y well what we are doing not well at all in North Carolina Southern Italy is also doing things rather better than we are
The Secretary of Defense has announced an exshyceptionally large number of jobs are going to be cut in defense It seems to me that we must be able to figure out some better way than laying off people in aircraft companies in different parts of the counshytry When I was connected with economic developshyment work in Detroit many layoffs occurred every third year When I was running the Labor and Inshy
23
dustry Department in Pennyslvania one of the reshycessions in the 1950s cost us $400 million in unemshyployment insurance Thus the costs of doing nothing are pretty phenomenal
We are trying to do something to reduce these fantastic barriers to employment that keep people in an expanding economy from sharing the benefits of that economy We have classic cases in the public sector of jobs going begging by the hundreds because of absurd and irrelevant prereqshyuisites to employment To be a dog catcher in one city and they need a number of such workers you have to have a high school diploma and two years experience handling animals
I strongly agree with the following statement that if development does not produce more jobs and a fuller role in society for the working man (and I hope by the working man is meant someshybody besides the dues-paying member of unions) it can disrupt the world we know instead of buildshying a new one Improvements in GNP and exports investments have little meaning for the hundreds of millions who continue to live in conditions of barest subsistence squalor disease and despair Inshydeed in such circumstances the term developshyment would seem to be a serious misnomer if not a cruel delusion You may be leading people up the garden path and creating more problems than you are solving
24
ROLE OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BUSINESSMEN IN JOB CREATION
by William Haas
The National Alliance of Businessmen (NAB) was created in the manpower message of President Johnson to Congress on January 23 1968 He asked the private sector of the economy to take on the reshysponsibility of meeti major national challengeshyfinding jobs and providing job training for the hard core unemployed and under-employed
In response to this request the NAB was orgashynized by concerned leaders of the business comshymunity When President Nixon took office one of his first acts was to pledge his administrations comshy
plete and unqualified support to the NAB In fact the role of the business community and that of the NAB has been made even more important than beshyfore by President Nixons proposal for extensive changes in the national welfare and manpower training programs
The Presidents proposed plan is aimed directly at getting people off the welfare roles and onto payshyrolis and this puts the responsibility squarely on businessmen They must prove that the private secshytor of the economy with the appropriate governshyment assistance to cover the extra costs of hiring and training unskilled disadvantaged workers can provide the job opportunities that will make the Presidents program work
Orgainiationally the National Alliance of Busishy
nessmen is tinique It is an independent nonprofit corporation The Executive Board is composed of topflight businessmen from each geographic region of the nation Tiis lBoard established overall polshyicy The Executive Vice Chainn is responsible for the operations of NAB similar to that of a presshyident of a corporation and the Chief Executive Ofshyficers are from the ten regional offices across the nashytion
We are now expanding from 131 metropolitan offices to 200 metropolitan offices since we are now going nationwide and these offices are staffed by volunteers from industry and officials on loan from
government with approximately three people at each regional level and five at the metropolitan level In addition literally thousands of volunteers from business assist in carrying out the mission for which NAB was formed
The question may be asked Why should busishyness take on this challenge of finding jobs and job training for the unemployed and upgrading opporshytunities for under-employed people The most imshy
portant reason is that basically six out of every seven jobs in our country are in the private sector of the economy The businessmen are the ones who have the jobs
Businessmen are also the ones who know best what a worker should learn in order to do a job
properly If we can place the unemployed and unshyderemployed in meaningful jobs teach them how to (10 these jobs znd keep them employed we will have made a major inroad on poverty in our nashytion We will be giving new hope for productive lives to many people We will be helping our young people including many Vietnam veterans reshyturning to civilian life to build satisfying lives in their own home community
Bringing the unemployed into the mainstream of outr economy is not humanitarianism It pays off in dollars and cents for the company who gains a worker It pays off for the government by both savshying on welfare costs and gaining a taxpayer
The propran of the NAB is called JOBS which stand for Job Opportunities in the Business Sector As the title indicates this program is dishyrected towards the hiring training and retraining and upgrading meni and women for jobs in the prishyvate sector of the economy Out- initial goal was to
place 100000 hard core unemployed in meaningful jobs by July I of 1969 and that was more than met The new nationwide target for July 1 1971 is to
place 611000 hard core unemployed in productive jobs Against this objective approximately 25000
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employers have already hired sonic 432800 persons Of this total hired approximately 305700 were hired by 21000 companies participating in the non-contract portion of the JOBS program and 127100 were hired by approximately 4000 compashynies participating under a NAB JOBS contract Of the 432800 persons hired about 228400 have reshymained on the job
We have also obtained the characteristics of the employee trainees from the simple hiring card emshyployers participating in the JOBS program are asked to submit This information shows that 73 percent of the trainees are male 27 percent are female About 75 percent of the workers aie beshytween 19 and 44 years of age 21 percent are under 19 and 4 percent over 45 or an average age of 247 years Also about 70 percent of the trainees are Negro 21 percent are white 6 percent Mexican-American 2 percent Puerto Rican and I percent of other origin The average family size of employee trainees is 36 persons Their education attainment averages about 10 12 grades of school They were unemployed an average of 212 weeks in the last year Their annual family income was approxishymately $2505
Hiring training retraining and upgrading the disadvantaged is not an easy task nor do we preshytend that it is When we ask a businessman to join with us in this program we do not want him to unshydertake a task under any illusions about the diffishyculties of the task
This is not any ordinary industry-hiring proshygram To aid us in these efforts the Department of Labor offers specific types of assistance programs These programs are designed to provide practical ways for all employers large and small to train inshyexperienced new employees without losing money on the cost involved in bringing these workers up to an average level of productivity
In response to the current economic slowdown NAB is giving increased emphasis to the upgrading portion of the JOBS program Employers particishypating under the contract part of the NABs job entry and upgrading program are compensated by the government for extraordinary training expenshyses to provide such support services as orientation basic job-related education special counselling and on-the-job training skills
If the employer believes that he does not have the in-house capability to provide these support services he can subcontract this phase to professhysional companies However the on-the-job skill training cannot be subcontracted This must be provided by the employers
Other areas that may be compensated include extra administrative and overhead costs supervishysory andl human relations training medical and dental services child care assistance and transporshytation assistance
The NAB JOB efforts in my opinion is one of the best manpower programs It offers real advanshytages to employers and job applicants
26
PRIVATE INVESTMENT AND JOB CREATING POSSIBILITIES
by Harriet S Crowley
I interpret private investment to mean any kind of private investment which has a payoff whether it is for profit or social reasons This rather broad definition of private investment is necessary for two reasons when related to job creating possibilishyties First since private profit investment area per se is a fairly limited one in the less developed counshytries its job creating effects will also be limited Secondly I believe that at present the private techshynical assistance program will be a more important source for job opportunities
I would like to diaw a backdrop with respect to investment n developing countries against which manpower planning and employment as well as the many other fields of development have to be considered A landimark which has gone pretty much unnoticed is that for the first time in the history of the international development effort the flow of private and public resources is about equal For the I year coniesUnited States about $2 billion a from the government and SI 12 billion is from private investment in profit-making enterprises Much of tlie latter is still in the extractive fields but increasingly more is in the manufacturing and service fields and in private technical assistance Proshygrams We now therefore do have a different set of flows of resouices than in earlier years
Anot her important backgrotnd factor is the fact that we are in a period of change in the United States ill altitludes toward the AID program The Peterson Report is an excellent example of this change Pat of the recommendations of that report is already in being tle creation in last years legshyislation of a new instrument for private investment to manage and conduct lie incentive programs and to get ioie private investment into the less develshyoped comiti ies This is now known as the Overseas Piivate I nvestment Corporation (OPIC) which will runt tle progranis of guarantees (extended risk guarantees) as well as surveys and related activishyties The formet programs are in operation and are
writing half a billion dollars worth of insurance a year roughly one-third of the total flow of private investment capital
The two other recommendations of the Peterson Report which probably affect most of the programs that we are interested in are the creation of a bank and the creation of the technical institute What is clearly implied by these changes is that there will be a reduced official presence overseas and that the US policy of development is going to be more reshy
sponsive and less aggressive and carried out to at least sonic extent within the framework of the multilateral analytical base and guidelines
Congress is not expected to act on any new proshy
posal uintil next year sometime The specific legislashytion is scheduled to be before Congress shortly after tihe first of the year There will clearly be a transishytion period between the enactment of that legislashytion and any new structures of organization There may be a period of almost two years in which peoshyple are not going to know whether they can comshymit funds for long range programs Durng this peshyriod it seems to metle private field should become More important partly because it is time for it to play a greater role and because there is going to be this vacuum In the manpower field it seems to me that all opportunity is being created for us to test sone of the programs which we have been supportshying at least partially if not completely For examshy
ple in tie case of cooperatives it should be possible to test their usefulness now in moving into this vacuum Can they with their modest amount of public funds attract private resources in addition to those they are beginning to put into their projshyects from others such as labor
Now to turn to the activities of private business One can find estimates of job creation of private investment ranging from $300 per manyear of emshy
ployment u) to about $7500 according to the Nashytional Industrial Conference Boards exercise in this field Clearly the record of employment vis-ashy
27
vis direct private investment is not very great Figshyures available for Latin America only show that in 1957 private investment of US private subsidishyaries were supposed to have created 830000 jobsshywhile in 1966 roughly ten years later the number of such jobs rose to 1230000 It had not even doulshybled in ten years
I think we do not know enough about the intanshygible results of direct private investment We have attempted on several occasions to get from corporashytions their social overhead spending in less develshyoped countries by their affiliates Estimates of 2 to 7 percent of their annual direct investment have been arrived at )) a variety of means including a Senate Subconunittee and special research projects This could really represent a tremendous amount of jobs in the aggregate
Aside from the training which individual corposhyrations carry on all the time there is a good deal of other social overhead investment in housing in edshytication healthi community development and conshytributions to things like the National Development Foundation Peace Corps projects and Voluntary Agency projects But we (o not know enough about these activities and about the results of cooperashytive efforts and credit unions in terms of job creashyion
There has been a movement in the last year or so in what for want of a better term I call the mini-investment field This is the very small capshyital investmient kind of a project with usually a very quick turiover They are springing out genershyally from non1-profit programs overseas which have reached a plateau in their normal technical assistshyance activities They ale recognizing that they can go no further witlouit somel productive capacity input into their programs whatever they may be There have appeae(l on the scene tlini gs like Tech noserve-a nonrlofit institution supported by the chirrclies Tlhey do feasibility studies to find small lprojects anI then they raise the needed capishytal They have had prezty good luck at such activities so far There ate also emerging small inshyvestment corporations stpported by Protestant reshy
ligiotis grams The Mennonites for several years have had such an investment corporation and have maintained porifolios between $300000 and s100000 overseas all the time This group puts it
in one project and takes it out perhaps in a couple of years sometimes even less and then puts it in another one They are able to (1o this bccause of their own people overseas who see these opportunishyties and who generally either have the skills needed for the project or know where to get a volunteer with the needed skills to give the technical assistshyance that may be necessary
Joint ventures are another set of activities that are just starting The Pan-American Development Foundation has been doing this in the small loan business for a while and I think it has quite a good record
Another one is Kodel which was started up by the Catholics but now has broadened to membershyship of a good sized number of other religious and non-religious groups This is a trend toward conshysortia action on the part of the private agencies all of whom jealously like their independence and their own identity That has been a very hard block for them to overcome but they are overcomshying it and they are putting together their varied resources to direct them into major projects I think this is very encouraging because all of these
projects are at the grass roots small in nature pershyhaps but if there are enough of these they begin to expand and spread
Some 80 of these registered voluntary agencies are operating programs of around $600 million three-quarters of which is their own and the rest is from government support
In conclusion I should like to make two brief comments regarding our activities in the private sector First we are very happy to go out and use
private organizations for contract purposes often as substitute for direct hire-a better substitute in many cases This is something we should be able to do These are national resources and we have some responsibility it seems to me in this field However we often do not do a very good job of guidance for th~m Secondly I also believe that private organizashytions are going to have to demonstrate a much greater management capability on their own and a better ability to negotiate with those governments to implement their own programs without support services il) to now generally being offered by our missions and embassies
28
POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES
by Samuel H Burt
Among the major distinguishing features of the American public education system is the fact that its schools have always been considered as belongshying to the public as being in the service of the public and to be served by the public on a volunshyteer basis as a matter of civic and communityr reshysponsibility The desire to be involved in puiblic education stems in part from the special status prestige and power accorded to educated persons as well as to persons connected with education in any way In many communities the chairman of a local board of education has more prestige than the elected mayor
The current furor unrest and criticism of our public schools is proof that the American publicshyor rather the many publics which comprise Amershyica-still demand a high degree of responsiveness to their need from public education administrators and professional staff In the finest tradition of our democratic society these various publics have eishyther voluntarily organized citizens school commitshytees or been organized by school administrators to serve on Volunteer advisory committees in order to help improve one or more aspects of public educashytion
The major rationale for such service is that our public schools are seen as societys major vehicle for tralsimitting to youth those precepts concepts and traditions on whi h our society has flourished in the past and must depend upon for continuing growth and success in the future
There is also a growing recognition that the problems of public education are basic central to and inextricably intertwined with other major problems of modern society-housing urbanization crime inlustrialiation civil rights jobs for mishynorities narrow professionalization and all the other factors which make or break the American Dream for each individual in our nation
Among all the publics comprising our national
life none has been more aware of the critical role and potential of public education than businessshymen manufacturers labor leaders and employers in agriculture and the professions-hereinafter reshyferred to in the aggregate as industry Motivated by the need for a continuing flow of well-educated and well-trained youth industry has voluntarily asshysisted schools to enrich expand and improve those
programs in the public schools directly related to industrys manpower needs-vocational and technishycal education For over 50 years industry has been involved in a variety of activities and services deshysigned to gear vocational education to industrial
operations But it is upon the same 20000 formally orgashy
nized industry-education cooperating and advisory committees composed of some 100000 volunteer industry representatives that sophisticated vocashytional educators depend for sustained and meanshyingful involvement in the schools It is this orgashynized involvement which is credited with making vocational education programs relevant to the needs of students and employers While there are
many authorities in the field of vocational educashytion who would argue this responsiveness there is general agreement that proper and effective utilishyzation of industry-education cooperating and adshyvisori y committees could indeed achieve this goal
So strong and pervasive is this belief that by 1965 every state had either passed a law or issued regulashytions requiring public schools to utilize volunteer advijory committees for all vocational programs in the schools Despite the fact that such laws have been honored more in the breach than in practice the 1968 Amendments to the Vocational Education Act of 1963 mandated the establishment of a Nashytional Advisory Council on Vocational Education
and State Advisory Councils on Vocational Educashytion for each state receiving federal vocational edushy
cation funds These Councils are composed of volshy
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unteer representatives from the general public inshydustry and education As a consequence vocational education has become the only field of public edishycation which by law must utilize volunteer coMshymittees of interested citizens at the national state and local levels There has been an abiundance of voluntcers to serve on these committecs One reashyson for such service was discussed earlier ie the prestige which accrues to volunteer service in public education A second motivating factor is rooted in the hope that involvement in a vocashytional education program will not only help imshyprove that program hut will abo serve as a direct source of trained manpower supply for those comshypanics working with the school people There are also such motivational factors as the desire of adults to help young people in starting their cashyreers to receive 1 ublic recognition (personally and for the company) as a concerned citizen to be acshyknowledged as an expert and leader in ones field and to be considered altruistic and even philanshythropic by ones friends business associates and family circle through volunteer involvement in edshyucation
It is because people (o respond to organized appeals to these motivational factors that it has been possible for vocational educators to deshyvelop in the US a national system of cooperating and advisory commitcees and councils to forge an industry-education partnership in cooperation with government-for the purpose of developing manshypower skills creating jobs and the matching of workers with jobs
This system is as yet but dillily perceived and litshytle understood Our remaining discussion will cenlshyter around the roles responsibili ties and relationshy
ships of the various levels of these committees and councils as they are currently being utilized for achieving popular participation in public vocashytional education
1 The National Advisory Council on Vocashytional Education
The 1968 Amendments to the Vocational Educashytion Act of 19(33 established a National Advisory Council on Vocational Education composed of 21 leading national representatives from industry edshy
For a disrcusion of legisiation affecting vocational eiicashytion advisory conunitlies e Sanmnel Mf Burt 7ndustry and floratIionalTehil Iuration York McGraw-HillI lltit (New Book Co 1967) ant Smnnutl N1 Burl The Sate Advifory Councils on Iawational Eduration (Kalamizoo The W E Upjohin Institute for Employment Research 1968)
ucation and the general public Members are apshypointed by the President of the US Functions of the Council are broadly stated in the Act as to
(a) Advise the US Commissioner of Educashytion concerning the administration of preparashytion of general regulations for and operation of vocational education programs receiving federal funds
(b) Review the administration operation and effectiveness of vocational education proshygrams make recommendations thereto and publish reports of its findings and recommenshydations to the Secretary of the Department of Health Education and Welfare for transmittal to Congress
(c) Conduct independent evaluations of voshycational education programs and publish and distribute reports of such evaluations
(d) Review possible duplications of vocashytional education programs and publish and distribute reports and recommendations to the Secretary of HEW
The Act also provides funds for staff to be emshyployed by the National Council in conducting its activities and carrying out its t esponsibilities
While the National Council has no operational nor administrative responsibilities for the conduct of vocational education programs its independent status and legislative authority for review and evalshyuation does give it strong investigatory powers Furthermore since its findings and recommendashytions are required to be published and distributed the ouncil can be expected to have considerable impact on Congressional deliberations concerning all facets of vocational education at the national level
Although tlie relationship established by the Act between the National Council and tle State Advisshyory Councils on Vocational Education is one of reshyceiving reports from the State Councils as deshyscribed below the National Coumicil carly opted to work closely with tle State Councils As a matter of fact at the requcest of the State Councils the Nashylional Council is providing a considerabie degree of leadership to the State Councils It appears that much of the voik of the National Council will be based on reports submitted by the State Councils The National Council ii also serving as a clearing hdouse of imiforIuationl and conununiilications for tie various State Councils includinug conduct of speshycial studies for use by the Staic Councils in the deshyvelopment of their activities
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2 The State Advisory Councils on Vocational 3 Local Advisory Committee on Vocational Ed-Education ucation
In addition to establishing the National Advishysory Council the 1968 Amendments to the Vocashytional Education Act of 1963 also mandated the establishment of a State Advisory Council on Vocashytional Education by every State receiving federal funds for vocational education Members of the State Councils are appointed by the Governor or in those states in which State Boards of Education are elected members of the Advisory Council are appointed by the Board
The functions of the State Councils as specified by the Act are to
1 Evaluate the effectiveness of the vocational education programs services and activities throughout the state
2 Assist the State Board through consultation initiated by the Board in preparing the State Plans for Vocational Education
3 Advise the State Board on the development of
policy matters arising in the administration of vocational education programs
4 Prepare anid submit through the State Board to the US Commissioner of Education and the National Advisory Council on Vocational Education an annual evaluation report of voshycational cducation programs with recommenshydations for such changes as may be considshyered appropriate and warranted
The Act also provides funds for staff to be emshy
ployed by the State Councils While tile State Councils have no administrative
or operating responsibilities they are independent of albeit advisory to the State Boards of Educashytion amid to the State Departments of Education Ilici published reports an( recommendations can I)e expected to not only have an impact on vocashytional education decisions of state governors and state legislators State Boards and Departments of Education but also on the US Office of Education and the National Advisory Council on Vocational Education It is still too soon to determine how successful the State Councils will be in functioning independently of and at the same time interdeshy
pendently with the established bureatucracy of the State Departments of Education and other state agencies dealing with vocational education trainshying and manpower development
Within the states the use of advisory committees of industry people by vocational educators is manshydated in every state either by state law or by rules an(d regulations issued by State Departments of Edshyucation Except for a few states advisory commitshytees are required only for occupational education
programs conducted in a school receiving federal funds Requirements are usually met by the school listing the names of the advisory committee memshybers when requesting funds from the State Departshyment of Education Rarely is provision made by the state for special staff to service the committees or to promote industry-education cooperation Guidelines provided by the State Departments of Education stress the advisory nature of the commitshytees and warn the educators not to allow the comshymittees to become involved in administrative or operational matters Despite the lack of positive and constructive leadership on the part of most State Departments of Education in the field of efshyfective utilization of industry committees at the local levels sophisticated vocational educators and industry groups have developed various types of non-legally required advisory committees as effecshytive instrumentalities and strategies for involving industry and vocational education It is these nonshymandated committees which when added to the leshygally required committees provide the characterisshytics and format of the nationally organized system discussed in the paper
(a) The School System General Advisory Comshymittee
A number of large school systems throughout the country have appointed General Advisory Comshymittees on Vocational Education to serve in an advisory capacity to the Director of Vocational Edshyucation the superintendent of schools and occashysionally to the Board of Education This type of committee is used in helping plan long-range school system policy and objectives for vocational educashytion and to help determine relative emphasis and
priorities that should be given to various elements of the program at any particular time Once policy and priorities have been agreed upon the commitshytee may engage in activities to obtain public supshyport and any needed legislation and funds These activities of course go beyond the advisory stashytus which marks the planning and policy determishynation assistance functions for which the commitshytee was established
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Membership in these committees is usually drawn from the ranks of top level management in the community and includes leaders of community and industry groups economic development agenshycies and government agencies concerned with manshypower development Appointment is usually made by the school superintendent sometimes by the chairman of the school board The Director of Voshycational Education usually serves as secretary to the committee
(b) The School General Advisory Committee Many large area vocational schools technical inshy
stitutes and community colleges have established general advisory committees on vocational educashytion to assist in formulating general plans and polshyicies for the school These committees have proven invaluable in helping determine what programs should be offered by the schools priorities to be asshysigned in initiating and expanding programs and in obtaining industry-wide and public support for the school Membership is usually composed of pershysonnel directors plant superintendents vice-presishydents of large companies owners of medium size businesses trade association and labor organizashytions minority groups representatives and represhysentatives of economic development agencies and government agencies concerned with manpower deshyvelopment The assistant president dean of inshystruction or assistant director of the school usually serves as secretary to the general advisory commitshytee Since the committee is established to serve a
particular institution it is rare unfortunately for the committee to become involved in or knowlshyedgeable about what other similar institutions are doing or what other vocational education and training programs are being offered in the geoshygraphic area generally served by the school
(c) Departmental Advisory Committees
If a vocational school is offering several related industry courses eg bricklaying carpentry and construction electricity these courses may be orgashynized into a Construction Technology Department supervised by a department head and perhaps served by a departmental advisory committee
Membership of a departmental advisory commitshytee usually consists solely of representatives of the industry for which the courses are being offered The major responsibility of the departmental adshyvisory committee is to make certain that the school provides for and properly supports the educational and training program needed by the industry The
departmental advisory committee not only serves in an advisory capacity to the department head but also supports him in any requests to his supervisors for program improvement and expansion The committee may also meet with the several occupashytional cooperating committees serving the instrucshytors within the department
(d) Occupational Cooperating Committees Practically all discussions literature laws and
regulations dealing with vocational education adshyvisory committees are concerned with the concept and practices of the occupational committee insistshying that such committees are advisory only Despite such statements these committees function in fact as instrumentalities for achieving cooperation beshytween education and industry rather than as a deshyvice for educators to obtain advice from industry This dichotomy between theory and practice is the source of considerable confusion among both vocashytional educators ahd industry people Nevertheless these occupational cooperating committees have been and are responsible for the bulk of industry people voluntarily involved in vocational educashytion and for annually contributing millions of dolshylars and even more millions of hours in the service of vocational education
School officials look to membership on these comshymittees from frontline supervisory staff owners of small companies and representatives from unions and trade associations connected with a particular occupation Members of the committees are usually those individuals in a company who are directly reshysponsible for hiring and training new employees
Over 30 specific cooperative service activities have been identified as being offered by occupashytional committees They can be classified under the headings
1 Engaging in student recruitment selection and placement activities
2 Improvement of instructional program offershyings through evaluation and enrichment
3 Providing assistance to teachers for personal and professional growth
4 Providing prizes financial aid scholarships and other forms of honors to outstanding stushydents
5 Engaging in industry and public relations support of the school program
The occupational cooperating committees are the foundation and strength of the national advishy
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sory committee system described in this discussion They provide the opportunity for industry people and vocational educators to engage in cooperative action and involvement at the local community levshyel-where the real action takes place-in the schools
Summary
In a society in which a persons work is a prishymary determinant of his personal and social status there is ar obvious relationship between the world of school and the world of work This relationship calls for a high degree of compatability and coopershyation between industry and school people to make vocational education relevant to the manpower needs of the economy and to make industry responshysive to the mission and needs of vocational educashytion
In pursuit of these mutually beneficial goals inshydustry and education in the US have developed over a period of some 50 years the concept and practice of a national system of formally organized advisory and cooperating committees at the nashytional state community school and individual
program levels At each level we find different groups of leading citizens involved because of difshyfering demands from and services to be provided For example a general advisory committee to a local school system calls for representation from community minority groups but an advisory-coopshyerating committee for an occupational program in a school requires representation from front-line sushypervisors directly engaged in hiring and training new employees While this national system is far from being fully recognized and fully utilized a framework-established by law-does exist and the potential is perceived by mur nations leaders in both industry and education
Laws written by professional administrators and lawyers concerning utilization of volunteer citishyzens can and do leave yt to be desired Despite the fact that many professional educators are disshytrustful of volunteer citizen participation in such a complex field as public education so many benefits have accrued to youth adults schools industry local communities and our nation as a result of inshydustry-education cooperative partnerships as to warrant efforts to increase such cooperation manyshyfold
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TAIWAN AND KOREAN EFFORTS IN MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT THROUGH SCHOOL AND INDUSTRY COOPERATION
by James D Murray
Although the skilled labor force of a country is developed in a number of ways the public and prishyvate vocational schools play a very important role The primary purpose of this part of the educashytional program is to prepare the student for useful employment Vocational education means more than training for specific job skills It develops abilities understandings attitudes work habits and appreciations which contribute to a satisfying and productive life This breadth of training makes it possible for the graduates of the vocashytional schools to adjust to rapid technological changes in their fields and advance quickly on the job In due time those graduates with leadership abilities can achieve supervisory positions Vocashytional education also has the responsibility of proshyviding supplementary training in occupational skills and related technical knowledge to make emshyployed adults more productive This is usually accomplished through an evening program
This paper discusses my experiences (using Taishywan as an example) in developing school and inshydustry cooperation through advisory committees in designing realistic vocational educational programs geared to the manpower needs of a developing conitry The paper also comments on the use of skill contests and participation in the Skill Olymshy
pics (with particular reference to Korea) to gain acceptance for vocational education and to build status for the skilled workers
The Taiwan Program
In the Taiwan program I worked with the Vocashytional Teacher Training Institution eight technishycal high schools and the Institute of Technology which is a post-high school in most respects With regard to the Institute of Technology my assignshyment to reorganize this old established institution to properly equip it and train the faculty provides a good example of the nature of problems involved
in developing a meaningful and iiseful advisory committee
The first step in this undertaking was to have the
president of the school and the faculty obtain an understanding of what an advisory committee should do and how it should operate I was fortushynate in being able to obtain the full cooperation of the president of the school It was therefore possible for me to put before the president of the Institute material from the many US pamphlets on how to organize a school industry advisory committee which I adapted as best I could to (he local situashytion He in turn gave it to his department heads they read it we discussed it and I thought I would run -t little check and do a little role playing with the president of the Institute calling the meeting going through all the procedures including writing of invitations to prospective members of the comshymittee
We got off to a reasonably good start but then additional progress became difficult We could see that the true understanding of what an advisory committee should do and how it should operate was not getting through Fortunately (not by inshytention) I made the comment during a meeting that in this assembled group was perhaps the most knowledgeable group on how a school industry adshyvisory committee should be organized and opershyated This group is perhaps the most knowledgeashyble in Taiwan Therefore would it not be to our advantage (and to the advantage of the country) to make this available to others who perhaps are not so well acquainted with this advisory commitshytee concept by translating the information I had developed into Chinese The group agreed to this
proposal We went through the whole procedure line by line It took a lot of time but when we got through the group understood the need for and
purposes of an advisory committee It was now possible to proceed with the organizashy
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tion of the General Advisory Committee for the institution We brought in the public sector prishyvate sector large medium and small industries also some things that we would not include in the US such as the Ministry of Education Provincial Deshypartment of Education and the military It was successful we were able to assemble a very fine committee The committee brought forth to the institute things which I could very well have said but it was much more meaningful coming from their own people than from an outsider
The process of actually organizing the committee was a bit slow I worked with the president with the departmnt heads and we madle calls on indusshytry gave them a little pamphlet explained how the committee should operate
At the first meeting the members were informed about the purpose of the reorganized institution the type of equipment it would have the type of
buildins planned for the future and that they were going to be involved in the planning of this reorganization
Subsequent to this niceting we proceeded to the organization of the craft committees again bringing n the military and some of our AID
people in various specialties The committees were organized and committee members sat in on the planning of the courses of study The school would prepare the plai and send it out to the adshyvisory committee beforehand The committee havshying been exposed to the plain would then offer comshyments and criticism it worked beautifully Since this i rocedureiworketi so well for the Institute we
thought we would niow see what could be done for the eight technical high schools Here we practiced what we talked about in the Institutes industry adshyvisory commititees regarding the organization of the comm it tee If we just send an educator to work with the schools for this purpose we have the picshyture from one side Therefore why not have one person from the industry side as well as a person from the school side And we dlid this
The Taiwan Power Company furnished their director of training and the provincial governshyment brouight ill ole of their school-indlist ry coorshydinators They worked with each of time eight vocashytional schools in reorganizing their school industry advisory committee We chose electricity as the first committee to organize because each of the eight schools had the school industry advisory committee and we happened to get this mai from Taiwan Power Company Also the Taiwan Power Coishy
pany had an office in each of these eight cities with which we were working
A final interesting comment regarding the Taishywan experience-after four meetings attended by the coordinator from the provincial department of education and the training director from the Taishywan Power Company they issued a report which contained useful suggestions which took into acshycount the local situation
A few of the suggestions made to the schools in this report incluied the following Planned visits and in-plant practice should be arranged for the graduating class mathematics related to the ocshycuipation should be taught shop practice of gradshyntitig students to be based on Taiwan Power
Company regulations a safety boo issued by the Quason Training Center schools foi reference
The Korean Program
In Korea basically similar procedures were used in developing industry advisory committees As in Taiwan procedires were developed and accepted regarding establishment of national provincial and school advisory conumittees These are conshytained in the by-laws promulgated in June 1963 of the Industrial Education Advisory Committee Adshyvisory comnittees are operating in Korea they are operating even thoughlithey are not as sophisticated as the ones in the United States Effective advisory committees were also established for the agriculshytural program
It Korea as in many other countries the advishysory committees lead to other participation proshygrais One exaimple is the school industry cooperashyive program where the student spends part time in
school and part time iworking in industry The proshygrais are operating quite siccessfully
Other programins which I believe particularly imshyportant as a means of fostering popular participashytion are tihe National Skill Contests and the Skill Olympics which art described in the section that follows
National Skill Conitests and the Skill Olympics
The National Skill Contest In 1963 USAID asshysisted the Ministry of Education and the Korean Technical Edunication Association in tie organizashytion and operation of the First National Technical High School Skill Contest The objectives of this activity were to encourage the students and teachshyers to strive for better workmanship to gain public
acceptance of vocational education and to improve
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the image of the skilled worker in society The conshytest is similar to an athletic tournament but in this activity the students from participating high schools compete with each other for honors in the various trades Suitable contest problems and projshyects are prepared by a committee representing inshydustry and education and the contest is conducted under very strict supervision The completed conshytest projects are evaluated in terms of precision finish working speed logical procedure economishycal use of materials and proper use of tools Ilie winners are given appropriate awards and pibshylicly honored Since the program was started in 1963 five contests have been held and each year he test problems have become inucreasingly difficult and the judges more severe in their evaluation
The National Technical High School Skill Conshytests were quite successful and generated considerashyble interest within education circles as well as in the public and private industrial sectors However a group of imaginative and aggressive Koreans were not satisfied and begaii to explore ways to expand and improve this program Ini 1966 they heard about the International Vocational Training competition which is connionly referred to as the Skill Olympics andldecided to seek admittance into this internaiionial event
The Interinational focational Trainig Compeshytition The International Vocational Training Competition originated in Spain shortly after World War II It began as a national skill conshytest similar to the national skill contests that were condicteld in tie Republic of Korea The colipetition in Spain proved to be so successful that the Spainish invited their neighliboing cotutry Portugal to coipete in the Madrid conitest The joint conitests ield in Madrid ini 1950 and 1951 were atteirlded by iany meinlbers of the diplomatic
rls Twy weie imiipressed with the spirit of comshy)Ctitioni atnd the healthy xc lanige of training ideas
which took place at the contest As a coise(ulience they indi crd the training agencies inl their respecshytive couiitries to joili inl the coimpetition In auldi tion to Spain the list of nations now participating is (Iuite imtipiessive Atistiia lelgium Deninark West Germlanity lolland Ireland Italy ILuxeishyburg Portugal Switverland United Kingdom Japan and Koiea The first six international conshytests were held in Spain but since 1958 the contest has been held in various Eiiopeaii countries
The member co(nries may choose their particishy
pants for tie International Vocational Training
Competition in any manner but it is usually done through a national skill contest The International Vocational Training Competition lasts about three weeks During the first week the technical represhysentatives and experts make the necessary preparashytions select test items and prepare the necessary bltieprints At the end of the first week the contesshytants arrive and the competition starts the second week The testing time may be as much as 35 hours Judging is completed in the third and final week after which the winners are awarded medalsshynormally a gold silver aiid bronze medal for each trade
Korea Eners the Skill Olympics The Korea Committee-International Vocational Training Competition (IVTC) was organized in 1966 to preshy
pare for entrance ini the 1967 Skill Olympics Using the experience gained in the organization of the National Technical High School Skill Compeshytition five regional elimination contests were held thn rotighou t Korea with the winners meeting in the Ntional Contest in Seoul The competitors (1300) came from technical high schools aid industry The maxintin age limit set by international regushylations is 19 years (not to have readied 20th birthshyday) Extetlding tile cotipelitiont to include young skill workers from industry has provided crossshyfertilization of training techniques between school and industry anl entrance into international comshy
petition has escalated the standards of evaluation Korea sent niine contestants to the 1967 Skill
OlyIipirs which was held inl Spain July 10 to July 17 Tlieie were 231 coimpetitors front 12 countries com11peting inl 31 different tracles Korea won gold
niedals in tailoring and shoemaking a silver nedal in wood patern making and bronze medals in sheet metal and sign painting Uponl their reshytin to Scoul these winiels were given an enthuishysiast ic welcomie at the airport and later a recognishytion ceremotiy was held inl Citizenis IHTall The Prime Minister was the principal speaker and preshysented each winner with appropriate awards Later Ilie President of Korea personiall) congratulated the group onl their success Inl the past high level govshyernment officials have participated ini the National Teciial High School Skill Competition activishyties but Iris event far exceeded any previous occashy5100is
The success of the Korean contestanits in the
19ti7 Skill Olympics spread throughout tie country motivating more young craftsmen and students to compete for the honor of representing their coutishy
37
try in the international competition The Korean team that competed in the 1968 Skill Olympics in Switzerland was even more successful than its
predecessors Korea-Taiwan Cooperation Inspired by the
Korean and Japanese success in the Skill Olympics the Republic of China decided to improve and exshypand their Vocational Industrial High School Skill Competition Taiwan has held annual skill conshytests for vocational high school students for the
past 15 years and in 1967 they decided to prepare
for entrance into the Skill Olympics An exchange of information and technical assistance was arshyranged with the Korea Committee for Inernashytional Vocational Training Competition As a reshystilt of this cooperative effort Taiwan conducted their First National Vocaiional Training Competishytion in Novenber of 1968 The competition was very siccessful and the Chinese Government is now
considering entering the International Vocational Training Competition in 1970
38
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES WITHIN PRIVATE INDUSTRY
by Clayton J Cottrcll
Two urgent needs have met each other within our society during the last 15 years The first is the need of industry for skilled and semiskilled workers The second is the need for poor people for both jobs and the opportunity for better jobs We cannot freeze _to pernlan2nce the existence of two Americas the one rich and the other poor sepashyrate and unequal Our whole society is responding to these needs
State and federal programs have been expanded an( many new oies started to bring the indi vidtishyals and the jobs together In many US communishyties the problenms of cliage in urban life have been attacked by local government school systems colshyleges church groups neighborhood grou ps and civic organiatiolns Conicern has grown ald still is
growing that the future and even the safety of an urban industrial society depends on solving the problem of getting iiore people gainfully eishyployed
All these goals and problems come together at a single point That point is the absorption by inldu1sshytry of the hard-core ulnemploye( who are for historshyical reasons mostly meibers of mi nority racial groups Federal state and community efforts are necessary to deal with many aspects of the problem But the heart of the matter liesin our factories where maln lnees job and1 relates to it well or badly As one who has spent his adult life in indusshytry I can siuinnarie what indlistry call do and is doing The why the how the what anil the who
Let us look at the situnation through the eyes of a persol who sees hiimself inl relation to his personial problem and as lie thiinks it through
I quit school before I learned a trade lie says I now have a family I have bills to pay kids to clothe and I want to be better off next year than I am right iiow To get eiiough income I will work two jobs and maybe oie or two unskilled jobs or part-time jobs for the wife But even this work will
not bring in enough money to provide for the famshyily There must be another way
There is another way The Labor Department has created many opplortulities through such onshyilie-job traiing programs as National Youth Corps Model Cities and others But what about
private industry The typical American community today has a straige pattern of buildings both busishyness an1d resident ial in the middle of the city surshyrounidied by a ring of mediumn-age residential-inshydnustrial arear which in turn is surrounded by more industrial and residential suburbs The irner city in a Europeian city is kept up through periodic reiiewal programs it remains the heart of the city Whenu it deteriorates soimueth ing is dlone about it We inl America are only beginning to follow that
patternl In a single community we may find an available
1)001 of labor on one side of town while the availashyble jobs are in another part of the area Yet there may he the problem of labor shortage inl this comshy
ni it) because the available workers and jobs though right beside each other were not brought together )oes induistry briniig thei together More aiid lmore industry is doiig just that It has to today if it wants to stay in business Titere is also anohllir imiotve husiniessllel especially manageshyment rightly feel responisible toward the economy aid the lationi They also want to solve their own
probleii of eiarging an(1 improviig the labor force ald they walt to solve tlie liations problem of brinmgiig the hard-core iiieiployed inmto the mailnstreall of our iatiolnal life ManIaigemeut knows it is to its advantage to hell the chronically uineiployed aind that with a lot of help and pashytieice they will help themselves
Vhat happens whenllan automobile manufacturer accepts an obligatioi to hire 750 of the hard-core inemployed and make them into productive em-
Ilayees First these people have to be brought up
39
to an acceptable level of literacy A number of peoshyple who sign up for programs never show up This is disappointing frustrating and even demoralizshying for the people in industry who are trying to make a success of a training program Is it reasonashyble to conclude that these pcople do not want to work The car manufacturer did a follow-up study and some startling things came to light People who cannot read cannot read the destination signs on buses The company now has follow-up men to show the trainees how to catch the right bus and how to transfer cnroite
There was also the problem of tardiness Only one in five had alarm clocks Why They had never before had to be at any particular place at any parshyticular time Once these hard-core people knew how and why to come to work their attendance and tardiness record was 500 percent better than the average of all other employees
There were far fewei hopeless cases than had been expected The nonperformers are now pershyforming and performing well and are devoting hours of their own time to company-conducted sesshysions after work oi things like personal hygiene and efficient maniagement of their money
We went through a similar experience in anshyother company in Rochester New York where we worked with an industry-supporued employment agency Rochester Jobs Incorporated to recruit apshyplican ts from the inner city We found that a high number of hard-core people cannot pass physical examinations Out of 635 applicants during an eight-week period as many as 220 failed physicals
There was a big proportion of rejects and dropshyouts Only about 170 of the original 635 comshy
pleted the training and got permanent jobs A large aiount of tinie and money was spent in inshyterviewing examining and training people who never became employed with the result that the cost per person hired was far greater than in norshymal hiring We nevertheless consider it a worthshywhile program for we were convinced of the need to create new job opportunities for the unemployed of the inner city of Rochester and to assist them to qualify for these jobs Everyone who can and will work deserves the opportunity
In both cases the story is the ame management felt the same obligation to deal with a large social
problem many tribulations were involved in hanshydling the proLlems but management emerged conshyvinced not only of the obligation but also of the conclusion that the in-house development of
human resources was definitely good business It is good business because it produces good workers In similar programs at other companies the broadest conclusion of all was that management learned more than the trainees did more about people more about motivation and training more about minority groups
Management learned other things too First they learned that trainees require an enormous amount of attention to financial family and vocational
problems which interfere with learning Second one way to insure built-in motivation is to hire heads of households They learned that tests are not always good predictors of success The will to sucshyceed is just as necessary on the part of management as it is on the part of the hard-core trainee In each case an economic social and psychological cripple is transformed into a whole man or woman
The transformation of these people is not the only training problem which confronts industry today Members of minority groups are not the only people in our country who require attention and merit concern Every member of the industrial working team has something to learn about his own job that lie ought to learn in his best interests This is recognized by indtustry for there are many seminars and university courses many high-level management study groups especially set up for top and middle management In the factory laboratory the drafting room and in the office training reshymains an ongoing and virtually necessary activity
One teaching technique used by industry known as programmeld slides helps employees to improve their skill right on the job It takes advantage of the fact that four-filhs of all learning is visual It makes each lesson part of a practically subconscious reflex pattern like driving a car and painlessly trains the memory in the way that it should go
Let me state a paradox which like many parashydoxes also happens to he true Industry should alshyways leave the path open for an employee to upshygrade his ability and move up in relation to his growing skill and productivity but industry must not make perpetual upgrading a condition of emshy
ployment There are such things as plateaus levels of acshy
complishment on which a person temporarily or
permanently comes to a rest It is unfair and unshywise to pretend that an employee must visibly be climbing higher if lie is to continue to be useful but it is equally unfair and unwise to close off or fail to provide an upward path for employees who
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want to follow it Small companies are plagued by the dilemma of forcing the level of performance upshyward at too fast a pace versus letting the level of performance stay flat for too long They cannot afshyford many mistakes in personal selection and trainshying What can they do Part of their question has been answered by the US Departinent of Labor but another part of their answer may come from joining locally sponsored training institutions to do the job for them
Community colleges which are usually oriented toward the needs of local industries are natural places for training to take place Small companies help to insure their own future when they help to support the institutions and when their executives and engineers help to run them Community colshyleges serve a need magnificently to an extent that all too oftn goes unrecognized because its results are not spectacular
Summing up then I return to where I began American industry needs workers and more producshytive workers in greater numbers all the time and this trend will continue Many Americans are there for the seeking ready and able to supply the work when properly trained and motivated Industry has developed the ability to do this job industry is also improving its ability to keep career opportunishyties open for average men as well as the excepshytionally talented Industry is using and continuing to use its in-house capabilities for the development of hunan resources In short industry really is doing a job and after all what else is industry for
DISCUSSANT Julius F Rothman
In the 1960s Americans learned that the key to any stuategy against poverty was a program that ofshyfered jobs at decent wages with an opportunity for advancement For those living in poverty the deshyspair of the ghetto is rooted in unemployment unshyderemployment and in being less than a full parshyticipant in the society It is clear that the way out of poverty for the disadvantaged of our society is through training in skills that will prepare them for the job market
Today there is general agreement that our manshypower policies must be integrally related to our over-all economic planning and policies
The nations manpower policies as they have evolved over the past eight years have moved from a central concern for the needs of the technologishycally displaced worker to a much broader and more basic concern with the unemployed underemshy
ployed and disadvantaged worker In this process they have had substantial impact on programs reshylated to welfare poverty and the urban crisis Planshyning for manpower policies and programs has in a real sense moved to center-stage in economic decishysion-making
It is also generally recognized that a realistic manpower policy can only be developed within the framework of a national economy that is growing rapidly enough to provide job opportunities for all
persons who are able to work and seeking employshyment This in effect means a full employment economy with unemployment rates somewhere beshytween 2 and 2 12 percent With the unemployment rate at 14 percent it is clear that new approaches to the utilization of manpower must be considered
There are several essential elemcnts that must go into a national manpower policy if we are to preshy
pare the disadvantaged unemployed for the work force
