ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, July 4, 1996 TAG: 9607050004
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: HOLIDAY
COLUMN: Talking It Over
To the Editor: RECENTLY I attended a seminar at the main post office in Roanoke about coming automation in the use of bar codes. Two days later, the postal workers were picketing in objection to it.
The purpose of this automation is to speed up mail delivery and keep costs stable, according to postal officials.
Well, it won't help small-town post offices, which are the main type of postal facilities in this country. Most of them can't afford to use the necessary equipment, so the new bar codes are almost useless to them. And in the big cities, where bar codes and related automation are feasible, employment will necessarily be reduced because of these machines.
Postal officials say employment will not decrease. Wrong! Just look at layoffs all around in other industries. Automation!
What will we do with the mass of unemployment caused by automation in industry? The rich will get richer and there will be more poor (June 20 news article, ``Rich-poor gap quickly widens'').
If unemployment continues to rise, who pays the bills or buys goods? If nobody buys, no industry. Something has to be done.
While they argue in Washington about all the controversies ending with ``gate,'' they had better pay attention to this country's future economy or they won't have to be concerned with the ``gates.'' We'll be turning into a Third World power.
Don't think it's bad now? Just wait.
- Robert H. Ladd
Our Reply: WE'RE TOLD it costs $42 to manually sort 1,000 pieces of mail in the Roanoke post office. Sorting the same pieces with mechanized equipment, which requires an operator to type in zip codes, costs $18.
Fully automated equipment handles the letters, 10 per second, for under $3.
Seems like a good deal to us.
The U.S. Postal Service is unusual in that its union contract includes a no-strike/no-layoff clause. No one will be laid off because of automation. Even so, it is true that automation reduces the need for postal workers to sort mail. And it is true that, in many industries, automation has cost jobs. Just look at coal mining and textiles.
We agree that job displacement has caused suffering, and automation is contributing to a widening gap between rich and poor. We agree "something has to be done." But resisting automation isn't that "something." On the contrary, it seems to us the surest path to Third World status.
Some displaced workers need help making a transition to other work. Certainly, we need to do a better job of upgrading skills for more automated and computerized workplaces. In the end, though, rising productivity is the only enduring source of job security, in a post office or anywhere else.
And, in the meantime, the entire economy - consumers included - benefits. In Japan, where mail sorting is less automated than in America, a first-class stamp costs 80 cents.
- The editors
The last word: WORLD competition for the marketplace poses a problem for the U.S. worker and the employer. To compete, both have to price their services according to what the marketplace will allow.
It probably means that the average worker will have to receive a wage that can help a business survive, and that probably means a lower wage. But the employer has to take a cut, also. It cannot be one-sided.
Businesses have to understand that without employment people cannot buy goods or services. Therefore, their business slumps or flops. Likewise, workers have to understand management's problems. They must realize they can't ask for the moon, etc.
There will have to be a compromise between the employer and employee. The employer may have to drive a Chevrolet instead of a Cadillac, and the worker may have to spend less on luxuries and more on necessities.
But what I desire to see is a Congress that takes on these important social issues, and not just political problems to see who can embarrass the other.
I cannot see how automation has improved post-office service. Sometimes I get better service from nonautomated post offices than I get from automated. Like any business, post offices are only as good as the people working for them. Locally, the post offices handle business services much better than in some other localities, and I have nothing but praise!
- R.H.L
Robert H. Ladd of Vinton is a retired newspaper printer who is now editing and publishing Dialogue, a special-interest magazine for ventriloquists.
LENGTH: Medium: 85 linesby CNB