WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.000
[sil.]

00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:28.000
[music]

00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:04.999
[non-English narration]

00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:13.000
This is Hamilton, Ontario, the biggest
industrial town in the country.

00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:19.999
[non-English narration]

00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:24.999
You know this is the kind of town that millions of industrial workers and their families
have grown up in. In fact, Hamilton is really the symbol of industry in the country,

00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:29.999
it’s been a good place to live,
good place to raise your family,

00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:34.999
a kind of town that through
the years meant jobs,

00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:39.999
meant security, meant that you had a real
future that you could look forward to.

00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:44.999
[sil.]

00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:49.999
This is a town and a way of life built on the strong backs
and the pay checks of generations of industrial workers.

00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:54.999
[sil.]

00:01:55.000 --> 00:01:59.999
It’s almost 3:00 PM,
shift change in Hamilton

00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:04.999
and the workers here are ready to head
for home without a backward look.

00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:13.000
[music]

00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:19.999
Halfway around the world from Hamilton, the industrial
workers of the future are still hard at work,

00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:24.999
and they won’t be expecting overtime.

00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:29.999
The robots in this Japanese factory are
making other robots, 24 hours a day,

00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:34.999
seven days a week without a break.
All of which raises a question.

00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:39.999
Who will find jobs in the years ahead?

00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:44.999
Will enough new jobs be created
to replace the old ones?

00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:49.999
Will there be better jobs? Who will be hired? Two thousand
years ago, Aristotle, the Greek philosopher said,

00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:54.999
\"When the looms weave on their
own, man will be free.\"

00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:59.999
But free to do what?

00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:04.999
I think the next 25 years will be one of the
most exciting periods in human history.

00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:09.999
The new technologies
cascade upon one another

00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:14.999
so that we will find problems of disease being
solved, problems of famine being solved,

00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:19.999
there’s the potential to do absolute miracles that make
everything that’s happened in the past seem like nothing.

00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:24.999
We are going to be looking at an
unemployment level that’s going to make

00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:29.999
what we have now 10%, that’ll
be the good old days,

00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:34.999
that we’ll be longing for that.

00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:39.999
But one way or another, a revolution
has begun and there’s no turning back.

00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:48.000
[music]

00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:09.999
It wasn’t so long ago people in Hamilton would
have laughed at the idea of unemployment.

00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:14.999
These were the good old days. It
seemed that the party would never end.

00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:23.000
[music]

00:05:05.000 --> 00:05:09.999
This was steel town and proud of it.

00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:14.999
[music]

00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:19.999
This was a town of blast furnaces and
smoke stacks, steel mills and foundries

00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:24.999
and the crown jewel was the
steel company of Canada.

00:05:25.000 --> 00:05:29.999
Occasionally, visitors who didn’t know any better
would complain about the bitter smell in the air

00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:34.999
but the Hamiltonians, it was
the sweet smell of jobs.

00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:39.999
[sil.]

00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:44.999
There was a deal here, most of it wasn’t written
down but every worker knew it by heart,

00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:49.999
the workers got the jobs and
the companies got the profits.

00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:54.999
If you worked hard and
stayed out of trouble,

00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:59.999
chances were it was a job for life.

00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:04.999
Everyone knew we would always have thousands
and thousands of jobs to make steel

00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:09.999
as a basic component of
the… the social order of

00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:14.999
uh… the way we do business in this society.

00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:19.999
Once you got in at Stelco, you survive
the potential layoffs for the first year

00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:24.999
so you are pretty well set for life
and it was pretty steady employment,

00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:29.999
the world was quite black
and white in that respect.

00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:34.999
[music]

00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:39.999
How would you describe your ideal man?

00:06:40.000 --> 00:06:44.999
Well, he’d have to be sincere, he wouldn’t
be phony, he’d have to be intelligent,

00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:49.999
he’d have to be good looking in my estimation, he’d have to have
characteristics that I like, he’d have to be a good dancer.

00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:54.999
Umm… he’d have to have a very good job

00:06:55.000 --> 00:06:59.999
and I’d like to go up the
ladder of success with him.

00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:08.000
[music]

00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:14.999
This is Ivor Wynne Stadium,

00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:19.999
home of the team called the Tiger Cats.

00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:28.000
[music]

00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:34.999
It’s also home to local ten-o-five of the United
Steelworkers of America, the Stelco Loco.

00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:39.999
Not exactly Pussy Cats either.
In their hay day,

00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:44.999
this was the only place big enough to hold the steel workers
when they met to prepare for battle against the company bosses.

00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:49.999
They seek to tell you against
me and this committee.

00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:54.999
Well, let me tell you

00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:59.999
that with the money that Stelco pays us,

00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:04.999
I sure can’t afford to be a capitalist
so I guess, I am a socialist.

00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:13.000
[sil.]

00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:19.999
So it went in Hamilton, the old game played
back and forth, a round won, a round lost

00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:24.999
until in 1981, the rule suddenly changed.

