Whyte Discusses Importance Of Educating Factory Workers

Education is important for workers in an entirely worker-owned factory. William Whyte, professor of Sociology and Industrial Labor Relations at Cornell University, said yesterday during a speech at the School of Education.

Whyte, chairman of the Cornell Research Program for New Patterns of Worker Participation, spoke to a small gathering at Longfellow Hall on the "Educational Implications of Employee Ownership," as part of a series of seminars on education and public policy.

"People have generally not thought beyond the transfer of ownership," Whyte said, adding that education for both managers and workers is important if an employee-owned company is to survive.

Whyte said anyone who tries to tell the manager or workers in an employee-owned firm that it should be operated "like a private factory" is not recognizing the fundamental nature of the changes that have taken place.

Whyte also explained two causes for the failure of employee-owned industries in America. In some cases a company fails financially, Whyte said. However, when it succeeds, and the price of the stock goes up, a company may be bought by non-employees.

Whyte said employee-owned companies may provide a solution to the increasing number of factory shut-downs.

He added it is important to view individual factory shut-downs in the broad context of American society.

"It is important to recognize from the start two common myths about plant shutdowns," Whyte said. The first myth is that a corporation will not abandon a plant that is making money, and the second is that the employees and local management will not be able to make a company successful when a big company has already failed, he added.

Whyte discussed a congressional bill which he helped draft, the Volunteer Employee Ownership Act. The bill, if approved, will provide the Economic Development Agency (EDA) with $1 million a year to furnish technical and financial assistance to employees, and to study different forms of employee-owned factories.

Under the bill, the EDA would be responsible for developing an informational system to assist workers and managers in deciding how their company would be run. In order to receive money the workers and managers must be aware of all the other options of control.

"We view the law as a basis for education, especially in terms of forms of ownership and control," Whyte said.