INDUSTRY & BUSINESS

Unions organize to organize professionals New AFL-CIO unit will try to convince professionals that collective bargaining can help them

17 unions are founders of new AFL-CIO professional unit Participating Unions in Council of AFL-CIO Unions for Scientific, Professional, and Cultural Employees and their mem­bership

Actors' Equity Association 11,700 American Guild of Musical Artists

2400 The Journeymen Barbers, Hairdressers

and Cosmetologists, International Union of America 72,790

National Association of Broadcast Em­ployees and Technicians 6207

Communications Workers of America 293,900

International Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers 270,842

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers 806,000

Insurance Workers International Union 21,000

American Federation of Musicians 275,254

Office and Professional Employees In­ternational Union 65,000

International Union of Operating En­gineers 310,942

Retail Clerks International Association 427,555

Seafarers International Union of North America 80,000

International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes and Moving Picture Machine Operators of the United States and Canada 60,546

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees 234,839

American Federation of Teachers 100,000

American Federation of Technical En­gineers 15,000

Source: AFL-CIO and U.S. Department of Labor

OFFICERS. Musicians union president Herman D. Ken in (center) is president of the Council for Scientific, Profes­sional, and Cultural Employees. Flank­ing him are council treasurer Jerry Wurf (left), head of government workers union, and council v.p. Charles Cogen, teachers union president. They'll be running AFL-CIO's new campaign to organize professionals

The executive board of the Council of AFL-CIO Unions of Scientific, Pro­fessional, and Cultural Employees (SPACE) will meet in Washington this week to select a full-time execu­tive secretary. A likely candidate for the job is Carl J. Megel, the 67-year-old Washington lobbyist for the teach­ers union—the American Federation of Teachers.

Mr. Megel, a former high school teacher and coach, was national pres­ident of the American Federation of Teachers from 1952 until 1964. He has been acting executive secretary of the council in the months leading up to its actual founding last month (C&EN, March 27, page 25) .

The council was founded by 17 unions (see box). According to the council's constitution, its primary pur­poses are:

• To encourage all professionals to share in "full benefits, aims, and re­sponsibilities of AFL-CIO member­ship."

• To engage in legislative activity on matters of interest to the affiliated organizations and consistent with the policies established by the AFL-CIO.

• To promote greater interest and participation on the part of the general public in scientific, educational, and cultural activities, and to provide ser­vices to other union members and to

the general public in scientific, educa­tional, and cultural activities.

• To bring members of the member unions into relations of mutual assist­ance and cooperation.

• To harmonize and promote the in­terests of affiliated organizations.

On the rostrum, the founders of the council talk grandly about organizing industrial scientists and engineers into labor unions. But privately, they ad­mit they have little hope of being able to accomplish such a goal on any broad scale any time soon.

What they do see as possible now is an attempt to convince scientists, en­gineers, teachers, nurses, government employees, and other professional peo­ple that unions and professionalism are not necessarily inimical nor even incompatible.

Joseph A. Beirne, president of the Communications Workers of America, spelled out this attitude in his speech to the founding convention:

"For this new group of workers—for these so-called middle class people from the professional, scientific, and cultural communities—we're going to have to bring out a more attractive, thoroughly modern union. What was right for grandpa when he was 'work­ing on the railroad' or swinging a pick in a coal mine, isn't good enough for the man or woman in the classroom, in

26 C&EN APRIL 10, 1967

MISER. Dr. Charles McClelland, operations research manager for Varian, defines parameters of Miser (media insertion schedule evaluation report) and its use in advertising programs for the company's electron tube and device group

Varian's computer helps select best periodicals for company's ads

the laboratory, or in the studio. And why should it be? Nobody should feel he has to apologize for being in a union. Unions do good, and can look good, too."

Another theme SPACE will try to play in the ear of professionals during the coming months is that collective bargaining is the solution to their work-connected problems and the way to realize their hopes. Among the problems of industrial scientists and engineers, as seen by the unions:

• Wages, hours, and working condi­tions set by unilateral action of em­ployers.

• Seniority taking second place to favoritism and discrimination in sal­aries, promotions, and layoffs.

•Increasing anonymity. Political action will also be held out

as a lure for union membership. Ac­cess to higher education, to high-qual­ity medical care, and to adequate housing and nutrition for everyone are among the political goals that SPACE considers desirable. It also urges that professional people have a large voice in administering these edu­cational and welfare programs.

Toward the professional associa­tions, the council resolves to maintain a friendly attitude. Its aim is to "eventually bring them into the main­stream of the labor movement, either within the framework of existing un­ions or as separately chartered AFL-CIO international bodies."

Call in sick. Some of the profes­sional groups, the council notes, are taking on more and more of the as­pects of trade unions—their members call in sick as a group to express a grievance. Others are beginning to concern themselves with the improve­ment of wages, hours, fringe benefits, and working conditions for their mem­bers.

The council starts life with a $50,-000-a-year budget, provided by a 1 cent-per-month per capita tax to be paid by the member unions for each professional member it claims. (Ob­viously, not every member of each of the founding unions, is a "profes­sional." The definition for council purposes appears to be a matter of how many "professionals" a union claims and is willing to pay the per capita tax on. )

In 1959 and I960, unions were pressing to organize scientists and en­gineers. There were a few successes, but that effort was ended late in 1960, when Engineers and Scientists of America, a federation of independent engineering and scientific unions, folded up. Joseph Amman, president of ESA, said then that engineers and scientists must choose between union­ism and professionalism—"you can't ride two horses."

Varian Associates has put a computer to work on its advertising effort. Bas­ically, the machine is doing a complex statistical evaluation of the 1150 re­plies that Varian received in answer to 3000 mail questionnaires. The proj­ect is called Miser, an acronym for me­dia insertion schedule evaluation re­port. Its aim is to help Varian's ad managers select the periodicals in which they will place advertising for the Palo Alto, Calif., firm's electron tube and device group.

Miser is about a year old. It is the brain child of Varian operations re­search manager, Dr. Charles McClel­land. It has been so successful that Varian is now launching a new phase for Miser.

In its first phase, Miser was taken to the point where it evaluates whether Varian's desired audience picks up an issue of a magazine in which the com­pany's advertisement appears. Phase two, now beginning, is designed around a multivariate regression anal­ysis and is aimed at determining the probability of a reader seeing the ad,

assuming that he sees the issue of the periodical in which the ad appears. Further program developments being worked out will give the probability of a reader perceiving the message con­tained in the advertisement and re­membering it.

"The system is helping us take the black art out of our advertising effort," says energetic Dr. McClelland, 41, whose Ph.D. is in chemical history. Varian is currently re-evaluating much of its advertising program on the basis of Miser's results. Emmett Brownell, ad manager for the electron tube and device group, the largest group within Varian, says he's confident that he can save many thousands of dollars by finding the most effective readership for the least money. Robert Landon, ad manager of Varian's Eimac division, maintains that the Miser program has been of major assistance to him in se­lecting efficient advertising schedules for Eimac products.

The cost of setting up the Miser program was a modest $8000. Sav­ings realized from an early trial paid

APRIL 10, 1967 C&EN 27