00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:29.999
First, it was the recession.

00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:34.999
Right across the country factories
closed and the layoffs began.

00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:39.999
We want jobs, we want jobs,

00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:44.999
we want jobs, we want jobs.

00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:49.999
At first, everyone thought
it was temporary.

00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:54.999
Yeah but I don’t believe it, naturally, it’s a… I don’t think
so it can happen. How long do you figure it will last?

00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:59.999
Hopefully not more than the winter. We’ll take the winter
off and come back in the spring and we will be all set.

00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:04.999
But they were wrong, the recession ended,

00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:09.999
and Canadians woke up to find that
many of the jobs were gone forever

00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:14.999
under cover of the recession with
little fanfare, a revolution had begun.

00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:19.999
What we are seeing is the beginning of what
everyone knew, so supposedly would never happen

00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:24.999
where the microchip technology
has hit the steel industry.

00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:29.999
We’re lucky that where there used to be a hundred
people, we’re gonna have two or three working

00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:34.999
and where our children go to work,
never mind where we are going to work.

00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:39.999
Who to believe that something as small as this
could topple a world and cause a revolution

00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:44.999
but that’s exactly what’s happened.
This is a microchip,

00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:49.999
it’s turned our world upside down.

00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:54.999
To get an idea of just how important
this tiny computer on a chip has become,

00:09:55.000 --> 00:09:59.999
you have to take a look at how dramatically the
technology has changed in just the last 30 years.

00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:04.999
The first computers were fantastically
expensive. Look at this baby,

00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:09.999
the Sage, the biggest computer ever built in
the world, look at all these old vacuum tubes,

00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:14.999
you associate this with your
old TV sets from the 1950s.

00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:19.999
Imagine trying to repair that, the thing
had 55,000 of them, weighed 250 tonnes,

00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:24.999
size of a house

00:10:25.000 --> 00:10:29.999
and with a price tag of $300 million.

00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:34.999
In the 50s, about the only institution in the world that
could afford one of these things was the US military.

00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:39.999
The Sage was the computer that watched the skies over
North America for the approach of enemy bombers.

00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:44.999
[sil.]

00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:49.999
Then in the early 1960s, computers made the
leap from vacuum tubes to transistors.

00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:54.999
Computers like this were a
huge advance over the Sage

00:10:55.000 --> 00:10:59.999
but they were still comparatively
expensive. A $150,000 for this one,

00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:04.999
and then, came the microchip, tiny,
easily installed, almost anywhere and

00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:09.999
like this one with the power
of 250,000 transistors.

00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:14.999
[music]

00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:19.999
This was the technology of our dreams,
incredibly powerful computers

00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:24.999
that cost a few dollars and could go anywhere.
A fantastic world of pleasure and convenience.

00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:29.999
The latest way to go
shopping by television,

00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:34.999
and you will love downtown

00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:39.999
where fully automatic moving sidewalks will
make you feel up to date and wonderful.

00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:44.999
For the home of distinction,

00:11:45.000 --> 00:11:49.999
the all purpose family robot.

00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:54.999
[music]

00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:59.999
For decades, we’d dreamed that inventions like this would usher us into a
new world where our biggest worry would be spending all our leisure time.

00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:04.999
All aboard for your
vacation in outer space,

00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:09.999
relax and enjoy all the
romance of a lunar weekend.

00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:18.000
[music]

00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:24.999
But the reality is turning out to be somewhat less rosy. For some employers, the
new technology they line up to see at trade fairs will perhaps mean more profits

00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:29.999
and more freedom

00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:34.999
but for a lot of workers and a lot of industries
labor saving technology is just a machine

00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:39.999
that can do your job. (inaudible) investment
in Cad Cam, will return the result…

00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:44.999
Of course, that’s not
how they sell it here.

00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:49.999
It’s a menial job. This won’t make a mistake
and it doesn’t get tired or anything else.

00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:54.999
It doesn’t look for any money or raises, just
keeps going until it has some work to do.

00:12:55.000 --> 00:12:59.999
[sil.]

00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:04.999
The recession made people willing to
try new things in order to survive

00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:09.999
and the prospects for new kinds
of automation exploded overnight.

00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:14.999
Thank you.

00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:19.999
And yet while the new technology opens up a
world of wonders as the first glow wears off,

00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:24.999
it becomes apparent that for a lot of employers, it was just a way
to get rid of their employees and to deskill the ones that remained.

00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:29.999
This system was developed
to find defective carrots.

00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:34.999
Umm… What I’m going to do is place a pen
right beside the defective carrots.

00:13:35.000 --> 00:13:39.999
So, I’ll start the program going.

00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:44.999
In the past, there’s been a fair amount of flexibility
that even though workers didn’t in theory have any power.