(1) There is a need for a coordinated and comshyprehensive manpower policy The absence of such a
policy has led to a proliferation of manpower proshygrams many of them inadequately funded and freshy
quently failing to meet the needs of the workers for whom they were intended
(2) For those who cannot be absorbed into existing jobs and who desire to work either in the
private or public sectors of the economy there must be a large-scale public service employment and training program subsidized by the Federal Government
(3) To effectively implement national manshypower policies and programs the US Employment Service should be federalized Until this is achieved the fifty state employment services need to be strengthened and upgraded
(4) Greater emphasis must b- placed on upshygrading programs that provide workers with the opportunity to achieve greater skills larger inshycomes and dded status
(5) The federal minimum wage should be raised to at least $200 an hour and the Fair Labor Standards Act be extended to cover all workers
While about one million people per year are helped by current manpower programs this is but a fraction of those who require help An expansion of existing programs through the creation of addishytional training opportunities in private industry is clearly indicated but it has been demonstrated that the private sector has not met the job and training needs of all of the disadvantaged
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The AFL-CIO has long maintained that public service employment provides the best avenue for those who cannot find a place in the private sector of our economy At least three studies have amply documented the sulbtantial number of job openshyings in the public sector that could be filled if sufshyficient funds were made available to the local and state governments Nor are these jobs of the leafshyraking variety Opportunities exist in such areas as anti-pollution enforcement educational institushytions general administration health and hospitals highway and traflic control libraries police fire recreation and sanitation
The Commission on Technology Automation and Economic Progress estimated in 1966 that 53 million new jobs could be created through public service employment An Office of Economic Opporshytunity study by Greenleigh Associates suggested the
possibility of 43 million such jobs And a 1969 study by tihe Upjohn Institute indicated that the mayors of 130 cities with populations over 100000 could use another 280000 persons on their municishy
pal payrolls iminediately If America is to help the working poor and find
jobs for the uneniployed why not use federal funds to improve the quality of essential community services
In a period of rising unemployment increased emphasis should be placed on upgrading the skills of those who are currently employed Upgrading programis would perform a twofold purpose They would provide a ladder for presently employed workers seeking advancement from low-paying enshytry-level jobs and at the same time would provide entry-level openings for the unemployed who could also look to future upward mobility
In the past too much emphasis has been directed towards placing workers in enury-level low-wage jobs which require little or no formal training In too many instances manpower activities have been viewed as a substitute for welfare programs with the result that neither manpower nor welfare needs are adequately met The main thrust of training must be directed toward helping individuals deshyvelop their maximum potential skills for employshyment opportunities that actually exist in the job market This means training for skills beyond the entry-level
There is currently a great deal of talk about reorshyganizing the existing manpower programs and placshying the operating responsibility in the hands of the
states The AFL-CIO is convinced that placing major responsibility for the unemployment probshylems of the poor and the disadvantaged in the hands of the States is a serious mistake The
problems of employment and unemployment are complex and national in scope The individual states have no mechanisms for coping with these
problens The work force is highly mobile Joblessshyness and underemployment require national solushyiLOns not fifty diflerent approaches
Those who advocate this approach would make the key operating mechanism the State Employment Agency The past record of most of these State agenshycies does not suggest they will aggressively press for either job placeient or job development for the
poolr or members of minority groups What is needed to create an effective manpower
training system was stated succinctly by the Nashytional Manpower Policy Task Force in a report reshyleased early this year which said available
manpower services should be provided on the basis of need not impeded by diverse eligibility requireshyments varying administrative practices or competshying agencies The separate programs must be fused into a single comprehensive federal manpower proshygram--providing a variety of services in varying mixes depending upon national conditions and local need preferably funded by a single federal source
Manpower programs are a crucial component of any broad strategy for the elimination of unemployshyment and poverty As long as we have some 45 milshylion unemployed and some 15 million underemshy
ployed-who together with their dependents acshycount for most of the 25 million who live in povershyty-there is an urgent need to move rapidly toward the creation of effective manpower policies and
programs The 1960s was a period of innovation and exshy
perimlentation in the manpower training field Many programs were tried some failed and others met with varying degrees of success The net result was something less than a coordinated and compreshyhensive approach to manpower training We now have the opportunity to streamline existing manshy
power programs into a coinpreliensive program and to add to our manpower policies those elements which past experience has indicated are essential to meet the needs of the disadvantaged
To this end the AFL-CIO proposes that any changes in manpower policy be measured against the following criteria
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(1) Consolidate existing job training programs into a single flexible program which can be taishylored to the needs of the unemployed and to the labor market in which they live
(2) Create a completely new upgrading program designed to encourage employers to develop upshygrading programs either within a company or within an industry and at the same time to fill job vacancies at the entry-level
(3) Establish a system of public service employshyment with State or local government and private nonprofit agencies operating under federal conshytract which would undertake to absorb those who have not been placed in private employment or training in the performance of community imshy
provemen projects in health education public safety recreation bIeatitification etc
We lelieve that these policies if followed would put the United States on the high road toward elimshyinating the unemployment that exists in our slums and urban ghettos and would bring the disshyadvantaged into the econonic mainstream
The Employment Act of 1916 said All Amerishycans able to work and seeking work have the right to useful reuninerative regular and full-time emshyployment and it is the policy of the United States to assure the existence at all times of sufficient emshyployment opportunities to enable all Americans to freely exercise this right
The rhetoric of the 1940s must become the realshyity of the 1970s
DISCUSSANT Richard L Breault
The National Chamber of Commerce for a numshyber of years has been promoting among its menishybers the importance of creating in their own comshymunities a process for bringing together diverse groups that need to become involved in dealing with community problems These probleis might range from pollution to poverty and even to ecoshynomic developmlenti The latter although at a local level I gather relates to the In-pose of Title IX of the Foreign Aid Act We have developed guideshylines for such community action projects which are being used by some of our members
There are in the United States some rather intershyesting conuiiiuity-wide projects that have brought together a wide variety of )articipants For examshyplc in Rochester Minnesota literally h1undreds of citizens are involved in looking at the goals for the community and determining priorities and alternashytive ways these objectives and priorities may be achieved The Goals for Dallas project is an exshy
ample in a much larger city where a rather difficult yet feasible process has been worked out to get thousands of persons involved in determining what Dallas should be now and in the next ten or fifteen years where it should go and what needs to be done to get where they want to go There are a number of examples of other cities that also are supporting such programs to a greater or lesser exshytent
There also have been some excellent examples of
puillic participation in specific manpower proshygrams in addition to other broad community efshyforts such as in Rochester and Dallas The whole manpower outreach program to poverty areas that many businessmen are now using is an example They will go to local organizations and ghetto groups and literally ask them to go out and help find the people who can benefit from training and
jobs The cooperative efforts in the buddy system are an example of individuals becoming involved In this effort one person assumes the responsibility to be a friend and advisor to a disadvantaged per-Soil
In some cities local Chambers of Commerce have been organizing neighborhood recruitment centers right in the ghetos manned by people from these areas In each of the cities the success of the proshygram depends upon the degree to which the key leadership elements of the community are inshyvolved You literally have to start with one two or three persons to get a system of this kind working I would certainly say that here in the United States the businessman particularly through his orgashynized channel of communication which in most cases is a local or a State Chamber of Commerce is indispensable As one looks around the country at this sort of back to people involvement and parshyticipation one finds that where failures have ocshycurred it has been because some of the key eleshyments-business labor the churches ethnic groups or the political part of the community-were left out
It is often noted that it is difficult to get the
pieces of a community together to do a job We have found this to be true in our work
There is a natural fragmentation among comshymunity groups in this country The labor groups may not talk too often to the businessmen the buisinessmen might miot get along too well with sonic other group and so on There is also the fear that getting together in a cooperative project may result in some loss of independence as an organizashy
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tion or as an individual Compromises would have to be made which one would just as soon not have to make Difficult as this process may be in the US I imagine that it would probably be even more difficult in developing countries In the US the communication media are intensively develshyoped enabling one to reach out to people In many of the developing countries one would not expect to have these media as well developed
The Chamber of Commerce has prepared an adshydition to a publication we call Where the Action Is This pamphlet is a compilation of brieflyshy
stated examples of projectsthat involve cooperative efforts with business and other groups in the comshymunity usually taking a major role It is divided into a number of categories such as education manpower crime housing and minority business enterprise In each case the name is given of a pershyson who may be contacted to obtain more informashytion about that particular project This material
put together with the guidelines we provide our members gives at least the basic steps that are necesshysary to get people to cooperate in a community These guidelines could also work for others
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NEW CONCEPTS OF THE EMPLOYMENT SERVICE ROLE TO MEET THE CHALLENGE OF THE 1970s
by Malcolm R Lovell Jr
Recently there has been in the United States a good deal of criticism of the Employment Service Such criticism may have resulted in part from the fact that more has been expected of the Employshyment Service than it could produce The problem has been that we have never set realistic goals for the Employment Service Its broad charter is to serve all people in manpower programs with funds which may appear substantial but are still limited when considered in terms of the cost of a program required to meet the needs of all the people
Some changes are taking place however One is the growing recognition that manpower programs can play a very significant part in overall economic progran and in fighting poverty and discriminashytion Therefore I believe that this nation is preshypared to put more resources into the manpower area than ever before
What are the nature and extent of the resources required to do an effective job Currently some 16 billion dollars have been allocated for training and other assistance to the disadvantaged These proshygrams are serving approximately a million people We estimate that the universe of need according to current poverty criteria is about ten million peoshyple These are the people in serious need of manshypower services if they are to realize their own poshytential in the labor market And they also are the people who are currently at substandard incomes
Of course if you take into consideration non-disshyadvantaged people in need of manpower services the spectrum can broaden out to all of the people in the labor market soae eighty million But asshysuming ten million people are in need our serving one million people is just scratching the surface
Probably the most important breakthrough that is on the horizon is the Family Assistance Plan (FAP) that was proposed by President Nixon last year This plan in my judgment is probably one of the most far reaching pieces of social legislation presented to Congress since the 1930s
The implications of the FAP program are treshymendous The proposed bill would require the Emshyployment Service to serve 29 million people startshying with some 425000 the first year after passage of the bill However those that would be mandatorishyally included in the program are about three milshylion people And then there ate another three milshylion people that have the option of obtaining the manpower services provided in the program Thus the bill contemplates the rendering of manpower services to roughly six million people
This is a sizeable proportion of the estimated universe of need of ten million In addition I would hope that through the proposed Manpower Training Act (NITA) we would be able to help a large part of the remaining individuals who are not eligible under the Family Assistance Plan This group would include for example certain 3ingle people individuals without dependents and youth over a certain age without dependents I beshylieve therefore that we are beginning to see the posshysibility over tle next five years of serving a major segment of our population who are in most drastic need of manpower services
How do you go about organizing a progam of such a magnitude It may properly be compared with the operation of our medical system We need hospitals to deal with medical problems We recogshynize that people can be put in the hospitals with a variety of administrative procedures The Medishycare program allows people to go into the hospitals and it pays the costs Medicaid is similar There is also a large private insurance program which pershymits people to have the hospital cost paid There are of course other patients who must pay their own hospital costs What must be emphasized howshyever is that all of these people are treated in the same hospital regardless of the program financing them
Manpower services are becoming so complex as to require that specific institutions be identified as
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providing certain basic services similar in nature as the hospitals do In the manpower area there is no institution that is as prepared and qualified to provide these services as the Employment Service The kinds of broad services which I believe should rest with the Employment Service are of the nature which may in general terms be described as covershying the functions connected with the process of matching people to jobs and providing and arrangshying for services which an individual may need in order to become employable This definition of the Employment Services responsibility includes a vashyriety of services The following briefly reviews some of them
Serving the FAP Th2 Employment Service should have responsibility for serving persons who are eligible under the FAP program The eligible individuals as defined by the law will have to preregister at Social Security offices Thus the ES will have a waiting list of persons to work on of roughly 3 million-the number of estimated preshyregistrants
It would seem to me that the system which will have to be set up to provide the required manshy
power services to this group of persons should also be the system used as the hospitals are to serve other individuals who are in need of manpower services This would mean oireach into areas not covered by the FAP as well as to people eligible for assistance but who for some reason have not been willing to come in by themselves
Occupational Choice The Employment Service should also be responsible for assisting individuals in making occupational choices The person himshyself however has to make the final decision on what ie wants to do Once the occupational judgshyment has been made by the individual the Emshyployment Service should make arrangements for the worker to receive appropriate instruction or on-the-job training Upon the completion of trainshying he should be referred to a job We however do not expect the Employment Service to do the trainshying
Job Information It is more important now than ever before that the ES be the resting place for inshyformation on job opportunities as well as containshying data on the individual seeking employment or training A number of the new federal programs will create a substantial number of job opportunishyties within the ES itself as well as among other public employers There will also be a substantial
number of training opportunities available as a reshysuilt of these programs For these programs to funcshytion effectively and efficiently it is essential that there be a central point where these jobs can be tabulated and put on a computer and where the inshydividuals know they can go to be exposed to the kinds of work opportunities and training opporshytunities available
Cooperation with Others We see the possibility of Employment Service contracts for services The
programs under the jurisdiction of ES may be of such a magnitude that without subcontracts the ES may not be able to properly perform its responsibilshyities Such contracts may be to community groups or private nonprofit institutions There are a numshyber of functions that are measurable and controllashyble so that theii performances can be watched and
properly monitored
Organization of the Employment Service
One of the problems of the Employment Service is the fact that in terms of social institutions of today it is a relatively old institution-some thirty years old The leadership of the organization has been in the hands of those who joined the organishyzation during the 1930s and most of them have been white Civil Service rules as well as other obshystacles to change have made it difficult for the Emshy
ployment Service to get the kind of minority represhysentation that we think it should have Currently minority groups account for about 14 percent of the Employment Service staff Although this proshy
portion does not appear to be too bad when viewed in terms of the population mix of the country we think it is bad when you consider the nature of the work involved Now Stite agencies have to submit
plans toward achieving a staff racial mix goal which reflects the population the local employment offices serve Each agency is going to set target goals and develop plans on how to achieve these goals
We have also found that the local offices are orshyganized in much the same way that they were thirty years ago except for a change made eight years ago This change unfortunately tended to reshyduce the responsiveness of the ES to the needs of the disadvantaged since it set up a system of speshycialized offices conceived to serve the employer rather than the candidate for employment
A study is now being conducted in eleven oflices directed towards changing that organizational structure and developing a structure which can more effectively serve the disadvantaged As a
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model we are using the employability team concept developed and used in the Work Incentive Proshygram (WIN) and which also will be used in the Family Assistance Plan
We have found that the attitudes of the State Agencies which have long been reported as an obshystacle to effectively participating in modern manshypower efforts have been changing One of the things that we think has been influential in this change is a greater interest on the part of mayors and governors in manpower programs A year ago we funded and offered opportunities to every govershynor to have some manpower staff attached to the manpower programs in his State This action has substantially increased interest in the manpower organizations of the StateWe just recently have ofshyfered a similar opportunity to the mayors of 150 citshy
ies As part of the Presidents new federalism conshyceptwe plan through the Manpower Training Act to involve mayors and governors to an even larger degree The involvement of these public officials in the basic judgments of how Employment Service assets will be used will in our opinion have a very useful effect and will vigorously help in speeding up the changes already taking place in the organishyzational structure
We are investing considerable resources in the Employment Service system We will be expecting performance on the part of the State agehciesectW are proceeding on this road with the assumption that we will have some opposition Those that have distrusted the Employment Service in the past need to be shown by actual achievement of the goals that have been set We hope to achieve them
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CREATION OF A CONSOLIDATED MANPOWER DELIVERY SYSTEM DECENTRALIZED TO THE STATES AND METROPOLITAN AREAS-
A WAY OF ACHIEVING INCREASED PARTICIPATION RESPONSIVE TO LOCAL NEEDS
by Cyril D Tyson
This paper presents a model manpower delivery system developed for New York City which is releshyvant to the problems of the major urban areas The major cities in many instances have had to develop their own administrative mechanisms to deal speshycifically with the problems of the city and over and above Federal and State resources allocate city reshysources to that effort
At the municipal level New York City to my knowledge has the only comprehcnsive nan)ower
program in the country When the present Manshy
power and Career Development Agency was set up there were sonie 85 different manpower programs in the city Some of these manpower agencies were run by the city and some by nonprofit corporashytions resources came from the Federal Government the State and the city No one could determine how the resources were allocated how many people were trained with these resources and what hapshypened to people after training
In recognition of these and related problems we attempted to set up a manpower agency in a new and unique way The first determination made was that it was necessary to set up a comprehensive manpower system to meet our responsibility to tie together those agencies man(ated by legislation to some aspects of manpower as well as other agencies or groups who have been in this field de facto but were doing a creditable job We wanted to bring together all of these instititions whiile maintaining their own individual institutional identity and their own internal liies of administration In efshyfect we wanted to define ourselves as the manager of the manpower system and the determiner of the kind of specifications that these institutions would have to utilize in order to develop adequately the pruduct produced by this system and which would
have to be marketed in the free enterprise system I was not interested in becoming directly involved in operating specific training or educational agenshycies nor in developing a manpower bureaucracy I thought of myself as a businessman with a $45000000 budget and a company that would deshyvelop the appropriate kinds of tools to insure that the product produced was marketable and that there were effective kinds of returns I wanted also to develop accountability in order to identify the cause of ineffectiveness Finally I wanted to define the objectives of the agency in terms of the unishyverse of need and in terms of the kind of resources available
In the City of New York 45 agencies andor orshyganizations have been tied together into a compreshyhensive manpower system In the community parshyticipation area this means there are 26 poverty areas or 26 community action agencies The smallshyest poverty area has a population the size of most normal cities and the largest has more people in it than Newark Each of these 26 community action agencies funded with both City and OEO money administers Neighborhood Manpower Servshyice Centers (NMSC) No training goes on in those Centers they are the intake points the testshying and counselling points and the points of detershymination of the educational andor vocational
plans of individuals All of the resources in the City are available to these NNISCs We have Cityshywide training programs and as appropriate proshygrams inl specific regional opportunity centers so that a person may go close to home for training People are given an option for the first time We are thus beginning to provide interest options so that a person participates in a program because that is where lie belongs and not to fill program quotas
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We believe we have the only program and the first in tie country in which an institution of highcr education is an integrated part of a manshypower system The City University of New York and all of its junior colleges one in each borough provides the major portion of the educational coishyponent and the skilled training component within our system This educational component includes English as a second language basic education edushycation related to skilled training and preparation for high school equivalency
In addition the Board of Education provides basic education and English as a second language in a number of the I I regions which encompass the 26 poverty areas The State Dep-rtment of Vocational Rehabilitation alo is tied into that system Prior to their involvement they had only one office in New York City while they now have a staff in every one of our regional opportunity centers The) are beginning to relate their activities in a more releshyvant way to the popuilation that comes under their jurisdiclion In addition (hie Stale Employment
Service is a part of this system in New York City Ve informed the State Employment Service that
we wantied their staff inl all of lie 11 regions and that we would make city futds available so they could hire the Peronnel to staff the counselling fuinctions in these training facilities In tis procshyess the Stae Eiployment Service wotild become more relevant to tlie needs of the community and in tle process of expansion tle) (ould hire people who aie reflective of the community they serve
The Opportunities Industrialization Center and aI number of other institutions and organizations are involved in the progran Fifty percent of the
people who pailiipate are former welfare recipishyents We have over 300 people who started in public service career plograis in college and we provide for release Itimne funds to insure that people in ptiblic service carees cani pursue higher educashytion related to tle job they have or will tilimately have
The whole recruitment mechanism is contracted out to antipoverty agencies Also contracted out are the skilled training tile educational component and the counselling component This raised the question about wiat is needed to insure accountashybility We have used a ceitral data processing censhytet belonging to an antipoverty agency with terinishynals into all of our NMSCs A person is interviewed tested and lie intake form is filled out If it is deshyterinied that tie person is ready for a job the
counsellor or the person at that terminal provides basic kinds of infoniation to match tlhis person with a job If theie is an appropriate job in seven seconds the name of lie company the hourly rate location etc come over the terminal For a year and a half we have been placing people in jobs through direct on-line access against a batch-match system
Training opportunities are also on the comshyputer Wheni we allocate the training resources of the city into tie communities they also have access to time information tile) need from the computer All of our job developers and counsellors are placed on the computer by code This enables us to obtain information for example on number and kind of people and jobs handled on any one day This brings accointability into the process We know who is getting what kind of job at what rate and the relevancy of those jobs to the people we are serving
We have also developed a management informashylion system ours will be tihe first Intitiicipal agency ini New York City to have a completely computershyized management information system With this system we will be able to cross the program inforshymation with the fiscal information and do cost benshyefit analysis
Our tiniverse of need consists of the five most difshyficult categories in the labor market welfare recipishyents chronically unemployed Iigh school dropshyouts minority underemployed an(l employable handicapped Ve now understand that most of liese people need itraining of one kind or another
only a small proportion can go directly on to jobs We Ilust consider how best to train these people low do )oui traini people inl the community to
provide service to themselves I low do you train those people for example in a way ini which they can begin to handle sophisticated information sysshytems We canl tell you inl oir system who is in what kind of training prograi ini what agency in what area what their reading levels are thei age range tleir job development activity the activity of the Neighborhood Manpower Centers including whet her tiey are late ini the flow of that informashytion through that system With otit regional system maliagers and the related staff inl our regional censhyts who imatnage not only that aclivity and the inshy
stittitions that are part of it but also the contract of the Neighborhood Manpower Ceiters we are in a position to tal in specific terms about what the
problems are and how they can be eliminated
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When you make a commitment to involve comshymunity people in the process of any service you should be prepared to provide them the tools Those tools have to be designed at a level of the people who are participating in that system in
order to make their participation relevant For Cxshyaiple we developed a processing and procedural
mautial and flow chart so that any onie at any part of that system knows his responsibility inl that sysshyten as far as the Neighborhood 11anpower Centers ale COnceied
The iaini objective is to involve tie Community so that they develop whole sets of new tools and skills that make it possible for then to intersect our econoimy at another lcvel When we involve coimshymn1lity people we build up a set of skills for them that has applicability within a broader context of our society At the sanie timie that we are providing
manpower services we help the conunity develop a certain orider of technology that to ily knowledge does not exist in any other Connility in the counshy
try If we are coniceriel about the rational use of reshy
solices inl this couitriy we muiiistfind ways in which to iiilie those resources ms way in which they have a multiplier effect There will never he elnough miolley to solve somne of the iost pressing
problems that we have uinless We beginl to redesign olr insituiions begin to create linkages by the inshy
volvement of the City Univeisity of New York for example ill imianpower In the future probably any
pelsol in a imanpower pjrograil who has received a high school equivalancy in that process will have access to a college education at City University In effect by linking (ity University of New York into the systciim we are forcing a certaini ortder of intershynal institutional ianige
We want to lie degree possible to maximize the participation of the people who need the serviees in tile process of pirovidiiig the services for themshyselves It is possible to do hat It is possible to get institutions even ill the context of history that iight have been slightly recalci irani to conie toshy
gether in ieii of a larger scheiiata as long as we are prepared to help them in very real kinds of ways to master the new kinds of technology in order to run a more effective and efficient system
Discussion
Question from the floor One of the major purshy
poses of thiis Symposium is to extract fron Amerishycan experiences the aphplicability of popular particshyipation in a less developed economy These discusshysions have pointed out that there are underlying
principles which can be applied one being a coinshymitment to invlve those people left out of the iainstreain back into society Title IX of the Forshy
eign Assistance Art says that people in the develop mng countries nust he given a sense of participation in development of their country in order to achieve fle basic goals of political stability social progress and growth
What do you think are the basic underlying
principles for bringing about (lie involvement of
people in theircountrys development plocess
Mr Trvons ronments I think this is a relevant question and I am going to make the formulation
in power terms We like to feel in a detiocratic soshytiety that power is negotiated Certain institushytional arrangenients are set ill) that make it possishyble for those in power to negotiate with others in ain exchange People who have no power and thereshyfore no participation in pr1ograns have to be orgashynized
flow uslit inust bepeople le organized They organized into instittitional arrangenients because in the fiial analysis tlie iransfer of power is done in institutional ways People who are out of the mainshystream imiiust in in which theybe organied a way caii express their (oncern within the context of an institution that they either contirol or play a major role in
Also if this is to be a viable situation we must equip thei with tools tech hiq ies methodology and resoirt es so that when tile) negotiate there is soimnetliIng to iiegotiate about The strategy in our agelnty was to provide tools of a ceitain order of technology in aiiinstiititional context so that these tools could be used as leverage against a whole set of other inst itutions Therefore you use the tools and the technology as an instruieint of changing
powver and resource ielationships The people onut of thei mainstreani must be
trained amd given adequate resources and approshypriate technology If a poor person is put ol a polshyicy board and is not taught the difference between policy and adi in istration lie should not be blamed for failure They must understand their reshysponsibility in terms of policy
51
THE PROBLEM OF EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN
by Grace Farrell
We hear a great deal in the United States today about the need for equal employment opportunity But it is often forgotten that the equal employment opportunity principle applies regardless of sex as well as inl the more customary areas of race crced color anid national origin
Women have come a long way in tie world of work In the US they make up an extremely signifshyicant part of the labor force about 30 million or 38 percent of the labor force Today it is expected that nine out of ten women will work at some point in their lives and for most of them for a considerable period of time The employment pattern for women is no longer that of out of high school or college alul into an ofllice for a couple of years until they marry and then to usually leave the labor force perimaien tly
The greater participation of women in the work force however is not reflected cither in the kind of work they do or in the pay they receive This tindershyitilization of a substantial body of workers constishy
tutes one of tile greatest wastes of our manpower resources today Women need not only the opporshytiility for employment but of course to get into and participate in tile training programs that lead to elliploymeint
In the 19fiWs a imtilliber of laws were passed to
help solve some of these pioblems Anilg tile Fedshy
cral laws was the Equpal Pay Act of 1963 which
prohibits ain cimployer froill discriminating in tile
payment of wages based on sex for all of his emshy
ployces who are subject to the ilinilltim wage provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act Also the Fair Labor Standards Amendment of 1966 whicl illcreased the Federal illinilium wage also
broadened the coverage of the Equal Pay Act Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibshy
its discrimination ill all phases of employment by employers employllent agencies and certain trainshying committees The discrimination prohibited is
tilat based on sex as well as race religion color or national origin Although not strictly speaking a law Executive Order 11375 amended an early Ex ecutive Order which prohibited discrimination by government contractors and subcontractors and federally assisted construction contracts to include discrimination against women Alany states have elacted similar laws also This is very important because it seems that no law is passed without a nillber of exceptions exemptions or exclusions This is true of the Federal laws that I have just enumerated as it is of much other legislation
One of the problems often occurs when the
public employment service is attempting to place women in jobs and relates to such factors as not being able to refer a woman out to work in a facshy
tory because the job requires her to work sixty hours a week and there is a State law which says women can only work forty-eight hours a week Similarly tilroulgh tile years originally for some rather good purposes there were eiacted by the States protective labor legislation which limited womlens hours of work or being in jobs which reshy
quire lifting more thalln iwelty-five pounds With
respect to the latter a mother will often tell you
this is ridiculous because ler baby at the age of
two weighed more than 25 pouinids Such laws are still oil the books in most cases These laws were a
major problem in applying sections of the Federal laws As a result last August the Equal Employshynient Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a revised Sex-Discrimination Guideline which states that State protective legislation including laws which limit womens oturs prohibit her from
working nights restrict her occupation or restrict tie weights they may lift now act as a barrier to
equal employment opportunity and are superseded
by the sections of the law under which the EEOC operates
Since thou about a half dozen States have indishy
53
cated that they will not contest this ruling They agreed that in order to achieve equal employment o0)lx)0rtillities for woien they will no longer enshyforce their protective labor laws There also have been several court decisions which have held siniishylarly
I think nhimately this whole problem will reach a higher court than it has now and it may be solved through a combination of State action and court action EEOC s position remains however in a State regardless of what a State labor department or the equivalent agency has held that labor laws
and hours laws may not be used as a defense to an otherwise illegal employment practice The EEOC has issued a number of decisions on a State-by-State basis on this point
All of these Federal laws and regulations are a step in the right direction and I think it is an imshy
portant one But what they are really getting at is a change in attitude which hopefully changes in laws will help to bring about Not only is a change in attitudes toward the working woman needed but also an understanding of her competence and abilshyity
54
CASE STUDY-JOBS FOR PROGRESS TNC (OPERATION SER)
by Seymour Brandwein
Operation SER (the Spanish word to be) was created as a self-help instrument designed to solve the most pressing manpower problems of the Mexishycan-Anierican population It is run by an organizashytion called Jobs for Progress sponsored by two of the largest civic organizations of Mexican-Amerishycans the League of United Latin American Citishyzens (LULAC) and the American GI Forum Its central staff is financed by the Federal Government Jobs for Progress is operating in five states in the Southwest The administrative structure consists of a regional board which sets the policy for a reshygional office under which local boards and local
projects areguided and monitored There is a maxshyinum of conununity self-involvement and the local
projects are free to adapt themselves to community needs within established guidelines for recruitment and development
This paper traces the development of this effort in an over-simplified and selective form Unnecesshysary details are avoided in order to illustrate clearly some of the special issues and problems of
popular participation in government manpower programs
There are some ten million Mexican-Americans in the Southwest This minority largely bilingual and bicultural has a disproportionately large share of the unemployment and poverty The new manpower programs initiated in the 1960s were frequently criticized by Mexican-Americans The criticism was sometimes merited sometimes uninshyformed However it was also quite clear that some of the programs run by the public agencies hadldifshyficulty with this minority group because of lanshyguage and cultural differences and problems of inshysensitivity of the non-Nlexican-American staff There were also problems of trainee attitudes toshyward government and particularly toward Anglo staff
The Labor Departments Experimental and Demonstration staff jointly with the Office of Ecoshy
nomic Opportunity (OEO) undertook an experishymental program to determine whether it was feasishyble and useful to bring into the manpower proshygrams some of the strengths feelings and cultural sensitivities of the minority group We visualized this also as an opportunity to convert protest acshytivity into constructive program action and as a way to develop understanding of and participation
in program development The following briefly deshysci ibes the way this program was developed
The first question that required an answer was who represents this minority We began with the major national organizations already active in soshycial civic affairs LULAC GI Forum and the Comshymiinity Service organization-a California-based orshyganization-which later withdrew from the Board We recognized the limitations in turning to thes groups since their membership did not include many of the very poor Each organization had limshyited resources and organizational skills But they were broad-based and they were an available strucshyture They had responsible records Their leaders were widely respected even though they might not be speaking for the total community A LULAC Chapter had already run an employment center in Houston with a volunteer staff
In late 1965 meetings were held with representashytives of these groups to encourage them to set up an organization and staff (which we would finance) to develop mianpower programs It took some months to develop agreement on appropriate relative represhysentation of the several groups on the governing board It was also agreed that the initial efforts should be concentrated in eleven major areas of Mexican-American population in the Southwest rather than dispersed over that region or the nashytion
At first there was over-emphasis on structure More time was devoted to charts of -everal layers of boards and to job descriptions and to relationships than any serious consideration of what specifically
55
should be done We knew that there would be problems but we went along with their own prefershyences We were concerned that the Mexican-Amerishycan leaders involved looked upon this as getting their share of the money and as a matter of dealing with Washington in spite of what was said about working with State and local agencies Before the initial funding we brought together the Mexican-American leaders regional and State agency officials of tile Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) Department of Health Education and Welfare and the Labor Department to explain the objectives of tile program and to allow them to raise their concerns and to have them start dealing with Mexican-Americans It was also our purpose to give the Mexican-Americans an awareness of the nature of the Federal-State relationship and its conshystraints the ainouint of resources tie limits on the resources and how decisions were nade on their alshylocation In this way the State and SER leaders were forewarned of the many technical and intershyagency relationship difficulties
The program was launched in mid-1966 We disshycussed types of staff needed and SER leaders cited the names of four possible executive directors Each had considera)le background and stature and were all acceptable Each of the four declined and a pershysonnel committee selected as executive director a young man from one of the organizations and a deiputy from one of the other organizations There was disagreement about tile choice of a person to be staff head We had to explain to the top leaders that neither they nor we could permit the selection to be a patronage activity and that the man seshylected while hie was promising oil paper and might be very good as a local project director simply was unequipped to work with regional and state govshyernment officials They reluctantly accepted this aid selected a man with some experience who in retrospect turned out to be the tower of strength in technical direction that was needed in the initial years in the effort Tile staff assemlbled by the new chief were young and willing Despite cautions from us the new staff rushed ambitiously to draft the proposals for large-scale new programs to give to Washington The proposals were in general terms and were justified simply as being needed They did not take into account the complex probshylems and lead-in time requirements inherent in the launching of any comprelensive programn For exshyample there was one proposal for an Employment Center in one State to be financed by $37 million
at a time when the total allocation for this entire State for Manpower training was approximately $25 million We had to explain in a quite turbushylent session that such funds were not available that the programs had to be linked with others of the State and local manpower agencies and that speshycific account had to be taken of operational probshylems of building up a sizeable scale program Thus through the hard way the staff became familiar with funding and operational constraints under manpower agencies and what was meant by develshyoping a program
The next problem we focused on was the quesshytion of separate SER programs versus programs jointly run with public agencies We identified apshy
proximate suis that we thought we could obtain1 from uncommitted resources in Washington We also made clear to the SER staff and to the State agency that such funds would be provided over and beyond the funds regularly allocated to the States if the programs were jointly developed if the State agencies would conduct certain functions requirshying their technical skill and if SER would be given authority and responsibility for operating acshytivities for which bilingual staff and Mexican-American sponsorship would be particularly useful The SER staff was now able to begin to examine
program specifics to proceed oil the technical tasks involved and find out what was literally involved in manpower development programs Issues did arise The SER staff came to us with questions about some State agency procedures We offered inshyformation and illade suggestiolls but with a couple of rare exceptions we did not intervene We told them they would have to work it out themselves
In the spring of 1968 new SER training projects with agencies in five States were funded with apshy
proximately $5 million There were 2500 trainees in the target areas where there were high proporshytions of Mexican-Americans unemployed The projshyects varied by locality but generally tile SER was responsible for or directly involved in recruitment and selection of trainees counseling pre-job orienshytation basic education relations with employers to obtain jobs for trainees and in coaching of trainshyees during training and after placement particushylarly where Spanish-speaking capability was reshyquired The State employment services did testing counseling job placement work and the State voshycational education agencies conducted or arranged for the formal skill training
We now graduated to a new level of problems
56
We moved from proposal development planning relations with State agencies and mastering of funding procedures to the specifics of program opshycration staff development technical assistance and linking to other programs These proceeded reasonshyably well in comparison to the earlier public
agency programs There were problems but a dedishycated enthusiastic staff was assembled and there was a clear affirmative response in the Mexican-American community and among potential trainshyces The State igencies respond(ed responsibly
But several types of problems are wortn noting There were questions of authority between the overall SER Board and the local SER Board and between the local Boards authority as against that of the staffs to which they were giving policy direcshytion I take particular credit for the fact that we reshysisted the temptation to be the big bosses We took the position that SER had to resolve its internal reshylations or be discredited in the eyes of the Governshyment and the public If they were serious about
private minority ability to decide and stand on their decisions
Another problen was that as the staff gained in capability t became the only identifiable major center of organized lexican-American program acshytivity and was pulled toward other potential activishyties such as housing minority entrepreneurship and education Universities and government agenshycies wanted to see how they could get Mexican-American involvement through SER We took a middle course There has been OEO funding in
part that has permitted this relatively easy stance But we insisted that there be primary and overshywhelming concentration on the manpower activishyties for which they were funded
On another front we had hoped that the initial Board would serve as a base for broader participashytion by drawing in additional Mexican-American groups Its example has provided some impetus for generating and developing various other activities at the local level by locally organized Mexican-American groups
To conclude I think it would be useful to note without overdramatizing several results that have become apparent during this fourth year of activshyity I think beyond question the program has heightened not only the interest but the undershystanding of miany Mexican-American leaders both of the potential and of the limitations of manshy
power programs-how they function and how they
can be used to meet the problems of unemployed Alexican-Americans
The programs have developed a knowledgeable Mexican-American staff who whatever their limishytations initially are now on a basis quite comparashyble to that of public agency staffs and are equipped to participate constructively in program planning development and operations In addition in the
process of negotiating with the public agencies they have influenced and generated some changes in program development to take more rational acshycount of unique problems of Mexican-Americans And for the first time on any scale they have led agencies in the manpower field into a direct sharshying a direct partnership of operating responsibility with minority organizations to the mutual benefit of both
One of the initial criticisms was that the areas we were concentrating in were urban areas and that we were not paying any attention to the Mexishycan migrants The observation was sound but it was our judgment that until a capability developed in a difficult enough area there was little sense in releasing another set of factors in the exceedingly complex and dispersed migrant problem
In the most recent years programs hive broadened SER is now conducting basic edtucationI programs for Mexican-American migrant in sevshyeral areas with financial support from OEO Beshy
yond the funds that we arranged over and above State resources as some initial ability was develshyoped the group was turned to for on-the-job trainshying contracts and to take on responsibility for certain functions in so-called Concentrated Employshynent Programs Also there has begun to be a drawshymig on this capability without regard to funds conshying directly from Washington For example a skills baink operation which accounted for some very large numbers of placements is probably the most significant of these activities
Beyond getting from the participation of the mishynority groups some of the special strengths it had
to offer particularly bilingual capability and a bishy
cultural understanding the SER program has
served as the resource for staff to enter the public
agencies so that by now perhaps a third of the initial group are working in State agencies and have brought within the public programs in other
areas and types of activities some of the special mishynority capability which was lacking at the outset of this program
57
Discussion
Question from the Floor What are the qualifishycations required for board members How are they selected or elected What was the background of some of the early staff including the staff director
Mr Brandweins comments On qualifications of the national board members we left the selection wholly to the organizations involved Similarly at the local level we made that matter the business of the local SER Boards Two problems in the initial years arose out of that practice where it was clear that we were not intervening and that it was not a matter of handpicking of members by the Governshyment The first problem was that as some of the novelty wore off as age crept up some of the boards original leaders replacements moved down to a more limited level and background Secondly we had an unusually sharp distinction between the board and the staff The board members were lawshyyers middle-level lower-income businessmen or real estate agents professional men in the communshyity The staff as a result of the first struggle in which we undertook to make clear that we would not proceed on a patronage basis were largely men in their twenties with college training and backshyground in sonic social activities In short order even at modest pay levels $12000-$1l1000 we had a problem of staff twenty years the junior of the board members earning higher incomes and chalshylenging the board members with lack of knowledge of program detail That has presented and continshyties to present friction For staff selection we have relied on two sets of procedures One is a wide cirshyculation of notice of vacancies to Mexican-Amerishycan organizations and the second is insistence on a fairly broad based selection committee in the boards themselves All things considered I think these procedures have worked out reasonably well
Question from the Floor What were the specific qualifications of the man who ultimately was seshylected as staff director
Mr Brandweins comments The man selected as staff director was a regional compliance officer with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commisshysion He had been consulted in the preparation of this was familiar with agency structures and had a record of active participation in one or both of the national organizations We focused on a cross reshygional basis and thus attracted capable leaders so
the original board operations were on the level of the most able leadership in this community The language element happened to be a particularly identifiably useful one here Also our focus was on the major metropolitan areas where we had greater access to potentially able young staff with a broader base from which to select
Question from the Floor How does a less develshyoped country take a small amount of money and conduct experimental activities to find out if they work and if they do to get a fair share of the reshysources of that country in order to mount larger
programs At what level did MDTA start and to what level has it now grown
Mr Brandweins comments I think I would
like to build on what you raise two ways Implicit
in all I said was a certain attitude of government Now governments are the people who are in them
The shepherding for MDTA was in a unit which everyone recognized had some flexibility reaching for examples of what might be done and it genershyated an element of let us try let us see what the
next steps will bring We also helped generate through this attitude somewhat different attitudes to government Thus irrespective of the amount of resources what resources there were were applied with some sense of We are not sure of what the
best way is This is the beginning We are going to build but we have the opportunity and where else can we go We were breeding through this type of combined public-private activity some developshyment of private group assertiveness understanding and self-generated expansion of activities We were also developing flexibility on the part of the public agencies to go further with available resources I believe these are potential products of any effort to combine public and private activity
Question from the Floor Why was on-the-job training chosen rather than training beforehand
Mr Brandweins comments There are two
points to make in answer to this question What we might have wanted to do was limited by the conshystraints of what we could do Therefore half by deshysire and half by necessity we relied on a learn-asshyyou-go basis What we undertook to do is to make available and insist on specific times and places for reassessment of what we did learn and I think this was the tool that we consciously relied on most This was very costly and at the periodic Board
58
meeings staff were brought together and State re- brought together promoted a high degree of intershygional and Federal agency officials were also in- change In addition there were realistic timetables vited Workshops in which project staff were of development
PARTICIPATION OT THE WORKING POOR-UTILIZATION OF HUMAN RESOURCES IN ANTI-POVERTY PROGRAMS
by Philip J Rutledge
The last several years we have seen in this counshytry a rather unusual development of programs parshyticularly in ghetto communities aimed at a kind of uplifting of these communities The efforts really are not completely new antipoverty efforts have a long history Certainly many of the best traditions of our philanthropy have grown up out of attempts to do something about and for those persons who have been less fortunate in the competitive struggle in our system
We have however developed a tradition that says organized private philanthropy may be good but the Government doing it is not so good In fact the Governments assistance to individuals who can not make it is inappropriate because if these individuals had any ambition any skills or tried to develop themselves they could make it on their own We have not had this type of tradition however about helping either private enterprise or the farmers or many other groups in the country as long as they were not identified with certain other
personal characterisitcs some of which have had distinct ethnic and racial identification
During the late fifties many of the private founshydations began to take a little different approach to human resources and community development These efforts were sometimes called antipoverty deshyvelopments Some rather comprehensive and wideshyspread efforts were funded which were concerned with changing things and opening doors of opporshytunity not only through outside help but also by stimulating people in groups to take actions someshytimes even disruptive and offensive action to change the nature of their situation Many of our more respected foundations funded such programs Also in the 1960s we have seen a spate of programs to assist the disadvantaged started by the Office of Economic Opportunity and Manpower Administrashytion and to some extent through efforts of the Manshypower Development and Training Act The latter
in my judgment was not really directed to any sigshynificant extent toward the disadvantaged and the occupants of the ghetto until relatively recently
I have spent much of my working career in the public health field particularly in the area of public health education It was our job to organize persons who may be concerned with immunization or x-ray programs and to get them involved in conshyvincing other people to come in for x-rays and imshymunizations These were really efforts in retroshyspect to use the people of these ghetto communities to achieve certain goals which we had in mind and which we knew-and I think with some validityshywere good for them However it never occurred to us while we were doing this that perhaps the peoshyple might have some other ideas about whether it was good for them or not
There has been I would suggest in whatever area we have used citizen involvement community involvement or the inexpert in our program activishyties a kind of tension between what might be an elitest approach in whieh -a group would say Now these are the facts I know how it -ought to be done and all I want you to do is come over and help me do it and get some of those others to come and help do it Or This subject or this area is just too complicated for you to understand so you just go and do it the way I want you to do it Sometimes such a position was valid
On the other hand we have had coming along at the same time in this country another approach which might be entitled egalitarian This apshyproach suggests that Well maybe they do have some ideas about some of these areas Maybe they do know something about how we ought to proshygram and organize in their community Maybe they do know something about training persons in manpower programming or the kind of skills or the kinds of materials that ought to be prepared
61
But what must we do to prepare them or indoctrishynate them into our particular philosophy
The efforts to accommodate these two apshy
