Business: MEASURING THE WORKER

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Some unions play an active role in management's time studies. Sperry Gyroscope was one of the first to hand the whole problem over to a joint labor-management committee. One of the best examples of close labor-management cooperation is the clothing industry, where the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union has long had its experts working with clothing makers to set piece rates. When it runs into a manufacturer who claims he cannot afford to pay the union's wage scale, the I.L.G.W.U. calls in William Gomberg, director of management engineering, who can often show a company how it can cut costs without cutting wage rates.

The U.A.W. has also set up a well-oiled working arrangement with General Motors and Ford. In the complex, highly automated auto industry, new machinery, new methods and new models force automakers into constant time studies, constant revisions of job standards. But there is little friction because G.M. and Ford agree wholeheartedly with the U.A.W. that time study is not an exact science, but a starting point for bargaining about base pay and incentives.

Such cooperation is the best evidence that the time study creates few problems if the company uses competent technicians who carefully and repeatedly explain what they are doing, and include in any job evaluation such human factors as fatigue and boredom. An atmosphere of good labor relations is also a big help; although the International Union of Electrical Workers refused to permit Westinghouse's time study, it raised no objection to a similar study at G.E. Where a union suspects that the time study is being used by management to cut pay or fire workers, the stopwatch will always make trouble. But properly used, the time study is a tool that can not only cut costs and hike production, but boost both workers' wages and company profits.