00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:49.999
In practice, they managed to acquire
and… and wield a fair amount of power,

00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:54.999
the whole thing of the secretary, you
know, the secretary books off sick,

00:13:55.000 --> 00:13:59.999
the whole office grinds to a halt, then
similarly, people who used to run warehouses,

00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:04.999
they were, I mean, king or queen,
usually king, that was his turf,

00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:09.999
you wanted to know where something was, the guy
around the warehouse was the only one who knew

00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:14.999
and he could slow you up or speed you up depending on, you know, how
you… how well you treated him and how willing he was to cooperate.

00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:19.999
Now you got these pieces of
software that run things.

00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:24.999
There’s an awful lot of planning goes into
buying the equipment, designing the equipment,

00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:29.999
figuring out in a business sense
how it’s going to be used

00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:34.999
and it’s sort of always a… a
last minute sort of afterthought

00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:39.999
\"Oh, what are we going
to do about the people.\"

00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:44.999
The incentives are all to short term results and so employers are making decisions
which they can show over the next three months or 12 months major productivity gains,

00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:49.999
to heck with the…

00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:54.999
if it wrecks the society along the way.

00:14:55.000 --> 00:15:03.000
[music]

00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:24.999
There are all kinds of people that we
believe being displaced by technology.

00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:29.999
But it has been too much I think, disguised by
the recession that we went through earlier,

00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:34.999
from ‘81 on, and uh… it uses
depression as the excuse for

00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:39.999
people being laid off but those
people are not being called back.

00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:44.999
[sil.]

00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:49.999
No one is immune, that should be the first law
of automation. From assembly lines to offices,

00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:54.999
from forklift operators to clerks.

00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:59.999
The impact of the new technology on office work
of all kinds will be of anything more dramatic

00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:04.999
than in traditional industries.

00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:09.999
If it’s happening first far from here in places like Hamilton,
it’s only because the incentive for automation is so much greater

00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:14.999
in higher paid unionized jobs,
in industries like steel.

00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:19.999
[sil.]

00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:24.999
This is Hilton works owned by Stelco,

00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:29.999
the biggest steel plant in Canada spread
across 1,100 acres on Hamilton Harbor.

00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:34.999
In the boom years of the ‘60s and ‘70s,

00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:39.999
close to 14,000 workers had jobs here.

00:16:40.000 --> 00:16:44.999
[sil.]

00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:49.999
When it was first fired up 25 years ago, this
open hearth was the largest in the world.

00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:58.000
Inside the hearth was a lake of molten steel
and it made 500 tonnes of it every four hours.

00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:08.000
[sil.]

00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:14.999
In the post war boom, the steel from this open hearth
built cars and appliances for a world of consumers.

00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:19.999
[sil.]

00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:24.999
The market for steel grew and grew and the mills
got bigger and there was work for everyone

00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:29.999
until 1981.

00:17:30.000 --> 00:17:34.999
When the recession hit and the
demand for steel dropped,

00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:39.999
Stelco closed this open hearth.

00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:44.999
All across the plant the layoffs began
from a peak of just under 14,000,

00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:49.999
the steel workers are down to under 9,000.
The company brought in a new plant manager,

00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:54.999
Bob Milborn to crack the whip.

00:17:55.000 --> 00:17:59.999
To make the change, is that going
to mean fewer jobs here at Hilton.

00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:04.999
I could turn that around and say it will probably mean there will be more jobs here
at Hilton than there otherwise would have been if we had not made this investment.

00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:09.999
Certainly, the steel business cannot support the numbers
of people that at one… one time was capable of supporting

00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:18.000
but in order to have a steel business you have to meet a
certain threshold of productivity as well as quality and cost.

00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:24.999
[music]

00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:29.999
On the other hand, no one is denying
the need for new technology.

00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:34.999
The steel workers know better than anyone
that the mill has been allowed to run down.

00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:39.999
The only question now is who will pay for
it. It’s the steel workers with their jobs.

00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:44.999
[sil.]

00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:49.999
Many of the workers who still have jobs are older men who’ve been with the
company for years and figured by now they could coast on an easier job.

00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:54.999
They were wrong.

00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:59.999
They set about having an occupation,
they’ve had it all of those years,

00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:04.999
they just never thought in their
wildest dreams that after

00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:09.999
at least 25 or 30 years that we
would have to change occupations.

00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:14.999
George Jilks occupation was
operating a locomotive,

00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:19.999
one of the best jobs in the plant but the microchip
technology goes anywhere and can automate almost any job

00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.999
and in the last year,

00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:29.999
the company has begun introducing
remote-controlled engines.

00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:34.999
A little black box will replace the
engineer and by the time they are through,

00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:39.999
some 200 jobs will disappear. Bill Sheriffs’ will
be one of them. What’s going to happen to you now?

00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:44.999
To be quite honest with you, I
have no idea. I really don’t know,

00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:49.999
I… I could end up changing
my occupation altogether,

00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:54.999
it’s kind of scary because for 21 and a half
years, I haven’t done any real physical labor,

00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:59.999
all of a sudden now, I could very
well be with a shovel in my hand.