proaches I think has created most of our probshylems The movements in this area in the early sixshyties changed the conditions a little bit because many of the persons who were being organized chose to make political instruments rather than soshycial instruments out of the organization techshyniques They tried to use their power of organizashytion for control and redirection of the resources that were being made available Such conditions made it difficult for the Government who wanted to involve -sidents particularly residents of the ghettos in vast social prograims The Government unlike sonic of the private philanthropic agencies and social work agencies that have been involved in this area in the past has other constituencies-it has a responsibility to the overall citizenry and above all responsibilities to the Congress and to the taxpayers
Thus we have seen in the sixties a great upsurge of interest in popular participation in a variety of
programs including manpower And now we have reached a point in our history where there is a tendency to back off fromn this concept by the Govshyernment I do not regard this backing off as necesshysarily an evil conspiracy on the part of the adminisshytration that happens to be in power It is perhaps one of the natural things that occurs when a new concept appears It grows and expands to one point reaches a plateau and falls back a little bit while liome retrenchment and redevelopment takes place Then after a while it moves on to another plashyteau In any process of change progress is not alshyways continuous
We are only now at a point where we are beginshyning to look for a different theoretical basis for
participation The concept of participation in
public and in private programming that we have been using has been largely an upper middle class one Therefore we accept the fact that there has not been any significant input or contribution from the class that we are trying to help Having worked in this area a long while I am not sure that we know enough about how to change this concept I think it is appropriate that we take not only the concept of participation but the concept of social programming in the ghetto back to the drawing board and take another look at them Some things have not worked some things have worked in spite
of what we were doing and some things just hapshypened accidentally
In the area of citizen participation I think it is rather significant that such groups as the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) and its professional offshoot the National Academy of Public Aministration (NAPA) are now beginning to take hard and serious professional looks at where we are in terms of government programming in utilizing citizens particularly disadvantaged resshyidents of the ghetto in our public programs The National Academy of Public Administration for example recently held a special conference on this problem of participation
A paper by John Strange of the ASPA which looked at citizen participation in programs funded through the Economic Opportunity Act found that the purposes in terms of the participants in these social programs-manpower and the like-included such goals as (1) the creation of a sense of group identity solidarity and power based on ethnicity economic class status and the use of Government programs or services and (2) to overcome a sense of powerlessness enhance life opportunities and to publicly affirm individual worth or to provide a job Ih terms of affecting the participants the purposes were (1) to train and educate and inform them of Government programs (2) to educate parshyticipants in the way the Government system works and develop political or administrative skills and (3) to alter social behavior in order to establish conditions for effective individual and family life
Another objective noted by Strange relating to participants which needs to be emphasized is that an institutional device must be provided which will enable the participants to settle for less than they want One of the important mechanisms that has held the American society together-holds all socieshyties together-is finding some means to compromise potentially incompatible differences and bringing into the decision-making process people who have different value systems and objectives This often provides an institutional device to enable them to settle for less
I also believe we have to take another look at the way we are redistributing power in our public proshygrams Certainly citizen participation community control of schools police precinct projects and other programs are basically ways of redistributing the power Whether we are talking about manshypower programs social programs educational sysshy
62
tems or what have you the major consideration bashysically is how can we redistribute the power so that the people in that system feel that they can yield it and use it as they believe best This feeling is someshytimes more important psychologically than the job itself
There are a number of ingredients needed to achieve meaningful and successful citizen particishypation but in summary I wish to note two which are of particular importance The first is the tendshyency in this country and perhaps in foreign areas as well to back off from assisting people if they do not seem to appreciate adequately what we are doing for them Second I do not think that we can develop in the ghettos which I am familiar with
and I doubt if we could develop that kind of popushylar participation in similar areas in foreign counshytries if we think that participation is simply going to be a means of promoting stability and promotshying a maintenance of the existing situation
I believe the nature of our society today is changed and in this country as well as developing nations citizen participation and community orshyganizations and popular involvement can provide as John Strange has suggested that mechanism for compromise and change if it is used properly If we give them some victories this might be more imshyportant than any other thing we might be able to do to keep our system and that of other countries together
63
COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN LATIN AMERICA LEADING TO SOCIAL CHANGE AND INSTITUTIONAL
DEVELOPMENT RELATED TO MANPOWER
by William F Whyte
The Peruvian government has a massive and amshybitious social and economic change program going on and there are opportunities to observe very inshyteresting changes and possibly to help these proshygressive changes to come about
This paper discusses changes in two rural sectors of Peru One is the Sierra Hacienda which has in the past been run very much like the feudal manor of the Middle Ages the peasants largely of Indian extraction served very much as serfs tied to the land owing labor services to the patron the hacenshydado The second sector is the coastal plantations which are quite a different style of operation from the Sierra where the haciendas have been pretty much in the subsistence economy with very small surpluses The coastal plantations have been enshygaged in large scale modern agriculture sugar cane cotton etc largely for the export market These large agro-industrial enterprises are either Peruvian owned or foreign owned
Unions have been rather effective on the coast due to the cohesive organization that exists there In the Sierra there have been sporadic peasant movements but the cohesive organization is lackshying
To properly provide technical assistance to the change processes occurring in these two sectors or anywhere else you should know what really is going oin I therefore must first try to knock down what seems to me a false image of the peasant which I call the myth of the passive peasant This is the notion that the peasant is bound by trashydition he is conservative and he sticks to his old customs So if anything is going to change on the country side it will be from some kind of outside intervention either by community developers supshy
This paper is based on field studies in Peru undertaken in collaboration with Dr L Williams of Cornell University and the Institute of Peruvian Studies of Peru
ported by AID or by political agitators or revolushytionists
In Peru the younger social scientists differ in what the long-run objectives are but they do agree in accepting what I quite dogmatically call a myth-the myth that it you do not get out there you middle-class intellectuals and guide the peasshyants or stir them up they will just sit there and nothing will happen
Changes have been observed some slow but some quite rapid and dramatic in various parts of rural Peru where the government has not intervened and where there has been no planned intervention from the outside The peasants have joined toshygether and learned how to manipulate the power structure and have achieved in some cases basic transformations Those peasant families who have been living on haciendas as serfs have managed to combine together to oust the landlord to take over the lands and to operate their own farming entershyprises
We have been trying to observe how this takes
place Visualize what we call the baseless triangle where the hacendado the landlord is at the apex of the triangle and the peasants are at the bottom all linked to the apex by lines coming down from the landlord And when we say the baseless trishyangle we have an image of a lack of interconnecshytion among the peasants horizontally This is a vershytical system and the hacendado has done his best in the past to keep this that way and it means that anything that the peasants need in the economic system and the political system and any wants they have they have had to try to fulfill by acting through the landlord who has been quite unrecepshytive to their initiatives which have always been on an individual basis That is you would ask the landshylord for a favor to you and your family but there would not be concerted organized action The landshy
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lord was the gatekeeper between you and the outshyside society
When we find this structure changing we find more or less simultaneously new links are formed links across the base of the triangle which we call the closing of the triangle base But this is not enough We find that the peasants begin to estabshylish independent connections with politicians maybe there are competing political parties which they can use to advantage
In some cases the landlord has outstanding loans with the agricultural development bank which he has not been repaying The peasants discover this and with the assistance perhaps of lawyers apshy
proach the bank to see if they can take over the loan and therefore take over the estate
In other cases the peasants discover that the landshylord has been required by law to provide educashytion for their children and lie has not complied or has just done so in a token way So the peasants apshy
peal to the Ministry of Education they offer to build a schoolhouse if they can get help The procshyess of transformation and development therefore involves not only the banding together of the peasshyants to close the base of the triangle but the develshyoping of upward links with power figures in society
As this process takes place the hacendados posishytion becomes more difficult and lie is likely to have
problems himself in the decline of his agricultural operations especially if lie has been an absentee landlord letting someone else run the operations Frequently there are legal fights among the hacenshydado group for the control of land When the old man dies his sons are likely to fight for control then the peasants at times can move in and take OVer
This seems to have one implication for developshyment and for training needs The process of popushylar participation aJparently requires the developshyment by the peasauts of direct links with bankers
politicians and people in the field of education If this is so it seems to mie the technical assistance process ought to be oriented to some extent around helping peasants understand how this world outshyside their little estate works and how to establish connections and deal with these power figures indeshy
pendent of the landlord or boss Then there is a second phase that is likely to
arise and present another set of problems When you first look at the typical Sierra hacienda you have a picture of the landlord being at the top and the pcasants all at the same level at the bottom but
this is not always the case The landlord maintains his control not only by dealing with each peasant individually but by having his favorite There are certain itidividual peasants certain families that he feels are particularly loyal to him and they get the breaks which means different treatment in the distribution of land that the peasant is able to work for his own family So you frequently find sitshynations where a small minority of peasants under this hacendado has two or three times as much land or even more under their own immediate conshytrol than the rank and file
Now when this hacienda system breaks up when the peasants are able to unite against the hacendado and are successful in ousting him an interesting issue arises This issue relates to whether the part of the hacienda directly under the immediate conshytrol of the landlord should be divided among the
peasants or whether the whole estate shall be redishyvided Those who have had the greater amounts of land feel that they have worked hard improved the land and built their houses on it and that they have earned the land So they prefer to maintain the existing distribution The rank and file leaders counter with the point that this is inequitable disshytribution and everyone should start from the same
base line It was not until the present military govshyernment came into power that there was no longer any difference of opinion on this matter between the Executive and Congress This solution was achieved by dismissing the Congress and then it was finally possible to settle the distribution of land issue
This type of problem involving peasant solidarshyity and intergroup conflict is going to become more
prevalent Yet most of the persons working on agrarian reform are assistance and agricultural production specialists with no knowledge or backshy
ground about social organization or processes
about intergroup conflicts and negotiation
How do you handle a situation that involves basic differences of interest that have to be fought out negotiated mediated or arbitrated Some unshyderstanding on that front should be provided or
our technical assistance efforts will go awry
Another possible training focus involves comshymunity development In Peru there is a long tradishy
tion of community self-help buildings schools roads and so forth However there is also a long history in which these communal efforts lead to inshy
creased wealth at one particular time but the
problem of maintenance is not handled That is
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you build a school and the initial cost is taken care of then there is the problem of supplying teachers maintaining the school and so on So you can readshyily have a situation in which the more successful the community development program the more the expense burden falls upon the national governshymient which is alost the only supplier of tax money Work has been started but more needs to be (lone to develop the community revolving fund concept The idea is to tie together the impulses of conunities to build physical improvements to make investments in their community with sonic continuing commitment of the community to assess itself to maintain this particular facility
It seems to me that technical assistance training can be very helpful in exploring possibilities of linking the community development effort to the development of local government
On the coast there is a quite different transforshyimation problem than in the Sierra Technology and scientific knowledge are used much more on the coast Greater division of labor and more union organization exists on the coast
The Peruvian government objective is to transshyform the haciendas of the Sierra into self-governing
peasant communiities really dividing the land up among the peasants but also trying to maintain a communal organization for mutual help On the coast the government recognizes this is not practishycal You can not just divide the sugar estates and the cotton plantations into small farmer plots so the approach has been to transform the agro-industrial complex into a producers cooperative This inshyvolves a major structural transformation which will also have an impact on the workers In the first stage the goverinment administrators have been running everything It is just a transfer of power from private land owner to government But the ideology is to have the peasants take over Here you run into political questions because on the coast of Peru the unions have generally been organized by another political party and the government is very leery of doing anything to encourage this political group it would rather (10 the opposite
The social scientists feel that something could be worked through the already existing union strucshyture This cannot be (lone automatically because the Peruvian unions do not aict in quite the same way that the unions do in the US The unions in Peru tend to be more centralized there is less activshyity at the lower levels On the other hand you do
have a degree of mobilization of workers around the unions The Peruvian government therefore has to determine whether or not it can build on this established organization the development of
producers cooperatives Peru is trying to carry out a structural transforshy
mation in these coastal haciendas for which there is no parallel in history It is not just a question of communicating what is a cooperative the officers needed and- what do they do but drastic changes
in peoples roles have to be developed and a new type of organization has to be established A signifshyicant social and cultural transformation is inshyvolved a change with which our best experts on
producers cooperatives and agriculture are not familiar
I am also not suggesting that sociologists such as myself should provide the technical assistance However I do think it is important to shift our
priorities here and say that a major transformation
process has been launched and is going to be going on for a long time with some successes a lot of failshyures many difficulties and that maybe the best help we can provide is some assistance on the reshysearch side to study and try to understand what is going on and feed this information back to Peshyruvian agrarian reform programs
The nature of this process is to develop training materials which can be used to train present and future administrators on these estates It can train incipient peasant leaders so that they will become able to deal with the complexities technical as well as social of the new type of organization
In this connection I think outside help can be useful to Peru but in financial form rather than direct investment in research talent because I have found that Peru has very able social scientists who understand what is going on much better than most experts in this field who could be imported Instead of thinking simply in terms of experts to go in and tell people what ought to be done about manpower and related problems we recognize the complexity of these problems and try to learn about these transformations as they are taking
place so that out of this learning process can be
provided teaching materials for training programs for work in the colleges and universities that will
give Latin Americans a much more realistic picture of the problems of social reforms and development than they camn obtain from the US models that are ordinarily imposed on them
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Discussion
Questions from the floor How can free and unshytrammeled research in the field of power relationshyships be placed in a military regime which may feel itself rightly or wrongly threatened as for example in the program of land reform How do you collashyborate with these free researchers in Peru in raisshying these questions
Mr Whyte comments We have so far had no difficulty at all under the present government in doing research and in publishing But the time may conic particularly as we try to publish more and more studies on land reform because what we have been doing so far has helped to highlight the evils of the preexisting system that the government is committed to change If we do get into studiesshy
as we are hoping to-of the governments present efshyforts of land reform in certain areas I am sure we are going to run into a problem ie the governshyment has intervened and knocked out the preshyexisting power ligures and starts to undertake the transformation of society from the top down We think not only we in the US but also our Peshy
ruvian social science associates that there are limishytations to this approach It is going to break down
in certain predictable ways When we get to the
point of observing these breakdowns and reporting
on them analyzing them we will then face the
problem you have raised by the question We have
been completely free so far but when we look at
the impact of the present government in certain
areas we are getting into something much more
delicate
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MOBILIZING THE PARTICIPATION OF YOUTH IN MANPOWER AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT-A UNIVERSAL CHALLENGE
by William Mirengoff
I am rather intrigued by this Symposiums emshyphasis on popular participation in manpower proshygrams although I must confess I find the term a little ambiguous Just what do we mean by popular
participation Does it mean the involvement of state and local
officials as the democratically elected representashytives of the populace
Or does it mean the direct involvement of that segment of the populace to whom the program is directed independent of the local political strucshyture indeed sometimes challenging the elected power structure
And if we mean the latter how do we bring this
participation about There are some rather broad philosophical issues
involved here For the purposes of todays discussion I view
participation as three-dimensional
1 Participation in the fruits of the program-as recipients This is essentially a passive role and the results can be quantified in terms of people served and benefits received
2 Participation in decision-making This is esshysentially an active role-helping to determine program policies and targets
3 Participation in implementing the program and delivering the services This is a manashygerial and administrative role
I Trend Toward Popular Participationin Manshypower Programs
One of the lessons we have learned over the last decade is that the Federal Government bureaucracy alone despite all its resources cannot guarantee soshylutions to all of the complex problems facing our nation Rather experience has shown that deep inshyvolvement by all the sectors of the society affected
by a particular problem is essential This not only includes involvement by orgnizations that can conshytribute resources and services but also full particishypation in program development and decision-makshying by the very people for whom the programs are being provided
The Economic Opportunity Act embodied the clearest expression of popular participation by reshyquiring the maximum feasible participation of the poor in its program The Community Action Agencies went out and organized the poor so that they could participate effectively in detision-makshying In some areas insistence of program clients on a voice in activities affecting their welfare was viewed as a threat to established power structures In general however involvement of the poor led to a healthy exchange of ideas and combination of efshyforts that fostered creative programs
Building on the experience of the Economic Opshyportunity Act the Model Cities Program also reshyquires the direct involvement of the population in the target area
Manpower Administration programs stress this too-particularly the involvement of staff from the client group and the target area In addition there has been a clear trend toward decentralization which strengthens participation in administration at the local level
It may be of some interest to trace the evolution of popular participation in the manpower and reshylated human resources programs I think of this evolution as passing through three stages-Prolifershyation Cooperation and Consolidation
1 ProliferationWe started with the Area Reshydevelopment Act of 1961 then the Manpower Development Training Act of 1962 then an explosion of manpower programs-The Neighshyborhood Youth Corps Operation Mainstream New Careers the JOBS Program etc-based
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on the Economic Opportunity Act Later came the WIN Program Public Service Careers and other programs
Unrelated fragmented programs proliferated each with its own organizational structure funding eligibility requirements and apshyproaches
But in the last analysis programs all take place on some piece of real estate-in a state city or community They all converge on the people in an area with a minimum of planning and coordination competing for local resources for local clients for public attention and support
2 CooperationRecognizing the need for rationshyalization and coordination below the Fedshyeral level major efforts were made to achieve cooperation among the individual programs We tried joint funding-with independent
programs joining voluntarily in combined efshyforts We tried to pull the Department of Labor programs together in the Concenshytrated Employment Program-a coordinated effort to focus available services on specific low-income areas We tried to bring together all human resource programs of all governshyment agencies plus non-government involveshyment through the CAMPS program--essenshytially a system of local planning and coordishynation through a network of state and local interagency committees
All of these efforts had a measure of success but all were hampered by a timeless adminisshytrative problemi-the suspicions and cautious protectiveness of centrally operated program agencies that are asked to yield some autonshyomy in the interests of a cooperative effort and greater involvement by people at the local level
3 Consolidation We are now at the third stageshyconsolidation This stage is best epitomized by the proposed Manpower Training Act (MTA) This legislation is currently before the Congress where it has bi-partisan supshyport
We are firmly committed to the MTA which will be a milestone in the development of manshypower policy in this country It will
Decategorize our present fragmented programs
Decentralize the planning and delivery system for manpower services
Move programs toward maximum participashytion by state and local governments-Govershynors Mayors and other popularly elected repshyresentatives
The MTA would supersede the Manpower Deshyvelopment and Training Act (MDTA) and manshy
power sections of the Economic Opportunity Act Under the ITA most of the individual manpower programs that are currently operated from Washshyington as highly centralized separately adminisshytered activities would be merged into one overall manpower effort Program categories such as MDTA Neighborhood Youth Corps the Concenshytrated Employment Program Operation Mainshystream and others would lose their identities in the consolidated effort Responsibility for planning and administering the new comprehensive manshy
power program would be delegated to a large exshytent to the Governors of the States and to local
prime sponsors (primarily Mayors and other heads of local governments)
Each year the prime sponsors would be required to prepare comprehensive manpower plans for their areas proposing manpower services tailored to the
special needs of local problem groups The Govershynors would be responsible for submitting consolishydated manpower plans for their states State and local advisory and planning bodies composed of representatives of business labor welfare groups agriculture education local and state government agencies and other community elements are to play key roles in developing the plans Upon approval of the state plans by the federal governshyment the Governors and local prime sponsors would assume major responsibilities for impleshymenting approved programs
As you can see unification and decentralization of programs under the MT are directly related to the principle of fuller particilition by non-Federal groups The MTA would mobiii e the experience and resources of ou- pluralistic network of local governments and commununity interests to support all states of manpower activity
II Need For Youth Manpower Programs
I would like now to turn specifically to youth
programs to explore how the principle of particishy
pation is being applied in manpower services for young people As most of you know there has been
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a mounting interest in youth manpower problems in this country Many new programs for young peoshyple entering or preparing for the labor force have been introduced during the last decade At present youth accounts for well over one-third of the enshyrollment and expenditures in Federally assisted manpower activities
In large part this emphasis represents a growing awareness of the alienation and frustration of
many young people who are unable to participate effectively in the labor market We are faced with
the rejection of prevailing values youthful cynishycism and sucli symptoms of social disorganization as caipus unrest high crimc rates racial tensions and drug abuse
In the US probleis encountered by youth in the labor market reflect basic population labor force and educational trends
A Population Upsurge There has been a sharp
increase in the youth population during the last decade as the post-World War II baby crop came to maturity Between 1960 and 1969 the number of youths aged 11-24 increased by 12 million from 27 to 39 million Thuis fl4 increase was four times larger than the rate for the population as a whole Ten years ago only one out of seven people were 1-1-24 years old today close to one oit of five Is it any wonder that this sharp upsurge of youth reachshying employable age has created stresses in the labor market stresses in the school system stresses in the
streets for those who are not in school or in jobs and stresses throughout our social fabric
Most tragic of all in my opinion is the collapse of the school system in the inner-city Inundated by waves of disadvantaged youth faced with shortages of teacliers and facilities burdened with problems inherited ftoni fainily economic and governmental institutions groping for ways to overcome the handicaps of low-income youngsters-the inner-city school system faces a major challenge
B Ulnemploynent Although the economy has shown marked strengii in absorbing most of the new job seekers unemployment among young peoshyple particularly disadvantaged youths who are most in need of steady jobs and incomes is a signifshyicant problem Among youths 16-21 who are in the labor force
1 12 or about 1300000 were unemployed in February of 1970 compared to a 45 rate for the labor force as a whole
2 Among nonwhites the rate was even highershy20
Unemployment rates are still higher in some
pockets of urban and rural poverty
To a large extent the substantial unemployment rate reflects diminishing opportunities for jobs with low skill requirements Such jobs have tradishytionally served as an entree into the labor market for many youngsters Recently however low skilled jobs have become scarcer as labor requirements in agriculture dropped off and as l-abor needs in inshydustry shifted from manual workers to highershyskilled technical occupations As the country turned the corner from a goods-producing to a servshyice-oriented economy a strong back and willingshyness to work no longer were adequate tickets to a job
C Labor Force Entrants Without Adequate Voshycational Skills A significant number-perhaps as many as one-third-of our young people enter the labor force without adequate job skills They face
special problems in a job market with rising skill requirements
The problem may be expressed in this paradox
The US keeps a larger proportion of its population in school longer than any other country-to ensure their preparation for lifeshytime activity
Yet the unemployment rate among youth is far higher than in any other nation and has been rising rapidly over the last four decades
And this paradox persists in the face of unushysual prosperity high levels of employment and skill shortages
Students who do pot complete at least a high school education encounter special difficalties In 1968 almost one million youth 14-17 were not enshyrolled in school Dropouts aged 16-21 had a 15 unemployment rate during that year-twice the rate of comparable high school graduates For nonshywhite dropouts the unemployment rate was 25 Even those who complete high school are not necesshysarily prepared for a vocation There is a disparity between educational credentials and performance levels with many high school graduates unable to read write work or reason properly
Manpower programs can be viewed as repair shops for those young people who have come out of the school system without adequate preparation for the world of work We get the toughest casesshy
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the rejects This poses a major challenge in deshyveloping creative techniques for rebuilding the skills interests and character traits of the disadvanshytaged youngsters
All of this gives you some idea of the dimension of the problem-the universe of need Now I would like to turn to our response to these needs
III A Conprehensive Program of Manpower Servshyices to Meet Youth Needs
To what extent (o youth participate in manshypower programs as recipients-as an example of popshyular participation in the benefits of public proshygrains
In the last decade the US has reached out to the youth population with an array of innovative and creative programs to alleviate labor market probshylems These programs are designed to help youth find worthwhile jobs at decent wages to experience a sense of fill participation in our productive life and to develop their personal potentials so as to avoid frustration and to maximize their contribushytions to society
A major feature of the comprehensive manpower effort is recognition of the significant differences among the categories of youth who need assistance
1 Many out-of-school unemployed young people simply require help in obtaining vocational trainshying in a good school setting For these the Manshy
power Development and Training Act passed in 1962 provides classroom training opportunities supplemented by subsistence allowances to help the trainee support himself and his family Last year about 35000 youths under 22 received this MDTA institution training-28 of all MDTA institushytional trainees
2 Recognizing that many youngsters are having difficulty in adapting to vocational training in a school setting and aware of the school dropout
problem the Congress authorized a program of training and experience in a work setting for jobshyless youth in the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 Currently termed the Out-of-School composhynent of the Neighborhood Youth Corps the proshygram helps youths aged 16-18 to prepare for steady employment In Fiscal Year 1971 the NYC Out-of-School program is expected to serve 36500 youths at a cost of $125 million
3 To reduce the dropout problem among poverty-stricken youngsters the Neighborhood Youth Corps In-School and Summer Programs
provide part-time employment and earnings opporshytunities for needy youngsters who are still attending school In FY 1971 these components are expected to serve almost 500000 youths aged 14-21 at a cost of $235 million
4 What about young people who simply cannot adjust to vocational training in a formal classroom setting or even in a setting of routine work experishyence Included in this category are young people whose social and physical environments are so unshyfavorable that their capacities for training and job seeking are severely curtailed As our experience with youth manpower services has expanded it beshycame evident that this group can be helped by reshymoval from adverse school and home settings to a new residential environment where training methshyods and stipl)portive services can be adapted to their
special needs This group is the target population for the Job
Corps The Job Corps provides occupational trainshying remedial education and a wide variety of charshyacter-building and supplemental services geared to the special needs of disadvantaged youngsters 16-21 in residential centers around the country Enrollshyrment in Job Corps Centers has also proven useful for many youths who come from rural areas where alternative local manpower development facilities are not available The unique aspect of this proshygran is its raidential character its provision of truly comprehensive services (from health care to clothing from vocational training to monthly alshylowances) and its effort to combine all necessary manpower services (from initial selection of enrolshylees to final placement of graduates on the job) into an integrated manpower delivery system
In FY 1971 the Job Corps expects to accommoshy(late 25000 youths at a tinre in 75 centers at a cost of $180000000
5 Of course prevention is the best cure for the
problenis of youth in the labor market The greatshyest priority must be given to improvement of vocashytional education in the regular school system where the majority of young people are expected to
prepare adequately for the world of work The schools niust redirect some of their effort from endshylessly preparing pupils for more schooling to preshy
paring tie average youngster for the demands of tire working world
The Vocational Education Act amendments of 1968 represent an advance in meeting the needs of school youth for quality vocational preparation
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As amended the Act greatly strengthens vocational training in local secondary schools providing asshysistance for better equipment teachers and facilishy
ties and for gearing courses realistically to todays cormiplex occupational requirements In FY 1971 the Federal Government will invest over
$300000000 in this program State and local govshyerninents will contribute one billion dollars in matching funds
6 Many other programs are components of the
comprehensive manpower effort for youth Among the most important may be
a Efforts to increase opportunities in apprenticeshyable trades for minority group youths
b Efforts to help young military dischargees make the transition to civilian life eg pre-disshy
charge training in Project Transition and post-disshycharge school benefits for veterans
c Opportunities for youths in broad-gauge proshygrams which serve both youths and adults eg the Concentrated Employment Program the JOBS Proshy
gran the Public Service Careers Program Last year more than a third of the CEP enrollees and
almost one-half of all JOBS enrollees were under
22 years of age
d Expansion of programs to train prison mshy
mates for post-release employment-a major contrishybution to efforts to rehabilitate young offenders
Together these forward looking measures constishytute a comprehensive manpower program for youth They will be significant achievements in bridging the discontinuity between school and work strengthening the participation of youth in
the economic process and combating alienation and frustration attributable to labor market probshy
lems
IV Expanding Participation in Decisionmaking
Having discussed the quantitative or passive asshy
pects of popular participation ie participation of youth as beneficiaries of program services I would like now to turn to the qualitative or active aspect
of participation This involves direct participation in decision-making-in the actual planning of proshygrams by the very persons they are designed to serve
We have learned that young people like everyshyone else want to be directly involved in decisions affecting their welfare Moreover experience shows that such participation results in more effecshy
tive and realistic programs As a result a major efshyfort has been made to give enrollees a voice
In the Job Corps for example all training cenlshyters are required to organize student governments The enrollees take these governments very serishyously and so (10 the center staffs Constitutions generally written by the enrollees themselves deshyscribe the responsibilities and organization of the student government duties of officers and election and removal procedures They provide for student councils and other officers usually elected at sixshymonth intervals who legislate rules for dress conshyduct grievance-handling and other aspects of group life in a residential setting Also the center constitutions usually establish a judicial system for
judging and penalizing mi nor offenders Center administrators meet with the student
councils at least once each week to plan improveshyments in the training program enrollee activity schedules and center procedures Some councils have jurisdiction over special funds maintained for recreational or welfire purposes Often they set up subconumittees on such subjects as instruction comshyplaints recreation community relations and food Service
Qualifications for election to the student offices vary Most centers have minimum residence reshy
quiremlents In at least one center candidates for election are required to attend special classes in center government for one week
V Participationin Adninistering Programs
Let me now turn to the third form of popular
participaitioii-pamrticipatioii in day-to-day adminisshytration of programs This aspect of manpower proshygrams has also received substantial emphasis Mainly it has taken two forms (a) use of disadshyvantaged persons as staff members and (b) involveshynient of sectors of ou- society other than the Federal Government I would like to say a word about each of these in turn
A Utilizing disadvantaged persons as staff nenbers As social work counseling teaching emshy
ployment services and other helping professions have beconie more and more professionalized there have developed significant communication barriers between the professional and his disadvantaged client The accumulation of professional skills and insights has been accompanied paradoxically by difficulties in establishing rapport and influencing the very people who require assistance To overshy
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come this problem Community Action Agencies manpower programs housing programs and others serving disadvantaged people have found that comshymunication can be restored through the employ ment of target group members to serve their disadshyvantaged neighbors The new employces working as para-professional aides under skilled professional people are able to gain the confidence of the clients to explain prograims to discuss the advanshytages and disadvantages of participation and to enlist support in language and actions that disadshyvantaged clients can understand At the same time the aides are in a position to feed back to the proshyfessionals the problems and needs of the inarticushylate masses of people who are to be served
Involvement of target group members on the staffs of agencies serving the disadvantaged has
proven beneficial for the professionals the aides
and program clients alike
B Broader Comm unity Involvement The secshyond form of popular participation in administrashytion of youth manpower programs is the deep inshyvolveient of non-government organizations
At an early stage of the development of our comshyit became clearprehlensive manpower program
that Federal Government action alone could not
provide all solutions for the problems of youth Training for jobs without involvement of emshyployers and labor unions would be unrealistic Dushy
plication of facilities and other services already available in the community would be wasteful and time-consuming Manpower programs therefore have drawn upon the skills and resources of an array of community groups
1 The Business Sector Private industry has been heavily involved not only in an advisory cashy
pacity but also in direct operation of employment and training programs In the case of the JOBS
program and the Sununer Youth Campaign for exshyample industry has provid ed leadership in direct training and placement of hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged people Experience has clearly shown that jobless young people trained in a realshylife work setting for jobs and employers identified in advance are most likely to succeed at their trainshying and employment In the Job Corps industry has applied its mnanagement and technical skills to the actual operation of Job Corps Centers
2 Labor Unions Unions are participating in expanding employment opport unities for disadvanshy
taged people and providing vocational and pre-voshycational training
In the Job Corps five building trades unions are
presently playing a major role in training at Civilshyian Conservation Centers These unions are curshyrently training about one-fourth of the youths in such centers and are cooperating in having their graduates placed into the building trades apprenshyticeship programs Great stress is being placed on this activity for completers are almost guaranteed a job in well-paid shortage occupations and the
program is helping minority group youths move into occupations in which their numbers have trashyditionally been low
3 Nonprofit Community Organizations A wide variety of community organizations which have specialized knowledge and contacts with respect to
particular disadvantaged groups are participating heavily in youth manpower programs These groups may be involved in programs to recruit counsel and arrange job and training opportunishyties for low-income youngsters or in pioneering new ways of training and orienting disadvantaged
people in numerous cities around the country Other groups are providing special youth services for the physically or mentally handicapped rural
people dropouts and other categories with special needs Also some residential centers of Job Corps are managed directly by nonprofit groups
Related to work with nonprofit organizations is our extensive community relations program In the Job Corps it is mandatory for every center to take the initiative in establishing a Community Relashytions Council These Councils include local comshymunity leaders in business labor education the church welfare recreation and government as well as Job Corps Center enrollees and staff They consider matters of ntitual concern In many areas outstanding examples of community-Center coopershyation occur eg use of Center gymnasium and shop facilities for community needs participation of enrollee volunteers in child care clean-tip and other community tasks participation in parades and fairs and use of community volunteers as tushytors entertainers and other helpers in Center proshygrams
4 Universities Broad involvement of universishyties in research and evaluation of programs has been the rule from the beginning of the manpower effort There is a continuous give and take of ideas between the university researcher and the living
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program laboratories In the Job Corps universishyties have also been actively involved in the operashytion of training centers
VI Conclusion The stability of our society will depend upon the
strong sense of involvement felt by the younger generation in government activities affecting their welfare In the new arsenal of manpower programs for youths we have tried to implement this princishy
ple by providing services that will reduce the alienshyation of youth by providing opportunities to parshyticipate more fully in the benefits of our economic system by involving youth in decision-making and by using them in the delivery of services
In addition Federal youth programs are increasshyingly operating on the principle that the non-govshyernment sector and our local and State governments must be mobilized to expand and strengthen Fedshyeral efforts Decentralization community relations cooperation with business and labor-these are corshynerstones of our comprehensive manpower policy The Administrations support of the proposed Manpower Training Act underscores its commitshyment to this approach
I hope that this summary of our experience will
prove useful to you and can be applied with realisshytic adaptations to the needs of other countries with similar problems
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MANPOWER AND YOUTH PROGRAMS IN THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES OF ERICA
by Max R Lum Jr
Many of us assume that pe alar participation is a right For example the youth in the Job Corps assume as a right participation in the control of certain monies that are removed from their pay as fines for minor violations of the rules They have a student government control over these funds Howshyever from discussions at the ILO-sponsored youth conference in Geneva (from which I have just reshyturned) it appears that participation of youth in manpower programs as a right is still an open quesshytion at least among the African countries This Poshysition was reflected by the type of resolutions that came out of the African caucus at the conference
One resolution stated that the manpower proshygrais for youth should be of the kind that facilishy
tate the contribution of youth to development and
to insure that their efforts are directed to feasible
ends which are a relevant and integral part of the total development plan The integral part of a development plan of course can be something that is superimposed from above in the decision-making
process A second resolution (which infers volunshytarism) related to the need to strengthen the motivashytion of young people to participate and contribute to the programs of self-help and mutual assistshyance (They appear to have the same problems we do regarding motivation) Another resolution of the caucus (which seems at least in part to contrashydict the first listed above) stressed the necessity to
protect young people from exploitation and excesshysive participation in development schemes Howshy
ever this resolution appears to be in response to
the fact that in Africa some countries are withshydrawing certain mechanized systems because of the serious surplus labor conditions among the youth Whether this nicans that a youth has to enter the work force at 13 because lie is available or whether he participates at a later age is not clear The withshyholding of mechanized programs to take advantage of this surplus labor also raises a question about
the extent to which youth participation resulting from such action is voluntary
Now to turn to the major purpose of this paper a report on my visit to Africa to look at what the National Youth Services in these countries were doing particularly with respect to what kinds of programs were being developed to let youth particishy
pate in the decision-making process Nineteen African countries have National Youth
Services although in some countries they may have another title For example in Ghana and the Ivory Coast they are called Pioneers Emphasis of these services may be on rural development or multipurshy
pose schemes such as vocational andor general edshyucational training or it can be a centralized trainshying-program geared to accomplish a single purpose
I also found that there were certain problems or questions which were fairly common to all of the prograins In all programs there is concern about
participation of youth-about how much control thc youth themselves should have over the system in which they are operating Similarly there is the need felt in all of the programs (which we share with them) for the development of a specific list of objectives that should be or need to be accomshy
plishied during the period the youths are in the
program this is particularly difl_ult in Africa Anshyother coinnion problem cccurs in those programs that are divided in terms of tribal or sectional groups there are gaps among these programs which need to be filled in order to make them more comshy
parable and to build some kind of national idenshytity among these groups Finally the youth in Afshyrica represent great pools not only of resources but of political power For example they were imporshytant factors in the downfall of the government in Sudan and they almost brought down the Seneshygalese government Youth also had direct participashytion in the new constitution for Ghana
The specific youth programs in the African counshy
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tries vary widely as may be seen from the followshying examples Nigeria for example is building a huge program of vocational training This program is directed towards taking some of the military pershysonnel and giving th2m vocational training before they are released to find civilian jobs In Zambia on the other hand there is a broader program The Zambia job corps although it is a large centralized camp is definitely a voluntary service It takes youth from all over the country into this center In determining whether the youth would participate in agricultural or in vocational training programs it takes into account the government needs as well as the youths needs When this determination is made they are sent to specific camps to be trained The agricultural graduates when they finish their program which may last as much as two years are given plots of land to develop The entire first twoshyyear graduating class (graduation actually occurred while we were there) was drafted into the army beshycaue of the need Zambia feels to defend its border The program therefore in practice appears to have been a pre-military training program However when the youngsters muster out of the army they will be we were informed given plots of land and in other cases given additional training to be
placed in vocational programs While we were in Tanzania where it appears
they are going their own way in youth planning the biggest controversy among the youth-a very centralized group-was the mi ni-skirt controversy The African youth feel this is an important issue The discussions regarding the length of mni-skirts actually were being addressed to the Europeans who were wearing mini-skirts shorter and shorter The mini-skirt apparently became an issue in Zamshybia also
In the Ivory Coast where there is a particushylarly encouraging program the youth come to one camp in one area of the country and then exshychanges occur within the youth camps to mix the
population and to give it some uniformity of trainshying In Ghana there is another type of programshythe Young Pioacer Gliding Schools Some three or four hundred youths (Young Pioneers) will be given special training in flying gliders for fun The National Youth Group of the country which is sepshyarate from the government but government financed is taking over this school and actually using the facility for a residential training proshygram
On the basis of what I have observed and the opshy
portunity I had to talk with various persons at the Geneva meeting where there must have been some 15 proposals from youth groups within Africa for aid both technical and administrative as well as for actual financial aid for the development of furshyther youth services there appears to be no question but that the development of youth services is going to be highly important in Africa Moreover unless the problem of youth services within these counshytries is solved within a short time there can be imshy
portant impact upon the future political developshyment of many of the African countries
Discussion
Question from the floor Title IX of the Forshyeign Assistance Act states that emphasis shall be placed on assuring maximum participation in the task of economic development on the part of the people of developing countries through the encouragement of democratic private and local governmental institutions This mandate would indicate that the type of youth programs we should support should be ones in which their objectives are obtained without the element of coercion or forced labor Yet it appears that in some African programs there are work brigades-coercion compulsion no choice Furthermore some of these programs may be underwritten by the US through our surplus agshyricultural connodities under the Food for Work program Since the youth programs in the US and Africa appear to have essentially the same objecshytives how in your opinions Mr Mirengoff and Mr Lum is it possible to achieve these objectives without the element of compulsion Do you give freedom of choice on the recruitment side or on the training side Do you use some elements of compulsion for a limited perod of time in order to prepare the youth to move on a free choice basis into a world of work
Mr Mirengoffs comments I can only give part of the answer to this question as it relates to the Job Corps program It is a voluntary program Nobody is coerced into Job Corps They come in of their own free will From our point of view this is good Those who come into Job Corps have a sense of motivation and a sense of purpose which is reshyflected in what they do once they get in Job Corps as contrasted to a situation where they have to be in public school until the age of 16 whether they like it or not In the latter situation when they do
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not like it there is trouble Our whole premise is based upon voluntarism which we hold very near and dear
In a voluntary program popular involvement has meaning In a controlled society it has no meanshying I wish there was someone who could explain the philosophy or develop the concept of popular involvement in a totalitarian country I cannot do it
Mr Lums comments Certainly in some African countries the youth programs are not fully volunshytary and may often also include political indoctrishynation In other countries the programs are really voluntary although they may be run in a military manner
The question of actual forced labor is a real and difficult issue at least in the expressed opinions on the African youth problem These youth want to say that we should live up to the ILO and the UN conventions to end forced labor but we have tremendous pools in some of the countries of 12 to 15 years olds roaming the streets and we do not know what to do about then One solution for exshyample has been to organize them in a nonvolunshytary system to build roads I do not know what this trains youth to do but maybe it brings them up to a point where eventually they are able to enter volshyuntary training programs This is an area in which it appears the African youth themselves have not yet really reached a final decision
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THE ROLE OF TRADE UNIONS AND EMPLOYER ORGANIZATIONS IN THE EFFICIENT UTILIZATION OF MANPOWER
by Everett M Kassalow
Dealing with the problem of trade unions and manpower planning and other forms of economic planning in the context of the less developed counshytries is especially difficult All of us who have grown up in and around the American trade union movement and around trade union movements generally in the Western world have done so in a certain setting and atmosphere which I would call (for want of a better word) conflictive in characshyter
Trade unions and the American unions are a classic example have always been in a certain sense outside of the mainstream of economic developshyment The unions have been beating against the development process in order to protect their memshybers They are almost driven to conflictive posishytions because they were reacting to a process which was doing damage or making dislocations in the lives of people
This kind of reactive trade unionism was successshyful in the Western World But such unionism does not lend itself immediately or too directly as a model or mechanism for learning about what trade unions canl or should do in connection with the
problemn cf shaping and implementing developshyment policy However I also believe that trade unshyions in any but a totalitarian society or a highly authoritarian society will always have to perfori tihe reactive and conflictive role of protecting their workers against the impact and the plocess of inshydustrialization However if trade unions are to play a more positive role or more participating role in the development process we do have to reexamshyine the nature of the function and the character of trade unionism in the light of the kinds of things trade unions can should or might do in the less developed countries
When I say can should or might do I am satshyisfied to use those words I am satisfied that one can approach the development process in a new society
with a sense of trying to change things and to conshyceive of new combinations because they are going to be new These societies are not going to develop the way American or European society has develshyoped or hopefully not the way Soviet society has developed There are going to be different roles to be played different emphasis different compulshysions in the situation
As we try to reconstruct the role of trade unions for these purposes a large part of Western trade unionism may not be directly relevant For exshyample in the post World War II period one can begin to see the emergence of a new kind of trade union posture to some extent in the United States but more clearly in Western Europe which did put the trade union into a more participative role and thus placed it in the mainstream of ecoshynomic and social policy making As a result of broad historical social and economic changes the trade unions are now more fully but not comshy
pletely integrated into their own societies in Westshyern Europe and to an important extent in the United States than has ever been true before
Bargaining has not ceased nor has the role of adshyvocacy which a trade union must play in negotiashytion disappeared in either Western Europe or in the United States This role however is increasshyingly added to the positive role of sharing in the key economic and social policy imaking decisions An example in the US is the Iole which has slowly alshymost painfully emerged for the AFL-CIO and some of its constituent unions in the last 10 or 15 years on nationlal conmnissions such as those on aushytomatiotn juvenile delinquency or foreign trade
In assuming these new roles the US trade union movement has not cast off its old role It has attempted to suppleiment what it was doing in the way of its militant advocacy at the job level or the industry level with this additional set of functions It is not easy when you have spent a lifetime being
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on the outside to suddenly step into the middle of things and have to take the role of policy advocate This kind of new responsibility is not at all easy and yet this is happening
In relating Western trade union experience to the developing countries it is essential to recognize that process of economic development will be difshyferent from that in the West Capitalism and inshydustrialization in the United States and in Western Europe grew unplanned for the most part spontashyneously one step tumbling upon another Growth of industrialization and moderization in Asia and Africa will not be spontaneous A large part of the process will be guided and conditioned Under these circumstances it seems pretty clear that unshyionism as a purely reactive force simply will be unacceptable It will have that role to play but inshyevitably it will be called upon (it seems to me shoild be called ulpon) to play a participatory role and a more integrated role almost from the beginshyning of the industralization process In this sense it is difficult I believe for American trade unionists especially to take a full measure of the problems which confront a less developed countrys trade unshyions
What kinds of experience am I considering when I say that one can look to new roles and a new posshyture for trade unionism in the less developed socishyeties What kinds of experience are relevant in the West What experience has there been in the less developed countries which bears upon this probshylem
