International Labour Organization

Abstract

The fifth session of the Metal Trades Committee of the International Labor Organization (ILO) was held in Geneva from October 25 to November 5, 1954, under the chairmanship of Mr. E. C. Puig (Mexico). Representatives of 20 countries and the United Nations, as well as observers from a number of non-governmental organizations, attended the session, at which the following three agenda items were considered: 1) a general report, dealing with steps taken by various countries and the ILO Office in the light of actions of previous sessions of the Committee and recent events and developments in the metal trades; 2) regularization of production and employment at a high level in the metal trades; and 3) methods of labor-management cooperation in metal-working plants. In the matter of labor-management relations, the Committee adopted, by 91 votes to 11, a memorandum concerning practical methods of labor-management cooperation, intended as a guide to employers and workers, which outlined matters suitable for joint consultation and suggested some guiding organizational principles and methods of cooperation. In the memorandum on the regularization of production and employment, adopted by the Committee by 71 votes to 33 with 3 abstentions, the general principles set forth were that 1) the proper goals of social, political and economic policy were to achieve full employment and to ensure steady progress towards higher living standards, 2) the benefits of higher productivity in the metal trades should be distributed equally among labor, capital and consumers, 3) sharp economic crises resulting in widespread unemployment were avoidable through appropriate action, and 4) sustained full employment could be built only on a solid foundation of adequate consumer purchasing power, of steadily rising living standards, of greater economic stability, especially for the lower-income groups, and of rapid economic development of under-developed countries.