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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (July 4, 1963)
10 B THURSDAY, JULY 4. 1963 . rrr In Sweden GSetiraiiros Workers y overim memit Pays the Mi By FREDERICK H. TREE5H United Pratt International Stockholm, Sweden - HOT - Per Lindquist was 46 years old, married with two chll- dren and unemployed. He had been ill for several years and was unable to resume his for mer occupation - trucking -because of his health. With his personal funds ex hausted and no other skill, Lindquist might heve been at the brink of economic dis aster had he lived in Chicago or Pittsburgh. But welfare' minded Sweden believes so ciety has an obligation to put people like Lindquist back on their financial feet and the cost, however high, is less than allowing a good man to be idle. At government expense, Lindquist was enrolled in 72-week course which quali fied him for a Job as an in strument repairman. He com pleted the course March IS and went to work the next day at the Royal Institute of Technology. During his re taining, the government paid Lindquist enough to meet liv ing costs of his family. Had it been necessary to relocate to another part of Sweden . cither for retraining or em ployment, the , government would have paid the moving expenses too. , , Sweden Retrains Per Lindquist's story Is typical of Sweden's vast re training and relocation pro gram which helps the coun try keep unemployment to the barest minimum and al lows the nation's Industry to offered, the preparatory LEARN NEW SKILL-This group of adult Swedes is learning a new skill, office ma chine operation, as part of the Swedish government's retraining program. (UPI) automate rapidly without un due hardship for workers dis placed by machines. Health was the key factor in Lindquist's esse. But the state is equally swift in helping those who lose their Jobs through technological streamlining. Sweden's labor policies have attracted attention in the Uni ted States for several years. This week, Ernst M. Micha- nek, undersecretary of state in the Swedish Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs; Ber til Kugelberg, maniging dir ector of the Swedish Employ ers Federation, and Arne Gel- jcr, president of the Confed eration of Trade Unions, are testifying before the U. S Senate Labor committee. Swedes bcllve Americans could Icarn something from them but they acknowledge their system works easier at home than it would in Amer ican society. First, Sweden is an un- BACKYARD POOL-You need not spend a fortune to enjoy the many pleasures of having a swimming pool in your own back yard. The trend .'n portable, above-ground pools Is toward larger, family units. Most of these pool styles have rigid steel walls with rugged vinyl liners. Here the family Is enjoying aquatii; fun together In a room-for-everybody above-ground pool.-By . Plastl kaire Products, Inc. crowded, homogeneous nation with little unemployment (20 000 unemployed out of a work force of about 2.5 million, or less than one per cent). U. S. joblessness amounts to nearly 3i per cent. All Trainable Second, Sweden has vir tually no one who is untrain- able and unemployable be cause of his low educational level, such as is prevalent in parts of the rural south and urban areas of the north in the United States. Third, the Swedish eco nomic system operates with an overlay of social welfare with the state controlling un employment and labor mobil ity. With such programs as retraining, the government has given labor little cause to foster featherbedding or other undesirable practices. A calm atmosphere of mutual trust exists between the state, employers and labor. There has not been a major strike since 1943. The Swedish view of labor economics and social welfare was pretty well summed up by a government official who said: "The training Is expensive but it is much more expen sive to have people doing nothing. The point o view of the labor market board be fore parliament has been that adults who through unfortu nate circumstance are forced to change jobs should be taken care of by society dur ing retraining. That is part of the price the nation has to pay for industrial and techni cal progress." New Skills Last year, 30,000 persons were taught new skills in Sweden's government - fi nanced retraining program. More than 1,000 courses were MLENKAfWS MEN'S AND BOYS' TENUIS SHOES S 2.77 Hi & Low Cuts-Black & White MEN'S DRESS SHOES 7.70-4.40 Loafers and Oxfords Black and Brown AS TOO ElEBRATE! WOMEN'S SHOES 54.40 Assorted Heels and Clogs Black - Beige - Gold - White SUMMER PLAY SHOES 1.77-2.77 Sandles Wedges Thongs STORES ALSO IN: El'SEKE-SALEM KLAKATH FALLS OPEN MON. & FRI. NITES 'TIL 9:00 more) mllea to a OallenKamp Wl CARRY WOMEN'S SIZE 11 AND MEN'S SIZE 13 - ALSO EE WIDTHS largest number to jobs in the growing metals industry. Others were trained for jobs in the forest products indus try, in textiles, commercial and clerical fields and hun dreds of other specialties. The government said its program was adequate to meet the pres ent need but it envisions ex panding to retrain 40,000 per sons a year in the future. Courses run from a few weeks to two years. The aver age is eight to 10 month. They are open to any unem ployed person or anyone in danger of becoming unem ployed. More than 35 per cent of the trainees are women -single, divorced or married women who find a second in come is needed. Half of the trainees are over 45 years of age, said Han- kan Hankansson, chief of Bureau of the Swedish Labor Market board, the agency which administers the re training program. Another 20 per cent are in the 35 to 45 age bracket. "Older persons are shy and sometimes reluctant to begin a course but once having done so they do a good job," Hank ansson said. "Last year the oldest trainee was 63. He did a good job in a course in mechanics and found a job after completing it. Operate 3 ways , Hankansson said the re training courses are operated in three ways: 1. Trainees can be placed directly in existing vocational schools. This most often is done in the case of disabled workers. 2. Special classes are ar ranged. Any suitable building converted into a training facility with the government paying for remodeling and in stallation of machines and equipment. Sometimes a new building is constructed. 3. Industrial firms conduct classes under contract from the government. The firms are paid fees to manage the classes and provide on-the-job training. Most of the trainees remain with the company fol lowing the course. The instructors most often are persons with management experience in the industry for which the workers are being trained. Automation Is not a scare word to Swedish labor. In the context of Sweden's so cial welfare system and an atmosphere of mutual trust and confidence with industry, organized labor finds it bene fits too when the economy ex pands and factories can pro duce more cheaply. Accept Idea "Sweden is one of the few countries which completely accepted the idea of 'rationali zation' ( a term Swedes pre fer to automation but mean ing about the same thing)," said Tore Karlsson, an official of the Swedish Confederation of Labor Unions, known in Sweden as the "LO". The Swedish lauor movement nev er attempted to crush the ma chine. In the main, labor gets a fair share of the fruits of in creased productivity and gov ernment programs, such as retraining and relocation cf displaced workers. Industry, which foots a huge tax bill to help pay for such social programs as retraining of unemployed and machine replaced workers, still be- OUTDOOR 'PHONE - Sum-mertime-and the living is eas ier with a telephone installa tion nut-of-doors. You don't have to dash into the house when the phone rings - and you can call your guests to "come and get it"-and still keep an eye on the grill. lieves these programs are "the better way." Cunnar Lindstrom, section chief of the Swedish Employ ers Confederation, known as the "SAF," said that a few years ago, in a period of eco nomic recession, Sweden was forced to go to a huge public works program to squelch un employment and shore up the economy, mere was ai u' time little capacity for, re training workers. "We discovered this was very expensive," Lindstrom said. "So we say now that re training is the better way and we cannot say it is too ex pensive because we have to compare the cost with that of public works and unemploy- mpnt. ' Another point Lindstrom emphasized was that Swedish industry makes a conscious effort not to dismiss workers when a factory automates rapidly. 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