00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.999
[music]

00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:09.999
At 21 and a half years, we have come to understand
that I’m only one of the junior employees,

00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:14.999
there are people that are going to be displaced
from their job with 25, 30, and 35 year seniority.

00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:19.999
Those workers with enough seniority to
still have a job at Hilton Works at all

00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:24.999
often find that those jobs
have changed for the worst.

00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:29.999
Since the open hearth
shut down, I have lost

00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:34.999
$700 to $800 a month on income.

00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:39.999
You got to adapt,

00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:44.999
I have got two children now and another one
expected in another week. It’s getting rough.

00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:49.999
I have seen a lot of my friends
that have lost their houses,

00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.999
lost their cars, their marriages broke up.

00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.999
What happens to those who lose their jobs?

00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.999
Well, for a year they collect unemployment
insurance and hope to be recalled.

00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.999
When that hope finally runs out, young and old,
they end up here at the unemployment office

00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:14.999
to look at the boards and face the
prospect of starting over again.

00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:19.999
Mr. Rither,

00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.999
I will hang on if you get a hold of him.

00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:29.999
[sil.]

00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.999
Well, I can take any job right now. You know, like I
even work… like work for the city or any job, you know.

00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:39.999
[sil.]

00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.999
Yeah, (inaudible), you told me to phone back here by getting in there at work.
(inaudible). Well, they know me down there. So another couple of weeks (inaudible).

00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:49.999
[sil.]

00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.999
That’s it, that’s it. Okay, thanks a lot.

00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.999
Good luck, bye-bye.

00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.999
Next please. Hi, how are you?

00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:09.999
You are looking for a full time or part time? Well,
I’m looking for anything but I prefer full time, eh?

00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.999
Okay, let’s come back to that one, okay?

00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.999
There’s a New Village Restaurant on King Street
West, that’s towards the west end of it,

00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:24.999
7 in the morning until 6 in the evening, six
days a week. Does that seems agreeable or…

00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.999
Sure. Yeah.

00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.999
Oh yes, there are jobs, jobs for
dishwashers and short order cooks,

00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.999
for cleaners, maids, baby
sitters, peace workers,

00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.999
jobs where minimum wage is
about all you can expect.

00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.999
Nobody there? Nobody there.

00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.999
For the industrial workers, it all
comes as a shock but many young men

00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
and women of all ages have never had a taste
of anything better or very few of them.

00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
What kind of work were
you doing before that?

00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
Waitressing, working in small factories that were pretty
well all women, minimum wages like three and a quarter,

00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
umm… restaurant jobs, two fifty, whatever.

00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
And then, you are going into cell phone and you
are talking about $13 an hour, a big difference.

00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
The women worked in the steel
plants during the war.

00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
It wasn’t until around 1980, that women
put enough pressure on the Union

00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
and the Union put enough on
Stelco that a few got back in.

00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
Donna Seagreen was one of the first.

00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
I… I would operate the crane with tears running down my eyes
saying, \"No, I’m staying, I’m staying because its good bucks.\"

00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
But the good bucks didn’t last for long.

00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
When the layoff started just
before Christmas of 1981,

00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
Donna’s was one of the first jobs to go.

00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.999
During the first layoff, I had six children living
at home. I was just devastated by it, I was angry,

00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
I became very radical.

00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
Welfare means seeing your children do without but there’s one thing I won’t
do without and that’s my dignity because you see I know it’s not my fault.

00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
(inaudible).

00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
Despite all the protests and demonstrations, the layoffs
continued and gradually the fighting words began to ring hollow.

00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
Second time I was laid off,

00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
it kind of was like well, we did everything we
could do in 81 and 82 as far as protests went

00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
and it was kind of accepted
that you are laid off.

00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
The steelworkers were scared and a
move echoed across the continent,

00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
local ten-o-five voted out the hardliners and voted
for leaders who would not offend the company.

00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
Ray Solenzi was elected as president.

00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
Why did the membership vote for you?

00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
Well, what we had here for the last three years was
lot of publicity and the members on that plant

00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
really didn’t want that type of publicity, they
didn’t want to be associated with that type of thing

00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
and what happened was this uh… you had them vote accordingly,
they wanted somebody in there probably low profile,

00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
stay out of the press as much as possible.

00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
The company has managed to convince the former militants of
local ten-o-five that the rules of the game have changed

00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
and the old plant will
have to upgrade or close.

00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
[sil.]

00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
Fifty miles from Hamilton, in a farmer’s
field, is Stelco’s most convincing argument,

00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.999
it’s called Lake Erie Works,

00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.999
the most advanced major steel
plant in North America.

00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.999
They can produce three times as much steel
per worker as they can at the old plant.

00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
Few of the steel workers from Hamilton were
invited down here when the plant opened.

00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
Stelco wanted a new worker, dedicated,

00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
enthusiastic and without
a long Union history.

00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
[sil.]

00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
Stelco calls this a lean mean
steel producing facility.

