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MANA6EMENT
Unions or Licensing? M o r e professional workers mean organization for protection, union claims; engineers look a t licensing V-/RGA^ T IZED LABOR is eyeing the c h e m -
ical engineer. Jack Knight, president of the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers International Union, vigorously states that his union is checking into the engineering profession for future prospects. As yet, though, O C A W is not soli citing engineers (C&EN, March 11, page 7 ) . This development is "viewed with alarm" in some circles. Opponents feel that professionalism a n d organization are not compatible—if one comes, the other goes. Here is how they reason: The engineer does an individualistic t y p e of work. He is n o t very concerned with how long h e works. H e is less concerned with security than he is with opportunity. However, if he is organized, these values will change. Both the engineer and the industry will lose as a result. Why, then, does labor think the professional man, such as t h e chemical engineer, can b e organized? Knight outlined his reasons at t h e American Institute of Chemical Engineers, meeting this month in White Sulphur Springs, W. Va. Until recently, t h e relatively small number of chemists, engineers, a n d other professionals made individual bargaining practical. But this is changing. There are n o w more of these workers and they make u p a larger percentage of t h e work force. "Where once a company counted its professionals by the dozens, the same company now counts them by t h e hundreds and in some cases b y the thousands. Where once there were a few professionals working in private offices or laboratories, n o w there are cases in which dozens work in t h e same room. T h e professionals a r e becoming cogs in a mass production—almost an assembly line—operation," Knight declared. This trend leads t o an increased interest in organization for collective bargaining purposes. If this interest warrants, Knight declared, his union will offer to represent the professional. As yet, though, this has n o t happened. Knight believes that membership in a union will n o t d a m a g e the professional status of engineers a n y more than 34
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membership in t h e National Association of Manufacturers has hurt t h e reputation of business firms. • Licensing, I n s t e a d ? Meanwhile, at the same A I C h E meeting, engineers were looking at licensing and its i m pact on their profession. This m a y mean they are thinking of it as possible deterrent to organization. Licensing b e g a n in t h e early 1900's in Wyoming. Since then, a host of model laws has been drawn u p a n d recommended to various state legislatures b y representatives of t h e p r o fessions concerned. T o date, there a r e about as many different licensing laws
as there are states. This leads t o many difficulties a n d annoyances w h e n a n engineer wishes to transfer his operations from one state to another. Over t h e past decade or so, professional societies h a v e b e e n working t o gether to bring order out of this jumble of laws. Active in this work a r e t h e Engineers Joint Council a n d Engineers' Council for Professional Development (AIChE is a m e m b e r of b o t h ) . I n dependently a t work formulating a n e w "ideal" law is the National Society of Professional Engineers. N S P E expects to have its l a w in final form within the next couple of years. Despite the problems involved, more and more engineers a r e getting licenses —there a r e n o w a b o u t a quarter million licensed engineers of all kinds. Many companies actively encourage their e n gineers to get licenses. D o w Chemical, for instance, counts the possession of a license as o n e of t h e most valuable assets of m e m b e r s of its design department at F r e e p o r t , Tex.; t h e majority of the members of that d e p a r t m e n t have them. Some benefits, according to Dow: better morale, recognition of t h e design engineers' professional stature, low rate of turnover.
* Packet for New Employees Employees a t Diamond Alkali's Cleveland headquarters are introduced t o t h e company and their jobs with a packet of booklets. Similar t o folders often used in sales a n d advertising programs, Diamond's Inform-A-Kit was a d a p t e d b y t h e company's personnel department as a convenient a n d flexible means of getting information across to n e w employees. T h e kit can be tailored t o fit individual needs; it can be labeled with t h e recipient's name a n d its contents can b e varied from a n assortment of company literature. Typically, it m a y contain a copy of the employees' magazine, a booklet o n personnel policies a n d benefits, pamphlets describing Diamond products and plants and t h e c o m p a n y credit union, and a copy of t h e latest annual report.