Well in the West if you look at Western Europe there is a whole series of activities that Western European trade unions engage in which seem to me are relevant to the question of union participashytion in manpower training manpower developshyment economic development and social developshyment in the less developed countries
There have sprung up for example in the last few decades a uilber of so-called national ecoshynomic and social councils such as those of the Netherlands and France (and in Austria if one wants to include lie so-called chambers of labor and chambers of industry which are semi-governshymental in character) The trade unionists and the trade union movement are called upon to play a role sitting in national bod ics with consultative powers and sometimes with decision making powshyers in the case of the Netherlands and to some exshytent in the case of France
Some people are inclined to dismiss this role of
making of national social and economic policy They say that the unions have just been there as a kind of front in the various levels of the French planning process whether it was the Economic and Social Council or the commissariat and the same charge is made of the unions in the Nethershylands It seems to me this is a rather short-sighted view of the unions experience in this function It is so new and since to some extent runs against what has been the conflictive tradition and the pure advocacy of a particular point of view of the trade union movement that it would have been a miracle to have expected the trade unions overshynight to have made major contributions to ecoshynomic and social planning in these societies of Western Europe
My own feeling is that as these processes growshyand I think they will grow because traditional parliamentary bodies no longer seem adequate to deal with these top level social and economic decishysions that have to be made in society-planning bodies different in each country will grow and the trade unions will increase their sophistication in these roles and will increasingly measure up to these tasks and opportunities
In any event in somewhat different circumshystances similar bodies are already being created in a number of the African countries Trade unions have representation oin all kinds of planning bodshyies It was one of the heritages of the French coloshynial administration Planning and economic counshycils were established in Algeria Tunisia-down through French West Africa
In a number of these countries the trade union movement is wemk Therefore their influence in these planning councils could be expected to be limited To the extent this can be determined from the meager information currently available this apshypears to be a reasonable conclusion Unfortunately no one has gone into any of the African nations to see what has happened to these councils But if popshyular participation in development is to mean anyshything these are important experiments I would strongly recommend that the American AID agency andor the US Department of Labor as well as others take a rather (lee) interest in trying to find out what is happening in these kinds of institushytions I believe that the very nature of economic development in these countries means that these councils and these planning authorities will grow in importance and we should be looking into them
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to see what can be done and what are the lessons that can be learned
There are other lessons that we can begin to see in this broad experience ranging from Western Europe on to Africa and to some extent Asia First any union representation on social economic or national planning bodies as they may happen to be identified must be a real one In India for exshyample one of the reasons why there is almost total trade union discontent with the planning is that the trade unions have always been pretty much shut out Each time a new national plan was in the making the planning minister whether he is a soshycialist or a conservative goes through the motions of consulting on a formal basis with the trade union movement and that is the end of it
If you are to enlist the support and interest and to educate this important institution that we call trade unionism regarding the problems the possishybilities and the opportunities of economic planshyning it must be accorded a genuine role in the opshyerating machinery I know that planners are often horrified at the thought that they with their reshyfined techniques (really not so refined but they think they are) are going to have to consult with these grubby fellows who they feel have never really had enough formal education as well as to take them into their councils and give them voting rights in the setting of goals and the determining of
priorities for the society This situation is usually something the planners feel they cannot accept If this position by the planner is correct you can almost forget the whole process because unless the trade union has responsibility in the decision makshying machinery the function will usually decline or never even come to life
Success of trade union participation on planning councils I believe also re(luires some form of govshyernment aid I can think of three countries-France Austria and Great Britain (to choose three disparate examples)-where such aid is proshyvided to strengthen for example the research and economic facilities of the trade union movement In Austria for forty or fifty years now the chambers of labor have been supported by the government and they are really the most important research weapon or arm of Austrian labor
In France such effective participation as the trade unions have done recently in the planning
process and earlier in the social and economic area has been to a substantial measure due to governshyment assistance Under the urging of the US AID
mission France in the early and mid-fifties began to provide subsidies to the French trade unions to build up their research facilities
To an American this seems impossible How can a trade union take money from a government to build up its research facilities Will not such aid compromise the research Apparently it has not Apparently it is now recognized that both governshyment and unions are sophisticated enough so that once you invite a body like the trade union into the planning or development process you can afshyford them some measure of financial support withshyout compromising their independence
It must be recognized that the very fact of particshyipation in the planning pocess is in a certain sense a compromise of independence Neither labor nor management can participate in a joint
planning process unless they do so on the basis of respect of somebody elses rights and the recognishytion of some shared common gains and programs It seems to me that this notion is understood and that acceptance of financial ad to conduct research and training to help further participation is feasishyble
Legislation has been pending (and may already have been passed) in Great Britain which will iake available certain funds for research and for training assistance to the British trade union moveshyment Thus one of the oldest Western trade union movements and perhaps the most independent of governments along with the American trade union movement is now willingly increasing its acceptance of some form of financial aid to enable it to play its new role in society
The advantages to the government especially of less eveloped countries of these new roles that the trade unions can play are enormous If human reshysource institutions are critical in development as is now increasingly agreed what better vehicle or channel to exercise influence and increase popular
participation and understanding is there than the trade unions This is true even weak as they may be in many of these countries Moreover if they did not exist they ought to be created
In recognition of the importance of this human factor some governments of course have not been above creating the trade unions I can think of a number of Asian and African governments where the trade unions have been created largely with government benevolence or government assistance Even though we accept these trade unions with caution there exist present advantages They at
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least will help ensure communication and particishypation as well as other assistance to the governshyments of less developed countries which are overshyburdened with the tasks they face Most of these governments have to assume the responsibility for economic development activities including the major central planning role and allocation of critishycal investment resources (to some extent) and of foreign exchange To the extent these governments can look to trade unions or other intermediate inshystitutions to carry on many of the tasks such as training the administration of social security proshygrams and the joint encouragement of productivshyity programs they can be relieved of much of the weight which otherwise will fall on them This should help increase the viability and prospects for democracy because it is the overburdening of the whole process of government which it seems to me is one of the dangers that confront the African and the Asian nations
Trade unions therefore have this very useful vital possibility and related to this of course is the opportunity if you will of diverting what might otherwise be the all-out concentration by trade unshyions on wage and hour gains I do not mean that they should be deterred from their interest in wage and hour bargaining and gains but it could at least diffuse some of that all-out thrust which is trashyditionally all the trade unions do in the early stages of (levelopment
This change in trade union outlook it seems to me siiouild be sufficient inducement for new counshytry goverminents to take a real look at this process
Ilese issues I have discussed are tentative The experience that can be drawn upon is limited But the fact that we are calling for things that can hardly be itaglled or dreaied of in some peoples world shiotuld not (eter tis We have found to date
o b that what we know about institutions and the pr shylem of building institutions and especially subinshystittitions in developieit has not served us suffishyciently well Tlie ttIle union movement strikes me Is a most signifi ant factor if popular participaition is to imeanl someiting and if there is to be a hope for sonie kind of deomtcratic development process
DISCUSSANT Paul Fisher
Profesor Kassalows paper has very clearly stated that our preseit experience of trade unions with labor participation in various councils has been uneven to put it Mildly My experience leads to similar contclusions
What are the labor people really good at They are good when it comes to affairs which are of conshycern to them such as wages or working conditions But what have these matters to do with manpower Manpower as studied here is a very technical subshyject requiring a considerable degree of sophisticashytion in statistics mathematics and also in economshyics Now what has this to do with lets assume the German Works Council or a participation of a trade union representative in one of the other councils It has something to do because quite obvishyously the working hours working conditions and the wages have an allocative function They alloshycate labor not only the present labor but also the future labor and therefore direct people by the inshycentives offered by the system to a particular occushy
pation So in a way these people who are interested in these mundane affairs are instruments of manshy
power policy Where are the labor people not so good They
are not so good when it comes to technical subjects as for instance the economic planning mechanism the manpower mechanism the social security adshyministration details But should not we feel that the important issue in all three areas is the large decisions and the large decisions are rather easily understood and are basically political decisions Labor in all of these countries has the opportunity to influence political decisions
Employment is (tite obviously of interest to the trade union It is of interest to the workers or the sons of workers and employment is necessarily linked to the investment function As a conseshy
quence labor has an interest to participate in those governmental bodies which influence the employshyment function and the investment function Thereshyfore you find labor not only in the large bodies but the small ones as well which are based on the functioning of a specific industry a specific localshyity
Now what form does this participation take It takes the form of information or consultation and if you want co-deterinination But which is really the important fun(lion at the present time as disshytinguisled from the future Thelpresent function which is very important is information It is very useful from the viewpoilit of the body politic to have trade union leaders trade union representashylives not only participating in the decisions and therefore knowing why or how a decision is reaclhed to let us assume establish a dam in one
part of the country or an industry in another part
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but it is also useful for them to transmit this knowledge to their organization and therefore inshyfluence the wage policy and the manpower policy of the trade union itself
Consultation fulfills the same purpose Co-deter-Imiination depends on the subject but it can be said that co-determination has been a success precisely in that area where it was of immediate concern to the union representatives and to the labor director
Mr Kassalow sums it up by saying that the peoshyple who have the money to innovate normally the government make the employment and investshyment decisions in less developed countries thereshyfore it becomes important that the people do parshyticipate in those decisions of the government which really affect their lives and the lives of the organishyzations
DISCUSSANT Leonard Sandman
My experience suggests that it is not only diffishycult but may also be unwise to assign to unions in developing countries a role that diverts them friom the conflictive posture The following briefly disshycusses some of these experiences
In Korea I visited ain automotive manufacturing Company I was particularly impressed with tlhe large numbers of workers employed by the comshypany and that many of them appeared to be to say the least inefficiently utilized After touring the plant I asked tle manager about labor relations generally and the role of the union He recounted tle unions annual demands for wage increases and otherwise dismissed them as having only a nuishysance role because he could manipulate and control the union
I coiniented oi the large numbers of workers that lie employed and asked if possibly with sonie arrangement with tle union the workers could be engagedl more efficiently with the resulting savings in labor costs being distributed to the workers in tle form of hiigler wages and to the owners of the plant in tie fori of higher profits I quickly disshycovered that this was rather a naive suggestion beshycause as lie showed miie whetn various components of thiis cost and tle variables that influenced profit were considered wages were a very small proporshytioin of the cost of his production about 10 percent
With this kind of aii experience of which we see much in Asia a general lack of concern on the part of management with the efficient utiliation of commodities which are cheap and plentiful that is unskilled workers and often semi-skilled workers is
to be expected Obviously under such conditions little concern is to be expected on the part of the unions with the problem of how unions can coopshyerate with management to effect a more efficient utilization of workers I believe it is only when unshyions are successful in raising wages that is in pursuing their conflictive roles that management is compelled to use manpower more efficiently and then become concerned with productivity And this perhaps is one of the most effective ways that unions contribute to the efficient use of manpower
Experience in India with union participashytion in management also illustrates the difficulty of assigning to unions a role that diverts them from the conflictive posture The Minister of Labor who pioneered the program of labor particishy
pation had the feeling that if only we could give the workers a sense of management a sense of idenshytification with the industry the fact that their wages were so low would beconie less intolerable (I guess this could be called psychic income) Joint labor management councils were formed in a number of private and public sector plants Their experiments in union participation with manageshymient were getierally failures For the most part the discussions in the joint councils which were supshyposed to center on ways of increasing efficiency imshyproving management or improving the productivshyit) of the plant were centered generally on items of wages gi ievances and related interests They dushyplicated the collective bargaining function
Even with centralized planning in many of the Asian countries the unions there have generally
played atn indirect role if any in the basic quesshytions of settingpriorities determining targets and devising the strategies of employment After all ecshyonotnic development programis often represent a strategy of staying in power to the government Where unions have political influence the governshy
nient development plans may concein themselves seriously with employment and with income distrishybution problems but where they lack such influshyence development plans tend to place low priorishyties oi funding programs which promote the human goals of development
I think that popular participation should be a goal of every society It no doubt provides a system for the soundest kinds of economic and social deshyvelopment but the political realities of how growth gets distributed cannot be ignored Hence diverting union energy away from the conflictive
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roles should be examined very carefully so that we ment having a formal role rather than substance in do not end up with union participation in develop- participation
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MAIOR PARTICIPATION IN SOCIAL SECURITY
by Paul Fisher
The history of social security started off with mutual aid societies in Europe which were in esshysence trade union societies-societies of workers They had their origin in medieval German associashytions Out of this tradition developed a participashytion of trade unions of workers in the administrashytion of individual social security funds
It was important to know about how much sick pay the worker would get what would be the unshyemployment benefit that could be expected from this particular group and what would be the fushyneral grant Later as Social Security developed it became important to have some say in income sysshytems as a whole in sickness systems because they affected productivity
It is true that social security covered more than the workforce in industry and commerce It covshyered the total population The trade union represhysentative took on a new role and became not only the representative of the workers (the workers he organized and those for which he spoke) but he becane the representative of the popilation at large a very interesting goal which fits very well in the concept of a trade union as it exists in many countries developed and under-developed
What has all this to do with manpower Social security seems to be a transfer payment which you exact between one generation of workers and the next one between the healthy and the sick or beshytween the people who have small families and those who have large families
The interesting part is that many of these things have something to do with deferred wages In a way a social security contribution an individual makes today is a deferred wage which he will touch when he reaches the retirement age and this has been very well understood by the trade unions all around the globe and as a consequence it was the trade unions that fought for the advances in Social Security in this country as well as in other counshytries
The famous labor uprising in May 1968 in France was a revolution against some of De Gaulles attempts to reduce benefits De Gaulle was forced into the attempts because he felt the social security system which has very meager old age benefits was paying too much money in sick beneshyfits Labor in Franc was successful in its revolution The reform measures of Mr De Gaulle were largely discarded The same thing happened in Italy Labor as a whole has an interest in social security because it considers the social security benefits as nothing more than a part of total lifetime earnings from work
What form has it taken The usual form which has been an advisory function The advisory funcshytion is very well expressed in the United States
What is then the effectiveness of the participashytion of labor and the Social Security Administrashytion The effectiveness is quite interesting It deshypends upon the political strength and the economic strength of the labor movement If the labor is forceful it will yield results which surpass the reshysults of any other interest group
Who gets something out of it The first one who gets something out of it is quite obviously the union because the union can gain power The union can gainposts The union can occasionally see that funds which are accumulated in social seshycurity systems are deposited in the worker banks and worker banks become then the more powerful tool of making loans and investments where loans and investments are desirable Evidently trade union representatives can see to it that this particushylar function is not disregarded The power of the unions can also be abused and one of the famous examples is again in France in 1945 when the Comshymunist labor movement under the first De Gaulle government was able to conquer the social security administration and it took years before the purely politic-l interest of the Communist party of France
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was eradicated or at least minimized in the French social security system
Now who else gets something out of it The public because if trade unions do not talk about the public nobody else does It is quite true that in the original French system for instance the organshyizations of large families the organization of social security beneficiaries were also represented but if you looked at the people who represented this orshyganization it would be the same people from the French trade unions which existed and appeared from the other side of the table representing their organizations
Who else gets something out of it The governshyment The government because some of the meashysures which social security imposes some of the regulations some of the rules of the game are so
complicated that unless the system has a ready mechanism for transmitting this information to the public the public will not gain anything from a social security system The trade unions and anyshybody else representing the public are a very excelshylent a far better motivated and a far more effecshytive means of having this information transmitted than any other
The last point is what has this to do with manshypower The feeling has always been that the particshyipation of the public in manpower planning and in manpower organization must be divorced from the particular aspect which is studied here It must be linked to the final goal of a manpower policy and participation can therefore be better able to coshydetermine or to influence at least the goals of a manpower policy
US GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1972 0-469-452
188
MOBILIZATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF INSTITUTIONS TO ASSIST IN EXPANDING THE POTENTIALS FOR GREATER EMPLOYMENT COMMUNITY AND PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS ROLE IN JOB CREATION
JOB CREATION IN AGRICULTURE Thomas F Carroll Agricultural Economic Section
American Development Bank Intershy
19
UNITED STATES EXPERIENCE WITH UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDEREMPLOYMENT
William Batt Consultant on Manpower Development Office of Economic Opportunity
24
ROLE OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BUSINESSMEN IN JOB C REATIO N
William Haas Vice President in Charge of Operations National Alliance of Businessmen
go
PRIVATE INVESTMENT AND JOB CREATING POSSIBILITIES Harriet S Crowley Director Office of Overseas Private Programs
Agency for International Development
27
Thursday April 30 1970
Morning First Session Chairman John F Hilliard Director Office of Education
and Human Resources Technical Assistance Buseau Agency for International Development
DEVELOPING ABILITIES THE LINK BETWEEN POPULAR PARTICIPATION AND INSTITU-TIONS INVOLVED IN EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT
POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN THE UNITED STATES
Samuel M Burt Director Understanding Program American University
IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION Business Council for International College of Continuing Education
29
TAIWAN AND KOREAN EFFORTS IN MANPOWER DEVEL-OPMENT THROUGH SCHOOL AND INDUSTRY COOPER-ATION
James D Murray Vocational Education Advisor Agency for International Development
a5
Morning Second Session Chairman Kenneth J Kelley Deputy Director Office
Labor Affairs Agency for International Development of
x
10R AND MANAGEMENTS SOCIAL POLICY INTERESTS IN TRAINING
THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES WITHIN PRI-VATE INDUSTRY 9
Clayton J Cottrell Deputy Regional Manpower Administrator Atlanta Georgia US Department of Labor
Discussants J Julius F Rothman President Human Resources Development
Institute AFL-CIO Richard L Breault Manager Community and Regional Develshy
opment Group US Chamber of Commerce
Afternoon First Session Chairman Ealton L Nelson Manpower Advisor Planning
and Evaluation Division Office of Labor Affairs Agency for International Development
MATCHING WORKERS AND JOBS POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN STRENGTHENING OF JOB MARKET MECHANISMS AND INSTITUTIONS
NEW CONCEPTS OF THE EMPLOYMENT SERVICE ROLE TO MEET THE CHALLENGE OF THE 1970s 45
Malcolm R Lovell Jr Deputy Assistant Secretary for Manshypower and Manpower Administrator Manpower Administrashytion US Department of Labor
CREATION OF A CONSOLIDATED MANPOWER DELIVERY SYSTEM DECENTRALIZED TO THE STATES AND METRO-POLITAN AREAS-A WAY OF ACHIEVING INCREASED PAR-TICIPATION RESPONSIVE TO LOCAL NEEDS 49
Cyril D Tyson Deputy AdministratorCommissioner Manpower and Career Devciopment Agency New York City
Discussion 51
THE PROBLEM OF EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNI-TIES FOR W OM EN 53
Grace Farrell Chief oC the Labor Law Branch Womens Bureau US Department of Labor
Afternoon Second Session Chairman Ealton L Nelson
CASE STUDY-JOBS FOR PROGRESS Inc (OPERATION SER) 55 Seymour Brandwein Acting Associate Director Office of Research
and Development Manpower Administration US Departshyment of Labor
Discussion 58
Friday May 1 1970
Morning First Session Chairman Thomas E Posey Policy Planning and Evalushy
ation Staff Office of International Training Agency for International Development
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NEW DIRECTIONS FOR POPULAR PARTICIPATION TO DEAL WITH PROBLEMS ON MANPOWER UTILIZATION
PARTICIPATION OF THE WORKING POOR-UTILIZATION OF HUMAN RESOURCES IN ANTI-POVERTY PROGRAMS 61
Philip J Rutledge Director Department of Human Resources District of Columbia
COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN LATIN AMERICA LEAD-ING TO SOCIAL CHANGE AND INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOP-MENT RELATED TO MANPOWER 65
William F Whyte Professor Department of International and Comparative Labor Relatic s New York School of Industrial Relations Cornell University
Discussion 67 Morning Second Session
Chairman John E Blake Deputy Manpower Administrator for Employment Security Manpower Administration US Department of Labor
MOBILIZING THE PARTICIPATION OF YOUTH IN MAN-POWER AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT-A UNIVER-
SAL CHALLENGE 69 William Mirengoff Director JOB CORPS Manpower Adminisshy
tration US Department of Labor
MANPOWER AND YOUTH PROGRAMS IN THE DEVELOP-ING COUNTRIES OF AFRICA 77
Max R Lum Jr JOB CORPS Manpower Administration US Department of Labor
Discussion 78
Afternoon Session Chairman John E Dillon Chief Program Coordination
Division Office of Labor Affairs Agency for International Development
PARTICIPATION IN EFFORTS TO INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY AND TO PROMOTE THE WELFARE OF WORKERS
THE ROLE OF TRADE UNIONS AND EMPLOYER ORGANI-ZATIONS IN THE EFFICIENT UTILIZATION OF MANPOWER 81
Everett M Kassalow Professor of Economics University of Wisshyconsin
D iscussan ts 84 Paul Fisher Chief International Staff Office of Research and
Statistics Social Security Administration Department of Health Education and Welfare
Leonard Sandman Labor Advisor Bureau Near East and South A-la Affairs Department of State
LABOR PARTICIPATION IN SOCIAL SECURITY 87 Paul Fisher
Xii
OUJAAJ PARTICIPATION AND DEVELOPMENT
Princeton N Lyman
Title IX of the Foreign Assistance Act calls upon the Agency for International Development (AID) to encourage the growth of democratic private and local government institutions in carrying out its programs of assistance This paper briefly reviews the considerations being given and the things that are being done by the AID to carry out this injuncshytion Before proceeding with this review however several comments need to be made on the attitudes developing regarding local participation among other groups interested in development and on the nature and status of AIDs efforts in this area at this time I believe it liighly significant that there is growing recognition of the problems of particishypation and the need for their solution among orshyganizations concerned with development as well as within the AID There is increasing awaireness in many countries of the world that the problems of participation are not problems that can be put off until a certain higher level of modernization is achieved ever though this belief may seem (or seemed so a few years ago) an easier or more pracshytical path to development
With regard to AIDs activities we are not yet as deeply involved in the probleams of popular particishypation as we would like to be We are still searchshying for practical answers to these questions (1) How should popular participation be defined (2) How should it be applied and (3) What should AIDs role be in increasing local participation in the development process in general as well as in the manpower areaThese are difficult questions to anshyswer and I hope that the discussions during this conference will be helpful in developing answers to them
The concept of participation is a highly complex one We recognized this and appreciate the coMshyplexity of the concept in our attempt to think through the meaning of Title IX Is it political deshyvelopment or a new twist to the community develshyopment emphasis in economic aid Or just peopleshy
to-people programs What does this Title involve We chose quite specifically to emphasize the concept of participation because it is so broad The advanshytage of choosing a concept like participation is that it cuts across economic social and political factors It is probably the only concept that does cut across all these facets of the development process Not only that but we are convinced that the type of participation the degree of participation and the nature of participation that will be taking place in the development process in different countries is going to have to be decided by those societies based on the conditions that they face There are potenshytial trade-offs between economic participation and
political participation There are societies in which people are willing to accept some degree of authoritarianism for substantial economic benefits
There are other societies where that simply is not true people are most interested in owning a
piece of their own land than in higher wages as tenants or agricultural laborers These are probshylems that the society of a country will themselves have to think and argue through and then come up with a concept of participation The decision therefore should not be directed from the US preshydisposed point of view but from the point of view of that society We can appreciate the problems of
participation for developing societies by simply looking at otir own society where we have had a relatively large degree of participation However the growth in participation has been gradual and often difficult
If you look at the history of the United States since independence you can see that there have been gradual increasing waves of participation Each wave has been a difficult one for the United States to absorb even with its wealth its relatively stable democratic institutions How much more then is the problem of participation in countries which have very meager resources extraordinarily crowded conditions on the land and are desper-
I
ately concerned with obtaining even the basic reshysources for development These are problems that simply cannot be swept under the rug by general rhetoric about democratic institutions or principles or about participation Yet the interesting thing about the Title IX or perhaps the most dramatic and challenging thing about it is that it enjoins us to find ways of assisting in the development procshyess that will allow for greater participation earlier rather than later in the development process What Title IX says is that you cannot accept the simple doctrine that participation is a luxury of the develshyoped countries or of the richer countries or of tle more advanced modernizing countries None of the
people of the developing countries will accept it nor does it inake sense in terms of modern developshyment as opposed to whatever experience the Euroshy
pean countries and the United States may have gone through
Carrying through these objectives of Title IX is a challenge and it is not an easy one but I think it is terribly important and a dramatic one and I think a viable one We are capable if we set our minds to it to find development strategies which allow small farmers as well as large farmers which allow landless laborers as well as land owners unshyskilled as well factory workers to have some sense of participation and see some place for themselves in the development process economically socially and politically It is when we get down to the techshynical details when we get down to manpower training prograns thlat the real problems face us One of the things that I tiink is interesting about the problems in tile field of man power development is that it presents a lot of related problems Let me touch on just a few It seems to me that one of the
problems is clearly the question of relationship beshytween wages capital investnent and employment ft is a real symbolic and ideological problem It is a real problem in the senise tiat many countries are planning or are already developing by taking adshyvantage of developing industry In some cases they are taking advantage of the low cost labor in agrishyculture and particularly in relation to export prices However tlhese countries and some of their AID donor agencies are terribly concerned about the effect of rising wages on this pattern of developshyment at least in the short run This condition is reflected in most of the countries int uneasiness about labor organization and furtherance of labor unions For the AI) donors the problem arises beshycause whenever wages seem to go ip or threaten to
go up there is the temptation to shift to more capishytal intensive industries which is precisely where the AID resources are available Foreign exchange from AID will finance much of the capital investshyment but it is domestic resources whichi must finance labor costs and thus AID donors are faced with tile making of a difficult decision do they or do tile) not provide the foreign exchange for inshyvestment in capital This is becoming particularly serious in agriculture where such investment may displace mal) workers Even if this is only a prob lem in the short run-or as some may argue emshyployment in the tertiary sector will rise and offset the loss in agriculture-it still is a very big one for
people who are out of work because the siort rtuni for them is their lives today tomorrow and maybe for the next year A second dilemma it seems to me is the types of manpower training that we go into or that the countries that we assist are going into One of the things that we are becoming
painfully aware of in AID is the fact that educashytion structures and the formal educational systems that we have been working on in the -ountries abroad are simply inadequate to keep up with the growth of population of school age children and tile training of older people
In some instances the growth of the school age
population outruns the growth of educational facilshyities despite tremendous bursts of expenditures on education This situation raises a lot of problems and mainy difficult choices Sonic countries would argue (and you call see this in the development
pattern of many countries) tiat there is simply nothing tile) cal do about it They believe they have to concentrate on training those people who are going to go to the top those people who are to be administrators the managers the industrial elite all the way down to tile middle level It is not
possible for them they feel to be responsible not in this decade or generation for the training or giving of any kind of really meaningful education to the majority of people in the country Some peoshy
ple believe the latter is the only choice There is however an alternative approach which is fraught with all kinds of com 1plexities but attracts many people and that is to move much more heavily into what is called Informal Systems of Education These are systems of education that do not rest on the formal schoolhouse system or the trained colshylege-educated teacher or which are even related to training persons to take their place in the elite role What this system can do is to give people the
O)
ability to cope with the situation that is changing around them or to have some sense of ability to cope with their immediate environment Now these programs whether carried out by labor unions by priests by cooperatives or by innovative educators are very experimental They are also highly controshyversial because when you systematically go at trainshying a mass of people to have a share in a society in which they are not the elite you are challenging sometimes the very social structure of that society
I would take some issue with the position held by some regarding the dangers of more participashytion I think there are dangers in mass participashytion that could lead to frustration and violence But on the other hand participation is not only a means to an organized end it is very often the sum and substance of a mans dignity his ability to say I am a man that I have some part of control over my own destiny Even if he does not have the right technical solution his right to have someshything to say about how those technical solutions are applied gives him dignity How we blend that technical information with that dignity is an exshytremely difficult challenge for all of us who are soshycalled professionals in the development field The fact that people demand that element of parshyticipation or that element of control and that they have to demand it often in very dramatic ways to wake us up to the fact of how little they control their own destiny is perhaps a good thing
We are unquestionably in a very controversial difficult and perhaps dangerous area and yet parshyticipation and the injunction upon us to become inshyvolved in participation carries us purposefully into that area
I would like to touch on one other subject that I think is perhaps somewhat underplayed in our disshycussions of manpower and that is the question of rural manpower Very often when we talk about manpower training and labor we talk about the urban or perhaps the semi-urban groups However I just recently reviewed a number of papers on land reforms and land tenure and from this mateshyrial it becomes increasingly obvious that one of the great manpower problems facing most of the develshyoping countries is rural manpower It is not just a question of dividing up the land because in some countries there simply is not enough land to divide up (I say this as a strong advocate of land redistrishybution) We cannot even if we support land reform avoid the fact that there is another class of people that needs to be dealt with as well-the vast
amount of landless laborers tenant farmers or tiny landowners who need to be given some sense of efshyficacy and ability to participate in the development process
Organizing rural manpower giving them some stake in society has proven extraordinarily diffishycult even for the revolutionaries who go out into the countryside to organize the rural workers as well as for the more moderate or conservative reshygimes when they try to find some path to give those workers a stake in as well as a ieason to purshysue agricultural modernization I think this is a task which all of us have neglected too long and one that is going to be upon all of us in the develshyopment business in the next decade Moreover as the Green Revolution spreads accompanied by high yield varieties of crops which will change the
pace of agricultural production in many developshying countries it will become an increasing and most vexing problem
AID is also deeply concerned with the question of the organizations and institutions needed in deshyveloping countries to bring all or as many persons as possible into meaningful participation roles This question is especially important since one thing we have done about Title IX so far is to give it a straight people-to-people approach What Title IX is really all about is getting participation down to the little man the individual farmer or the individual village However we also know that the present AID programs are not reaching nor are the developing countries capable of reaching on a pershyson-to-person basis the hundreds of millions of
people we are talking about To persons in the manpower field I do not have to dwell on the imshyportance of the organizational and institutional factors that must be faced to accomplish this goal In the whole area of labor-both urban and ruralshythese factors are vital ones
I might also note in connection with the labor field that labor unions should be able to play an important role in broadening the participation base
Clearly labor unions play a very critical role in defining openess in political society However we also have some indications though still vague that labor unions may play an even more important role in such matters in the early stages of modernishyzation I think that it is terribly important that this matter be looked into much more deeply There are of course other institutional and organishyzational questions in the manpower area which are
3
beyond the scope of the labor unions which must be considered These include rather broad but still significant questions concerning the general nature and scope of over-all manpower development on how to reach organize and provide access to reshysources for vast numbers of people These as well as the other problems I raised in this paper are some of the challenges of applying participation in the manpower area
Discussion
Question from the floor This comment is in reshygard to the problem you noted concerning capital imports from donor countries and their possible adverse effects on employment opportunities in the developing country Has any consideration been given to the development of guidelines by the AID for use in the analysis of the impact of public works construction in developing countries which would allocate the cost of labor using a shadow cost formula for determining the feasibility or desirashybility of importing capital equipment versus using local labor If there is unemployment in the counshytry local labor costs could be considered as zero for determining economic and social feasibility of imshyporting capital equipment
Mr Lymans comment Your suggestion is inshyteresting but it raises certain practical problems In most cases the cost of labor for a project has to come out of domestic resources of the country Thus large labor intensive projects will require substantial amounts of such resources which most developing countries simply do not have or are not too willing to mobilize for such purposes They prefer therefore to find a combination which reshyduces the burden on domestic resources and places the larger burden upon the capital side which will be financed by the AID donor The AID donor also tends to look upon such financing favorably beshycause the financing of capital expenditures usually is done in the form of financing export of US equipment
Question from the floor I should like to make the following comment with respect to participashytion particularly in Latin or Central America There is a degree of participation in these counshytries far beyond that which we reL gnize For exshyample certainly in the universities of Latin Amershy
ica there is substantial participation of the students and faculty in decisions regarding university polshyicy Also in the rural areas of some of the Latin American countries and in the health programs of these countries there is a considerable amount of participation of the local population It seems to me that the degree of participation in most of the Latin American countries has been related to the resources available for such participation If you do not have resources your extent of participation is going to be rather limited it seems rather futile to spend time discussing a new well or developing new labor supply or new jobs if the resources are not available to support these programs These are really comments rather than any criticisms or quesshytions regarding your talk
Mr Lymans comment I think your comment is highly relevant to development strategy If you are trying to devise a practical approach to participashytion and development you have to try to deal with increasing ways of participation as they are going to be generated or should be generated by the stages of development
Question from the floor For some time the Farmers Union International Development Services has been involved in participation programs throughout Latin America We have found that in the agricultural field problems of clearance with the mission may develop which sometimes seriously restrict our efforts because the programs that we are conducting are offset by counterproductive official programs which are supported by the AID mission
Mr Lymans comment Your points are well taken I think one of the really difficult practical problems for AID agencies and the US in popular participation is that we are caught between the fact that we are a US government agency dealing with the host governments which as you point out may or may not be sympathetic with the participation of peasants unions or rural workers However it is a problem that is now recognized I believe in the recent legislation establishing the Inter-American Social Development Institute which is designed by Congress to set up a social development institute separate from the regular AID program and which will operate as relatively autonomous in the areas of social change
4
TOIPULAR PARTICIPATION AND MANPOWER AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT
Charles D Stewart
As I understand my task in this symposium I am supposed to provide the linkage between the aspirashytions of Title IX which I suppose are intended for domestic consumption as well as export and the more workaday objectives of manpower policy All of this I take it is within a framework of ecoshynomic policy namely for economic development in the LDCs and full employment without inflashytion in the developed countries Hopefully I will succeed in lihking social participation and the obshyjectives of manpower policy (called manpower and employment development by the sponsors of the symposium)-and do so without trying you and myself particularly with a repetition of the verities of our trade (ressed up in the mantle of social parshyticipation
If I may be excused I will take my text for the day not from Title IX or the original statement or introduction for this symposium which I agree with almost entirely but find somewhat heady Inshystead I will take my text from William Fellner in his 1969 presidential address to the American Ecoshynomic Association-wrenched perhaps somewhat outof context but I think suggestive for our purshyposes
Fellner attempted to sum up the pros and cons of what has come to be known as the Residual Factor or Investment in Education or Knowledge-to apshypraise the differential yield of what he calls progshyress-generating inputs (for education and knowlshyedge) that produce additional output indirectly via their effect upon conventionally defined producshytion functions relative to ordinary investment I extrapolate to include social investments in particishypatory democracy as progress-generating inputs Fellner argues that public decisions of a non-marshyket variety depend for viability upon how well in the West the political mechanism is capable of bridging the differences in subjective evaluations of competing groups My text is his final sentence
Is it realistic to expect that the propensity to reach compromises can be increased by making the bargaining parties aware of the fact that the joint payoff on reaching an agreement is high
I was tempted by an alternative text whose aushythor I dont know You cant move the Phillips curve to the left in a country that is going to the right Its a nice quip but not true insofar as manshypower policy in a market economy can remove imshyperfections in knowledge and competition and orshyganization to achieve a better functioning labor market Yet even so the final outcome could deshypend on willingness of workers to participate in soshycial decisions-my extrapolation of Fellners quesshytion in bargaining theory
What I intend to do using this as a jumping off point is to examine the question of social particishypation as it has been raised in manpower policy (much to the credit of our fraternity) in the conshytext of economic stabilization in the North and ecshyonomic development in the South How critical is social participation for success of economic policy in the two worlds
Now I know ivhat with increasing disappointshyment in the economic payoff of development plans in the LDCs commonly blamed on the economists in charge or at large it is increasingly popular to say that development is not simply increasing ecoshynomic production but also achieving fundamental social objectives-as President Caldera of Venezuela said in opening the recent ILO Conference in Cashyracas This is essentially the same as in the North where it is now popular to say that quantitative gains in GNP are not the end of economic policy
If I may return -lefly to Title IX it is one of the virtues of that leclaration of American foreign assistance policy nat it conceives of social particishypation not only as an end but as an instrument of economic development I have said earlier that I
5
find much of what has been said in praise of Title IX somewhat heady-a new expression of American missionary zeal more praised abroad than perhaps at home and somewhat naive with respect to the political dynamics or implications of social transshyformation of backward if not corrupt political reshygimes The cultivation of social participation on the labor market called industrial democracy by an earlier generation may no doubt contribute in time-if we have a long enough time perspectiveshyto the toppling of reactionary political and social structures But success is more likely in a society where social participation finds expression in a countrys constitutional structure It would have been difficult if I may illustrate to have imagined the gains in collective bargaining in the United States in the thirties an adventure in social parshyticipation if there ever was one without the conshystitutional presuppositions of the American system (which in other countries may exist only in intershynational declarations of human and trade union rights) Even so one must hurry to say there was much that was fortuitous in the American developshyment much that would never have happened withshyout self-help on the labor markets much that was not quite yet legal that transformed American law and American society
I suppose there is no need to push my argument to the point of the obvious Any political system is a system of social participation It may be more demshyocratic or less democratic It may have more or less of a market economy It may rely less on legislative means and more on rules for the labor market worked out by the social partners on the labor marshyket and then extended or reinforced by legislation as to some degree in the French and German sysshytems It is perhaps a matter of taste or culture or circumstance or relative efficiency whether a counshy-fry may favor a welfare system in which benefits are handed down or favor the socialization of sectors or processes by means of cooperatives or trade unshyions or codetermination or new forms of public corporations or instrumentalities for active as against passive participation in a political democshyracy It is also a matter of tactics and the stage of development how the disadvantaged or disposshysessed in any society can organize their strength for social and economic advancement and status
What is not guaranteed by Title IX or by any transformation of the political or social structure by land reform by cooperation by collective barshygaining by industrial democracy-is economic sucshy
cess Whether economic success is simply a matter of time or some elements of capitalist spirit or trashydition of entrepreneurship or a free market still has to be tested I wish only to note that there is an essential tension between social participation and a market-oriented and motivated economy which is critical both for economic growth and for social deshymocracy both in the North and the South
Now I will try to be concrete and incidentally strive to cover part of the ground that the managshyers of this symposium hope will contribute to some kind of systematic survey of social or popular parshyticipation in the attainment of manpower and emshyployment development Since my specific topic is identical with that of the symposium as a whole I may be forgiven if I touch some matters I think most suggestive while leaving to others including my discussant what they are better prepared than I to discuss Fortunately for me and perhaps for you it has been suggested that it might be useful if I bring into focus some of the experience of the North as it may be relevant by my intuitions to the problems of developments in the South
To do this in the most concrete way I wish to use Sweden and France as two case studies-beginning as it were with the idyll of the Garden of Eden and going on perhaps to things which must come to pass shortly in the Apocalypse of the Western world
To Americans Sweden has been thought of since at least the publication of Marquis Childs Sweden the Middle Way as the perfect example of a participatory democracy There was not only the popular participation of ordinary people in the cooperative movement which Childa thought of as the heart of the Swedish way there was also the broad-based trade union movement that carried over to the political scene and completed the trilshyogy in a government responsive to its power base in the trade unions and cooperative movement
But the institutionalization of social participashytion in Sweden didnt stop with these achieveshyments One leading Swedish economist Lindbeck writing a brief history of economic thought and ecshyonomic policy in postwar Sweden itemized the two historic developments as (1) the adoption of modshyern fiscal monetary policy at the macro level and (2) the adoption of Rehns conception of an active manpower policy at the micro level I will not stop here to elaborate the connection between the two except to say that an active manpower policy preshysupposed if it were to succeed a carefully managed
6
general demand policy holding short of full emshy
ployment in order to avoid inflation suppleshymented by selective demand and labor market supshyply policies in order to maintain stable levels of full employment
These economic presuppositions of Swedish polshyicy since the late Fifties have been no more or less fulfilled than in other countries and Swedish acshytive manpower policy has had to engage in fireshyfighting operations and has not always been equal to the task of overcoming mistaken demand polshyicies But these matters are not our immediate conshycern
What is relevant to our purposes are two things (1) the social environment that made possible the formulation of an active manpower policy-by the trade unions it so happened-as a means of comshybating postwar inflation in order to escape authorishytarian wages and incomes policy that would have in the view of the LO undermined a free trade union movement and a policy of free collective barshygaining with employers on the labor market and (2) the creation of a tripartite Labor Market Board
What I want to say about the first-the social enshyvironment in Sweden-brings me back to my text from Fellner Nowhere perhaps is there a greater propensity to reach compromises and to do so beshycause of an awareness that the joint payoff of an agreement is high
What I want to say about the second point-the creation of a multipartite labor market boardshygives me a chance to cover some of the ground that the managers of this symposium had in mind in constructing the symposium But I will try to do this without touching all the bases in literal fashshyion I trust my umpire will he indulgent
I must concede that the social participation repshyresented by active tripartite management of the Labor Markct Board is a compromise between
popular participation and efficient administration I really dont know how much of a New England town meeting a Parent Teachers Association a community swimnuing pool organization a housing cooperative a stibiiban civic association or Group Health let alone a community action agency is inshyvolved in what appears to be a well-organized articshyulation of community interests via the tripartite Labor Market Board
But the fact is that the administration of Swedshyish labor market policy and programs is not solely in the hands of a government bureaucracy with adshy
visory committees but is in the hands of what we would call a quasi-public organization from the top in Stockholm down to every provincial labor marshyket board The Board and the boards play an essenshytial role in the economic planning process longshyterm and conjunctural and in actual administration of the labor market If the constituencies of the three parties have any complaints which I suppose they do remedies presumably lie within the rules of the trade unions the employer organizations and the Rikstag but I cant quite imagine a mass demonstration
On substantive matters the Board and the local boards deal wih all of the problems of human reshysources development employment creation mobilshyity and relocation There is of course the usual difficulties of coordination between the school aushythorities and the vocational authorities and pershyhaps some doubts as Sweden moves in the direction of the American nonvocationally oriented high school Otherwise the business of the Labor Marshyket Board is (1) to facilitate the restructuring of the Swedish economy which involves fortunately for Sweden chiefly the movement of workers from the low-productivity forest-based activities of the North to the modern technology of the South and (2) to minimize cyclical fluctuations in the economy
We need only note the new emphasis which may be siuimarized by saying that aside from the wellshyknown mobility features of the program the aim is to provide a combination of training requirements involved in the restructuring c the economy and at the same time furthcr human resource developshyment by providing constructive substitutes for tinshyemployment in recession The result is that trainshying and quasi-training activities rise a5 the demand for employment declines and-in the recession of 1966-68-rose more than the rise in unemployment
But is all right in the Garden of Eden Does the social participation represented by th e tripartite Labor Market Board the friendly collaboration of the unions and the employer associations the discishypline of world competitioi on wage and price polshyicy the continued success of the popular based Soshycial Democratic party at the polls-does this sophistishycated form of social participation satisfy the needs of popular participation It may be only a trivial
phenomenon but the worrisome question in Sweden is how to explain wildcat strikes by workers with few economic complaints who feel neglected by their trade union and political represhysentatives
7
Even before this little breach in paradise Charles De Gaulle anticipated what was to become in France the explanatory factor-the Events of May in 1968 For many years De Gaulle intishymated the need for social participation of workers in what lie conceived to be some kind of a comshypromise with a capitalist society What he meant was never too clear but some specifics touching on profit sharing worried French businessmen and never aroused much enthusiasm in the trade unshyions or support within the party or the bureaucshyracy But De Gaulle must be credited with some kind of intuition of the dissatisfaction of workers with their role in French society and n economic life Profit-sharing codetermination industrial deshymocracy were not anything new but I think it was De Gaulle and the Events of May that brought the need for social participation to the forefront in the North in much the same way as the proponents of Title IX had done in American AID policy at about the same time
What was the situation in France that accounted for De Gaulles solitary premonitions France was viewed by many as almost the perfect model of the welfare state I remember Patrick Moynihans inshyterest in family allowances when lie visited France while Assistant Secretary of Labor He did see povshyerty in St Denis but responded Well at least everyshybody is at work But as the Events of May were to demonstrate in 1968 what matters is not simply full employment (there was of course a little reshycession in 1966-67) or levels of living or family alshylowances in the welfare state or pretty regular gains in real living (although there had been some disappointments on this score as a result of stabilishyzation policy in France during those years) What mattered in France way underneath was the feelshying of French workers that they had no influence in French policy or French society-not only that they were not sharing fairly in the gains of French economic policy (a point which is arguable)
I may recall that the student and worker demonshystrations brought France to the verge of collapse in May of 1968 De Gaulle left the country and reshyturned only after he had secured the support of the French military abroad The alienation of the stushydents was to be explained in no small part by their dissatisfaction with French educational and manshypower policy vhicli they thought was designed to allocate them to slots in the staffing pattern of a capitalist French society Neither the young nor the older generation were enthusiastic about the