00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
The steel workers of Hamilton
called it a betrayal.

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
They are part of the deindustrialization and the
vote of non-confidence in the Hamilton community.

00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
They are abandoning

00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
the community and the
people and the families

00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:44.999
that made them what they are.

00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:49.999
They are pumping and building up this business of
trade centers and convention centers and so on.

00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.999
Like are my daughter so they are
slated to be hostesses at conventions,

00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
uh… what about my son, where does he get to
work, where do our children work, I don’t know.

00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
All the studies that had been done showed the
services field will increase in the future

00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
and the industrial base is going
to, you know, be reduced.

00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
So we in steel will be looking
around to organize in areas

00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
where there are unorganized people and
need the help that only Union can give.

00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:24.999
[music]

00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:29.999
A Union made them strong in the past but these
days the Union is busy recruiting new members

00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.999
in industries with a future, security
guards, makers of women sanitary products,

00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
assemblers of patio
furniture and nurses aids.

00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:48.000
[music]

00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.999
Behind their words is a simple protest.

00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
This was not supposed to happen.

00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
The steel workers are bitter today because
they feel that an old deal has been betrayed,

00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
one that they and other industrial
workers fought and died for,

00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
a deal that has its roots in another continent,
150 years ago when the industrial age began.

00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:23.000
[sil.]

00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
This is the Tong Valley
in Lancashire, England.

00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
150 years ago, there wouldn’t
have been much of a view

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.999
because of all the smoke pouring out of the
dozens of smoke stacks down in that valley.

00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.999
[sil.]

00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.999
These were cotton mills, mills for
the dyeing, spinning, weaving

00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.999
and treating of cotton
fiber and woven cloth.

00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
In the early 1800s,

00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.999
these mills were open six
days a week, 13 hours a day.

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.999
The dark satanic mills of the
first industrial revolution.

00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.999
The Tong Valley deserves a special
place in history because it was here

00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.999
that the first industrial
revolution was born.

00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:24.999
[sil.]

00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:29.999
Here in this valley, a weaver named Samuel Crompton
invented a machine he called the spinning mule.

00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.999
It was a very first factory machine

00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.999
able to do the work of thousands of hands,

00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.999
it was hailed as brilliant, revolutionary and yet
to those whose hands had once done the work,

00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.999
the spinning mule was an
invention of the devil.

00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.999
So, for seven years while he worked in the smaller prototype,
Samuel Crompton was forced to hide it in a cubby hole in his attic.

00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:59.999
[sil.]

00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.999
In its time, the spinning mule was as
disruptive as the microchip is today and yet,

00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
once Samuel Crompton had invented
it, there was no going back.

00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.999
It was a new world. For the first time, a
bell rang out over these hills and valleys

00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.999
summoning workers to work in a factory.

00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:24.999
[sil.]

00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.999
They look pretty tame to us now

00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
but to the early factory workers, these
were monstrous, noisy, dangerous machines

00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.999
and while we are inclined to look back at the industrial
revolution and say that all this was inevitable,

00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:44.999
in fact, the early factory owners here had
to compete with well-established craftsmen.

00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.999
So to take control of the cotton industry,

00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:54.999
the early factory owners
had to do new things,

00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:59.999
they had to do something
called primitive accumulation.

00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:04.999
Primitive accumulation is a nice phrase but
in plain English what it means is this.

00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:09.999
In North America, they had to steal from the Indians, in the
United Kingdom they had to drive small farmers off the land

00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.999
and in factories like this one,
they had to exploit children.

00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:19.999
Children were a key to the take off of
the factory system in this country.

00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.999
Children were brought into
these mills at the age of 8,

00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.999
they were brought in
supposedly as apprentices

00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.999
but in fact, they were
little better than slaves.

00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:43.000
[music]

00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.999
They worked 13 or 14 hours a day.

00:31:55.000 --> 00:32:03.000
[sil.]

00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.999
Some of the children had to crawl under the machinery to
gather pieces of cotton and bring them back into production.

00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:23.000
[sil.]

00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.999
The children wrote pathetic letters but in fact, most of
them never reached the people that they were sent to.

00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.999
[sil.]

00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
Not that it would have made
much difference if they had.

00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
The politicians and social critics of
the day had decided in their wisdom

00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.999
that child labor was a healthy
antidote to vagrancy, idleness

00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.999
and youthful crime.

00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:59.999
What they did not say was that the profits these
children earned for the cotton mill owners

00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.999
were bankrolling the British empire.

00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:09.999
But between 1803 and 1938, cotton
was Britain’s leading export,

00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.999
the backbone of British trade, 135 years.

00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.999
It was the first industry to
make the whole world its market.

00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.999
It was an industry Britain had stolen from India, stolen
by means of new technology like the spinning mule.

00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.999
New ideas like the factory system

00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.999
and of course child labor.

00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.999
For a 150 years, the cotton
industry here flourished

00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:45.000
but by the 1930s Britain’s hold on its empire was crumbling
and a new competitor had thrown down the gauntlet.

