were that that would be the case with mass transit. “In 1972, the U.S. Dept, of Transportation issued a document requiring a standard vehicle for cities wanting federal funding for their mass transit system—to get the most bang out of the federal buck. The policy only lasted 2 to 3 years. Then it came back to each city coming up with its own specifications for customized vehicles.” Jay added that standardization has been the key to success with the 727 airplane, which is the same for United Airlines as for American. If United runs out of a part, it can get one from American. Mass transit operations began to look like an on again-off again market for the Vertol plant with greater customization than anticipated. It should be noted that this reconversion occurred during the late-Carter period which grew increasingly military-oriented in the last 12-18 months of that administration. And when Reagan assumed office, the practical limitation was simply the major deemphasis of non-mili- tary spending. As Winpjsinger points out, economic conversion must take place while military projects are still on the upswing—before the funds fall off and people are laid off. Marketing and planning which is done before the crunch is more effective than expecting a conversion project to succeed based on trial and error. Boeing has demonstrated experience in the areas of wind and solar energy as well. It built four 2.5-kilowatt windmills in Goldendale, Washington and ohe for the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. in California. Production of wind turbines requires the same skills that aerospace workers pos- sess:'design and production engineers, inspectors, machinists, assemblers, electricians and precision machine operators. Boeing researchers have developed a thin solar cell which is 60 percent as efficient as silicon solar cells, but at about one percent of the cost of silicon photovoltaic cells, which are currently prohibitive due to cost. Marketing the thin solar cell could dramatically increase the use The Machinists Union would rather build airplanes than bombs, and Boeing has shown it can transfer back and forth between military and peacetime whenever it wants to. We’d rather have it all go over to the social side. In Converting the Work Force by Marion Anderson, an analysis is provided showing net gain or loss of jobs if $10 billion were converted from military production to conversion industries. The Job Impact of Transferring $10 Billion from Military to Conversion Industries Professional, Technical MILITARY CONVERSION NET JOB GAIN JOBS LOST JOBS GAINED OR LOST and Kindred Workers -62,100 + 81,500 + 19,400 Managers, Officials and Proprietors -25,000 + 26,500 + 1,500 Sales Workers - 8,700 + 9,600 + 900 Clerical Workers -58,800 + 59,700 + 900 Craft and Kindred Workers -70,400 + 64,100 + 6,300 Operatives (Factory Workers) -92,700 + 100,400 - 7,700 Service Workers -15,200 + 22,000 + 6,800 Laborers Except Farm -11,700 + 14,700 + 3,000 TOTAL JOBS GAINED +34,000 From Converting the Work Force Employment Research Associates This distribution is based on distributing the $10 billion as follows: — $5 billion in solar energy — $1 billion in the production of gasahol — $1.5 billion in the production of railroad equipment — $1 billion in the construction of fishing vessels — $.5 billion in miscellaneous professional services — $1 billion in educational services Bureau of Labor Statistics analyses were used to determine personnel figures corresponding to dollars spent. Only the category of Craft and Kindred workers experiences a net loss in employment. Although 90 percent of those workers would be hired by conversion industries, another 6,300 workers would be entering a rapidly growing job category. There would be a net job loss of 3,400 electrical engineers in the Professional and Technical jobs category, coupled with an increase in the need for civil engineers. Bob Baker of Seattle Professional Engineering Employees Association said that it would take about a year to retrain 1 an electrical engineer to a civil engineer. of solar energy, but so far there has been limited production of it. Pacifists for Full Employment purchased stock this year for the eventual purpose of introducing a resolution at a stockholders’ meeting. A stockholder must have owned stock for a year before a resolution can be put on an agenda, to be voted on 6-months later. After this waiting period, the group intends to propose conversion of the ALCM plant and other conversion proposals. National Policy Harlan Munsinger of the Machinists Union says that the problem with conversion is not a technical difficulty in terms of job transfers or retraining. “An airplane doesn’t care whether it has bombs or not. Most heavy industry in the U.S. is exactly the same. The Machinists Union would rather build airplanes than bombs, and Boeing has shown it can transfer back and forth between military and peacetime whenever it wants to. We'd rather have it all go over to the social side. “Conversion is going to have to be on a national basis, from the federal contracts or the Pentagon. When you’re in an operation to make money for your stockholders, you have to go to where the contracts are. If all Boeing workers refused to work on a military project, then the contract would go to General Dynamics. You need a national program to do mass transit, railroads and so forth. It shouldn’t be done on a piecemeal basis.” Munsinger said that a national policy would involve fair trade, not free trade. He said that tax laws are written favoring multi-national corporations at the management level. He noted that Japan putting a 100 percent duty on American cars while the U.S. doesn’t duty theirs is unfair to the American worker. Military employment is high technology, closer to the workerless factory concept. Munsinger stated that Germany provides an example of a national policy that is set up to build a fixed number of airC1A W > IOR rhe CURIOUS ANJ SEREOUS Mtwded Days & CvtNiivqs NEW Exerri*q DiSCQVERtES in NEO* LigkwiKj J LEARN A Highly DfMANdtd Skill & CRAH 2201 $E POWELL PORTLAND, OR 97202 LeVs Dress Up 11-5:30 Mon.-Sat.; Sun 12-5
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