new economic society of the Fifth Plan Despite some interconnections the workers demonstrated on their own and wished to have nothing to do with the students Their gripe was their isolation at the plant level from the machinery the goals and the preoccupations of their unions and their national union leadership
Most French workers probably never heard of codetermination in Germany probably had little idea what De Gaulle meant by social participation probably knew or cared little about the niceties of French planning or economic policy and probably didnt want to run their companies businesses To understand their feeling of isolation I need only to mention that French unionism is fragmented along political and religious lines the so-called Workers Councils are legislative creations and generally unshyused at most plants for grievance or other purposes There is ordinarily little union organization at the plant level even where most workers belong to one political union or another Wage levels are genershyally above the negotiated national or regional rates and are set largely by employers in response to marshyket factors and not by negotiation In brief the union is not preeminently an instrument for setshyting wages or settling grievances
At the Labor Ministers office on the Rue de Greshynelle the then Prime Minister Mr Pompidou neshygotiated the Grenelle Agreement in the final days of May 1968 with representatives of the French emshyployers and trade unions who running scared sat together for the first time took steps to raise real wages promote plant unionism and to appease French workers who at the very moment were takshying things into their own hands at their work places The results subsequently on the labor marshyket have been quite creditable The government also capitulated to the university s adents who are now again in 1970 demonstrating at Nanterre against the very university self-government that Faurd was villified for having forced the Assembly to accept in 1968
What then can we say is the experience of the North that may be relevant to maximizing popular participation as a means-in the language of Title IX-for sustained economic and social progress What is the role of manpower and employment policy in the process of social democratization
We have seen clearly in recent years that manshypower policy has an essential complementary role to economic policy-for human resource developshynient and more particularly for training to meet
8
the opportunities and needs of the labor market and for solving the structural problems involved in the continuous restructuring of the modern econshyomy which means both concern for the producshytivity and for minimization of unemployment
But this limited conception of manpower and employment policy is I think it fair to say someshywhat neutral with respect to social goals In authorshyitarian societies it is possible to imagine an efficient manpower and labor market policy quite inconsistent with a democratic society But even in Western societies we have more than a few intishymations that economic progress can be frustrated by frustrations of workers who feel alienated from soliety who feel they have no responsible role no share in decision-making no recognition no social status
The problem of the LDCs is more difficult and I must defer to those with more experience in these
special probleis As implied in Title IX the task is to develop democratic social institutions where they dont exist and where they may be in fact reshysisted by the beneficiaries of the old order I supshy
pose the experience of the North is that it is a slow process Nonetheless the democratic institutions of the North have evolved out of self help in the
creation of instruments of self governance not only in civil arrangements of local government and the political state but in the productive process and on the labor market We should not ignore or undershyestimate the democratic aspects of a free labor marshyket of a market economy or a capitalist society even if we dont wish to press the historic connecshytions between a market economy and political deshymocracy in the West
It is the special virtue of the policy expressed in Title IX that while trying not to impose our preshyconceptions on others we take a long view and fosshyter those elements of education training cooperashytivism land reform and trade unionism that are instruments for self help for both the political and economic man
To come back to my text it is a slow proCess but the only prospect for responsible bargaining the essence of the political process in a democracy is for the dispossessed to become possesse(l to have a stake-and to know the payoff is high-in the viashybility of the economy and the political state Which means to have confidence in their own strength and a sense of responsibility and participashytion in the adjustment processes of society Rememshyber Sweden and remember Francel
9
TITLE IX AND MANPOWER PROGRAMS OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
by Burnie Merson
The goals of Title IX of the Foreign Assistance planning level nationally regionally and locally of Act are stated in general terms These goals are to workers farm and employer organizations in deshydevelop citizen participation in the creation of the velopment of policy and programs to achieve full goods and services needed for economic develop- prodtctive freely chosen employment These and ment and their participation in the fruits of the in- other regional eriployment and manpower planshycreased produictivity resulting from economic ning programs have set the basic structure of world growth However before it is possible to develop and regional manpower plans which stress not the required policies and programs to achieve the only full employment but freely chosen employ objectives of Title IX it is necessary to clearly de- nient fine what is meant by citizen participation and to The achievement of popular participation restate the objectives of Title IX in more specific through productive and freely chosen employment terms will be limited without the opportunity on the
Restatement of Title IX in terms of specific ob- part of the labor force of all ages youth as well as jectives with respect to manpower would relate to adult workers for further educational and occupashycitizen participation in the development process of tional training Also to widen the employment op a country through such matters as job developshy portunities of the workers there must be a broadenshynuent skill development increased worker produc- ing of the occupational choice available to the tivity and improvement of the labor market mech- labor force Qualified jo) seekers may be barred anism This paper briefly discusses the major kinds from available job openings as a result of a number of manpower programs and objectives which I be- of factors These include improper functioning of lieve will help meet the objectives of Title IX It the labor market which impedes matching of men also discusses some of the activities of the interna- and jobs discrimination because of race creed tional and regional organizations which are related color an( unreal educational standards which go to these programs far beyond the needs of the job
One basic element of popular participation The above impediments -are found in virtually should be the development of prpductive jobs every developing country in which I have had some Provision of both full and productive employment experience and in all cases these impediments lead enables those seeking work to have the opportunity to frustrations To cite several examples illtistratshyto obtain remunerative jobs which are essential not ing these impediments to matching of men and only to enable the workers to obtain income jobs In one country because of family structure needed for basic food shelter and clothing but certain good jobs are only available to those who also to permit them to participate in the benefits of conie from the right families In another country any increased outitput of goods and services in the tnless you have the right diplomas front the right country university you are barred from jobs at certain lev-
Another basic element of popular participation els in the government This is so despite the fact is the idea of workers freely choosing their employ- that there are often highly competent people who ment The International Labor Office Basic Con- get education training and experience on-the-job vention 122 the Ottawa Plan for Resource Devel- and are quite qualified for these other jobs Yet opment the Asian plan and the Jobs and Skills they cannot move up to them because they do not program for Africa call for the participation at the have theproper credentials
11
There also can be important impacts on popular participation in the development process through tie minimum wage and social security programs
Minimum wages appropriately administered and
established can play a significant role in establishshy
ing levels of staldards of living consistent with the
objectives of welfare and ians dignity However the minimumn wage levels if raised too high can
have significant adverse effects on employment pro)spects for certain segments of the p pIlation
For example youths seekiiig summer jobs -nd pershysons with low skills and inadequate training may be priced out of the job market Social security simishy
larly can have an important and valuable impact on the standard of living of a country However its value depends upon the incidence of the tax and
how it results in the redistribution of the fruits of production to various segments of the population
The workers sense of participation in the develshyoping process is significantly enhanced if there is
participation through the trade union Trade unshyions can be important not only because of direct
participation in the economic development of a
cotintry but also because they van develop cooperashytion with other sectors of the p 2ation as represhyselited by employer associations and farm groups Similarly the government in its operations through ilh labor miiinistries is an important factor
inl deveiopinent of the institutioinal capabilities for matching men and jobs and developing skills as well as establishiig safety and labor standards And there also is the whole gamut of government reshy
lated institutions which help bring the workers in
closer con tact with tlie government and with the
developmenclt process
The programs aid objectives of the various inshy
ternational orgainiatiolis such as the 110 Convenshy
tion 122 and the Declaration of Cundinamarca
have in my judgment important goals consistent
with the objectives of Titll IX For example the Declaration of Cundinamarca notes that there
Can be no effective cconoinmic and social developshy
ment unless the legitimate rights of labor are recshy
ognized aind the aopirations of the workers are
expressed in terms of concrete achievements involvshy
ing wages eliployimieit working con(ditions social
security health housing and education In accomshy
plishing these tasks the Ministries of Labor have a
vital role to play They should be the ones to take
appropriate steps toward the establislument in each
of their coiintries of a National Council of Human
Resources at the highest level This Council should
be structured to conform with the constittition of the particular country The participation of a wide number of groups should he contemplated includshying universities representatives of employers minshyistries of education vocational training centers national planning offices bureaus of statistics nashytional productivity (cliters and other pertinent agencies that may exist in a given country The Declaration had particularly strong recommendashytions regarding the inclusionl of re 1 resentatives of democratic trade unions employer organizations aud ministries of labor to study and evaluate tile degree of trade union freedom and participation of the workers in the formulation and execution of national development programs
Any) popular participation on the international scene is represented by the ILO and OAS resolushytion predate Title IX of the Foreign Assistance Act In some respects the tying of the manpower program to a broad participation policy is easier than in other fields Manpower has always had a wide or horizonital iniput into almost all sectors of the economy It is it only coicerned with the varshyious industrial sectors-agriculture nonagriculture
bti also public adm inistration edtication health and military sectors This may often be forgotten becatise depending upon specific needs one may look at manpower solely from a single sectorial
stanlpoint Also it is difficult to handle and to look at manpower as ani interrelated system For examshy
ple an emiiployieit service Imay runia teacher
placelelit scrvice a farm placement service and services to the private andillpblic sectors It may also be concenlied with occupational safety both in the public and private sectors Also when an agency attem pts to measure uinemploymen t it usually covshyers all sectors of the population it does not ignore one or aiiot her if possible
Finally a comninet is required on the possibility of developing participation of various groups ill maiipower programs My experience in Korea and Taiwan iidicates that it is possible to do So with considera ble success In developilng plais for mallshy
power we enlisted the consmtiiers of the output of vocational schools anid the various trailing agenshycies as well as the public aul private sector groups We brought together people from the educatioial sector government in general as well as business
an(d commerce with tle vocatiollal and technical training agencies Of course for special problems arising out of the nature of the country and their social and political customs there was cooperation
12
both in providing indication of the nature of their needs as well as providing in some irstances finan-cial support In other instances industry provided shop teachers and brought foremen in from plants in order to show teachers the way things were done in industry
Rcview of the current international manpower
activities in my judgment indicates that in this syea there is at least tle beginning of programs and
actions which can help bring into fruition thc obshyjcdvcs of Title IX if thcy are broadened and dishyrcid more specifically towards the goals of full citizen participation in thcountrys development programs
13
SEVEN SIGNS FOR THE 1970s
by Seymour Wolfbein
In many years of study of manpower developshyments in the United States I have found that one can single out certain trends and changes in the economy which are highly significant as signposts or directional signs for probable future developshyments I would like to submit that there are a handful of such trecnds on which we can concenshytrate as playing sig~nificant roles in the manpower developments over the next decade Although these developments may have different importance and different values for devcloping countries I would also submit that they are of sufficient importance to be given serious consideration in any nalysis of manpower developments in the developing counshytries The following lists the seven developments that I believe are of greatest importance at present
1 Tcchnological change
2 Industrial an(d occupational change
3 Geographic change
4 Educational change
5 Population change
6 Manpower change
7 Disaggregation
Technological change Although the various items are not listed according to their relative imshyportance I would say that it is not possible to talk about moving ahead in any discussion of manshy
power or economic development without first conshysidering the problem oi technological change and its impact upon not only manpover but all aspects of life In the United States over the last 25 years output per man hour has been going ill) at about
the rate of 3 a year Thus over this period outshyput in the United States per man hour has doushybled Over the long run this is really only a blink of time A number of rather startling examples of the impact of such change in the United States can be found Let us look at agriculture for example
In that sector for the last 20 years in a row the United States has lost 200000 jobs per year off the farm Yet farm output over the period has inshycreased by more than 40 It was also during this
period that we were able to land a man on the l11OO1i
Industrial and occupational change Developshyments in the industrial-occupational area is one that most certainly cannot be ignored when conshysidering problems of popular participation Even in the United States most people are startled when it is pointed out that two out of every three people who work for a living in the United States produce services rather than goods As a result of these changes the number of professhysional workers now outnumber all of the skilled workers-one out of three persons who work for a living in the country are either professional personshynel or they are clerical workers such as secretaries stenographers and typists These conditions are also reflected in the dynamics of the working popushylation with the result that the proportion of the working population organized by the trade union movement has been going down since the end of World War II This trend apparently seems to be continuing It is therefore to be expected that in the next several years the major industrial relations actions will be going On in the service-producing side
Geographic change We are all aware that there has been tremendous migration out of the rural areas and tremendous growth in urbanization in this country since World War II The scope of these developments may be more fully understood when it is noted that three States in the United States (California Texas and Florida) account for one out of every six jobs Moreover these States in 1969 accounted for one-fifth of all the personal inshycome as neasured in the Gross National Product acounts With such concentrations of population
15
what does it do to the problem of job creation How does one handle this kind of dynamics in reshylation to this problem To further complicate the matter there is this tremendous intracity migration ie exodus to the suburbs Thus the geographic parameter of job development in itself is an amazshying phenomena
Educational change Formal education in this country has expanded substantially to the point where at present some 60 of the persons three to 31 years of age are formally registered in school When one looks at the so-called professional pershysonnel one finds that for the group as a whole the median years of school completed is seventeenshythat is equivalent to a masters degree Remember this is the median We must also remember that the professional category includes beauticians and opticians as well as physicians and physicists Thus even with ccrtaii occupations which require relatively few years of schooling the median is still 17 years But the most important factor here is that there is a world of difference betwcen median years of school completed and educational achievement The real question is what is the quality and the nashyture of the output to be obtained from these years of schooling Is the schooling being directed toshywards those occupations and activities which will be most needed in the 1970s It is estinatel by the Department of Labor that in the 1970s we are going to need as much manual talent as academic talent but will we be getting it
Will our vocational training program be realistishycally geared to meet the current needIs or to conshytinue as some of them are to provide training that is of little relationship to the industrial world of today
Population change We have experienced in the United States as in iost other countries since World War II a phenomenal rise in (he populashytion The birth rate in the United States showed sul)stantial increases until recently and has now deshyclined substantially But it lutist be noted that this lower birth rate is being applie(l as the demograshyphers say to an increasing number in the cohort of females of child-bearing age Therefore although the rate of births may be low the number of births is still high The growth in population since 1915 in this country for example has been such that in this 25 years half of the population of the United States was horn-a little over 100 million Accordshying to the 1970 population preliminary estimates the population at present is some 205 million as
compared to 170 million in 1960 or an increase over the decade of over ten liercent Another way of looking at it is that one out of every three people alive today in the United States was not born yet fifteen years ago We are already aware of the growth in the youth population and the problems that developed in connection with youth but it would seen that this problem may be further inshytensified
Manpower change The Labor Department proshyjections for the 1970s indicate that we may expect a 22 increase in the labor force during this decshyade This is an unprecelented and unparalleled inshycrease in the labor force never experienced before in the United States Most important of course in this increase is what it will do to the composition of the labor force Two changes come to mind readshyily First despite the so-called population and labor force explosion there is a decline in the popshytilation age group 35 to 44 We know that the soshycalled manpower profile in the Unitd States looks like an hour glass-there is a big batch of young people coming tip and a big batch of older
people It has vital implications for manpowertraining and for employers who wish to hire people in the age group that has had some work experishyence or career development This sector of the popshyulation is declining The second factor of equal importance is that one out of seven new workers coming up in the 1970s is going to be black
Disaggregation For the lack of finding a better term I use disaggregation By that I mean that it is necessary to look at the previous six developshyments and to consider them in some specific kinds of detail The point that is of particular imporshytance in the context of population participation and of job creation is that these six trends could be very beneficial for economic development But there is a large part of the population not only in the United States but in many other countries of the world which have not benefited from these trends and it is with these groups that in the imshymediate years ahead the problens will be greatest in terms of job creation and job development The
question will be bow to get the various parts of the
population together and to participate in these particular tasks
It may very well be right to say as I did preshyviously that we are now a service-producing econshyomy that we are a white collar group but in terms of the problems to be faced in connection with parshyticipation we must recognize the fact that a subshy
16
stantial part of the population even in the United States is not part of these what we have called mainstream developments Let us turn to some specific illustrations of what I mean For example the fact of the matter is that over 25 of all Negro males who work in this country are in one
occupation group while almost 50 of all Negro women are in one occupational group The males
are conacentrated in the operatives group occupashytion this is the occupation in this country which it
is anticipated will be declining in terms of employshyment opportunities in the 1970s Negro womens employment is concentrated in the service occupashytions
Let us disaggregate another general figure that is given continual attention-the unemployment rate In May (1970) the aggregate unemployment rate
was 50 seasonally adjusted But when one looks at nonwhite teenage males we find that the unemshyploymnent rate for this group ranges between 25 and
30 more than five times higher than the aggreshygate rate We can i am sure find many other exshyamuples of instances where certain groups of the population have benefited from the latest developshyments
To turn to the developing countries where in many instances the kinds of development we have discussed in the United States have not reached the same levels I would say that if in these countries they do not have the same discrete and distinguishshyable movements in the direction that the Western World has gone they will not have the kind of growth we are attempting to stimulate and foster
Certainly we will have dismally failed to learn from our own experiencc if we do not attempt or recognize that rts must be made as the developshying countries groi and as these basic trends imporshytant to growth begin to become more apparent to continuously watch the developments to determine if there are any groups in society who are not parshyticipating and benefiting from the trends and are falling by the wayside If it is at all possible we should be trying to bring these people in at the earliest stages of the developiment rather than wait until there are wide disparities among various paris of the population such as have developed in the Western World In this sense the purpose of
participation is vital in that if the idea is accepted and developed in the developing countries it should avoid what occurred in the Western World
17
JOB CREATION IN AGRICULTURE
by Thomas F Carroll
This paper presents what might be called a posishytion of agricultural fundamentalism with respect to policy for employment creation-deliberate employshyment creation in the developing countries
Up to very recently development economists and developers in general have been emphasizing growth theories that stress global GNP growth It is only now that questions on how GNP is distribshyuted and on how various groups in the developing countries benefit from development are becoming increasingly asked The employment and income distribution issue is becoming a fashionable foreshyfront topic among development planners This is reflected in such material as the Pearson Report Professor Myrdals report on Asia and the Peterson Report and one that is about to appear on Latin America by Professor Prebisch
We have had a great deal of theorizing and of practice from developing countries which can be characterized as the trickle down theory of deshyvelopment that has left those who are most able to use resources to develop them The AID organization and in particular the World Bank have followed this approach of putting resources where in the short run they will produce the largshyest output and then let the governments tax or otherwise acquire some of the surplus and redistribshyute it among the poorer urban and rural sectors
It is an attack on the whoe trickle down theshyory of development that I see now among developshymentalists It appears that in many recent studies this trickle down theory does not seem to work because even if some of the surplus can be captured for injection into education social welfare and other low-income support programs there is a gross inefficiency in the process Since government takes such a predominant place in managing these reshysources these inefficiencies are very noticeable
Since my recent work has been particularly strong on Latin America my illustrations and emphasis are on that particular continent
A great deal of the surplus gets stuck at the middle and upper level consumption patterns which increasingly are modeled on the consumpshytion patterns of the middle classes in the developed countries Thus if you go to a Latin American city you will find that the middle classes consume about the same basket of commodities-automobiles teleshyvision sets gadgets of all sorts-as we do in US suburbia This has put an enormous pressure on the developing countries infant industries and also on the balance of payments because a great deal of these products had to be imported
Another reason why the trickle down theory has not worked is that it ignored the labor potenshytials of an overwhelming proportion of the populashytion In such countries as Brazil or India 50 to 70 percent of the population is in the underdeveloped portion of the population in the urban and rural sectors the most important resource in this type of country is the labor resource This labor resource is very poorly utilized under the trickle down theshyory of development In the US and other develshyoped countries only a fraction of the labor force and population is in this poor range
I shall not dwell in length upon the inadequacies of industrial and urban jobs to absorb significant amounts of the migrant rural population There is increasing evidence that industry is becoming more capital intensive The types of industry that have been developing especially after the import substishytution drive has been satisfied offer very few jobs The lower productivity service sector while genershyally absorbing more labor than manufacturing has expanded in a very inadequate fashion and much of it has been disguising very large amounts of semi-employed people
Hence it is desirable to think not only of overshyall economic policies of development which are more labor-absorbing but it is desirable to have
specific rural policies that absorb productively
19
rural people so as to reduce migration to the urban areas
With respect to Latin America with a very high population growth-somewhere between 3 and 3 12 percent-in the late sixties the rural labor force is estimated to grow at the rate of about I million people annually even after assuming somewhat speeded-up migration rates Moreover there are no policies to productively absorb these people in agrishyculture On the contrary recent policies have beshycome increasingly capital intensive and the whole development strategy is generally strongly biased toward a rather labor extensive type of agricultural development as well
Let me briefly mention some of the policy defishyciencies that we have found not only in Latin America but Africa and Asia as well There is an overemphasis on commodity targets and balance of payment considerations in development planning There is very little attention to manpower planshyning in the various planning agencies and the tarshygets that are listed for development are very heavshyily oriented toward output-global macro-economic output-and commodity targets rather than institushytional targets which would involve human reshysource planning and income targets
There is a great deal of encouragement for capital intensive production techniques in public investment We see this in the development banks where much of the investment takes place in indusshytries with lines of pi oduction that offer very few jobs Perhaps the lending process itself with its emshyphasis on the project approach encourages this capshyital intensive bias
There is a strong urban bias in providing social services which encourages the out-migration from rural areas and which places great difficulties in the way of attracting and retaining qualified civil servshyants and leaders in rural areas There is a bias in the provision of social services jobs schools and other conditions that encourage not only job-wise but living level-wise the selective out-migration of competent rural people and prevents the return-mishygration of competent government officials teachers and others needed for the development of the rural areas
With respect to Latin America there is a lack of agrarian reform which is a fundamental defect in job creation in rural areas (This is not so true of Africa which has a more tribal and peasant-orishyented rural sector) There is very little recognition of the segmented nature of agriculture in developshy
ment planning They treat agriculture as a monoshylithic sector I can distinguish at least three differshyent sectors within agriculture such as the plantation sector which is export-oriented and for which deshyvelopment and employment policies will have to parallel the industrial planning techniques There is the semi-modern sector which is producing comshymodities for the market and has to some extent also a self-sufficient subsector And there is finally a really self-sufficient sector of a vast number of peasshyants who market very little and whose livelihood is within the traditional villages I think the developshyment policies and of course employment generashytion programs will have to be quite different for each of these sectors
Finally there is a strong emphasis on labor-reshyplacing types of technology particularly mechanizashytion that is imported intact from the developed countries wlere it serves a very good purpose A great deal of the pricing taxing subsidy policies as well as the activities of machinery companies are detrimental to a kind of development that would emphasize a slower transition from primitive agrishyculture to a very mechanized type of agriculture
Now to turn to policy recommendations let me briefly list certain suggestions for using simple iabor intensive labor absorbing techniques in deshyvelopment planning One of these is the recognishytion that in research and development on which we spend a great (eal of money and which developshying countries are just beginning to recognize as an investment item increasing stress should be placed on what many people are beginning to call intershymediate technology There is a great deal of reshysearch needed on micro-level agricultural developshyment ratier- than ihicro-level development and work of field economists anthropologists socioloshygists manpower planners is very much needed
There should be inter-disciplinary approaches to these micro-planning techniques and here I would like to enter a plea for not only technological planshyning but integrated social scince planning and research in the field of employment generating techshyniques I would emphasize very strongly developshyment of rural cooperatives and cooperative-like institutions in the rural areas that have the capashybility of mobilizing local people and to achieving economies of scale in development that normally individual type programs do not achieve These inshystitutions would be particularly valuable in such fields as credit marketing some types of producshytion and in machine services Also stronger emphashy
20
sis has to be placed on rural unions and syndicates particularly in Latin America This -is a very touchy problem because it is linked with the politishycal power structure
I also would like to point out the importance of decentralized agro-industrial planning I do not think we have touched upon the potentials of bringing jobs to rural people not only in agriculshyture but in agriculturally-related enterprises loshycated in or near urban areas This is something into which very little talent imagination and efshyfort and money has gone You will find that most of the industries are located in the large urban censhyters Very little is done to process agricultural prodshyucts or to create industrially-related enterprises
around primary production centers such as forests
pasture lands and crops which can be industrialshyized In this connection also I think there is a
great deal of learning to be done in stimulating
part-time and full-time industrial and semi-inshyclustrial employment opportunities in conjunction
with rural development programs A final point which needs to be strongly emphashy
sized I believe that it is not necessary to separate
or set up hardline criteria to distinguish between wealth-creating jobs and welfare (or income-subshy
sidy) jobs Acceptance of this dichotomy results in directing investment towards the activities with relatively high output potential Those of us who have been running agricultural credit programs find that among the small farmers we have the best credit risks We have farmers who have incredibly small businesses and repay their loans regularly while the larger landowners are always in arrears
Recent studies have repeatedly pointed out the big advantages of small irrigation works rather than big dams Studies have pointed out that entershyprise based on small peasant units is also highly productive because they utilize the peasants labor They are able to create wealth from work and to stimulate people to develop
I think that we have to take another look and a great deal of effort should go into the discovery of this middle ground where development projects particularly rural development or rurally-oriented deveopment projects can be both productive and socially satisfactory and at the same time soak up during the next few decades the surplus employshyment that is threatening not only the rate of growth but the basic political stability of many countries
21
UNITED STATES EXPERIENCE WITH UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDEREMPLOYMENT
by William Batt
We have no greater capital investment in any country in the world than we have in this country but we also have wide disparities in income It is true that we have more of a middle class than most developing countries but we still have dreadful problems of misdirection of funds For example if one looks at the national income data for all secshytions of the United States the District of Columbia appears as one of the wealthiest areas of the counshytry yet right in the middle of this city we have a section with desperate unemployment and tindershyemployment We have areas in the United States with unemployment rates as high as 25 to 30 pershycent
Although unemployment is an important ecoshynomic indicator it is not a particularly meaningful measure of economic conditions in rural areas beshycause of the problem of underemployment The data on unemployment developed in the 1950s by the Department of Labor focused attention on that 1roblem of depressed areas more effectively than had ever been done before And in recent studies concerned with ghetto unemployment attention was focused on the unemployment in the central cities as was national policy But it appears that we do not have similar extensive studies focused on the rural underemployment problem in the United States
We have this (lesperate rural underemployment in the United States today It exists in Eastern North Carolina and will probably worsen because of the automation in the tobacco industry This deshyvelopment will start immigrition by totally unpreshypared people to the cities of the North Among parts of ouir Indian population the unemployment data also reveal desperate poverty which even makes the Mississippi Delta look prosperous by comparison
When I read advertisements in the international edition of the New lork Times placed by developshy
ing governments such as Come put your factories in Nigeria or Come put your factories in Colomshybia or Uruguay I realize that the depressed areas of the world want the same thing that deshypressed areas in the United States want They want more job opportunities they want more industry so that there will be enough jobs there for which
people could train A study sponsored by the Area Redevelopment
Administration on what Western Europe was doing in the area of development indicates that they are ahead of us I believe that we might get more ideas from Western Europe to help South America than we do from the United States For exshyample Italy is investing 10 percent of its total inshycome in trying to make southern Italy more viable so that everybody in southern Italy does not have to leave the country to make a living I think that some combination of what the Italians are doing is what we also ought to be doing to a greater extent Of course the countries of Africa and the Southern Hemisphere do not have that tremendous inshydlustrial potential of northern Italy but the princishypIe is not invalid The principle is to help make these regions that are now depressed become ecoshynomically viable
The coal and steel community in Europe is doing a beautiful job for a very limited group It seems to me that the coal and steel community is doing ver-y well what we are doing not well at all in North Carolina Southern Italy is also doing things rather better than we are
The Secretary of Defense has announced an exshyceptionally large number of jobs are going to be cut in defense It seems to me that we must be able to figure out some better way than laying off people in aircraft companies in different parts of the counshytry When I was connected with economic developshyment work in Detroit many layoffs occurred every third year When I was running the Labor and Inshy
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dustry Department in Pennyslvania one of the reshycessions in the 1950s cost us $400 million in unemshyployment insurance Thus the costs of doing nothing are pretty phenomenal
We are trying to do something to reduce these fantastic barriers to employment that keep people in an expanding economy from sharing the benefits of that economy We have classic cases in the public sector of jobs going begging by the hundreds because of absurd and irrelevant prereqshyuisites to employment To be a dog catcher in one city and they need a number of such workers you have to have a high school diploma and two years experience handling animals
I strongly agree with the following statement that if development does not produce more jobs and a fuller role in society for the working man (and I hope by the working man is meant someshybody besides the dues-paying member of unions) it can disrupt the world we know instead of buildshying a new one Improvements in GNP and exports investments have little meaning for the hundreds of millions who continue to live in conditions of barest subsistence squalor disease and despair Inshydeed in such circumstances the term developshyment would seem to be a serious misnomer if not a cruel delusion You may be leading people up the garden path and creating more problems than you are solving
24
ROLE OF NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BUSINESSMEN IN JOB CREATION
by William Haas
The National Alliance of Businessmen (NAB) was created in the manpower message of President Johnson to Congress on January 23 1968 He asked the private sector of the economy to take on the reshysponsibility of meeti major national challengeshyfinding jobs and providing job training for the hard core unemployed and under-employed
In response to this request the NAB was orgashynized by concerned leaders of the business comshymunity When President Nixon took office one of his first acts was to pledge his administrations comshy
plete and unqualified support to the NAB In fact the role of the business community and that of the NAB has been made even more important than beshyfore by President Nixons proposal for extensive changes in the national welfare and manpower training programs
The Presidents proposed plan is aimed directly at getting people off the welfare roles and onto payshyrolis and this puts the responsibility squarely on businessmen They must prove that the private secshytor of the economy with the appropriate governshyment assistance to cover the extra costs of hiring and training unskilled disadvantaged workers can provide the job opportunities that will make the Presidents program work
Orgainiationally the National Alliance of Busishy
nessmen is tinique It is an independent nonprofit corporation The Executive Board is composed of topflight businessmen from each geographic region of the nation Tiis lBoard established overall polshyicy The Executive Vice Chainn is responsible for the operations of NAB similar to that of a presshyident of a corporation and the Chief Executive Ofshyficers are from the ten regional offices across the nashytion
We are now expanding from 131 metropolitan offices to 200 metropolitan offices since we are now going nationwide and these offices are staffed by volunteers from industry and officials on loan from
government with approximately three people at each regional level and five at the metropolitan level In addition literally thousands of volunteers from business assist in carrying out the mission for which NAB was formed
The question may be asked Why should busishyness take on this challenge of finding jobs and job training for the unemployed and upgrading opporshytunities for under-employed people The most imshy
portant reason is that basically six out of every seven jobs in our country are in the private sector of the economy The businessmen are the ones who have the jobs
Businessmen are also the ones who know best what a worker should learn in order to do a job
properly If we can place the unemployed and unshyderemployed in meaningful jobs teach them how to (10 these jobs znd keep them employed we will have made a major inroad on poverty in our nashytion We will be giving new hope for productive lives to many people We will be helping our young people including many Vietnam veterans reshyturning to civilian life to build satisfying lives in their own home community
Bringing the unemployed into the mainstream of outr economy is not humanitarianism It pays off in dollars and cents for the company who gains a worker It pays off for the government by both savshying on welfare costs and gaining a taxpayer
The propran of the NAB is called JOBS which stand for Job Opportunities in the Business Sector As the title indicates this program is dishyrected towards the hiring training and retraining and upgrading meni and women for jobs in the prishyvate sector of the economy Out- initial goal was to
place 100000 hard core unemployed in meaningful jobs by July I of 1969 and that was more than met The new nationwide target for July 1 1971 is to
place 611000 hard core unemployed in productive jobs Against this objective approximately 25000
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employers have already hired sonic 432800 persons Of this total hired approximately 305700 were hired by 21000 companies participating in the non-contract portion of the JOBS program and 127100 were hired by approximately 4000 compashynies participating under a NAB JOBS contract Of the 432800 persons hired about 228400 have reshymained on the job
We have also obtained the characteristics of the employee trainees from the simple hiring card emshyployers participating in the JOBS program are asked to submit This information shows that 73 percent of the trainees are male 27 percent are female About 75 percent of the workers aie beshytween 19 and 44 years of age 21 percent are under 19 and 4 percent over 45 or an average age of 247 years Also about 70 percent of the trainees are Negro 21 percent are white 6 percent Mexican-American 2 percent Puerto Rican and I percent of other origin The average family size of employee trainees is 36 persons Their education attainment averages about 10 12 grades of school They were unemployed an average of 212 weeks in the last year Their annual family income was approxishymately $2505
Hiring training retraining and upgrading the disadvantaged is not an easy task nor do we preshytend that it is When we ask a businessman to join with us in this program we do not want him to unshydertake a task under any illusions about the diffishyculties of the task
This is not any ordinary industry-hiring proshygram To aid us in these efforts the Department of Labor offers specific types of assistance programs These programs are designed to provide practical ways for all employers large and small to train inshyexperienced new employees without losing money on the cost involved in bringing these workers up to an average level of productivity
In response to the current economic slowdown NAB is giving increased emphasis to the upgrading portion of the JOBS program Employers particishypating under the contract part of the NABs job entry and upgrading program are compensated by the government for extraordinary training expenshyses to provide such support services as orientation basic job-related education special counselling and on-the-job training skills
If the employer believes that he does not have the in-house capability to provide these support services he can subcontract this phase to professhysional companies However the on-the-job skill training cannot be subcontracted This must be provided by the employers
Other areas that may be compensated include extra administrative and overhead costs supervishysory andl human relations training medical and dental services child care assistance and transporshytation assistance
The NAB JOB efforts in my opinion is one of the best manpower programs It offers real advanshytages to employers and job applicants
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PRIVATE INVESTMENT AND JOB CREATING POSSIBILITIES
by Harriet S Crowley
I interpret private investment to mean any kind of private investment which has a payoff whether it is for profit or social reasons This rather broad definition of private investment is necessary for two reasons when related to job creating possibilishyties First since private profit investment area per se is a fairly limited one in the less developed counshytries its job creating effects will also be limited Secondly I believe that at present the private techshynical assistance program will be a more important source for job opportunities
I would like to diaw a backdrop with respect to investment n developing countries against which manpower planning and employment as well as the many other fields of development have to be considered A landimark which has gone pretty much unnoticed is that for the first time in the history of the international development effort the flow of private and public resources is about equal For the I year coniesUnited States about $2 billion a from the government and SI 12 billion is from private investment in profit-making enterprises Much of tlie latter is still in the extractive fields but increasingly more is in the manufacturing and service fields and in private technical assistance Proshygrams We now therefore do have a different set of flows of resouices than in earlier years
Anot her important backgrotnd factor is the fact that we are in a period of change in the United States ill altitludes toward the AID program The Peterson Report is an excellent example of this change Pat of the recommendations of that report is already in being tle creation in last years legshyislation of a new instrument for private investment to manage and conduct lie incentive programs and to get ioie private investment into the less develshyoped comiti ies This is now known as the Overseas Piivate I nvestment Corporation (OPIC) which will runt tle progranis of guarantees (extended risk guarantees) as well as surveys and related activishyties The formet programs are in operation and are
writing half a billion dollars worth of insurance a year roughly one-third of the total flow of private investment capital
The two other recommendations of the Peterson Report which probably affect most of the programs that we are interested in are the creation of a bank and the creation of the technical institute What is clearly implied by these changes is that there will be a reduced official presence overseas and that the US policy of development is going to be more reshy
sponsive and less aggressive and carried out to at least sonic extent within the framework of the multilateral analytical base and guidelines
Congress is not expected to act on any new proshy
posal uintil next year sometime The specific legislashytion is scheduled to be before Congress shortly after tihe first of the year There will clearly be a transishytion period between the enactment of that legislashytion and any new structures of organization There may be a period of almost two years in which peoshyple are not going to know whether they can comshymit funds for long range programs Durng this peshyriod it seems to metle private field should become More important partly because it is time for it to play a greater role and because there is going to be this vacuum In the manpower field it seems to me that all opportunity is being created for us to test sone of the programs which we have been supportshying at least partially if not completely For examshy
ple in tie case of cooperatives it should be possible to test their usefulness now in moving into this vacuum Can they with their modest amount of public funds attract private resources in addition to those they are beginning to put into their projshyects from others such as labor
Now to turn to the activities of private business One can find estimates of job creation of private investment ranging from $300 per manyear of emshy
ployment u) to about $7500 according to the Nashytional Industrial Conference Boards exercise in this field Clearly the record of employment vis-ashy
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vis direct private investment is not very great Figshyures available for Latin America only show that in 1957 private investment of US private subsidishyaries were supposed to have created 830000 jobsshywhile in 1966 roughly ten years later the number of such jobs rose to 1230000 It had not even doulshybled in ten years
I think we do not know enough about the intanshygible results of direct private investment We have attempted on several occasions to get from corporashytions their social overhead spending in less develshyoped countries by their affiliates Estimates of 2 to 7 percent of their annual direct investment have been arrived at )) a variety of means including a Senate Subconunittee and special research projects This could really represent a tremendous amount of jobs in the aggregate
Aside from the training which individual corposhyrations carry on all the time there is a good deal of other social overhead investment in housing in edshytication healthi community development and conshytributions to things like the National Development Foundation Peace Corps projects and Voluntary Agency projects But we (o not know enough about these activities and about the results of cooperashytive efforts and credit unions in terms of job creashyion
There has been a movement in the last year or so in what for want of a better term I call the mini-investment field This is the very small capshyital investmient kind of a project with usually a very quick turiover They are springing out genershyally from non1-profit programs overseas which have reached a plateau in their normal technical assistshyance activities They ale recognizing that they can go no further witlouit somel productive capacity input into their programs whatever they may be There have appeae(l on the scene tlini gs like Tech noserve-a nonrlofit institution supported by the chirrclies Tlhey do feasibility studies to find small lprojects anI then they raise the needed capishytal They have had prezty good luck at such activities so far There ate also emerging small inshyvestment corporations stpported by Protestant reshy
ligiotis grams The Mennonites for several years have had such an investment corporation and have maintained porifolios between $300000 and s100000 overseas all the time This group puts it
in one project and takes it out perhaps in a couple of years sometimes even less and then puts it in another one They are able to (1o this bccause of their own people overseas who see these opportunishyties and who generally either have the skills needed for the project or know where to get a volunteer with the needed skills to give the technical assistshyance that may be necessary
Joint ventures are another set of activities that are just starting The Pan-American Development Foundation has been doing this in the small loan business for a while and I think it has quite a good record
Another one is Kodel which was started up by the Catholics but now has broadened to membershyship of a good sized number of other religious and non-religious groups This is a trend toward conshysortia action on the part of the private agencies all of whom jealously like their independence and their own identity That has been a very hard block for them to overcome but they are overcomshying it and they are putting together their varied resources to direct them into major projects I think this is very encouraging because all of these
projects are at the grass roots small in nature pershyhaps but if there are enough of these they begin to expand and spread
Some 80 of these registered voluntary agencies are operating programs of around $600 million three-quarters of which is their own and the rest is from government support
In conclusion I should like to make two brief comments regarding our activities in the private sector First we are very happy to go out and use
private organizations for contract purposes often as substitute for direct hire-a better substitute in many cases This is something we should be able to do These are national resources and we have some responsibility it seems to me in this field However we often do not do a very good job of guidance for th~m Secondly I also believe that private organizashytions are going to have to demonstrate a much greater management capability on their own and a better ability to negotiate with those governments to implement their own programs without support services il) to now generally being offered by our missions and embassies
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POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES
by Samuel H Burt
Among the major distinguishing features of the American public education system is the fact that its schools have always been considered as belongshying to the public as being in the service of the public and to be served by the public on a volunshyteer basis as a matter of civic and communityr reshysponsibility The desire to be involved in puiblic education stems in part from the special status prestige and power accorded to educated persons as well as to persons connected with education in any way In many communities the chairman of a local board of education has more prestige than the elected mayor
The current furor unrest and criticism of our public schools is proof that the American publicshyor rather the many publics which comprise Amershyica-still demand a high degree of responsiveness to their need from public education administrators and professional staff In the finest tradition of our democratic society these various publics have eishyther voluntarily organized citizens school commitshytees or been organized by school administrators to serve on Volunteer advisory committees in order to help improve one or more aspects of public educashytion
The major rationale for such service is that our public schools are seen as societys major vehicle for tralsimitting to youth those precepts concepts and traditions on whi h our society has flourished in the past and must depend upon for continuing growth and success in the future
There is also a growing recognition that the problems of public education are basic central to and inextricably intertwined with other major problems of modern society-housing urbanization crime inlustrialiation civil rights jobs for mishynorities narrow professionalization and all the other factors which make or break the American Dream for each individual in our nation
Among all the publics comprising our national
life none has been more aware of the critical role and potential of public education than businessshymen manufacturers labor leaders and employers in agriculture and the professions-hereinafter reshyferred to in the aggregate as industry Motivated by the need for a continuing flow of well-educated and well-trained youth industry has voluntarily asshysisted schools to enrich expand and improve those
programs in the public schools directly related to industrys manpower needs-vocational and technishycal education For over 50 years industry has been involved in a variety of activities and services deshysigned to gear vocational education to industrial
operations But it is upon the same 20000 formally orgashy
nized industry-education cooperating and advisory committees composed of some 100000 volunteer industry representatives that sophisticated vocashytional educators depend for sustained and meanshyingful involvement in the schools It is this orgashynized involvement which is credited with making vocational education programs relevant to the needs of students and employers While there are
many authorities in the field of vocational educashytion who would argue this responsiveness there is general agreement that proper and effective utilishyzation of industry-education cooperating and adshyvisori y committees could indeed achieve this goal
So strong and pervasive is this belief that by 1965 every state had either passed a law or issued regulashytions requiring public schools to utilize volunteer advijory committees for all vocational programs in the schools Despite the fact that such laws have been honored more in the breach than in practice the 1968 Amendments to the Vocational Education Act of 1963 mandated the establishment of a Nashytional Advisory Council on Vocational Education
and State Advisory Councils on Vocational Educashytion for each state receiving federal vocational edushy
cation funds These Councils are composed of volshy
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unteer representatives from the general public inshydustry and education As a consequence vocational education has become the only field of public edishycation which by law must utilize volunteer coMshymittees of interested citizens at the national state and local levels There has been an abiundance of voluntcers to serve on these committecs One reashyson for such service was discussed earlier ie the prestige which accrues to volunteer service in public education A second motivating factor is rooted in the hope that involvement in a vocashytional education program will not only help imshyprove that program hut will abo serve as a direct source of trained manpower supply for those comshypanics working with the school people There are also such motivational factors as the desire of adults to help young people in starting their cashyreers to receive 1 ublic recognition (personally and for the company) as a concerned citizen to be acshyknowledged as an expert and leader in ones field and to be considered altruistic and even philanshythropic by ones friends business associates and family circle through volunteer involvement in edshyucation
It is because people (o respond to organized appeals to these motivational factors that it has been possible for vocational educators to deshyvelop in the US a national system of cooperating and advisory commitcees and councils to forge an industry-education partnership in cooperation with government-for the purpose of developing manshypower skills creating jobs and the matching of workers with jobs
This system is as yet but dillily perceived and litshytle understood Our remaining discussion will cenlshyter around the roles responsibili ties and relationshy
ships of the various levels of these committees and councils as they are currently being utilized for achieving popular participation in public vocashytional education
1 The National Advisory Council on Vocashytional Education
The 1968 Amendments to the Vocational Educashytion Act of 19(33 established a National Advisory Council on Vocational Education composed of 21 leading national representatives from industry edshy
For a disrcusion of legisiation affecting vocational eiicashytion advisory conunitlies e Sanmnel Mf Burt 7ndustry and floratIionalTehil Iuration York McGraw-HillI lltit (New Book Co 1967) ant Smnnutl N1 Burl The Sate Advifory Councils on Iawational Eduration (Kalamizoo The W E Upjohin Institute for Employment Research 1968)
ucation and the general public Members are apshypointed by the President of the US Functions of the Council are broadly stated in the Act as to
(a) Advise the US Commissioner of Educashytion concerning the administration of preparashytion of general regulations for and operation of vocational education programs receiving federal funds
(b) Review the administration operation and effectiveness of vocational education proshygrams make recommendations thereto and publish reports of its findings and recommenshydations to the Secretary of the Department of Health Education and Welfare for transmittal to Congress