00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.999
In the 1930s, Japan was emerging from the feudal era and
it embarked on an industrial revolution of its own.

00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.999
In the cotton industry, the Japanese rejected
the by now old fashioned spinning mule

00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:14.999
for the new ring frame in modern
factories that worked round the clock.

00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:19.999
In 1937, Japan swept ahead of Britain as
the leading exporter of cotton goods.

00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.999
But behind the smoke of
great industrial cities,

00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.999
the old feudal system
remain, the big plants

00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:34.999
for all their new equipment (inaudible) up the
stronghold of a modern medieval, a machine…

00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.999
Western propaganda ridiculed it but much of Japan’s strength was due to an
industrial contract that bound employer and employee by vows of loyalty

00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.999
as it had once bound lord and surf.

00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.999
Industrial harmony, the
Japanese had discovered,

00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.999
was a powerful weapon in the modern world

00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:59.999
Then came World War 2 and by
1945, Japan lay in ruins.

00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.999
But not for long.

00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:09.999
[sil.]

00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:14.999
Back in Lancashire, the impact was
less dramatic but more permanent.

00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
Little factory towns like this one that had
blossomed with the cotton trade never recovered,

00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
the technology was too old,
the new markets too far away.

00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.999
By the mid-1960s,

00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.999
the factories that had clattered on every street
corner were closing, at the rate of one a week.

00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:39.999
[sil.]

00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.999
And so the circle turns,
empires rise and fall

00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:49.999
each time leaving behind a waste land.

00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.999
Child labor was by now just a foot note in the history books
but in the dark factory towns of the industrial revolution,

00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.999
the British working class
learned a bitter lesson,

00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.999
one they would carry with
them wherever they went.

00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.999
[sil.]

00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:14.999
Yeah, right here.

00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:19.999
Except they’d be asked. Come on
guys, we got a hold in here.

00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.999
For the time, it took a generation and then another
to grow up and have children of their own,

00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:33.000
Hamilton and the places like it were the
golden cities of an industrial age.

00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:43.000
[sil.]

00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.999
The American empire rose with all the
promise of the empires before it.

00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:54.999
For Canadians on the northern edge of manifest
destiny, the post war years have been pretty good

00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:59.999
and on certain summer evenings
it is still possible to believe

00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:04.999
that the old game will go on forever.

00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:13.000
[music]

00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:29.999
New technology is rewriting the
entire economic history of the world.

00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.999
The Atlantic monopoly
that used to exist when,

00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.999
I guess the Second World War ended, when all advanced industry
was pretty well on one side or the other of the Atlantic.

00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.999
That has been broken and what you now
have is Japan, uh… having led the way

00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.999
but all of Asia following
in behind Japan now

00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:54.999
in such a way that you can honestly say
that the center of the world has shifted.

00:37:55.000 --> 00:38:03.000
[music]

00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:14.999
Like the cotton merchants of Lancashire, the Americans in
our time are seeing their empire slip away to the Japanese.

00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.999
All of which is making life
considerably more uncomfortable for us.

00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.999
Now it’s our turn to puzzle over
the sources of Japan’s strength,

00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.999
its ability to rise from disaster
generation after generation.

00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:34.999
One of course is an eye for new technology.

00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:39.999
This time the technology is the
cheap and powerful microchip.

00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:44.999
And yet the microchip is nothing
more or less than a tool,

00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.999
if it hadn’t been invented,
we would all have survived.

00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:54.999
What makes a tool crucial in a competitive
world is not so much that it exists

00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:59.999
but that someone else has it, you don’t.

00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:04.999
Out of the ashes of World War 2, Japan has
performed what appears to be an economic miracle.

00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:09.999
Though it was invented by an American,

00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:14.999
it was the Japanese who recognized in the
microchip the beginning of a revolution.

00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.999
For a nation that was already leaping
ahead as the next economic superpower,

00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:24.999
the new technology was the final push.

00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.999
Today, Japanese goods produced in
automated factories by dedicated workers

00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.999
flood the markets of the world and it produced
a prosperity they could never have imagined.

00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:43.000
[sil.]

00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:59.999
Japan has become one of the richest nations in the world.
A people who could hardly afford rice 40 years ago,

00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.999
today can afford to make all
their dreams come true.

00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:13.000
[sil.]

00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:19.999
With a population less than
half that of the United States

00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.999
and a rate of economic growth
that is double that of the US,

00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.999
the Japanese economy is predicted to pass the
Americans and leave the world by the 1990s.

00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:38.000
[sil.]

00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.999
And yet, what seems at first an economic
miracle is really more of a balancing act.

00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
Japan’s recovery has been achieved
not just through new technology

00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:54.999
and a fierce spirit of competition,

00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.999
but because of something equally important.

00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
[music]

00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
A heritage of social discipline,
self sacrifice and cooperation

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
that has made Japan what it is today.

00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:23.000
[music]

00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:38.000
[sil.]

00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.999
But the train loads of workers who pour into Tokyo
at dawn each morning to do their jobs in the capital

00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.999
are beginning to hear the first echoes
of something new and disturbing.

00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.999
[sil.]

00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.999
Beneath the surface of certainty and
confidence is the growing awareness

00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:14.999
that the latest wave of technology could
mean the end of a lot of their jobs.

00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:19.999
So far, the Japanese economy has
grown fast enough to keep pace

00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:24.999
and new jobs and new industries have
appeared even as the old ones disappeared.

00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.999
[sil.]

00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:34.999
But the Japanese are on the cutting edge
of automation and for many workers here,

00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:39.999
that could turn out to be
a dangerous place to be

00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:45.000
when there is a machine to
do just about anything.

00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:13.000
[music]

00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.999
[sil.]

00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.999
Though the rate of unemployment
is still less than 3% in Japan,

00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:34.999
the pace of automation has the Unions here
worried about what the future might hold.

00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:39.999
What do you think will happen?

00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:44.999
Well, I think that it will depend
on how the new technology develop

00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:49.999
and the rate of development and rate
of introduction into the industries,

00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:54.999
and if that takes that big stride,
I think it’s quite possible,

00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:59.999
we have the uh… experience of unemployment.

00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:04.999
There are many people saying that there’s
a great possibility of such unemployment

00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:09.999
may come also to the our
industry in the very near future

00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:14.999
and that is the reason uh… from the Union point of
view at this moment, we are asking the government

00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:19.999
and management people to have a tripartite committees
to study on the possible unemployment problems

00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:24.999
due to the new technologies and so far
we are getting very good response

00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:29.999
not only from the government but also
from the management associations.

00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:34.999
[sil.]

00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:39.999
There is a tradition within the big Japanese
corporations of taking care of their workers

00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:44.999
not out of altruism but because
it’s good for business,

00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:49.999
a lesson that corporate executives elsewhere
in the world have been slow to learn.

00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:54.999
[sil.]

00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:59.999
[music]

00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:04.999
There are other clouds on the horizon,

00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:09.999
a new generation whose heroes do not appear to be the dedicated
workers who made Japan the economic giant it has become.

00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:14.999
[music]

00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:19.999
On the other hand, it is easy
to make too much of this.

00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:24.999
A little decadence has always been
one of the privileges of empire.

00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:33.000
[music]

00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:44.999
A more serious problem for this
generation is the growing number of women

00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:49.999
emerging from their traditional roles
to look for career of their own

00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:54.999
at a time when the job
prospects are looking bleaker.

00:45:55.000 --> 00:46:03.000
[sil.]

00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:09.999
These next few years are crucial for Japan but they are still way ahead of countries
like Canada that are only now scrambling to jump on the bandwagon of advanced technology

00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:14.999
and at the same time

00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:19.999
trying to survive the
jolts of the transition.

00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:24.999
For us, time is quickly running out.

00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:29.999
If Canada doesn’t move
to new technology smart

00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:34.999
then we basically all have
to get together and pray

00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:39.999
that by some fluke natural resources will make
us as rich in the future as it did in the past.

00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:44.999
[sil.]

00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:49.999
And yet fewer and fewer voices are
heard resisting that kind of message.

00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:54.999
Today, Union leaders like Fred Pomeroy, whose
members are directly in the line of fire,

00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:59.999
are the first to believe that the switch
to new technology is long overdue.

00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:04.999
I think that’s where uh… the
future… the real future lies,

00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:09.999
the only way we are going to have secure jobs and high standards of living is
to be on the leading edge in the use of technology. Now, that doesn’t mean

00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:14.999
that everyone in the country is going to be
some kind of computer wiz kid out there,

00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:19.999
you know, leading the Star Wars brigade

00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:24.999
but by being on that frontier,
uh… technologically,

00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:29.999
it creates all kinds of other jobs at
all levels through the economy and

00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:34.999
it makes it possible to have many of the social
services and so on that generate other jobs.

00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:39.999
Okay, what we have here is
a geometric model of a uh…

00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.999
New technology opens the door
to new ways of manufacturing

00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:49.999
Computerized systems like this allow a skilled
operator to design a product on the screen

00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:54.999
and then send the design to another
machine on the factory floor.

00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:59.999
I’m going to go from this machine to a machine in
the machine shop. Exactly. The surface model is uh…

00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:04.999
Well, the first wave of technology favored
big corporations and rich nations,

00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:09.999
the new wave gives smaller competitors
an edge and that’s good news for Canada.

00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:14.999
That’s what the technology promises, it
promises the ability to customize and produce

00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:19.999
uh… relatively small batches
with the kind of economy

00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:24.999
that was available through mass
production 20 or 30 years ago.

00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:29.999
Traditionally, Canada’s had to take the chunk of North American business
that deals with a few of this, a few of that, a few of something else

00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:34.999
and in my opinion, this is one of the greatest
opportunities for really cashing in on flexibility.