(c) Conduct independent evaluations of voshycational education programs and publish and distribute reports of such evaluations
(d) Review possible duplications of vocashytional education programs and publish and distribute reports and recommendations to the Secretary of HEW
The Act also provides funds for staff to be emshyployed by the National Council in conducting its activities and carrying out its t esponsibilities
While the National Council has no operational nor administrative responsibilities for the conduct of vocational education programs its independent status and legislative authority for review and evalshyuation does give it strong investigatory powers Furthermore since its findings and recommendashytions are required to be published and distributed the ouncil can be expected to have considerable impact on Congressional deliberations concerning all facets of vocational education at the national level
Although tlie relationship established by the Act between the National Council and tle State Advisshyory Councils on Vocational Education is one of reshyceiving reports from the State Councils as deshyscribed below the National Coumicil carly opted to work closely with tle State Councils As a matter of fact at the requcest of the State Councils the Nashylional Council is providing a considerabie degree of leadership to the State Councils It appears that much of the voik of the National Council will be based on reports submitted by the State Councils The National Council ii also serving as a clearing hdouse of imiforIuationl and conununiilications for tie various State Councils includinug conduct of speshycial studies for use by the Staic Councils in the deshyvelopment of their activities
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2 The State Advisory Councils on Vocational 3 Local Advisory Committee on Vocational Ed-Education ucation
In addition to establishing the National Advishysory Council the 1968 Amendments to the Vocashytional Education Act of 1963 also mandated the establishment of a State Advisory Council on Vocashytional Education by every State receiving federal funds for vocational education Members of the State Councils are appointed by the Governor or in those states in which State Boards of Education are elected members of the Advisory Council are appointed by the Board
The functions of the State Councils as specified by the Act are to
1 Evaluate the effectiveness of the vocational education programs services and activities throughout the state
2 Assist the State Board through consultation initiated by the Board in preparing the State Plans for Vocational Education
3 Advise the State Board on the development of
policy matters arising in the administration of vocational education programs
4 Prepare anid submit through the State Board to the US Commissioner of Education and the National Advisory Council on Vocational Education an annual evaluation report of voshycational cducation programs with recommenshydations for such changes as may be considshyered appropriate and warranted
The Act also provides funds for staff to be emshy
ployed by the State Councils While tile State Councils have no administrative
or operating responsibilities they are independent of albeit advisory to the State Boards of Educashytion amid to the State Departments of Education Ilici published reports an( recommendations can I)e expected to not only have an impact on vocashytional education decisions of state governors and state legislators State Boards and Departments of Education but also on the US Office of Education and the National Advisory Council on Vocational Education It is still too soon to determine how successful the State Councils will be in functioning independently of and at the same time interdeshy
pendently with the established bureatucracy of the State Departments of Education and other state agencies dealing with vocational education trainshying and manpower development
Within the states the use of advisory committees of industry people by vocational educators is manshydated in every state either by state law or by rules an(d regulations issued by State Departments of Edshyucation Except for a few states advisory commitshytees are required only for occupational education
programs conducted in a school receiving federal funds Requirements are usually met by the school listing the names of the advisory committee memshybers when requesting funds from the State Departshyment of Education Rarely is provision made by the state for special staff to service the committees or to promote industry-education cooperation Guidelines provided by the State Departments of Education stress the advisory nature of the commitshytees and warn the educators not to allow the comshymittees to become involved in administrative or operational matters Despite the lack of positive and constructive leadership on the part of most State Departments of Education in the field of efshyfective utilization of industry committees at the local levels sophisticated vocational educators and industry groups have developed various types of non-legally required advisory committees as effecshytive instrumentalities and strategies for involving industry and vocational education It is these nonshymandated committees which when added to the leshygally required committees provide the characterisshytics and format of the nationally organized system discussed in the paper
(a) The School System General Advisory Comshymittee
A number of large school systems throughout the country have appointed General Advisory Comshymittees on Vocational Education to serve in an advisory capacity to the Director of Vocational Edshyucation the superintendent of schools and occashysionally to the Board of Education This type of committee is used in helping plan long-range school system policy and objectives for vocational educashytion and to help determine relative emphasis and
priorities that should be given to various elements of the program at any particular time Once policy and priorities have been agreed upon the commitshytee may engage in activities to obtain public supshyport and any needed legislation and funds These activities of course go beyond the advisory stashytus which marks the planning and policy determishynation assistance functions for which the commitshytee was established
31
Membership in these committees is usually drawn from the ranks of top level management in the community and includes leaders of community and industry groups economic development agenshycies and government agencies concerned with manshypower development Appointment is usually made by the school superintendent sometimes by the chairman of the school board The Director of Voshycational Education usually serves as secretary to the committee
(b) The School General Advisory Committee Many large area vocational schools technical inshy
stitutes and community colleges have established general advisory committees on vocational educashytion to assist in formulating general plans and polshyicies for the school These committees have proven invaluable in helping determine what programs should be offered by the schools priorities to be asshysigned in initiating and expanding programs and in obtaining industry-wide and public support for the school Membership is usually composed of pershysonnel directors plant superintendents vice-presishydents of large companies owners of medium size businesses trade association and labor organizashytions minority groups representatives and represhysentatives of economic development agencies and government agencies concerned with manpower deshyvelopment The assistant president dean of inshystruction or assistant director of the school usually serves as secretary to the general advisory commitshytee Since the committee is established to serve a
particular institution it is rare unfortunately for the committee to become involved in or knowlshyedgeable about what other similar institutions are doing or what other vocational education and training programs are being offered in the geoshygraphic area generally served by the school
(c) Departmental Advisory Committees
If a vocational school is offering several related industry courses eg bricklaying carpentry and construction electricity these courses may be orgashynized into a Construction Technology Department supervised by a department head and perhaps served by a departmental advisory committee
Membership of a departmental advisory commitshytee usually consists solely of representatives of the industry for which the courses are being offered The major responsibility of the departmental adshyvisory committee is to make certain that the school provides for and properly supports the educational and training program needed by the industry The
departmental advisory committee not only serves in an advisory capacity to the department head but also supports him in any requests to his supervisors for program improvement and expansion The committee may also meet with the several occupashytional cooperating committees serving the instrucshytors within the department
(d) Occupational Cooperating Committees Practically all discussions literature laws and
regulations dealing with vocational education adshyvisory committees are concerned with the concept and practices of the occupational committee insistshying that such committees are advisory only Despite such statements these committees function in fact as instrumentalities for achieving cooperation beshytween education and industry rather than as a deshyvice for educators to obtain advice from industry This dichotomy between theory and practice is the source of considerable confusion among both vocashytional educators ahd industry people Nevertheless these occupational cooperating committees have been and are responsible for the bulk of industry people voluntarily involved in vocational educashytion and for annually contributing millions of dolshylars and even more millions of hours in the service of vocational education
School officials look to membership on these comshymittees from frontline supervisory staff owners of small companies and representatives from unions and trade associations connected with a particular occupation Members of the committees are usually those individuals in a company who are directly reshysponsible for hiring and training new employees
Over 30 specific cooperative service activities have been identified as being offered by occupashytional committees They can be classified under the headings
1 Engaging in student recruitment selection and placement activities
2 Improvement of instructional program offershyings through evaluation and enrichment
3 Providing assistance to teachers for personal and professional growth
4 Providing prizes financial aid scholarships and other forms of honors to outstanding stushydents
5 Engaging in industry and public relations support of the school program
The occupational cooperating committees are the foundation and strength of the national advishy
32
sory committee system described in this discussion They provide the opportunity for industry people and vocational educators to engage in cooperative action and involvement at the local community levshyel-where the real action takes place-in the schools
Summary
In a society in which a persons work is a prishymary determinant of his personal and social status there is ar obvious relationship between the world of school and the world of work This relationship calls for a high degree of compatability and coopershyation between industry and school people to make vocational education relevant to the manpower needs of the economy and to make industry responshysive to the mission and needs of vocational educashytion
In pursuit of these mutually beneficial goals inshydustry and education in the US have developed over a period of some 50 years the concept and practice of a national system of formally organized advisory and cooperating committees at the nashytional state community school and individual
program levels At each level we find different groups of leading citizens involved because of difshyfering demands from and services to be provided For example a general advisory committee to a local school system calls for representation from community minority groups but an advisory-coopshyerating committee for an occupational program in a school requires representation from front-line sushypervisors directly engaged in hiring and training new employees While this national system is far from being fully recognized and fully utilized a framework-established by law-does exist and the potential is perceived by mur nations leaders in both industry and education
Laws written by professional administrators and lawyers concerning utilization of volunteer citishyzens can and do leave yt to be desired Despite the fact that many professional educators are disshytrustful of volunteer citizen participation in such a complex field as public education so many benefits have accrued to youth adults schools industry local communities and our nation as a result of inshydustry-education cooperative partnerships as to warrant efforts to increase such cooperation manyshyfold
33
TAIWAN AND KOREAN EFFORTS IN MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT THROUGH SCHOOL AND INDUSTRY COOPERATION
by James D Murray
Although the skilled labor force of a country is developed in a number of ways the public and prishyvate vocational schools play a very important role The primary purpose of this part of the educashytional program is to prepare the student for useful employment Vocational education means more than training for specific job skills It develops abilities understandings attitudes work habits and appreciations which contribute to a satisfying and productive life This breadth of training makes it possible for the graduates of the vocashytional schools to adjust to rapid technological changes in their fields and advance quickly on the job In due time those graduates with leadership abilities can achieve supervisory positions Vocashytional education also has the responsibility of proshyviding supplementary training in occupational skills and related technical knowledge to make emshyployed adults more productive This is usually accomplished through an evening program
This paper discusses my experiences (using Taishywan as an example) in developing school and inshydustry cooperation through advisory committees in designing realistic vocational educational programs geared to the manpower needs of a developing conitry The paper also comments on the use of skill contests and participation in the Skill Olymshy
pics (with particular reference to Korea) to gain acceptance for vocational education and to build status for the skilled workers
The Taiwan Program
In the Taiwan program I worked with the Vocashytional Teacher Training Institution eight technishycal high schools and the Institute of Technology which is a post-high school in most respects With regard to the Institute of Technology my assignshyment to reorganize this old established institution to properly equip it and train the faculty provides a good example of the nature of problems involved
in developing a meaningful and iiseful advisory committee
The first step in this undertaking was to have the
president of the school and the faculty obtain an understanding of what an advisory committee should do and how it should operate I was fortushynate in being able to obtain the full cooperation of the president of the school It was therefore possible for me to put before the president of the Institute material from the many US pamphlets on how to organize a school industry advisory committee which I adapted as best I could to (he local situashytion He in turn gave it to his department heads they read it we discussed it and I thought I would run -t little check and do a little role playing with the president of the Institute calling the meeting going through all the procedures including writing of invitations to prospective members of the comshymittee
We got off to a reasonably good start but then additional progress became difficult We could see that the true understanding of what an advisory committee should do and how it should operate was not getting through Fortunately (not by inshytention) I made the comment during a meeting that in this assembled group was perhaps the most knowledgeable group on how a school industry adshyvisory committee should be organized and opershyated This group is perhaps the most knowledgeashyble in Taiwan Therefore would it not be to our advantage (and to the advantage of the country) to make this available to others who perhaps are not so well acquainted with this advisory commitshytee concept by translating the information I had developed into Chinese The group agreed to this
proposal We went through the whole procedure line by line It took a lot of time but when we got through the group understood the need for and
purposes of an advisory committee It was now possible to proceed with the organizashy
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tion of the General Advisory Committee for the institution We brought in the public sector prishyvate sector large medium and small industries also some things that we would not include in the US such as the Ministry of Education Provincial Deshypartment of Education and the military It was successful we were able to assemble a very fine committee The committee brought forth to the institute things which I could very well have said but it was much more meaningful coming from their own people than from an outsider
The process of actually organizing the committee was a bit slow I worked with the president with the departmnt heads and we madle calls on indusshytry gave them a little pamphlet explained how the committee should operate
At the first meeting the members were informed about the purpose of the reorganized institution the type of equipment it would have the type of
buildins planned for the future and that they were going to be involved in the planning of this reorganization
Subsequent to this niceting we proceeded to the organization of the craft committees again bringing n the military and some of our AID
people in various specialties The committees were organized and committee members sat in on the planning of the courses of study The school would prepare the plai and send it out to the adshyvisory committee beforehand The committee havshying been exposed to the plain would then offer comshyments and criticism it worked beautifully Since this i rocedureiworketi so well for the Institute we
thought we would niow see what could be done for the eight technical high schools Here we practiced what we talked about in the Institutes industry adshyvisory commititees regarding the organization of the comm it tee If we just send an educator to work with the schools for this purpose we have the picshyture from one side Therefore why not have one person from the industry side as well as a person from the school side And we dlid this
The Taiwan Power Company furnished their director of training and the provincial governshyment brouight ill ole of their school-indlist ry coorshydinators They worked with each of time eight vocashytional schools in reorganizing their school industry advisory committee We chose electricity as the first committee to organize because each of the eight schools had the school industry advisory committee and we happened to get this mai from Taiwan Power Company Also the Taiwan Power Coishy
pany had an office in each of these eight cities with which we were working
A final interesting comment regarding the Taishywan experience-after four meetings attended by the coordinator from the provincial department of education and the training director from the Taishywan Power Company they issued a report which contained useful suggestions which took into acshycount the local situation
A few of the suggestions made to the schools in this report incluied the following Planned visits and in-plant practice should be arranged for the graduating class mathematics related to the ocshycuipation should be taught shop practice of gradshyntitig students to be based on Taiwan Power
Company regulations a safety boo issued by the Quason Training Center schools foi reference
The Korean Program
In Korea basically similar procedures were used in developing industry advisory committees As in Taiwan procedires were developed and accepted regarding establishment of national provincial and school advisory conumittees These are conshytained in the by-laws promulgated in June 1963 of the Industrial Education Advisory Committee Adshyvisory comnittees are operating in Korea they are operating even thoughlithey are not as sophisticated as the ones in the United States Effective advisory committees were also established for the agriculshytural program
It Korea as in many other countries the advishysory committees lead to other participation proshygrais One exaimple is the school industry cooperashyive program where the student spends part time in
school and part time iworking in industry The proshygrais are operating quite siccessfully
Other programins which I believe particularly imshyportant as a means of fostering popular participashytion are tihe National Skill Contests and the Skill Olympics which art described in the section that follows
National Skill Conitests and the Skill Olympics
The National Skill Contest In 1963 USAID asshysisted the Ministry of Education and the Korean Technical Edunication Association in tie organizashytion and operation of the First National Technical High School Skill Contest The objectives of this activity were to encourage the students and teachshyers to strive for better workmanship to gain public
acceptance of vocational education and to improve
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the image of the skilled worker in society The conshytest is similar to an athletic tournament but in this activity the students from participating high schools compete with each other for honors in the various trades Suitable contest problems and projshyects are prepared by a committee representing inshydustry and education and the contest is conducted under very strict supervision The completed conshytest projects are evaluated in terms of precision finish working speed logical procedure economishycal use of materials and proper use of tools Ilie winners are given appropriate awards and pibshylicly honored Since the program was started in 1963 five contests have been held and each year he test problems have become inucreasingly difficult and the judges more severe in their evaluation
The National Technical High School Skill Conshytests were quite successful and generated considerashyble interest within education circles as well as in the public and private industrial sectors However a group of imaginative and aggressive Koreans were not satisfied and begaii to explore ways to expand and improve this program Ini 1966 they heard about the International Vocational Training competition which is connionly referred to as the Skill Olympics andldecided to seek admittance into this internaiionial event
The Interinational focational Trainig Compeshytition The International Vocational Training Competition originated in Spain shortly after World War II It began as a national skill conshytest similar to the national skill contests that were condicteld in tie Republic of Korea The colipetition in Spain proved to be so successful that the Spainish invited their neighliboing cotutry Portugal to coipete in the Madrid conitest The joint conitests ield in Madrid ini 1950 and 1951 were atteirlded by iany meinlbers of the diplomatic
rls Twy weie imiipressed with the spirit of comshy)Ctitioni atnd the healthy xc lanige of training ideas
which took place at the contest As a coise(ulience they indi crd the training agencies inl their respecshytive couiitries to joili inl the coimpetition In auldi tion to Spain the list of nations now participating is (Iuite imtipiessive Atistiia lelgium Deninark West Germlanity lolland Ireland Italy ILuxeishyburg Portugal Switverland United Kingdom Japan and Koiea The first six international conshytests were held in Spain but since 1958 the contest has been held in various Eiiopeaii countries
The member co(nries may choose their particishy
pants for tie International Vocational Training
Competition in any manner but it is usually done through a national skill contest The International Vocational Training Competition lasts about three weeks During the first week the technical represhysentatives and experts make the necessary preparashytions select test items and prepare the necessary bltieprints At the end of the first week the contesshytants arrive and the competition starts the second week The testing time may be as much as 35 hours Judging is completed in the third and final week after which the winners are awarded medalsshynormally a gold silver aiid bronze medal for each trade
Korea Eners the Skill Olympics The Korea Committee-International Vocational Training Competition (IVTC) was organized in 1966 to preshy
pare for entrance ini the 1967 Skill Olympics Using the experience gained in the organization of the National Technical High School Skill Compeshytition five regional elimination contests were held thn rotighou t Korea with the winners meeting in the Ntional Contest in Seoul The competitors (1300) came from technical high schools aid industry The maxintin age limit set by international regushylations is 19 years (not to have readied 20th birthshyday) Extetlding tile cotipelitiont to include young skill workers from industry has provided crossshyfertilization of training techniques between school and industry anl entrance into international comshy
petition has escalated the standards of evaluation Korea sent niine contestants to the 1967 Skill
OlyIipirs which was held inl Spain July 10 to July 17 Tlieie were 231 coimpetitors front 12 countries com11peting inl 31 different tracles Korea won gold
niedals in tailoring and shoemaking a silver nedal in wood patern making and bronze medals in sheet metal and sign painting Uponl their reshytin to Scoul these winiels were given an enthuishysiast ic welcomie at the airport and later a recognishytion ceremotiy was held inl Citizenis IHTall The Prime Minister was the principal speaker and preshysented each winner with appropriate awards Later Ilie President of Korea personiall) congratulated the group onl their success Inl the past high level govshyernment officials have participated ini the National Teciial High School Skill Competition activishyties but Iris event far exceeded any previous occashy5100is
The success of the Korean contestanits in the
19ti7 Skill Olympics spread throughout tie country motivating more young craftsmen and students to compete for the honor of representing their coutishy
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try in the international competition The Korean team that competed in the 1968 Skill Olympics in Switzerland was even more successful than its
predecessors Korea-Taiwan Cooperation Inspired by the
Korean and Japanese success in the Skill Olympics the Republic of China decided to improve and exshypand their Vocational Industrial High School Skill Competition Taiwan has held annual skill conshytests for vocational high school students for the
past 15 years and in 1967 they decided to prepare
for entrance into the Skill Olympics An exchange of information and technical assistance was arshyranged with the Korea Committee for Inernashytional Vocational Training Competition As a reshystilt of this cooperative effort Taiwan conducted their First National Vocaiional Training Competishytion in Novenber of 1968 The competition was very siccessful and the Chinese Government is now
considering entering the International Vocational Training Competition in 1970
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THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES WITHIN PRIVATE INDUSTRY
by Clayton J Cottrcll
Two urgent needs have met each other within our society during the last 15 years The first is the need of industry for skilled and semiskilled workers The second is the need for poor people for both jobs and the opportunity for better jobs We cannot freeze _to pernlan2nce the existence of two Americas the one rich and the other poor sepashyrate and unequal Our whole society is responding to these needs
State and federal programs have been expanded an( many new oies started to bring the indi vidtishyals and the jobs together In many US communishyties the problenms of cliage in urban life have been attacked by local government school systems colshyleges church groups neighborhood grou ps and civic organiatiolns Conicern has grown ald still is
growing that the future and even the safety of an urban industrial society depends on solving the problem of getting iiore people gainfully eishyployed
All these goals and problems come together at a single point That point is the absorption by inldu1sshytry of the hard-core ulnemploye( who are for historshyical reasons mostly meibers of mi nority racial groups Federal state and community efforts are necessary to deal with many aspects of the problem But the heart of the matter liesin our factories where maln lnees job and1 relates to it well or badly As one who has spent his adult life in indusshytry I can siuinnarie what indlistry call do and is doing The why the how the what anil the who
Let us look at the situnation through the eyes of a persol who sees hiimself inl relation to his personial problem and as lie thiinks it through
I quit school before I learned a trade lie says I now have a family I have bills to pay kids to clothe and I want to be better off next year than I am right iiow To get eiiough income I will work two jobs and maybe oie or two unskilled jobs or part-time jobs for the wife But even this work will
not bring in enough money to provide for the famshyily There must be another way
There is another way The Labor Department has created many opplortulities through such onshyilie-job traiing programs as National Youth Corps Model Cities and others But what about
private industry The typical American community today has a straige pattern of buildings both busishyness an1d resident ial in the middle of the city surshyrounidied by a ring of mediumn-age residential-inshydnustrial arear which in turn is surrounded by more industrial and residential suburbs The irner city in a Europeian city is kept up through periodic reiiewal programs it remains the heart of the city Whenu it deteriorates soimueth ing is dlone about it We inl America are only beginning to follow that
patternl In a single community we may find an available
1)001 of labor on one side of town while the availashyble jobs are in another part of the area Yet there may he the problem of labor shortage inl this comshy
ni it) because the available workers and jobs though right beside each other were not brought together )oes induistry briniig thei together More aiid lmore industry is doiig just that It has to today if it wants to stay in business Titere is also anohllir imiotve husiniessllel especially manageshyment rightly feel responisible toward the economy aid the lationi They also want to solve their own
probleii of eiarging an(1 improviig the labor force ald they walt to solve tlie liations problem of brinmgiig the hard-core iiieiployed inmto the mailnstreall of our iatiolnal life ManIaigemeut knows it is to its advantage to hell the chronically uineiployed aind that with a lot of help and pashytieice they will help themselves
Vhat happens whenllan automobile manufacturer accepts an obligatioi to hire 750 of the hard-core inemployed and make them into productive em-
Ilayees First these people have to be brought up
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to an acceptable level of literacy A number of peoshyple who sign up for programs never show up This is disappointing frustrating and even demoralizshying for the people in industry who are trying to make a success of a training program Is it reasonashyble to conclude that these pcople do not want to work The car manufacturer did a follow-up study and some startling things came to light People who cannot read cannot read the destination signs on buses The company now has follow-up men to show the trainees how to catch the right bus and how to transfer cnroite
There was also the problem of tardiness Only one in five had alarm clocks Why They had never before had to be at any particular place at any parshyticular time Once these hard-core people knew how and why to come to work their attendance and tardiness record was 500 percent better than the average of all other employees
There were far fewei hopeless cases than had been expected The nonperformers are now pershyforming and performing well and are devoting hours of their own time to company-conducted sesshysions after work oi things like personal hygiene and efficient maniagement of their money
We went through a similar experience in anshyother company in Rochester New York where we worked with an industry-supporued employment agency Rochester Jobs Incorporated to recruit apshyplican ts from the inner city We found that a high number of hard-core people cannot pass physical examinations Out of 635 applicants during an eight-week period as many as 220 failed physicals
There was a big proportion of rejects and dropshyouts Only about 170 of the original 635 comshy
pleted the training and got permanent jobs A large aiount of tinie and money was spent in inshyterviewing examining and training people who never became employed with the result that the cost per person hired was far greater than in norshymal hiring We nevertheless consider it a worthshywhile program for we were convinced of the need to create new job opportunities for the unemployed of the inner city of Rochester and to assist them to qualify for these jobs Everyone who can and will work deserves the opportunity
In both cases the story is the ame management felt the same obligation to deal with a large social
problem many tribulations were involved in hanshydling the proLlems but management emerged conshyvinced not only of the obligation but also of the conclusion that the in-house development of
human resources was definitely good business It is good business because it produces good workers In similar programs at other companies the broadest conclusion of all was that management learned more than the trainees did more about people more about motivation and training more about minority groups
Management learned other things too First they learned that trainees require an enormous amount of attention to financial family and vocational
problems which interfere with learning Second one way to insure built-in motivation is to hire heads of households They learned that tests are not always good predictors of success The will to sucshyceed is just as necessary on the part of management as it is on the part of the hard-core trainee In each case an economic social and psychological cripple is transformed into a whole man or woman
The transformation of these people is not the only training problem which confronts industry today Members of minority groups are not the only people in our country who require attention and merit concern Every member of the industrial working team has something to learn about his own job that lie ought to learn in his best interests This is recognized by indtustry for there are many seminars and university courses many high-level management study groups especially set up for top and middle management In the factory laboratory the drafting room and in the office training reshymains an ongoing and virtually necessary activity
One teaching technique used by industry known as programmeld slides helps employees to improve their skill right on the job It takes advantage of the fact that four-filhs of all learning is visual It makes each lesson part of a practically subconscious reflex pattern like driving a car and painlessly trains the memory in the way that it should go
Let me state a paradox which like many parashydoxes also happens to he true Industry should alshyways leave the path open for an employee to upshygrade his ability and move up in relation to his growing skill and productivity but industry must not make perpetual upgrading a condition of emshy
ployment There are such things as plateaus levels of acshy
complishment on which a person temporarily or
permanently comes to a rest It is unfair and unshywise to pretend that an employee must visibly be climbing higher if lie is to continue to be useful but it is equally unfair and unwise to close off or fail to provide an upward path for employees who
40
want to follow it Small companies are plagued by the dilemma of forcing the level of performance upshyward at too fast a pace versus letting the level of performance stay flat for too long They cannot afshyford many mistakes in personal selection and trainshying What can they do Part of their question has been answered by the US Departinent of Labor but another part of their answer may come from joining locally sponsored training institutions to do the job for them
Community colleges which are usually oriented toward the needs of local industries are natural places for training to take place Small companies help to insure their own future when they help to support the institutions and when their executives and engineers help to run them Community colshyleges serve a need magnificently to an extent that all too oftn goes unrecognized because its results are not spectacular
Summing up then I return to where I began American industry needs workers and more producshytive workers in greater numbers all the time and this trend will continue Many Americans are there for the seeking ready and able to supply the work when properly trained and motivated Industry has developed the ability to do this job industry is also improving its ability to keep career opportunishyties open for average men as well as the excepshytionally talented Industry is using and continuing to use its in-house capabilities for the development of hunan resources In short industry really is doing a job and after all what else is industry for
DISCUSSANT Julius F Rothman
In the 1960s Americans learned that the key to any stuategy against poverty was a program that ofshyfered jobs at decent wages with an opportunity for advancement For those living in poverty the deshyspair of the ghetto is rooted in unemployment unshyderemployment and in being less than a full parshyticipant in the society It is clear that the way out of poverty for the disadvantaged of our society is through training in skills that will prepare them for the job market
Today there is general agreement that our manshypower policies must be integrally related to our over-all economic planning and policies
The nations manpower policies as they have evolved over the past eight years have moved from a central concern for the needs of the technologishycally displaced worker to a much broader and more basic concern with the unemployed underemshy
ployed and disadvantaged worker In this process they have had substantial impact on programs reshylated to welfare poverty and the urban crisis Planshyning for manpower policies and programs has in a real sense moved to center-stage in economic decishysion-making
It is also generally recognized that a realistic manpower policy can only be developed within the framework of a national economy that is growing rapidly enough to provide job opportunities for all
persons who are able to work and seeking employshyment This in effect means a full employment economy with unemployment rates somewhere beshytween 2 and 2 12 percent With the unemployment rate at 14 percent it is clear that new approaches to the utilization of manpower must be considered
There are several essential elemcnts that must go into a national manpower policy if we are to preshy
pare the disadvantaged unemployed for the work force
(1) There is a need for a coordinated and comshyprehensive manpower policy The absence of such a
policy has led to a proliferation of manpower proshygrams many of them inadequately funded and freshy
quently failing to meet the needs of the workers for whom they were intended
(2) For those who cannot be absorbed into existing jobs and who desire to work either in the
private or public sectors of the economy there must be a large-scale public service employment and training program subsidized by the Federal Government
(3) To effectively implement national manshypower policies and programs the US Employment Service should be federalized Until this is achieved the fifty state employment services need to be strengthened and upgraded
(4) Greater emphasis must b- placed on upshygrading programs that provide workers with the opportunity to achieve greater skills larger inshycomes and dded status
(5) The federal minimum wage should be raised to at least $200 an hour and the Fair Labor Standards Act be extended to cover all workers
While about one million people per year are helped by current manpower programs this is but a fraction of those who require help An expansion of existing programs through the creation of addishytional training opportunities in private industry is clearly indicated but it has been demonstrated that the private sector has not met the job and training needs of all of the disadvantaged
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The AFL-CIO has long maintained that public service employment provides the best avenue for those who cannot find a place in the private sector of our economy At least three studies have amply documented the sulbtantial number of job openshyings in the public sector that could be filled if sufshyficient funds were made available to the local and state governments Nor are these jobs of the leafshyraking variety Opportunities exist in such areas as anti-pollution enforcement educational institushytions general administration health and hospitals highway and traflic control libraries police fire recreation and sanitation
The Commission on Technology Automation and Economic Progress estimated in 1966 that 53 million new jobs could be created through public service employment An Office of Economic Opporshytunity study by Greenleigh Associates suggested the
possibility of 43 million such jobs And a 1969 study by tihe Upjohn Institute indicated that the mayors of 130 cities with populations over 100000 could use another 280000 persons on their municishy
pal payrolls iminediately If America is to help the working poor and find
jobs for the uneniployed why not use federal funds to improve the quality of essential community services
In a period of rising unemployment increased emphasis should be placed on upgrading the skills of those who are currently employed Upgrading programis would perform a twofold purpose They would provide a ladder for presently employed workers seeking advancement from low-paying enshytry-level jobs and at the same time would provide entry-level openings for the unemployed who could also look to future upward mobility
In the past too much emphasis has been directed towards placing workers in enury-level low-wage jobs which require little or no formal training In too many instances manpower activities have been viewed as a substitute for welfare programs with the result that neither manpower nor welfare needs are adequately met The main thrust of training must be directed toward helping individuals deshyvelop their maximum potential skills for employshyment opportunities that actually exist in the job market This means training for skills beyond the entry-level
There is currently a great deal of talk about reorshyganizing the existing manpower programs and placshying the operating responsibility in the hands of the
states The AFL-CIO is convinced that placing major responsibility for the unemployment probshylems of the poor and the disadvantaged in the hands of the States is a serious mistake The
problems of employment and unemployment are complex and national in scope The individual states have no mechanisms for coping with these
problens The work force is highly mobile Joblessshyness and underemployment require national solushyiLOns not fifty diflerent approaches
Those who advocate this approach would make the key operating mechanism the State Employment Agency The past record of most of these State agenshycies does not suggest they will aggressively press for either job placeient or job development for the
poolr or members of minority groups What is needed to create an effective manpower
training system was stated succinctly by the Nashytional Manpower Policy Task Force in a report reshyleased early this year which said available
manpower services should be provided on the basis of need not impeded by diverse eligibility requireshyments varying administrative practices or competshying agencies The separate programs must be fused into a single comprehensive federal manpower proshygram--providing a variety of services in varying mixes depending upon national conditions and local need preferably funded by a single federal source
Manpower programs are a crucial component of any broad strategy for the elimination of unemployshyment and poverty As long as we have some 45 milshylion unemployed and some 15 million underemshy
ployed-who together with their dependents acshycount for most of the 25 million who live in povershyty-there is an urgent need to move rapidly toward the creation of effective manpower policies and
programs The 1960s was a period of innovation and exshy
perimlentation in the manpower training field Many programs were tried some failed and others met with varying degrees of success The net result was something less than a coordinated and compreshyhensive approach to manpower training We now have the opportunity to streamline existing manshy
power programs into a coinpreliensive program and to add to our manpower policies those elements which past experience has indicated are essential to meet the needs of the disadvantaged
To this end the AFL-CIO proposes that any changes in manpower policy be measured against the following criteria
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(1) Consolidate existing job training programs into a single flexible program which can be taishylored to the needs of the unemployed and to the labor market in which they live
(2) Create a completely new upgrading program designed to encourage employers to develop upshygrading programs either within a company or within an industry and at the same time to fill job vacancies at the entry-level
(3) Establish a system of public service employshyment with State or local government and private nonprofit agencies operating under federal conshytract which would undertake to absorb those who have not been placed in private employment or training in the performance of community imshy
provemen projects in health education public safety recreation bIeatitification etc
We lelieve that these policies if followed would put the United States on the high road toward elimshyinating the unemployment that exists in our slums and urban ghettos and would bring the disshyadvantaged into the econonic mainstream
The Employment Act of 1916 said All Amerishycans able to work and seeking work have the right to useful reuninerative regular and full-time emshyployment and it is the policy of the United States to assure the existence at all times of sufficient emshyployment opportunities to enable all Americans to freely exercise this right
The rhetoric of the 1940s must become the realshyity of the 1970s
DISCUSSANT Richard L Breault
The National Chamber of Commerce for a numshyber of years has been promoting among its menishybers the importance of creating in their own comshymunities a process for bringing together diverse groups that need to become involved in dealing with community problems These probleis might range from pollution to poverty and even to ecoshynomic developmlenti The latter although at a local level I gather relates to the In-pose of Title IX of the Foreign Aid Act We have developed guideshylines for such community action projects which are being used by some of our members
There are in the United States some rather intershyesting conuiiiuity-wide projects that have brought together a wide variety of )articipants For examshyplc in Rochester Minnesota literally h1undreds of citizens are involved in looking at the goals for the community and determining priorities and alternashytive ways these objectives and priorities may be achieved The Goals for Dallas project is an exshy
ample in a much larger city where a rather difficult yet feasible process has been worked out to get thousands of persons involved in determining what Dallas should be now and in the next ten or fifteen years where it should go and what needs to be done to get where they want to go There are a number of examples of other cities that also are supporting such programs to a greater or lesser exshytent
There also have been some excellent examples of
puillic participation in specific manpower proshygrams in addition to other broad community efshyforts such as in Rochester and Dallas The whole manpower outreach program to poverty areas that many businessmen are now using is an example They will go to local organizations and ghetto groups and literally ask them to go out and help find the people who can benefit from training and
jobs The cooperative efforts in the buddy system are an example of individuals becoming involved In this effort one person assumes the responsibility to be a friend and advisor to a disadvantaged per-Soil
In some cities local Chambers of Commerce have been organizing neighborhood recruitment centers right in the ghetos manned by people from these areas In each of the cities the success of the proshygram depends upon the degree to which the key leadership elements of the community are inshyvolved You literally have to start with one two or three persons to get a system of this kind working I would certainly say that here in the United States the businessman particularly through his orgashynized channel of communication which in most cases is a local or a State Chamber of Commerce is indispensable As one looks around the country at this sort of back to people involvement and parshyticipation one finds that where failures have ocshycurred it has been because some of the key eleshyments-business labor the churches ethnic groups or the political part of the community-were left out
It is often noted that it is difficult to get the
pieces of a community together to do a job We have found this to be true in our work
There is a natural fragmentation among comshymunity groups in this country The labor groups may not talk too often to the businessmen the buisinessmen might miot get along too well with sonic other group and so on There is also the fear that getting together in a cooperative project may result in some loss of independence as an organizashy
43
tion or as an individual Compromises would have to be made which one would just as soon not have to make Difficult as this process may be in the US I imagine that it would probably be even more difficult in developing countries In the US the communication media are intensively develshyoped enabling one to reach out to people In many of the developing countries one would not expect to have these media as well developed
The Chamber of Commerce has prepared an adshydition to a publication we call Where the Action Is This pamphlet is a compilation of brieflyshy
stated examples of projectsthat involve cooperative efforts with business and other groups in the comshymunity usually taking a major role It is divided into a number of categories such as education manpower crime housing and minority business enterprise In each case the name is given of a pershyson who may be contacted to obtain more informashytion about that particular project This material
put together with the guidelines we provide our members gives at least the basic steps that are necesshysary to get people to cooperate in a community These guidelines could also work for others
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NEW CONCEPTS OF THE EMPLOYMENT SERVICE ROLE TO MEET THE CHALLENGE OF THE 1970s
by Malcolm R Lovell Jr
Recently there has been in the United States a good deal of criticism of the Employment Service Such criticism may have resulted in part from the fact that more has been expected of the Employshyment Service than it could produce The problem has been that we have never set realistic goals for the Employment Service Its broad charter is to serve all people in manpower programs with funds which may appear substantial but are still limited when considered in terms of the cost of a program required to meet the needs of all the people
Some changes are taking place however One is the growing recognition that manpower programs can play a very significant part in overall economic progran and in fighting poverty and discriminashytion Therefore I believe that this nation is preshypared to put more resources into the manpower area than ever before
What are the nature and extent of the resources required to do an effective job Currently some 16 billion dollars have been allocated for training and other assistance to the disadvantaged These proshygrams are serving approximately a million people We estimate that the universe of need according to current poverty criteria is about ten million peoshyple These are the people in serious need of manshypower services if they are to realize their own poshytential in the labor market And they also are the people who are currently at substandard incomes
Of course if you take into consideration non-disshyadvantaged people in need of manpower services the spectrum can broaden out to all of the people in the labor market soae eighty million But asshysuming ten million people are in need our serving one million people is just scratching the surface
Probably the most important breakthrough that is on the horizon is the Family Assistance Plan (FAP) that was proposed by President Nixon last year This plan in my judgment is probably one of the most far reaching pieces of social legislation presented to Congress since the 1930s
The implications of the FAP program are treshymendous The proposed bill would require the Emshyployment Service to serve 29 million people startshying with some 425000 the first year after passage of the bill However those that would be mandatorishyally included in the program are about three milshylion people And then there ate another three milshylion people that have the option of obtaining the manpower services provided in the program Thus the bill contemplates the rendering of manpower services to roughly six million people
This is a sizeable proportion of the estimated universe of need of ten million In addition I would hope that through the proposed Manpower Training Act (NITA) we would be able to help a large part of the remaining individuals who are not eligible under the Family Assistance Plan This group would include for example certain 3ingle people individuals without dependents and youth over a certain age without dependents I beshylieve therefore that we are beginning to see the posshysibility over tle next five years of serving a major segment of our population who are in most drastic need of manpower services
How do you go about organizing a progam of such a magnitude It may properly be compared with the operation of our medical system We need hospitals to deal with medical problems We recogshynize that people can be put in the hospitals with a variety of administrative procedures The Medishycare program allows people to go into the hospitals and it pays the costs Medicaid is similar There is also a large private insurance program which pershymits people to have the hospital cost paid There are of course other patients who must pay their own hospital costs What must be emphasized howshyever is that all of these people are treated in the same hospital regardless of the program financing them
Manpower services are becoming so complex as to require that specific institutions be identified as
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providing certain basic services similar in nature as the hospitals do In the manpower area there is no institution that is as prepared and qualified to provide these services as the Employment Service The kinds of broad services which I believe should rest with the Employment Service are of the nature which may in general terms be described as covershying the functions connected with the process of matching people to jobs and providing and arrangshying for services which an individual may need in order to become employable This definition of the Employment Services responsibility includes a vashyriety of services The following briefly reviews some of them
Serving the FAP Th2 Employment Service should have responsibility for serving persons who are eligible under the FAP program The eligible individuals as defined by the law will have to preregister at Social Security offices Thus the ES will have a waiting list of persons to work on of roughly 3 million-the number of estimated preshyregistrants
It would seem to me that the system which will have to be set up to provide the required manshy
power services to this group of persons should also be the system used as the hospitals are to serve other individuals who are in need of manpower services This would mean oireach into areas not covered by the FAP as well as to people eligible for assistance but who for some reason have not been willing to come in by themselves
Occupational Choice The Employment Service should also be responsible for assisting individuals in making occupational choices The person himshyself however has to make the final decision on what ie wants to do Once the occupational judgshyment has been made by the individual the Emshyployment Service should make arrangements for the worker to receive appropriate instruction or on-the-job training Upon the completion of trainshying he should be referred to a job We however do not expect the Employment Service to do the trainshying
Job Information It is more important now than ever before that the ES be the resting place for inshyformation on job opportunities as well as containshying data on the individual seeking employment or training A number of the new federal programs will create a substantial number of job opportunishyties within the ES itself as well as among other public employers There will also be a substantial
number of training opportunities available as a reshysuilt of these programs For these programs to funcshytion effectively and efficiently it is essential that there be a central point where these jobs can be tabulated and put on a computer and where the inshydividuals know they can go to be exposed to the kinds of work opportunities and training opporshytunities available
Cooperation with Others We see the possibility of Employment Service contracts for services The
programs under the jurisdiction of ES may be of such a magnitude that without subcontracts the ES may not be able to properly perform its responsibilshyities Such contracts may be to community groups or private nonprofit institutions There are a numshyber of functions that are measurable and controllashyble so that theii performances can be watched and
properly monitored
Organization of the Employment Service
One of the problems of the Employment Service is the fact that in terms of social institutions of today it is a relatively old institution-some thirty years old The leadership of the organization has been in the hands of those who joined the organishyzation during the 1930s and most of them have been white Civil Service rules as well as other obshystacles to change have made it difficult for the Emshy
ployment Service to get the kind of minority represhysentation that we think it should have Currently minority groups account for about 14 percent of the Employment Service staff Although this proshy
portion does not appear to be too bad when viewed in terms of the population mix of the country we think it is bad when you consider the nature of the work involved Now Stite agencies have to submit
plans toward achieving a staff racial mix goal which reflects the population the local employment offices serve Each agency is going to set target goals and develop plans on how to achieve these goals
We have also found that the local offices are orshyganized in much the same way that they were thirty years ago except for a change made eight years ago This change unfortunately tended to reshyduce the responsiveness of the ES to the needs of the disadvantaged since it set up a system of speshycialized offices conceived to serve the employer rather than the candidate for employment
A study is now being conducted in eleven oflices directed towards changing that organizational structure and developing a structure which can more effectively serve the disadvantaged As a
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model we are using the employability team concept developed and used in the Work Incentive Proshygram (WIN) and which also will be used in the Family Assistance Plan
We have found that the attitudes of the State Agencies which have long been reported as an obshystacle to effectively participating in modern manshypower efforts have been changing One of the things that we think has been influential in this change is a greater interest on the part of mayors and governors in manpower programs A year ago we funded and offered opportunities to every govershynor to have some manpower staff attached to the manpower programs in his State This action has substantially increased interest in the manpower organizations of the StateWe just recently have ofshyfered a similar opportunity to the mayors of 150 citshy
ies As part of the Presidents new federalism conshyceptwe plan through the Manpower Training Act to involve mayors and governors to an even larger degree The involvement of these public officials in the basic judgments of how Employment Service assets will be used will in our opinion have a very useful effect and will vigorously help in speeding up the changes already taking place in the organishyzational structure
We are investing considerable resources in the Employment Service system We will be expecting performance on the part of the State agehciesectW are proceeding on this road with the assumption that we will have some opposition Those that have distrusted the Employment Service in the past need to be shown by actual achievement of the goals that have been set We hope to achieve them
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CREATION OF A CONSOLIDATED MANPOWER DELIVERY SYSTEM DECENTRALIZED TO THE STATES AND METROPOLITAN AREAS-
A WAY OF ACHIEVING INCREASED PARTICIPATION RESPONSIVE TO LOCAL NEEDS
by Cyril D Tyson
This paper presents a model manpower delivery system developed for New York City which is releshyvant to the problems of the major urban areas The major cities in many instances have had to develop their own administrative mechanisms to deal speshycifically with the problems of the city and over and above Federal and State resources allocate city reshysources to that effort
At the municipal level New York City to my knowledge has the only comprehcnsive nan)ower
program in the country When the present Manshy
power and Career Development Agency was set up there were sonie 85 different manpower programs in the city Some of these manpower agencies were run by the city and some by nonprofit corporashytions resources came from the Federal Government the State and the city No one could determine how the resources were allocated how many people were trained with these resources and what hapshypened to people after training
In recognition of these and related problems we attempted to set up a manpower agency in a new and unique way The first determination made was that it was necessary to set up a comprehensive manpower system to meet our responsibility to tie together those agencies man(ated by legislation to some aspects of manpower as well as other agencies or groups who have been in this field de facto but were doing a creditable job We wanted to bring together all of these instititions whiile maintaining their own individual institutional identity and their own internal liies of administration In efshyfect we wanted to define ourselves as the manager of the manpower system and the determiner of the kind of specifications that these institutions would have to utilize in order to develop adequately the pruduct produced by this system and which would
have to be marketed in the free enterprise system I was not interested in becoming directly involved in operating specific training or educational agenshycies nor in developing a manpower bureaucracy I thought of myself as a businessman with a $45000000 budget and a company that would deshyvelop the appropriate kinds of tools to insure that the product produced was marketable and that there were effective kinds of returns I wanted also to develop accountability in order to identify the cause of ineffectiveness Finally I wanted to define the objectives of the agency in terms of the unishyverse of need and in terms of the kind of resources available
In the City of New York 45 agencies andor orshyganizations have been tied together into a compreshyhensive manpower system In the community parshyticipation area this means there are 26 poverty areas or 26 community action agencies The smallshyest poverty area has a population the size of most normal cities and the largest has more people in it than Newark Each of these 26 community action agencies funded with both City and OEO money administers Neighborhood Manpower Servshyice Centers (NMSC) No training goes on in those Centers they are the intake points the testshying and counselling points and the points of detershymination of the educational andor vocational
plans of individuals All of the resources in the City are available to these NNISCs We have Cityshywide training programs and as appropriate proshygrams inl specific regional opportunity centers so that a person may go close to home for training People are given an option for the first time We are thus beginning to provide interest options so that a person participates in a program because that is where lie belongs and not to fill program quotas
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We believe we have the only program and the first in tie country in which an institution of highcr education is an integrated part of a manshypower system The City University of New York and all of its junior colleges one in each borough provides the major portion of the educational coishyponent and the skilled training component within our system This educational component includes English as a second language basic education edushycation related to skilled training and preparation for high school equivalency
In addition the Board of Education provides basic education and English as a second language in a number of the I I regions which encompass the 26 poverty areas The State Dep-rtment of Vocational Rehabilitation alo is tied into that system Prior to their involvement they had only one office in New York City while they now have a staff in every one of our regional opportunity centers The) are beginning to relate their activities in a more releshyvant way to the popuilation that comes under their jurisdiclion In addition (hie Stale Employment
Service is a part of this system in New York City Ve informed the State Employment Service that
we wantied their staff inl all of lie 11 regions and that we would make city futds available so they could hire the Peronnel to staff the counselling fuinctions in these training facilities In tis procshyess the Stae Eiployment Service wotild become more relevant to tlie needs of the community and in tle process of expansion tle) (ould hire people who aie reflective of the community they serve
The Opportunities Industrialization Center and aI number of other institutions and organizations are involved in the progran Fifty percent of the
people who pailiipate are former welfare recipishyents We have over 300 people who started in public service career plograis in college and we provide for release Itimne funds to insure that people in ptiblic service carees cani pursue higher educashytion related to tle job they have or will tilimately have
The whole recruitment mechanism is contracted out to antipoverty agencies Also contracted out are the skilled training tile educational component and the counselling component This raised the question about wiat is needed to insure accountashybility We have used a ceitral data processing censhytet belonging to an antipoverty agency with terinishynals into all of our NMSCs A person is interviewed tested and lie intake form is filled out If it is deshyterinied that tie person is ready for a job the
counsellor or the person at that terminal provides basic kinds of infoniation to match tlhis person with a job If theie is an appropriate job in seven seconds the name of lie company the hourly rate location etc come over the terminal For a year and a half we have been placing people in jobs through direct on-line access against a batch-match system
Training opportunities are also on the comshyputer Wheni we allocate the training resources of the city into tie communities they also have access to time information tile) need from the computer All of our job developers and counsellors are placed on the computer by code This enables us to obtain information for example on number and kind of people and jobs handled on any one day This brings accointability into the process We know who is getting what kind of job at what rate and the relevancy of those jobs to the people we are serving
We have also developed a management informashylion system ours will be tihe first Intitiicipal agency ini New York City to have a completely computershyized management information system With this system we will be able to cross the program inforshymation with the fiscal information and do cost benshyefit analysis
Our tiniverse of need consists of the five most difshyficult categories in the labor market welfare recipishyents chronically unemployed Iigh school dropshyouts minority underemployed an(l employable handicapped Ve now understand that most of liese people need itraining of one kind or another
only a small proportion can go directly on to jobs We Ilust consider how best to train these people low do )oui traini people inl the community to
provide service to themselves I low do you train those people for example in a way ini which they can begin to handle sophisticated information sysshytems We canl tell you inl oir system who is in what kind of training prograi ini what agency in what area what their reading levels are thei age range tleir job development activity the activity of the Neighborhood Manpower Centers including whet her tiey are late ini the flow of that informashytion through that system With otit regional system maliagers and the related staff inl our regional censhyts who imatnage not only that aclivity and the inshy
stittitions that are part of it but also the contract of the Neighborhood Manpower Ceiters we are in a position to tal in specific terms about what the
problems are and how they can be eliminated
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When you make a commitment to involve comshymunity people in the process of any service you should be prepared to provide them the tools Those tools have to be designed at a level of the people who are participating in that system in
order to make their participation relevant For Cxshyaiple we developed a processing and procedural
mautial and flow chart so that any onie at any part of that system knows his responsibility inl that sysshyten as far as the Neighborhood 11anpower Centers ale COnceied
The iaini objective is to involve tie Community so that they develop whole sets of new tools and skills that make it possible for then to intersect our econoimy at another lcvel When we involve coimshymn1lity people we build up a set of skills for them that has applicability within a broader context of our society At the sanie timie that we are providing
manpower services we help the conunity develop a certain orider of technology that to ily knowledge does not exist in any other Connility in the counshy
try If we are coniceriel about the rational use of reshy
solices inl this couitriy we muiiistfind ways in which to iiilie those resources ms way in which they have a multiplier effect There will never he elnough miolley to solve somne of the iost pressing
problems that we have uinless We beginl to redesign olr insituiions begin to create linkages by the inshy
volvement of the City Univeisity of New York for example ill imianpower In the future probably any
pelsol in a imanpower pjrograil who has received a high school equivalancy in that process will have access to a college education at City University In effect by linking (ity University of New York into the systciim we are forcing a certaini ortder of intershynal institutional ianige
We want to lie degree possible to maximize the participation of the people who need the serviees in tile process of pirovidiiig the services for themshyselves It is possible to do hat It is possible to get institutions even ill the context of history that iight have been slightly recalci irani to conie toshy
gether in ieii of a larger scheiiata as long as we are prepared to help them in very real kinds of ways to master the new kinds of technology in order to run a more effective and efficient system
Discussion
Question from the floor One of the major purshy
poses of thiis Symposium is to extract fron Amerishycan experiences the aphplicability of popular particshyipation in a less developed economy These discusshysions have pointed out that there are underlying
principles which can be applied one being a coinshymitment to invlve those people left out of the iainstreain back into society Title IX of the Forshy
eign Assistance Art says that people in the develop mng countries nust he given a sense of participation in development of their country in order to achieve fle basic goals of political stability social progress and growth
What do you think are the basic underlying
principles for bringing about (lie involvement of
people in theircountrys development plocess
Mr Trvons ronments I think this is a relevant question and I am going to make the formulation
in power terms We like to feel in a detiocratic soshytiety that power is negotiated Certain institushytional arrangenients are set ill) that make it possishyble for those in power to negotiate with others in ain exchange People who have no power and thereshyfore no participation in pr1ograns have to be orgashynized
flow uslit inust bepeople le organized They organized into instittitional arrangenients because in the fiial analysis tlie iransfer of power is done in institutional ways People who are out of the mainshystream imiiust in in which theybe organied a way caii express their (oncern within the context of an institution that they either contirol or play a major role in
Also if this is to be a viable situation we must equip thei with tools tech hiq ies methodology and resoirt es so that when tile) negotiate there is soimnetliIng to iiegotiate about The strategy in our agelnty was to provide tools of a ceitain order of technology in aiiinstiititional context so that these tools could be used as leverage against a whole set of other inst itutions Therefore you use the tools and the technology as an instruieint of changing
powver and resource ielationships The people onut of thei mainstreani must be
trained amd given adequate resources and approshypriate technology If a poor person is put ol a polshyicy board and is not taught the difference between policy and adi in istration lie should not be blamed for failure They must understand their reshysponsibility in terms of policy
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THE PROBLEM OF EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN
by Grace Farrell
We hear a great deal in the United States today about the need for equal employment opportunity But it is often forgotten that the equal employment opportunity principle applies regardless of sex as well as inl the more customary areas of race crced color anid national origin
Women have come a long way in tie world of work In the US they make up an extremely signifshyicant part of the labor force about 30 million or 38 percent of the labor force Today it is expected that nine out of ten women will work at some point in their lives and for most of them for a considerable period of time The employment pattern for women is no longer that of out of high school or college alul into an ofllice for a couple of years until they marry and then to usually leave the labor force perimaien tly
The greater participation of women in the work force however is not reflected cither in the kind of work they do or in the pay they receive This tindershyitilization of a substantial body of workers constishy
tutes one of tile greatest wastes of our manpower resources today Women need not only the opporshytiility for employment but of course to get into and participate in tile training programs that lead to elliploymeint
In the 19fiWs a imtilliber of laws were passed to
help solve some of these pioblems Anilg tile Fedshy
cral laws was the Equpal Pay Act of 1963 which
prohibits ain cimployer froill discriminating in tile
payment of wages based on sex for all of his emshy
ployces who are subject to the ilinilltim wage provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act Also the Fair Labor Standards Amendment of 1966 whicl illcreased the Federal illinilium wage also
broadened the coverage of the Equal Pay Act Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibshy
its discrimination ill all phases of employment by employers employllent agencies and certain trainshying committees The discrimination prohibited is
tilat based on sex as well as race religion color or national origin Although not strictly speaking a law Executive Order 11375 amended an early Ex ecutive Order which prohibited discrimination by government contractors and subcontractors and federally assisted construction contracts to include discrimination against women Alany states have elacted similar laws also This is very important because it seems that no law is passed without a nillber of exceptions exemptions or exclusions This is true of the Federal laws that I have just enumerated as it is of much other legislation
One of the problems often occurs when the
public employment service is attempting to place women in jobs and relates to such factors as not being able to refer a woman out to work in a facshy
tory because the job requires her to work sixty hours a week and there is a State law which says women can only work forty-eight hours a week Similarly tilroulgh tile years originally for some rather good purposes there were eiacted by the States protective labor legislation which limited womlens hours of work or being in jobs which reshy
quire lifting more thalln iwelty-five pounds With
respect to the latter a mother will often tell you
this is ridiculous because ler baby at the age of
two weighed more than 25 pouinids Such laws are still oil the books in most cases These laws were a
major problem in applying sections of the Federal laws As a result last August the Equal Employshynient Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a revised Sex-Discrimination Guideline which states that State protective legislation including laws which limit womens oturs prohibit her from
working nights restrict her occupation or restrict tie weights they may lift now act as a barrier to
equal employment opportunity and are superseded
by the sections of the law under which the EEOC operates
Since thou about a half dozen States have indishy
53
cated that they will not contest this ruling They agreed that in order to achieve equal employment o0)lx)0rtillities for woien they will no longer enshyforce their protective labor laws There also have been several court decisions which have held siniishylarly
I think nhimately this whole problem will reach a higher court than it has now and it may be solved through a combination of State action and court action EEOC s position remains however in a State regardless of what a State labor department or the equivalent agency has held that labor laws
and hours laws may not be used as a defense to an otherwise illegal employment practice The EEOC has issued a number of decisions on a State-by-State basis on this point
All of these Federal laws and regulations are a step in the right direction and I think it is an imshy
portant one But what they are really getting at is a change in attitude which hopefully changes in laws will help to bring about Not only is a change in attitudes toward the working woman needed but also an understanding of her competence and abilshyity
54
CASE STUDY-JOBS FOR PROGRESS TNC (OPERATION SER)
by Seymour Brandwein
Operation SER (the Spanish word to be) was created as a self-help instrument designed to solve the most pressing manpower problems of the Mexishycan-Anierican population It is run by an organizashytion called Jobs for Progress sponsored by two of the largest civic organizations of Mexican-Amerishycans the League of United Latin American Citishyzens (LULAC) and the American GI Forum Its central staff is financed by the Federal Government Jobs for Progress is operating in five states in the Southwest The administrative structure consists of a regional board which sets the policy for a reshygional office under which local boards and local
projects areguided and monitored There is a maxshyinum of conununity self-involvement and the local
projects are free to adapt themselves to community needs within established guidelines for recruitment and development
This paper traces the development of this effort in an over-simplified and selective form Unnecesshysary details are avoided in order to illustrate clearly some of the special issues and problems of
popular participation in government manpower programs
There are some ten million Mexican-Americans in the Southwest This minority largely bilingual and bicultural has a disproportionately large share of the unemployment and poverty The new manpower programs initiated in the 1960s were frequently criticized by Mexican-Americans The criticism was sometimes merited sometimes uninshyformed However it was also quite clear that some of the programs run by the public agencies hadldifshyficulty with this minority group because of lanshyguage and cultural differences and problems of inshysensitivity of the non-Nlexican-American staff There were also problems of trainee attitudes toshyward government and particularly toward Anglo staff
The Labor Departments Experimental and Demonstration staff jointly with the Office of Ecoshy
nomic Opportunity (OEO) undertook an experishymental program to determine whether it was feasishyble and useful to bring into the manpower proshygrams some of the strengths feelings and cultural sensitivities of the minority group We visualized this also as an opportunity to convert protest acshytivity into constructive program action and as a way to develop understanding of and participation
in program development The following briefly deshysci ibes the way this program was developed
The first question that required an answer was who represents this minority We began with the major national organizations already active in soshycial civic affairs LULAC GI Forum and the Comshymiinity Service organization-a California-based orshyganization-which later withdrew from the Board We recognized the limitations in turning to thes groups since their membership did not include many of the very poor Each organization had limshyited resources and organizational skills But they were broad-based and they were an available strucshyture They had responsible records Their leaders were widely respected even though they might not be speaking for the total community A LULAC Chapter had already run an employment center in Houston with a volunteer staff
In late 1965 meetings were held with representashytives of these groups to encourage them to set up an organization and staff (which we would finance) to develop mianpower programs It took some months to develop agreement on appropriate relative represhysentation of the several groups on the governing board It was also agreed that the initial efforts should be concentrated in eleven major areas of Mexican-American population in the Southwest rather than dispersed over that region or the nashytion
At first there was over-emphasis on structure More time was devoted to charts of -everal layers of boards and to job descriptions and to relationships than any serious consideration of what specifically
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should be done We knew that there would be problems but we went along with their own prefershyences We were concerned that the Mexican-Amerishycan leaders involved looked upon this as getting their share of the money and as a matter of dealing with Washington in spite of what was said about working with State and local agencies Before the initial funding we brought together the Mexican-American leaders regional and State agency officials of tile Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) Department of Health Education and Welfare and the Labor Department to explain the objectives of tile program and to allow them to raise their concerns and to have them start dealing with Mexican-Americans It was also our purpose to give the Mexican-Americans an awareness of the nature of the Federal-State relationship and its conshystraints the ainouint of resources tie limits on the resources and how decisions were nade on their alshylocation In this way the State and SER leaders were forewarned of the many technical and intershyagency relationship difficulties
The program was launched in mid-1966 We disshycussed types of staff needed and SER leaders cited the names of four possible executive directors Each had considera)le background and stature and were all acceptable Each of the four declined and a pershysonnel committee selected as executive director a young man from one of the organizations and a deiputy from one of the other organizations There was disagreement about tile choice of a person to be staff head We had to explain to the top leaders that neither they nor we could permit the selection to be a patronage activity and that the man seshylected while hie was promising oil paper and might be very good as a local project director simply was unequipped to work with regional and state govshyernment officials They reluctantly accepted this aid selected a man with some experience who in retrospect turned out to be the tower of strength in technical direction that was needed in the initial years in the effort Tile staff assemlbled by the new chief were young and willing Despite cautions from us the new staff rushed ambitiously to draft the proposals for large-scale new programs to give to Washington The proposals were in general terms and were justified simply as being needed They did not take into account the complex probshylems and lead-in time requirements inherent in the launching of any comprelensive programn For exshyample there was one proposal for an Employment Center in one State to be financed by $37 million
at a time when the total allocation for this entire State for Manpower training was approximately $25 million We had to explain in a quite turbushylent session that such funds were not available that the programs had to be linked with others of the State and local manpower agencies and that speshycific account had to be taken of operational probshylems of building up a sizeable scale program Thus through the hard way the staff became familiar with funding and operational constraints under manpower agencies and what was meant by develshyoping a program
The next problem we focused on was the quesshytion of separate SER programs versus programs jointly run with public agencies We identified apshy
proximate suis that we thought we could obtain1 from uncommitted resources in Washington We also made clear to the SER staff and to the State agency that such funds would be provided over and beyond the funds regularly allocated to the States if the programs were jointly developed if the State agencies would conduct certain functions requirshying their technical skill and if SER would be given authority and responsibility for operating acshytivities for which bilingual staff and Mexican-American sponsorship would be particularly useful The SER staff was now able to begin to examine
program specifics to proceed oil the technical tasks involved and find out what was literally involved in manpower development programs Issues did arise The SER staff came to us with questions about some State agency procedures We offered inshyformation and illade suggestiolls but with a couple of rare exceptions we did not intervene We told them they would have to work it out themselves
In the spring of 1968 new SER training projects with agencies in five States were funded with apshy
proximately $5 million There were 2500 trainees in the target areas where there were high proporshytions of Mexican-Americans unemployed The projshyects varied by locality but generally tile SER was responsible for or directly involved in recruitment and selection of trainees counseling pre-job orienshytation basic education relations with employers to obtain jobs for trainees and in coaching of trainshyees during training and after placement particushylarly where Spanish-speaking capability was reshyquired The State employment services did testing counseling job placement work and the State voshycational education agencies conducted or arranged for the formal skill training
We now graduated to a new level of problems
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We moved from proposal development planning relations with State agencies and mastering of funding procedures to the specifics of program opshycration staff development technical assistance and linking to other programs These proceeded reasonshyably well in comparison to the earlier public
agency programs There were problems but a dedishycated enthusiastic staff was assembled and there was a clear affirmative response in the Mexican-American community and among potential trainshyces The State igencies respond(ed responsibly
But several types of problems are wortn noting There were questions of authority between the overall SER Board and the local SER Board and between the local Boards authority as against that of the staffs to which they were giving policy direcshytion I take particular credit for the fact that we reshysisted the temptation to be the big bosses We took the position that SER had to resolve its internal reshylations or be discredited in the eyes of the Governshyment and the public If they were serious about
private minority ability to decide and stand on their decisions
Another problen was that as the staff gained in capability t became the only identifiable major center of organized lexican-American program acshytivity and was pulled toward other potential activishyties such as housing minority entrepreneurship and education Universities and government agenshycies wanted to see how they could get Mexican-American involvement through SER We took a middle course There has been OEO funding in
part that has permitted this relatively easy stance But we insisted that there be primary and overshywhelming concentration on the manpower activishyties for which they were funded
On another front we had hoped that the initial Board would serve as a base for broader participashytion by drawing in additional Mexican-American groups Its example has provided some impetus for generating and developing various other activities at the local level by locally organized Mexican-American groups
To conclude I think it would be useful to note without overdramatizing several results that have become apparent during this fourth year of activshyity I think beyond question the program has heightened not only the interest but the undershystanding of miany Mexican-American leaders both of the potential and of the limitations of manshy
power programs-how they function and how they
can be used to meet the problems of unemployed Alexican-Americans
The programs have developed a knowledgeable Mexican-American staff who whatever their limishytations initially are now on a basis quite comparashyble to that of public agency staffs and are equipped to participate constructively in program planning development and operations In addition in the
process of negotiating with the public agencies they have influenced and generated some changes in program development to take more rational acshycount of unique problems of Mexican-Americans And for the first time on any scale they have led agencies in the manpower field into a direct sharshying a direct partnership of operating responsibility with minority organizations to the mutual benefit of both
One of the initial criticisms was that the areas we were concentrating in were urban areas and that we were not paying any attention to the Mexishycan migrants The observation was sound but it was our judgment that until a capability developed in a difficult enough area there was little sense in releasing another set of factors in the exceedingly complex and dispersed migrant problem
In the most recent years programs hive broadened SER is now conducting basic edtucationI programs for Mexican-American migrant in sevshyeral areas with financial support from OEO Beshy
yond the funds that we arranged over and above State resources as some initial ability was develshyoped the group was turned to for on-the-job trainshying contracts and to take on responsibility for certain functions in so-called Concentrated Employshynent Programs Also there has begun to be a drawshymig on this capability without regard to funds conshying directly from Washington For example a skills baink operation which accounted for some very large numbers of placements is probably the most significant of these activities
Beyond getting from the participation of the mishynority groups some of the special strengths it had
to offer particularly bilingual capability and a bishy
cultural understanding the SER program has
served as the resource for staff to enter the public
agencies so that by now perhaps a third of the initial group are working in State agencies and have brought within the public programs in other
areas and types of activities some of the special mishynority capability which was lacking at the outset of this program
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Discussion
Question from the Floor What are the qualifishycations required for board members How are they selected or elected What was the background of some of the early staff including the staff director
Mr Brandweins comments On qualifications of the national board members we left the selection wholly to the organizations involved Similarly at the local level we made that matter the business of the local SER Boards Two problems in the initial years arose out of that practice where it was clear that we were not intervening and that it was not a matter of handpicking of members by the Governshyment The first problem was that as some of the novelty wore off as age crept up some of the boards original leaders replacements moved down to a more limited level and background Secondly we had an unusually sharp distinction between the board and the staff The board members were lawshyyers middle-level lower-income businessmen or real estate agents professional men in the communshyity The staff as a result of the first struggle in which we undertook to make clear that we would not proceed on a patronage basis were largely men in their twenties with college training and backshyground in sonic social activities In short order even at modest pay levels $12000-$1l1000 we had a problem of staff twenty years the junior of the board members earning higher incomes and chalshylenging the board members with lack of knowledge of program detail That has presented and continshyties to present friction For staff selection we have relied on two sets of procedures One is a wide cirshyculation of notice of vacancies to Mexican-Amerishycan organizations and the second is insistence on a fairly broad based selection committee in the boards themselves All things considered I think these procedures have worked out reasonably well
Question from the Floor What were the specific qualifications of the man who ultimately was seshylected as staff director
Mr Brandweins comments The man selected as staff director was a regional compliance officer with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commisshysion He had been consulted in the preparation of this was familiar with agency structures and had a record of active participation in one or both of the national organizations We focused on a cross reshygional basis and thus attracted capable leaders so
the original board operations were on the level of the most able leadership in this community The language element happened to be a particularly identifiably useful one here Also our focus was on the major metropolitan areas where we had greater access to potentially able young staff with a broader base from which to select
Question from the Floor How does a less develshyoped country take a small amount of money and conduct experimental activities to find out if they work and if they do to get a fair share of the reshysources of that country in order to mount larger
programs At what level did MDTA start and to what level has it now grown
Mr Brandweins comments I think I would
like to build on what you raise two ways Implicit
in all I said was a certain attitude of government Now governments are the people who are in them
The shepherding for MDTA was in a unit which everyone recognized had some flexibility reaching for examples of what might be done and it genershyated an element of let us try let us see what the
next steps will bring We also helped generate through this attitude somewhat different attitudes to government Thus irrespective of the amount of resources what resources there were were applied with some sense of We are not sure of what the
best way is This is the beginning We are going to build but we have the opportunity and where else can we go We were breeding through this type of combined public-private activity some developshyment of private group assertiveness understanding and self-generated expansion of activities We were also developing flexibility on the part of the public agencies to go further with available resources I believe these are potential products of any effort to combine public and private activity
Question from the Floor Why was on-the-job training chosen rather than training beforehand
Mr Brandweins comments There are two
points to make in answer to this question What we might have wanted to do was limited by the conshystraints of what we could do Therefore half by deshysire and half by necessity we relied on a learn-asshyyou-go basis What we undertook to do is to make available and insist on specific times and places for reassessment of what we did learn and I think this was the tool that we consciously relied on most This was very costly and at the periodic Board
58
meeings staff were brought together and State re- brought together promoted a high degree of intershygional and Federal agency officials were also in- change In addition there were realistic timetables vited Workshops in which project staff were of development
PARTICIPATION OT THE WORKING POOR-UTILIZATION OF HUMAN RESOURCES IN ANTI-POVERTY PROGRAMS
by Philip J Rutledge
The last several years we have seen in this counshytry a rather unusual development of programs parshyticularly in ghetto communities aimed at a kind of uplifting of these communities The efforts really are not completely new antipoverty efforts have a long history Certainly many of the best traditions of our philanthropy have grown up out of attempts to do something about and for those persons who have been less fortunate in the competitive struggle in our system
We have however developed a tradition that says organized private philanthropy may be good but the Government doing it is not so good In fact the Governments assistance to individuals who can not make it is inappropriate because if these individuals had any ambition any skills or tried to develop themselves they could make it on their own We have not had this type of tradition however about helping either private enterprise or the farmers or many other groups in the country as long as they were not identified with certain other
personal characterisitcs some of which have had distinct ethnic and racial identification
During the late fifties many of the private founshydations began to take a little different approach to human resources and community development These efforts were sometimes called antipoverty deshyvelopments Some rather comprehensive and wideshyspread efforts were funded which were concerned with changing things and opening doors of opporshytunity not only through outside help but also by stimulating people in groups to take actions someshytimes even disruptive and offensive action to change the nature of their situation Many of our more respected foundations funded such programs Also in the 1960s we have seen a spate of programs to assist the disadvantaged started by the Office of Economic Opportunity and Manpower Administrashytion and to some extent through efforts of the Manshypower Development and Training Act The latter
in my judgment was not really directed to any sigshynificant extent toward the disadvantaged and the occupants of the ghetto until relatively recently
I have spent much of my working career in the public health field particularly in the area of public health education It was our job to organize persons who may be concerned with immunization or x-ray programs and to get them involved in conshyvincing other people to come in for x-rays and imshymunizations These were really efforts in retroshyspect to use the people of these ghetto communities to achieve certain goals which we had in mind and which we knew-and I think with some validityshywere good for them However it never occurred to us while we were doing this that perhaps the peoshyple might have some other ideas about whether it was good for them or not
There has been I would suggest in whatever area we have used citizen involvement community involvement or the inexpert in our program activishyties a kind of tension between what might be an elitest approach in whieh -a group would say Now these are the facts I know how it -ought to be done and all I want you to do is come over and help me do it and get some of those others to come and help do it Or This subject or this area is just too complicated for you to understand so you just go and do it the way I want you to do it Sometimes such a position was valid
On the other hand we have had coming along at the same time in this country another approach which might be entitled egalitarian This apshyproach suggests that Well maybe they do have some ideas about some of these areas Maybe they do know something about how we ought to proshygram and organize in their community Maybe they do know something about training persons in manpower programming or the kind of skills or the kinds of materials that ought to be prepared
61
But what must we do to prepare them or indoctrishynate them into our particular philosophy
The efforts to accommodate these two apshy
proaches I think has created most of our probshylems The movements in this area in the early sixshyties changed the conditions a little bit because many of the persons who were being organized chose to make political instruments rather than soshycial instruments out of the organization techshyniques They tried to use their power of organizashytion for control and redirection of the resources that were being made available Such conditions made it difficult for the Government who wanted to involve -sidents particularly residents of the ghettos in vast social prograims The Government unlike sonic of the private philanthropic agencies and social work agencies that have been involved in this area in the past has other constituencies-it has a responsibility to the overall citizenry and above all responsibilities to the Congress and to the taxpayers
Thus we have seen in the sixties a great upsurge of interest in popular participation in a variety of
programs including manpower And now we have reached a point in our history where there is a tendency to back off fromn this concept by the Govshyernment I do not regard this backing off as necesshysarily an evil conspiracy on the part of the adminisshytration that happens to be in power It is perhaps one of the natural things that occurs when a new concept appears It grows and expands to one point reaches a plateau and falls back a little bit while liome retrenchment and redevelopment takes place Then after a while it moves on to another plashyteau In any process of change progress is not alshyways continuous
We are only now at a point where we are beginshyning to look for a different theoretical basis for
participation The concept of participation in
public and in private programming that we have been using has been largely an upper middle class one Therefore we accept the fact that there has not been any significant input or contribution from the class that we are trying to help Having worked in this area a long while I am not sure that we know enough about how to change this concept I think it is appropriate that we take not only the concept of participation but the concept of social programming in the ghetto back to the drawing board and take another look at them Some things have not worked some things have worked in spite
of what we were doing and some things just hapshypened accidentally
In the area of citizen participation I think it is rather significant that such groups as the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) and its professional offshoot the National Academy of Public Aministration (NAPA) are now beginning to take hard and serious professional looks at where we are in terms of government programming in utilizing citizens particularly disadvantaged resshyidents of the ghetto in our public programs The National Academy of Public Administration for example recently held a special conference on this problem of participation
A paper by John Strange of the ASPA which looked at citizen participation in programs funded through the Economic Opportunity Act found that the purposes in terms of the participants in these social programs-manpower and the like-included such goals as (1) the creation of a sense of group identity solidarity and power based on ethnicity economic class status and the use of Government programs or services and (2) to overcome a sense of powerlessness enhance life opportunities and to publicly affirm individual worth or to provide a job Ih terms of affecting the participants the purposes were (1) to train and educate and inform them of Government programs (2) to educate parshyticipants in the way the Government system works and develop political or administrative skills and (3) to alter social behavior in order to establish conditions for effective individual and family life
Another objective noted by Strange relating to participants which needs to be emphasized is that an institutional device must be provided which will enable the participants to settle for less than they want One of the important mechanisms that has held the American society together-holds all socieshyties together-is finding some means to compromise potentially incompatible differences and bringing into the decision-making process people who have different value systems and objectives This often provides an institutional device to enable them to settle for less
I also believe we have to take another look at the way we are redistributing power in our public proshygrams Certainly citizen participation community control of schools police precinct projects and other programs are basically ways of redistributing the power Whether we are talking about manshypower programs social programs educational sysshy
62
tems or what have you the major consideration bashysically is how can we redistribute the power so that the people in that system feel that they can yield it and use it as they believe best This feeling is someshytimes more important psychologically than the job itself
There are a number of ingredients needed to achieve meaningful and successful citizen particishypation but in summary I wish to note two which are of particular importance The first is the tendshyency in this country and perhaps in foreign areas as well to back off from assisting people if they do not seem to appreciate adequately what we are doing for them Second I do not think that we can develop in the ghettos which I am familiar with
and I doubt if we could develop that kind of popushylar participation in similar areas in foreign counshytries if we think that participation is simply going to be a means of promoting stability and promotshying a maintenance of the existing situation
I believe the nature of our society today is changed and in this country as well as developing nations citizen participation and community orshyganizations and popular involvement can provide as John Strange has suggested that mechanism for compromise and change if it is used properly If we give them some victories this might be more imshyportant than any other thing we might be able to do to keep our system and that of other countries together
63
COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN LATIN AMERICA LEADING TO SOCIAL CHANGE AND INSTITUTIONAL
DEVELOPMENT RELATED TO MANPOWER
by William F Whyte
The Peruvian government has a massive and amshybitious social and economic change program going on and there are opportunities to observe very inshyteresting changes and possibly to help these proshygressive changes to come about
This paper discusses changes in two rural sectors of Peru One is the Sierra Hacienda which has in the past been run very much like the feudal manor of the Middle Ages the peasants largely of Indian extraction served very much as serfs tied to the land owing labor services to the patron the hacenshydado The second sector is the coastal plantations which are quite a different style of operation from the Sierra where the haciendas have been pretty much in the subsistence economy with very small surpluses The coastal plantations have been enshygaged in large scale modern agriculture sugar cane cotton etc largely for the export market These large agro-industrial enterprises are either Peruvian owned or foreign owned
Unions have been rather effective on the coast due to the cohesive organization that exists there In the Sierra there have been sporadic peasant movements but the cohesive organization is lackshying
To properly provide technical assistance to the change processes occurring in these two sectors or anywhere else you should know what really is going oin I therefore must first try to knock down what seems to me a false image of the peasant which I call the myth of the passive peasant This is the notion that the peasant is bound by trashydition he is conservative and he sticks to his old customs So if anything is going to change on the country side it will be from some kind of outside intervention either by community developers supshy
This paper is based on field studies in Peru undertaken in collaboration with Dr L Williams of Cornell University and the Institute of Peruvian Studies of Peru
ported by AID or by political agitators or revolushytionists
In Peru the younger social scientists differ in what the long-run objectives are but they do agree in accepting what I quite dogmatically call a myth-the myth that it you do not get out there you middle-class intellectuals and guide the peasshyants or stir them up they will just sit there and nothing will happen
Changes have been observed some slow but some quite rapid and dramatic in various parts of rural Peru where the government has not intervened and where there has been no planned intervention from the outside The peasants have joined toshygether and learned how to manipulate the power structure and have achieved in some cases basic transformations Those peasant families who have been living on haciendas as serfs have managed to combine together to oust the landlord to take over the lands and to operate their own farming entershyprises
We have been trying to observe how this takes
place Visualize what we call the baseless triangle where the hacendado the landlord is at the apex of the triangle and the peasants are at the bottom all linked to the apex by lines coming down from the landlord And when we say the baseless trishyangle we have an image of a lack of interconnecshytion among the peasants horizontally This is a vershytical system and the hacendado has done his best in the past to keep this that way and it means that anything that the peasants need in the economic system and the political system and any wants they have they have had to try to fulfill by acting through the landlord who has been quite unrecepshytive to their initiatives which have always been on an individual basis That is you would ask the landshylord for a favor to you and your family but there would not be concerted organized action The landshy
65
lord was the gatekeeper between you and the outshyside society
When we find this structure changing we find more or less simultaneously new links are formed links across the base of the triangle which we call the closing of the triangle base But this is not enough We find that the peasants begin to estabshylish independent connections with politicians maybe there are competing political parties which they can use to advantage
In some cases the landlord has outstanding loans with the agricultural development bank which he has not been repaying The peasants discover this and with the assistance perhaps of lawyers apshy
proach the bank to see if they can take over the loan and therefore take over the estate
In other cases the peasants discover that the landshylord has been required by law to provide educashytion for their children and lie has not complied or has just done so in a token way So the peasants apshy
peal to the Ministry of Education they offer to build a schoolhouse if they can get help The procshyess of transformation and development therefore involves not only the banding together of the peasshyants to close the base of the triangle but the develshyoping of upward links with power figures in society
As this process takes place the hacendados posishytion becomes more difficult and lie is likely to have
problems himself in the decline of his agricultural operations especially if lie has been an absentee landlord letting someone else run the operations Frequently there are legal fights among the hacenshydado group for the control of land When the old man dies his sons are likely to fight for control then the peasants at times can move in and take OVer
This seems to have one implication for developshyment and for training needs The process of popushylar participation aJparently requires the developshyment by the peasauts of direct links with bankers
politicians and people in the field of education If this is so it seems to mie the technical assistance process ought to be oriented to some extent around helping peasants understand how this world outshyside their little estate works and how to establish connections and deal with these power figures indeshy
pendent of the landlord or boss Then there is a second phase that is likely to
arise and present another set of problems When you first look at the typical Sierra hacienda you have a picture of the landlord being at the top and the pcasants all at the same level at the bottom but
this is not always the case The landlord maintains his control not only by dealing with each peasant individually but by having his favorite There are certain itidividual peasants certain families that he feels are particularly loyal to him and they get the breaks which means different treatment in the distribution of land that the peasant is able to work for his own family So you frequently find sitshynations where a small minority of peasants under this hacendado has two or three times as much land or even more under their own immediate conshytrol than the rank and file
Now when this hacienda system breaks up when the peasants are able to unite against the hacendado and are successful in ousting him an interesting issue arises This issue relates to whether the part of the hacienda directly under the immediate conshytrol of the landlord should be divided among the
peasants or whether the whole estate shall be redishyvided Those who have had the greater amounts of land feel that they have worked hard improved the land and built their houses on it and that they have earned the land So they prefer to maintain the existing distribution The rank and file leaders counter with the point that this is inequitable disshytribution and everyone should start from the same
base line It was not until the present military govshyernment came into power that there was no longer any difference of opinion on this matter between the Executive and Congress This solution was achieved by dismissing the Congress and then it was finally possible to settle the distribution of land issue
This type of problem involving peasant solidarshyity and intergroup conflict is going to become more
prevalent Yet most of the persons working on agrarian reform are assistance and agricultural production specialists with no knowledge or backshy
ground about social organization or processes
about intergroup conflicts and negotiation
How do you handle a situation that involves basic differences of interest that have to be fought out negotiated mediated or arbitrated Some unshyderstanding on that front should be provided or
our technical assistance efforts will go awry
Another possible training focus involves comshymunity development In Peru there is a long tradishy
tion of community self-help buildings schools roads and so forth However there is also a long history in which these communal efforts lead to inshy
creased wealth at one particular time but the
problem of maintenance is not handled That is
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you build a school and the initial cost is taken care of then there is the problem of supplying teachers maintaining the school and so on So you can readshyily have a situation in which the more successful the community development program the more the expense burden falls upon the national governshymient which is alost the only supplier of tax money Work has been started but more needs to be (lone to develop the community revolving fund concept The idea is to tie together the impulses of conunities to build physical improvements to make investments in their community with sonic continuing commitment of the community to assess itself to maintain this particular facility
It seems to me that technical assistance training can be very helpful in exploring possibilities of linking the community development effort to the development of local government
On the coast there is a quite different transforshyimation problem than in the Sierra Technology and scientific knowledge are used much more on the coast Greater division of labor and more union organization exists on the coast
The Peruvian government objective is to transshyform the haciendas of the Sierra into self-governing
peasant communiities really dividing the land up among the peasants but also trying to maintain a communal organization for mutual help On the coast the government recognizes this is not practishycal You can not just divide the sugar estates and the cotton plantations into small farmer plots so the approach has been to transform the agro-industrial complex into a producers cooperative This inshyvolves a major structural transformation which will also have an impact on the workers In the first stage the goverinment administrators have been running everything It is just a transfer of power from private land owner to government But the ideology is to have the peasants take over Here you run into political questions because on the coast of Peru the unions have generally been organized by another political party and the government is very leery of doing anything to encourage this political group it would rather (10 the opposite
The social scientists feel that something could be worked through the already existing union strucshyture This cannot be (lone automatically because the Peruvian unions do not aict in quite the same way that the unions do in the US The unions in Peru tend to be more centralized there is less activshyity at the lower levels On the other hand you do
have a degree of mobilization of workers around the unions The Peruvian government therefore has to determine whether or not it can build on this established organization the development of
producers cooperatives Peru is trying to carry out a structural transforshy
mation in these coastal haciendas for which there is no parallel in history It is not just a question of communicating what is a cooperative the officers needed and- what do they do but drastic changes
in peoples roles have to be developed and a new type of organization has to be established A signifshyicant social and cultural transformation is inshyvolved a change with which our best experts on
producers cooperatives and agriculture are not familiar
I am also not suggesting that sociologists such as myself should provide the technical assistance However I do think it is important to shift our
priorities here and say that a major transformation
process has been launched and is going to be going on for a long time with some successes a lot of failshyures many difficulties and that maybe the best help we can provide is some assistance on the reshysearch side to study and try to understand what is going on and feed this information back to Peshyruvian agrarian reform programs
The nature of this process is to develop training materials which can be used to train present and future administrators on these estates It can train incipient peasant leaders so that they will become able to deal with the complexities technical as well as social of the new type of organization
In this connection I think outside help can be useful to Peru but in financial form rather than direct investment in research talent because I have found that Peru has very able social scientists who understand what is going on much better than most experts in this field who could be imported Instead of thinking simply in terms of experts to go in and tell people what ought to be done about manpower and related problems we recognize the complexity of these problems and try to learn about these transformations as they are taking
place so that out of this learning process can be
provided teaching materials for training programs for work in the colleges and universities that will
give Latin Americans a much more realistic picture of the problems of social reforms and development than they camn obtain from the US models that are ordinarily imposed on them
67
Discussion
Questions from the floor How can free and unshytrammeled research in the field of power relationshyships be placed in a military regime which may feel itself rightly or wrongly threatened as for example in the program of land reform How do you collashyborate with these free researchers in Peru in raisshying these questions
Mr Whyte comments We have so far had no difficulty at all under the present government in doing research and in publishing But the time may conic particularly as we try to publish more and more studies on land reform because what we have been doing so far has helped to highlight the evils of the preexisting system that the government is committed to change If we do get into studiesshy
as we are hoping to-of the governments present efshyforts of land reform in certain areas I am sure we are going to run into a problem ie the governshyment has intervened and knocked out the preshyexisting power ligures and starts to undertake the transformation of society from the top down We think not only we in the US but also our Peshy
ruvian social science associates that there are limishytations to this approach It is going to break down
in certain predictable ways When we get to the
point of observing these breakdowns and reporting
on them analyzing them we will then face the
problem you have raised by the question We have
been completely free so far but when we look at
the impact of the present government in certain
areas we are getting into something much more
delicate
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MOBILIZING THE PARTICIPATION OF YOUTH IN MANPOWER AND EMPLOYMENT DEVELOPMENT-A UNIVERSAL CHALLENGE
by William Mirengoff
I am rather intrigued by this Symposiums emshyphasis on popular participation in manpower proshygrams although I must confess I find the term a little ambiguous Just what do we mean by popular
participation Does it mean the involvement of state and local
officials as the democratically elected representashytives of the populace
Or does it mean the direct involvement of that segment of the populace to whom the program is directed independent of the local political strucshyture indeed sometimes challenging the elected power structure
And if we mean the latter how do we bring this
participation about There are some rather broad philosophical issues
involved here For the purposes of todays discussion I view
participation as three-dimensional
1 Participation in the fruits of the program-as recipients This is essentially a passive role and the results can be quantified in terms of people served and benefits received
2 Participation in decision-making This is esshysentially an active role-helping to determine program policies and targets
3 Participation in implementing the program and delivering the services This is a manashygerial and administrative role
I Trend Toward Popular Participationin Manshypower Programs
One of the lessons we have learned over the last decade is that the Federal Government bureaucracy alone despite all its resources cannot guarantee soshylutions to all of the complex problems facing our nation Rather experience has shown that deep inshyvolvement by all the sectors of the society affected
by a particular problem is essential This not only includes involvement by orgnizations that can conshytribute resources and services but also full particishypation in program development and decision-makshying by the very people for whom the programs are being provided
The Economic Opportunity Act embodied the clearest expression of popular participation by reshyquiring the maximum feasible participation of the poor in its program The Community Action Agencies went out and organized the poor so that they could participate effectively in detision-makshying In some areas insistence of program clients on a voice in activities affecting their welfare was viewed as a threat to established power structures In general however involvement of the poor led to a healthy exchange of ideas and combination of efshyforts that fostered creative programs
Building on the experience of the Economic Opshyportunity Act the Model Cities Program also reshyquires the direct involvement of the population in the target area
Manpower Administration programs stress this too-particularly the involvement of staff from the client group and the target area In addition there has been a clear trend toward decentralization which strengthens participation in administration at the local level
It may be of some interest to trace the evolution of popular participation in the manpower and reshylated human resources programs I think of this evolution as passing through three stages-Prolifershyation Cooperation and Consolidation
1 ProliferationWe started with the Area Reshydevelopment Act of 1961 then the Manpower Development Training Act of 1962 then an explosion of manpower programs-The Neighshyborhood Youth Corps Operation Mainstream New Careers the JOBS Program etc-based
69
on the Economic Opportunity Act Later came the WIN Program Public Service Careers and other programs
Unrelated fragmented programs proliferated each with its own organizational structure funding eligibility requirements and apshyproaches
But in the last analysis programs all take place on some piece of real estate-in a state city or community They all converge on the people in an area with a minimum of planning and coordination competing for local resources for local clients for public attention and support
2 CooperationRecognizing the need for rationshyalization and coordination below the Fedshyeral level major efforts were made to achieve cooperation among the individual programs We tried joint funding-with independent
programs joining voluntarily in combined efshyforts We tried to pull the Department of Labor programs together in the Concenshytrated Employment Program-a coordinated effort to focus available services on specific low-income areas We tried to bring together all human resource programs of all governshyment agencies plus non-government involveshyment through the CAMPS program--essenshytially a system of local planning and coordishynation through a network of state and local interagency committees
All of these efforts had a measure of success but all were hampered by a timeless adminisshytrative problemi-the suspicions and cautious protectiveness of centrally operated program agencies that are asked to yield some autonshyomy in the interests of a cooperative effort and greater involvement by people at the local level
3 Consolidation We are now at the third stageshyconsolidation This stage is best epitomized by the proposed Manpower Training Act (MTA) This legislation is currently before the Congress where it has bi-partisan supshyport
We are firmly committed to the MTA which will be a milestone in the development of manshypower policy in this country It will
Decategorize our present fragmented programs
Decentralize the planning and delivery system for manpower services
Move programs toward maximum participashytion by state and local governments-Govershynors Mayors and other popularly elected repshyresentatives
The MTA would supersede the Manpower Deshyvelopment and Training Act (MDTA) and manshy
power sections of the Economic Opportunity Act Under the ITA most of the individual manpower programs that are currently operated from Washshyington as highly centralized separately adminisshytered activities would be merged into one overall manpower effort Program categories such as MDTA Neighborhood Youth Corps the Concenshytrated Employment Program Operation Mainshystream and others would lose their identities in the consolidated effort Responsibility for planning and administering the new comprehensive manshy
power program would be delegated to a large exshytent to the Governors of the States and to local
prime sponsors (primarily Mayors and other heads of local governments)
Each year the prime sponsors would be required to prepare comprehensive manpower plans for their areas proposing manpower services tailored to the
special needs of local problem groups The Govershynors would be responsible for submitting consolishydated manpower plans for their states State and local advisory and planning bodies composed of representatives of business labor welfare groups agriculture education local and state government agencies and other community elements are to play key roles in developing the plans Upon approval of the state plans by the federal governshyment the Governors and local prime sponsors would assume major responsibilities for impleshymenting approved programs
As you can see unification and decentralization of programs under the MT are directly related to the principle of fuller particilition by non-Federal groups The MTA would mobiii e the experience and resources of ou- pluralistic network of local governments and commununity interests to support all states of manpower activity
II Need For Youth Manpower Programs
I would like now to turn specifically to youth
programs to explore how the principle of particishy
pation is being applied in manpower services for young people As most of you know there has been
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a mounting interest in youth manpower problems in this country Many new programs for young peoshyple entering or preparing for the labor force have been introduced during the last decade At present youth accounts for well over one-third of the enshyrollment and expenditures in Federally assisted manpower activities
In large part this emphasis represents a growing awareness of the alienation and frustration of
many young people who are unable to participate effectively in the labor market We are faced with
the rejection of prevailing values youthful cynishycism and sucli symptoms of social disorganization as caipus unrest high crimc rates racial tensions and drug abuse
In the US probleis encountered by youth in the labor market reflect basic population labor force and educational trends
A Population Upsurge There has been a sharp
increase in the youth population during the last decade as the post-World War II baby crop came to maturity Between 1960 and 1969 the number of youths aged 11-24 increased by 12 million from 27 to 39 million Thuis fl4 increase was four times larger than the rate for the population as a whole Ten years ago only one out of seven people were 1-1-24 years old today close to one oit of five Is it any wonder that this sharp upsurge of youth reachshying employable age has created stresses in the labor market stresses in the school system stresses in the
streets for those who are not in school or in jobs and stresses throughout our social fabric
Most tragic of all in my opinion is the collapse of the school system in the inner-city Inundated by waves of disadvantaged youth faced with shortages of teacliers and facilities burdened with problems inherited ftoni fainily economic and governmental institutions groping for ways to overcome the handicaps of low-income youngsters-the inner-city school system faces a major challenge
B Ulnemploynent Although the economy has shown marked strengii in absorbing most of the new job seekers unemployment among young peoshyple particularly disadvantaged youths who are most in need of steady jobs and incomes is a signifshyicant problem Among youths 16-21 who are in the labor force
1 12 or about 1300000 were unemployed in February of 1970 compared to a 45 rate for the labor force as a whole
2 Among nonwhites the rate was even highershy20
Unemployment rates are still higher in some
pockets of urban and rural poverty
To a large extent the substantial unemployment rate reflects diminishing opportunities for jobs with low skill requirements Such jobs have tradishytionally served as an entree into the labor market for many youngsters Recently however low skilled jobs have become scarcer as labor requirements in agriculture dropped off and as l-abor needs in inshydustry shifted from manual workers to highershyskilled technical occupations As the country turned the corner from a goods-producing to a servshyice-oriented economy a strong back and willingshyness to work no longer were adequate tickets to a job
C Labor Force Entrants Without Adequate Voshycational Skills A significant number-perhaps as many as one-third-of our young people enter the labor force without adequate job skills They face
special problems in a job market with rising skill requirements
The problem may be expressed in this paradox
The US keeps a larger proportion of its population in school longer than any other country-to ensure their preparation for lifeshytime activity
Yet the unemployment rate among youth is far higher than in any other nation and has been rising rapidly over the last four decades
And this paradox persists in the face of unushysual prosperity high levels of employment and skill shortages
Students who do pot complete at least a high school education encounter special difficalties In 1968 almost one million youth 14-17 were not enshyrolled in school Dropouts aged 16-21 had a 15 unemployment rate during that year-twice the rate of comparable high school graduates For nonshywhite dropouts the unemployment rate was 25 Even those who complete high school are not necesshysarily prepared for a vocation There is a disparity between educational credentials and performance levels with many high school graduates unable to read write work or reason properly
Manpower programs can be viewed as repair shops for those young people who have come out of the school system without adequate preparation for the world of work We get the toughest casesshy
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the rejects This poses a major challenge in deshyveloping creative techniques for rebuilding the skills interests and character traits of the disadvanshytaged youngsters
All of this gives you some idea of the dimension of the problem-the universe of need Now I would like to turn to our response to these needs
III A Conprehensive Program of Manpower Servshyices to Meet Youth Needs
To what extent (o youth participate in manshypower programs as recipients-as an example of popshyular participation in the benefits of public proshygrains
In the last decade the US has reached out to the youth population with an array of innovative and creative programs to alleviate labor market probshylems These programs are designed to help youth find worthwhile jobs at decent wages to experience a sense of fill participation in our productive life and to develop their personal potentials so as to avoid frustration and to maximize their contribushytions to society
A major feature of the comprehensive manpower effort is recognition of the significant differences among the categories of youth who need assistance
1 Many out-of-school unemployed young people simply require help in obtaining vocational trainshying in a good school setting For these the Manshy
power Development and Training Act passed in 1962 provides classroom training opportunities supplemented by subsistence allowances to help the trainee support himself and his family Last year about 35000 youths under 22 received this MDTA institution training-28 of all MDTA institushytional trainees
2 Recognizing that many youngsters are having difficulty in adapting to vocational training in a school setting and aware of the school dropout
problem the Congress authorized a program of training and experience in a work setting for jobshyless youth in the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 Currently termed the Out-of-School composhynent of the Neighborhood Youth Corps the proshygram helps youths aged 16-18 to prepare for steady employment In Fiscal Year 1971 the NYC Out-of-School program is expected to serve 36500 youths at a cost of $125 million
3 To reduce the dropout problem among poverty-stricken youngsters the Neighborhood Youth Corps In-School and Summer Programs
provide part-time employment and earnings opporshytunities for needy youngsters who are still attending school In FY 1971 these components are expected to serve almost 500000 youths aged 14-21 at a cost of $235 million
4 What about young people who simply cannot adjust to vocational training in a formal classroom setting or even in a setting of routine work experishyence Included in this category are young people whose social and physical environments are so unshyfavorable that their capacities for training and job seeking are severely curtailed As our experience with youth manpower services has expanded it beshycame evident that this group can be helped by reshymoval from adverse school and home settings to a new residential environment where training methshyods and stipl)portive services can be adapted to their
special needs This group is the target population for the Job
Corps The Job Corps provides occupational trainshying remedial education and a wide variety of charshyacter-building and supplemental services geared to the special needs of disadvantaged youngsters 16-21 in residential centers around the country Enrollshyrment in Job Corps Centers has also proven useful for many youths who come from rural areas where alternative local manpower development facilities are not available The unique aspect of this proshygran is its raidential character its provision of truly comprehensive services (from health care to clothing from vocational training to monthly alshylowances) and its effort to combine all necessary manpower services (from initial selection of enrolshylees to final placement of graduates on the job) into an integrated manpower delivery system
In FY 1971 the Job Corps expects to accommoshy(late 25000 youths at a tinre in 75 centers at a cost of $180000000
5 Of course prevention is the best cure for the
problenis of youth in the labor market The greatshyest priority must be given to improvement of vocashytional education in the regular school system where the majority of young people are expected to
prepare adequately for the world of work The schools niust redirect some of their effort from endshylessly preparing pupils for more schooling to preshy
paring tie average youngster for the demands of tire working world
The Vocational Education Act amendments of 1968 represent an advance in meeting the needs of school youth for quality vocational preparation
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As amended the Act greatly strengthens vocational training in local secondary schools providing asshysistance for better equipment teachers and facilishy
ties and for gearing courses realistically to todays cormiplex occupational requirements In FY 1971 the Federal Government will invest over
$300000000 in this program State and local govshyerninents will contribute one billion dollars in matching funds
6 Many other programs are components of the
comprehensive manpower effort for youth Among the most important may be
a Efforts to increase opportunities in apprenticeshyable trades for minority group youths
b Efforts to help young military dischargees make the transition to civilian life eg pre-disshy
charge training in Project Transition and post-disshycharge school benefits for veterans
c Opportunities for youths in broad-gauge proshygrams which serve both youths and adults eg the Concentrated Employment Program the JOBS Proshy
gran the Public Service Careers Program Last year more than a third of the CEP enrollees and
almost one-half of all JOBS enrollees were under
22 years of age
d Expansion of programs to train prison mshy
mates for post-release employment-a major contrishybution to efforts to rehabilitate young offenders
Together these forward looking measures constishytute a comprehensive manpower program for youth They will be significant achievements in bridging the discontinuity between school and work strengthening the participation of youth in
the economic process and combating alienation and frustration attributable to labor market probshy
lems
IV Expanding Participation in Decisionmaking
Having discussed the quantitative or passive asshy
pects of popular participation ie participation of youth as beneficiaries of program services I would like now to turn to the qualitative or active aspect
of participation This involves direct participation in decision-making-in the actual planning of proshygrams by the very persons they are designed to serve
We have learned that young people like everyshyone else want to be directly involved in decisions affecting their welfare Moreover experience shows that such participation results in more effecshy
tive and realistic programs As a result a major efshyfort has been made to give enrollees a voice
In the Job Corps for example all training cenlshyters are required to organize student governments The enrollees take these governments very serishyously and so (10 the center staffs Constitutions generally written by the enrollees themselves deshyscribe the responsibilities and organization of the student government duties of officers and election and removal procedures They provide for student councils and other officers usually elected at sixshymonth intervals who legislate rules for dress conshyduct grievance-handling and other aspects of group life in a residential setting Also the center constitutions usually establish a judicial system for
judging and penalizing mi nor offenders Center administrators meet with the student
councils at least once each week to plan improveshyments in the training program enrollee activity schedules and center procedures Some councils have jurisdiction over special funds maintained for recreational or welfire purposes Often they set up subconumittees on such subjects as instruction comshyplaints recreation community relations and food Service
Qualifications for election to the student offices vary Most centers have minimum residence reshy
quiremlents In at least one center candidates for election are required to attend special classes in center government for one week
V Participationin Adninistering Programs
Let me now turn to the third form of popular
participaitioii-pamrticipatioii in day-to-day adminisshytration of programs This aspect of manpower proshygrams has also received substantial emphasis Mainly it has taken two forms (a) use of disadshyvantaged persons as staff members and (b) involveshynient of sectors of ou- society other than the Federal Government I would like to say a word about each of these in turn
A Utilizing disadvantaged persons as staff nenbers As social work counseling teaching emshy
ployment services and other helping professions have beconie more and more professionalized there have developed significant communication barriers between the professional and his disadvantaged client The accumulation of professional skills and insights has been accompanied paradoxically by difficulties in establishing rapport and influencing the very people who require assistance To overshy
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come this problem Community Action Agencies manpower programs housing programs and others serving disadvantaged people have found that comshymunication can be restored through the employ ment of target group members to serve their disadshyvantaged neighbors The new employces working as para-professional aides under skilled professional people are able to gain the confidence of the clients to explain prograims to discuss the advanshytages and disadvantages of participation and to enlist support in language and actions that disadshyvantaged clients can understand At the same time the aides are in a position to feed back to the proshyfessionals the problems and needs of the inarticushylate masses of people who are to be served
Involvement of target group members on the staffs of agencies serving the disadvantaged has
proven beneficial for the professionals the aides
and program clients alike
B Broader Comm unity Involvement The secshyond form of popular participation in administrashytion of youth manpower programs is the deep inshyvolveient of non-government organizations
At an early stage of the development of our comshyit became clearprehlensive manpower program
that Federal Government action alone could not
provide all solutions for the problems of youth Training for jobs without involvement of emshyployers and labor unions would be unrealistic Dushy
plication of facilities and other services already available in the community would be wasteful and time-consuming Manpower programs therefore have drawn upon the skills and resources of an array of community groups
1 The Business Sector Private industry has been heavily involved not only in an advisory cashy
pacity but also in direct operation of employment and training programs In the case of the JOBS
program and the Sununer Youth Campaign for exshyample industry has provid ed leadership in direct training and placement of hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged people Experience has clearly shown that jobless young people trained in a realshylife work setting for jobs and employers identified in advance are most likely to succeed at their trainshying and employment In the Job Corps industry has applied its mnanagement and technical skills to the actual operation of Job Corps Centers
2 Labor Unions Unions are participating in expanding employment opport unities for disadvanshy
taged people and providing vocational and pre-voshycational training
In the Job Corps five building trades unions are
presently playing a major role in training at Civilshyian Conservation Centers These unions are curshyrently training about one-fourth of the youths in such centers and are cooperating in having their graduates placed into the building trades apprenshyticeship programs Great stress is being placed on this activity for completers are almost guaranteed a job in well-paid shortage occupations and the
program is helping minority group youths move into occupations in which their numbers have trashyditionally been low
3 Nonprofit Community Organizations A wide variety of community organizations which have specialized knowledge and contacts with respect to
particular disadvantaged groups are participating heavily in youth manpower programs These groups may be involved in programs to recruit counsel and arrange job and training opportunishyties for low-income youngsters or in pioneering new ways of training and orienting disadvantaged
people in numerous cities around the country Other groups are providing special youth services for the physically or mentally handicapped rural
people dropouts and other categories with special needs Also some residential centers of Job Corps are managed directly by nonprofit groups
Related to work with nonprofit organizations is our extensive community relations program In the Job Corps it is mandatory for every center to take the initiative in establishing a Community Relashytions Council These Councils include local comshymunity leaders in business labor education the church welfare recreation and government as well as Job Corps Center enrollees and staff They consider matters of ntitual concern In many areas outstanding examples of community-Center coopershyation occur eg use of Center gymnasium and shop facilities for community needs participation of enrollee volunteers in child care clean-tip and other community tasks participation in parades and fairs and use of community volunteers as tushytors entertainers and other helpers in Center proshygrams
4 Universities Broad involvement of universishyties in research and evaluation of programs has been the rule from the beginning of the manpower effort There is a continuous give and take of ideas between the university researcher and the living
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program laboratories In the Job Corps universishyties have also been actively involved in the operashytion of training centers
VI Conclusion The stability of our society will depend upon the
strong sense of involvement felt by the younger generation in government activities affecting their welfare In the new arsenal of manpower programs for youths we have tried to implement this princishy
ple by providing services that will reduce the alienshyation of youth by providing opportunities to parshyticipate more fully in the benefits of our economic system by involving youth in decision-making and by using them in the delivery of services
In addition Federal youth programs are increasshyingly operating on the principle that the non-govshyernment sector and our local and State governments must be mobilized to expand and strengthen Fedshyeral efforts Decentralization community relations cooperation with business and labor-these are corshynerstones of our comprehensive manpower policy The Administrations support of the proposed Manpower Training Act underscores its commitshyment to this approach
I hope that this summary of our experience will
prove useful to you and can be applied with realisshytic adaptations to the needs of other countries with similar problems
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MANPOWER AND YOUTH PROGRAMS IN THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES OF ERICA
by Max R Lum Jr
Many of us assume that pe alar participation is a right For example the youth in the Job Corps assume as a right participation in the control of certain monies that are removed from their pay as fines for minor violations of the rules They have a student government control over these funds Howshyever from discussions at the ILO-sponsored youth conference in Geneva (from which I have just reshyturned) it appears that participation of youth in manpower programs as a right is still an open quesshytion at least among the African countries This Poshysition was reflected by the type of resolutions that came out of the African caucus at the conference
One resolution stated that the manpower proshygrais for youth should be of the kind that facilishy
tate the contribution of youth to development and
to insure that their efforts are directed to feasible
ends which are a relevant and integral part of the total development plan The integral part of a development plan of course can be something that is superimposed from above in the decision-making
process A second resolution (which infers volunshytarism) related to the need to strengthen the motivashytion of young people to participate and contribute to the programs of self-help and mutual assistshyance (They appear to have the same problems we do regarding motivation) Another resolution of the caucus (which seems at least in part to contrashydict the first listed above) stressed the necessity to
protect young people from exploitation and excesshysive participation in development schemes Howshy
ever this resolution appears to be in response to
the fact that in Africa some countries are withshydrawing certain mechanized systems because of the serious surplus labor conditions among the youth Whether this nicans that a youth has to enter the work force at 13 because lie is available or whether he participates at a later age is not clear The withshyholding of mechanized programs to take advantage of this surplus labor also raises a question about
the extent to which youth participation resulting from such action is voluntary
Now to turn to the major purpose of this paper a report on my visit to Africa to look at what the National Youth Services in these countries were doing particularly with respect to what kinds of programs were being developed to let youth particishy
pate in the decision-making process Nineteen African countries have National Youth
Services although in some countries they may have another title For example in Ghana and the Ivory Coast they are called Pioneers Emphasis of these services may be on rural development or multipurshy
pose schemes such as vocational andor general edshyucational training or it can be a centralized trainshying-program geared to accomplish a single purpose
I also found that there were certain problems or questions which were fairly common to all of the prograins In all programs there is concern about
participation of youth-about how much control thc youth themselves should have over the system in which they are operating Similarly there is the need felt in all of the programs (which we share with them) for the development of a specific list of objectives that should be or need to be accomshy
plishied during the period the youths are in the
program this is particularly difl_ult in Africa Anshyother coinnion problem cccurs in those programs that are divided in terms of tribal or sectional groups there are gaps among these programs which need to be filled in order to make them more comshy
parable and to build some kind of national idenshytity among these groups Finally the youth in Afshyrica represent great pools not only of resources but of political power For example they were imporshytant factors in the downfall of the government in Sudan and they almost brought down the Seneshygalese government Youth also had direct participashytion in the new constitution for Ghana
The specific youth programs in the African counshy
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tries vary widely as may be seen from the followshying examples Nigeria for example is building a huge program of vocational training This program is directed towards taking some of the military pershysonnel and giving th2m vocational training before they are released to find civilian jobs In Zambia on the other hand there is a broader program The Zambia job corps although it is a large centralized camp is definitely a voluntary service It takes youth from all over the country into this center In determining whether the youth would participate in agricultural or in vocational training programs it takes into account the government needs as well as the youths needs When this determination is made they are sent to specific camps to be trained The agricultural graduates when they finish their program which may last as much as two years are given plots of land to develop The entire first twoshyyear graduating class (graduation actually occurred while we were there) was drafted into the army beshycaue of the need Zambia feels to defend its border The program therefore in practice appears to have been a pre-military training program However when the youngsters muster out of the army they will be we were informed given plots of land and in other cases given additional training to be
placed in vocational programs While we were in Tanzania where it appears
they are going their own way in youth planning the biggest controversy among the youth-a very centralized group-was the mi ni-skirt controversy The African youth feel this is an important issue The discussions regarding the length of mni-skirts actually were being addressed to the Europeans who were wearing mini-skirts shorter and shorter The mini-skirt apparently became an issue in Zamshybia also
In the Ivory Coast where there is a particushylarly encouraging program the youth come to one camp in one area of the country and then exshychanges occur within the youth camps to mix the
population and to give it some uniformity of trainshying In Ghana there is another type of programshythe Young Pioacer Gliding Schools Some three or four hundred youths (Young Pioneers) will be given special training in flying gliders for fun The National Youth Group of the country which is sepshyarate from the government but government financed is taking over this school and actually using the facility for a residential training proshygram
On the basis of what I have observed and the opshy
portunity I had to talk with various persons at the Geneva meeting where there must have been some 15 proposals from youth groups within Africa for aid both technical and administrative as well as for actual financial aid for the development of furshyther youth services there appears to be no question but that the development of youth services is going to be highly important in Africa Moreover unless the problem of youth services within these counshytries is solved within a short time there can be imshy
portant impact upon the future political developshyment of many of the African countries
Discussion
Question from the floor Title IX of the Forshyeign Assistance Act states that emphasis shall be placed on assuring maximum participation in the task of economic development on the part of the people of developing countries through the encouragement of democratic private and local governmental institutions This mandate would indicate that the type of youth programs we should support should be ones in which their objectives are obtained without the element of coercion or forced labor Yet it appears that in some African programs there are work brigades-coercion compulsion no choice Furthermore some of these programs may be underwritten by the US through our surplus agshyricultural connodities under the Food for Work program Since the youth programs in the US and Africa appear to have essentially the same objecshytives how in your opinions Mr Mirengoff and Mr Lum is it possible to achieve these objectives without the element of compulsion Do you give freedom of choice on the recruitment side or on the training side Do you use some elements of compulsion for a limited perod of time in order to prepare the youth to move on a free choice basis into a world of work
Mr Mirengoffs comments I can only give part of the answer to this question as it relates to the Job Corps program It is a voluntary program Nobody is coerced into Job Corps They come in of their own free will From our point of view this is good Those who come into Job Corps have a sense of motivation and a sense of purpose which is reshyflected in what they do once they get in Job Corps as contrasted to a situation where they have to be in public school until the age of 16 whether they like it or not In the latter situation when they do
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not like it there is trouble Our whole premise is based upon voluntarism which we hold very near and dear
In a voluntary program popular involvement has meaning In a controlled society it has no meanshying I wish there was someone who could explain the philosophy or develop the concept of popular involvement in a totalitarian country I cannot do it
Mr Lums comments Certainly in some African countries the youth programs are not fully volunshytary and may often also include political indoctrishynation In other countries the programs are really voluntary although they may be run in a military manner
The question of actual forced labor is a real and difficult issue at least in the expressed opinions on the African youth problem These youth want to say that we should live up to the ILO and the UN conventions to end forced labor but we have tremendous pools in some of the countries of 12 to 15 years olds roaming the streets and we do not know what to do about then One solution for exshyample has been to organize them in a nonvolunshytary system to build roads I do not know what this trains youth to do but maybe it brings them up to a point where eventually they are able to enter volshyuntary training programs This is an area in which it appears the African youth themselves have not yet really reached a final decision
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THE ROLE OF TRADE UNIONS AND EMPLOYER ORGANIZATIONS IN THE EFFICIENT UTILIZATION OF MANPOWER
by Everett M Kassalow
Dealing with the problem of trade unions and manpower planning and other forms of economic planning in the context of the less developed counshytries is especially difficult All of us who have grown up in and around the American trade union movement and around trade union movements generally in the Western world have done so in a certain setting and atmosphere which I would call (for want of a better word) conflictive in characshyter
Trade unions and the American unions are a classic example have always been in a certain sense outside of the mainstream of economic developshyment The unions have been beating against the development process in order to protect their memshybers They are almost driven to conflictive posishytions because they were reacting to a process which was doing damage or making dislocations in the lives of people
This kind of reactive trade unionism was successshyful in the Western World But such unionism does not lend itself immediately or too directly as a model or mechanism for learning about what trade unions canl or should do in connection with the
problemn cf shaping and implementing developshyment policy However I also believe that trade unshyions in any but a totalitarian society or a highly authoritarian society will always have to perfori tihe reactive and conflictive role of protecting their workers against the impact and the plocess of inshydustrialization However if trade unions are to play a more positive role or more participating role in the development process we do have to reexamshyine the nature of the function and the character of trade unionism in the light of the kinds of things trade unions can should or might do in the less developed countries
When I say can should or might do I am satshyisfied to use those words I am satisfied that one can approach the development process in a new society
with a sense of trying to change things and to conshyceive of new combinations because they are going to be new These societies are not going to develop the way American or European society has develshyoped or hopefully not the way Soviet society has developed There are going to be different roles to be played different emphasis different compulshysions in the situation
As we try to reconstruct the role of trade unions for these purposes a large part of Western trade unionism may not be directly relevant For exshyample in the post World War II period one can begin to see the emergence of a new kind of trade union posture to some extent in the United States but more clearly in Western Europe which did put the trade union into a more participative role and thus placed it in the mainstream of ecoshynomic and social policy making As a result of broad historical social and economic changes the trade unions are now more fully but not comshy
pletely integrated into their own societies in Westshyern Europe and to an important extent in the United States than has ever been true before
Bargaining has not ceased nor has the role of adshyvocacy which a trade union must play in negotiashytion disappeared in either Western Europe or in the United States This role however is increasshyingly added to the positive role of sharing in the key economic and social policy imaking decisions An example in the US is the Iole which has slowly alshymost painfully emerged for the AFL-CIO and some of its constituent unions in the last 10 or 15 years on nationlal conmnissions such as those on aushytomatiotn juvenile delinquency or foreign trade
In assuming these new roles the US trade union movement has not cast off its old role It has attempted to suppleiment what it was doing in the way of its militant advocacy at the job level or the industry level with this additional set of functions It is not easy when you have spent a lifetime being
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on the outside to suddenly step into the middle of things and have to take the role of policy advocate This kind of new responsibility is not at all easy and yet this is happening
In relating Western trade union experience to the developing countries it is essential to recognize that process of economic development will be difshyferent from that in the West Capitalism and inshydustrialization in the United States and in Western Europe grew unplanned for the most part spontashyneously one step tumbling upon another Growth of industrialization and moderization in Asia and Africa will not be spontaneous A large part of the process will be guided and conditioned Under these circumstances it seems pretty clear that unshyionism as a purely reactive force simply will be unacceptable It will have that role to play but inshyevitably it will be called upon (it seems to me shoild be called ulpon) to play a participatory role and a more integrated role almost from the beginshyning of the industralization process In this sense it is difficult I believe for American trade unionists especially to take a full measure of the problems which confront a less developed countrys trade unshyions
What kinds of experience am I considering when I say that one can look to new roles and a new posshyture for trade unionism in the less developed socishyeties What kinds of experience are relevant in the West What experience has there been in the less developed countries which bears upon this probshylem
Well in the West if you look at Western Europe there is a whole series of activities that Western European trade unions engage in which seem to me are relevant to the question of union participashytion in manpower training manpower developshyment economic development and social developshyment in the less developed countries
There have sprung up for example in the last few decades a uilber of so-called national ecoshynomic and social councils such as those of the Netherlands and France (and in Austria if one wants to include lie so-called chambers of labor and chambers of industry which are semi-governshymental in character) The trade unionists and the trade union movement are called upon to play a role sitting in national bod ics with consultative powers and sometimes with decision making powshyers in the case of the Netherlands and to some exshytent in the case of France
Some people are inclined to dismiss this role of
making of national social and economic policy They say that the unions have just been there as a kind of front in the various levels of the French planning process whether it was the Economic and Social Council or the commissariat and the same charge is made of the unions in the Nethershylands It seems to me this is a rather short-sighted view of the unions experience in this function It is so new and since to some extent runs against what has been the conflictive tradition and the pure advocacy of a particular point of view of the trade union movement that it would have been a miracle to have expected the trade unions overshynight to have made major contributions to ecoshynomic and social planning in these societies of Western Europe
My own feeling is that as these processes growshyand I think they will grow because traditional parliamentary bodies no longer seem adequate to deal with these top level social and economic decishysions that have to be made in society-planning bodies different in each country will grow and the trade unions will increase their sophistication in these roles and will increasingly measure up to these tasks and opportunities
In any event in somewhat different circumshystances similar bodies are already being created in a number of the African countries Trade unions have representation oin all kinds of planning bodshyies It was one of the heritages of the French coloshynial administration Planning and economic counshycils were established in Algeria Tunisia-down through French West Africa
In a number of these countries the trade union movement is wemk Therefore their influence in these planning councils could be expected to be limited To the extent this can be determined from the meager information currently available this apshypears to be a reasonable conclusion Unfortunately no one has gone into any of the African nations to see what has happened to these councils But if popshyular participation in development is to mean anyshything these are important experiments I would strongly recommend that the American AID agency andor the US Department of Labor as well as others take a rather (lee) interest in trying to find out what is happening in these kinds of institushytions I believe that the very nature of economic development in these countries means that these councils and these planning authorities will grow in importance and we should be looking into them
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to see what can be done and what are the lessons that can be learned
There are other lessons that we can begin to see in this broad experience ranging from Western Europe on to Africa and to some extent Asia First any union representation on social economic or national planning bodies as they may happen to be identified must be a real one In India for exshyample one of the reasons why there is almost total trade union discontent with the planning is that the trade unions have always been pretty much shut out Each time a new national plan was in the making the planning minister whether he is a soshycialist or a conservative goes through the motions of consulting on a formal basis with the trade union movement and that is the end of it
If you are to enlist the support and interest and to educate this important institution that we call trade unionism regarding the problems the possishybilities and the opportunities of economic planshyning it must be accorded a genuine role in the opshyerating machinery I know that planners are often horrified at the thought that they with their reshyfined techniques (really not so refined but they think they are) are going to have to consult with these grubby fellows who they feel have never really had enough formal education as well as to take them into their councils and give them voting rights in the setting of goals and the determining of
priorities for the society This situation is usually something the planners feel they cannot accept If this position by the planner is correct you can almost forget the whole process because unless the trade union has responsibility in the decision makshying machinery the function will usually decline or never even come to life
Success of trade union participation on planning councils I believe also re(luires some form of govshyernment aid I can think of three countries-France Austria and Great Britain (to choose three disparate examples)-where such aid is proshyvided to strengthen for example the research and economic facilities of the trade union movement In Austria for forty or fifty years now the chambers of labor have been supported by the government and they are really the most important research weapon or arm of Austrian labor
In France such effective participation as the trade unions have done recently in the planning
process and earlier in the social and economic area has been to a substantial measure due to governshyment assistance Under the urging of the US AID
mission France in the early and mid-fifties began to provide subsidies to the French trade unions to build up their research facilities
To an American this seems impossible How can a trade union take money from a government to build up its research facilities Will not such aid compromise the research Apparently it has not Apparently it is now recognized that both governshyment and unions are sophisticated enough so that once you invite a body like the trade union into the planning or development process you can afshyford them some measure of financial support withshyout compromising their independence
It must be recognized that the very fact of particshyipation in the planning pocess is in a certain sense a compromise of independence Neither labor nor management can participate in a joint
planning process unless they do so on the basis of respect of somebody elses rights and the recognishytion of some shared common gains and programs It seems to me that this notion is understood and that acceptance of financial ad to conduct research and training to help further participation is feasishyble
Legislation has been pending (and may already have been passed) in Great Britain which will iake available certain funds for research and for training assistance to the British trade union moveshyment Thus one of the oldest Western trade union movements and perhaps the most independent of governments along with the American trade union movement is now willingly increasing its acceptance of some form of financial aid to enable it to play its new role in society
The advantages to the government especially of less eveloped countries of these new roles that the trade unions can play are enormous If human reshysource institutions are critical in development as is now increasingly agreed what better vehicle or channel to exercise influence and increase popular
participation and understanding is there than the trade unions This is true even weak as they may be in many of these countries Moreover if they did not exist they ought to be created
In recognition of the importance of this human factor some governments of course have not been above creating the trade unions I can think of a number of Asian and African governments where the trade unions have been created largely with government benevolence or government assistance Even though we accept these trade unions with caution there exist present advantages They at
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least will help ensure communication and particishypation as well as other assistance to the governshyments of less developed countries which are overshyburdened with the tasks they face Most of these governments have to assume the responsibility for economic development activities including the major central planning role and allocation of critishycal investment resources (to some extent) and of foreign exchange To the extent these governments can look to trade unions or other intermediate inshystitutions to carry on many of the tasks such as training the administration of social security proshygrams and the joint encouragement of productivshyity programs they can be relieved of much of the weight which otherwise will fall on them This should help increase the viability and prospects for democracy because it is the overburdening of the whole process of government which it seems to me is one of the dangers that confront the African and the Asian nations
Trade unions therefore have this very useful vital possibility and related to this of course is the opportunity if you will of diverting what might otherwise be the all-out concentration by trade unshyions on wage and hour gains I do not mean that they should be deterred from their interest in wage and hour bargaining and gains but it could at least diffuse some of that all-out thrust which is trashyditionally all the trade unions do in the early stages of (levelopment
This change in trade union outlook it seems to me siiouild be sufficient inducement for new counshytry goverminents to take a real look at this process
Ilese issues I have discussed are tentative The experience that can be drawn upon is limited But the fact that we are calling for things that can hardly be itaglled or dreaied of in some peoples world shiotuld not (eter tis We have found to date
o b that what we know about institutions and the pr shylem of building institutions and especially subinshystittitions in developieit has not served us suffishyciently well Tlie ttIle union movement strikes me Is a most signifi ant factor if popular participaition is to imeanl someiting and if there is to be a hope for sonie kind of deomtcratic development process
DISCUSSANT Paul Fisher
Profesor Kassalows paper has very clearly stated that our preseit experience of trade unions with labor participation in various councils has been uneven to put it Mildly My experience leads to similar contclusions
What are the labor people really good at They are good when it comes to affairs which are of conshycern to them such as wages or working conditions But what have these matters to do with manpower Manpower as studied here is a very technical subshyject requiring a considerable degree of sophisticashytion in statistics mathematics and also in economshyics Now what has this to do with lets assume the German Works Council or a participation of a trade union representative in one of the other councils It has something to do because quite obvishyously the working hours working conditions and the wages have an allocative function They alloshycate labor not only the present labor but also the future labor and therefore direct people by the inshycentives offered by the system to a particular occushy
pation So in a way these people who are interested in these mundane affairs are instruments of manshy
power policy Where are the labor people not so good They
are not so good when it comes to technical subjects as for instance the economic planning mechanism the manpower mechanism the social security adshyministration details But should not we feel that the important issue in all three areas is the large decisions and the large decisions are rather easily understood and are basically political decisions Labor in all of these countries has the opportunity to influence political decisions
Employment is (tite obviously of interest to the trade union It is of interest to the workers or the sons of workers and employment is necessarily linked to the investment function As a conseshy
quence labor has an interest to participate in those governmental bodies which influence the employshyment function and the investment function Thereshyfore you find labor not only in the large bodies but the small ones as well which are based on the functioning of a specific industry a specific localshyity
Now what form does this participation take It takes the form of information or consultation and if you want co-deterinination But which is really the important fun(lion at the present time as disshytinguisled from the future Thelpresent function which is very important is information It is very useful from the viewpoilit of the body politic to have trade union leaders trade union representashylives not only participating in the decisions and therefore knowing why or how a decision is reaclhed to let us assume establish a dam in one
part of the country or an industry in another part
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but it is also useful for them to transmit this knowledge to their organization and therefore inshyfluence the wage policy and the manpower policy of the trade union itself
Consultation fulfills the same purpose Co-deter-Imiination depends on the subject but it can be said that co-determination has been a success precisely in that area where it was of immediate concern to the union representatives and to the labor director
Mr Kassalow sums it up by saying that the peoshyple who have the money to innovate normally the government make the employment and investshyment decisions in less developed countries thereshyfore it becomes important that the people do parshyticipate in those decisions of the government which really affect their lives and the lives of the organishyzations
DISCUSSANT Leonard Sandman
My experience suggests that it is not only diffishycult but may also be unwise to assign to unions in developing countries a role that diverts them friom the conflictive posture The following briefly disshycusses some of these experiences
In Korea I visited ain automotive manufacturing Company I was particularly impressed with tlhe large numbers of workers employed by the comshypany and that many of them appeared to be to say the least inefficiently utilized After touring the plant I asked tle manager about labor relations generally and the role of the union He recounted tle unions annual demands for wage increases and otherwise dismissed them as having only a nuishysance role because he could manipulate and control the union
I coiniented oi the large numbers of workers that lie employed and asked if possibly with sonie arrangement with tle union the workers could be engagedl more efficiently with the resulting savings in labor costs being distributed to the workers in tle form of hiigler wages and to the owners of the plant in tie fori of higher profits I quickly disshycovered that this was rather a naive suggestion beshycause as lie showed miie whetn various components of thiis cost and tle variables that influenced profit were considered wages were a very small proporshytioin of the cost of his production about 10 percent
With this kind of aii experience of which we see much in Asia a general lack of concern on the part of management with the efficient utiliation of commodities which are cheap and plentiful that is unskilled workers and often semi-skilled workers is
to be expected Obviously under such conditions little concern is to be expected on the part of the unions with the problem of how unions can coopshyerate with management to effect a more efficient utilization of workers I believe it is only when unshyions are successful in raising wages that is in pursuing their conflictive roles that management is compelled to use manpower more efficiently and then become concerned with productivity And this perhaps is one of the most effective ways that unions contribute to the efficient use of manpower
Experience in India with union participashytion in management also illustrates the difficulty of assigning to unions a role that diverts them from the conflictive posture The Minister of Labor who pioneered the program of labor particishy
pation had the feeling that if only we could give the workers a sense of management a sense of idenshytification with the industry the fact that their wages were so low would beconie less intolerable (I guess this could be called psychic income) Joint labor management councils were formed in a number of private and public sector plants Their experiments in union participation with manageshymient were getierally failures For the most part the discussions in the joint councils which were supshyposed to center on ways of increasing efficiency imshyproving management or improving the productivshyit) of the plant were centered generally on items of wages gi ievances and related interests They dushyplicated the collective bargaining function
Even with centralized planning in many of the Asian countries the unions there have generally
played atn indirect role if any in the basic quesshytions of settingpriorities determining targets and devising the strategies of employment After all ecshyonotnic development programis often represent a strategy of staying in power to the government Where unions have political influence the governshy
nient development plans may concein themselves seriously with employment and with income distrishybution problems but where they lack such influshyence development plans tend to place low priorishyties oi funding programs which promote the human goals of development
I think that popular participation should be a goal of every society It no doubt provides a system for the soundest kinds of economic and social deshyvelopment but the political realities of how growth gets distributed cannot be ignored Hence diverting union energy away from the conflictive
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roles should be examined very carefully so that we ment having a formal role rather than substance in do not end up with union participation in develop- participation
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MAIOR PARTICIPATION IN SOCIAL SECURITY
by Paul Fisher
The history of social security started off with mutual aid societies in Europe which were in esshysence trade union societies-societies of workers They had their origin in medieval German associashytions Out of this tradition developed a participashytion of trade unions of workers in the administrashytion of individual social security funds
It was important to know about how much sick pay the worker would get what would be the unshyemployment benefit that could be expected from this particular group and what would be the fushyneral grant Later as Social Security developed it became important to have some say in income sysshytems as a whole in sickness systems because they affected productivity
It is true that social security covered more than the workforce in industry and commerce It covshyered the total population The trade union represhysentative took on a new role and became not only the representative of the workers (the workers he organized and those for which he spoke) but he becane the representative of the popilation at large a very interesting goal which fits very well in the concept of a trade union as it exists in many countries developed and under-developed
What has all this to do with manpower Social security seems to be a transfer payment which you exact between one generation of workers and the next one between the healthy and the sick or beshytween the people who have small families and those who have large families
The interesting part is that many of these things have something to do with deferred wages In a way a social security contribution an individual makes today is a deferred wage which he will touch when he reaches the retirement age and this has been very well understood by the trade unions all around the globe and as a consequence it was the trade unions that fought for the advances in Social Security in this country as well as in other counshytries
The famous labor uprising in May 1968 in France was a revolution against some of De Gaulles attempts to reduce benefits De Gaulle was forced into the attempts because he felt the social security system which has very meager old age benefits was paying too much money in sick beneshyfits Labor in Franc was successful in its revolution The reform measures of Mr De Gaulle were largely discarded The same thing happened in Italy Labor as a whole has an interest in social security because it considers the social security benefits as nothing more than a part of total lifetime earnings from work
What form has it taken The usual form which has been an advisory function The advisory funcshytion is very well expressed in the United States
What is then the effectiveness of the participashytion of labor and the Social Security Administrashytion The effectiveness is quite interesting It deshypends upon the political strength and the economic strength of the labor movement If the labor is forceful it will yield results which surpass the reshysults of any other interest group
Who gets something out of it The first one who gets something out of it is quite obviously the union because the union can gain power The union can gainposts The union can occasionally see that funds which are accumulated in social seshycurity systems are deposited in the worker banks and worker banks become then the more powerful tool of making loans and investments where loans and investments are desirable Evidently trade union representatives can see to it that this particushylar function is not disregarded The power of the unions can also be abused and one of the famous examples is again in France in 1945 when the Comshymunist labor movement under the first De Gaulle government was able to conquer the social security administration and it took years before the purely politic-l interest of the Communist party of France
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was eradicated or at least minimized in the French social security system
Now who else gets something out of it The public because if trade unions do not talk about the public nobody else does It is quite true that in the original French system for instance the organshyizations of large families the organization of social security beneficiaries were also represented but if you looked at the people who represented this orshyganization it would be the same people from the French trade unions which existed and appeared from the other side of the table representing their organizations
Who else gets something out of it The governshyment The government because some of the meashysures which social security imposes some of the regulations some of the rules of the game are so
complicated that unless the system has a ready mechanism for transmitting this information to the public the public will not gain anything from a social security system The trade unions and anyshybody else representing the public are a very excelshylent a far better motivated and a far more effecshytive means of having this information transmitted than any other
The last point is what has this to do with manshypower The feeling has always been that the particshyipation of the public in manpower planning and in manpower organization must be divorced from the particular aspect which is studied here It must be linked to the final goal of a manpower policy and participation can therefore be better able to coshydetermine or to influence at least the goals of a manpower policy
US GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1972 0-469-452
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