00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:39.999
If you compare this with uh…a
plant down in the States

00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:44.999
which is dedicated to doing
thousands of the same thing.

00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:49.999
They don’t have quite so much benefit
from this technology as we do in Canada.

00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:54.999
So, on a personal note at least, I’m
rather optimistic for Canada’s uh…

00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:59.999
level of sophistication in this sort of
technology over the next 20 or 30 years.

00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:04.999
[sil.]

00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:09.999
We should also face up to a
few uncomfortable facts.

00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:14.999
The computers our kids are playing with today are not made
here for the most part nor is most of the key technology

00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:19.999
and more of it should be.

00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:24.999
Our investment in research and development is less than
1%, far lower than all the other developed countries

00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:29.999
simply because so many of our
companies are foreign-owned

00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:34.999
and the research is being
done back at the home office

00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:39.999
and our educational system
has been slow to adapt

00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:44.999
and so does the parents with the time and the education
themselves who are doing what they can to make their kids winners

00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:49.999
and someone else’s kids can be the losers.

00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:54.999
[sil.]

00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:59.999
But is that really the kind of society
we want to see Canada become?

00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:04.999
A nation more and more divided between those few
who get ahead and the growing numbers left behind?

00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:09.999
[sil.]

00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:14.999
Even the most optimistic business people don’t
suggest that we are going to create a lot of jobs.

00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:19.999
The most optimistic scenarios that I
have seen is that we will maybe have

00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:24.999
as many jobs 10 years from
now as we had in 1980.

00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:29.999
[sil.]

00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:34.999
There’s another scenario where a limited number of highly skilled
jobs will be created and many other low skill jobs will be created.

00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:39.999
The ratio I have heard often
is 20% highly skilled, 80%

00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:44.999
low skilled jobs

00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:49.999
and that has to create a social turmoil.
I don’t think it has to be that way.

00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:54.999
[music]

00:50:55.000 --> 00:50:59.999
Well, the obvious question is, what is the
technological change being introduced for

00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:05.000
and who is in charge of
the priority setting?

00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:14.999
The impulse to introduce technological change for innovation, to do
what you are doing better or to do new things is a very muted impulse,

00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:19.999
certainly muted during
the… the kind of rather

00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:24.999
conservative, cautious economic times that we’ve
been experiencing over the last few years

00:51:25.000 --> 00:51:29.999
but also tending to be muted because the kind of people
making the decisions about implementing technological change

00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:34.999
are bottom line people who
want to make sure that

00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:39.999
the company is doing very well and perhaps have a
requirement to deliver more profits and therefore

00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:44.999
they are not going to be
saying, \"Hey, let’s innovate\"

00:51:45.000 --> 00:51:49.999
which is going to mean keeping staff and maybe hiring
more staff or sending people off for additional training.

00:51:50.000 --> 00:51:54.999
No, their thinking is much more in the
lines of automate to reduce costs

00:51:55.000 --> 00:51:59.999
and so they are going to root
a jobless economic growth.

00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:04.999
[music]

00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:09.999
We would be reckless indeed to leave the responsibility for social
planning in the hands of executives whose job is to produce profits

00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:14.999
and whose record on the introduction of new
technology has been something less than inspiring.

00:52:15.000 --> 00:52:23.000
[music]

00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:39.999
Out of what we are today, this country is going to have
to fashion a new social contract to replace the old one

00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:44.999
and there are a lot of hard
questions that remain unanswered.

00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:49.999
[music]

00:52:50.000 --> 00:52:54.999
Who will have jobs in the years ahead?

00:52:55.000 --> 00:52:59.999
Should every job that can
be automated be automated?

00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:04.999
Are the old jobs worth saving? Which ones?
How will we decide?

00:53:05.000 --> 00:53:09.999
Country is used to the
idea that unemployment

00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:14.999
is part of the lot of those who’ve had no training,
no education, growing up in poor circumstances.

00:53:15.000 --> 00:53:19.999
What we are going to find now
is new technology takes over

00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:24.999
as the many of the unemployed are people who
have been trained, who were earning a good wage,

00:53:25.000 --> 00:53:29.999
uh… who had some education, sometimes
considerable amount of education

00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:34.999
[music]

00:53:35.000 --> 00:53:39.999
Their only crime if you like will be that
they happen to be in the wrong industries.

00:53:40.000 --> 00:53:44.999
[sil.]

00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:49.999
The wrong industry, the wrong town. In fact, the real crime
would be that on the day when Aristotle’s dream comes true,

00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:54.999
when the looms of industry weave on their own, we
abandon the people whose hands once did the work.

00:53:55.000 --> 00:53:59.999
The people who live in these houses are the
children of the first industrial revolution.

00:54:00.000 --> 00:54:04.999
Now the question is,

00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:09.999
what happens to their kids?

00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:14.999
There’s a new revolution taking place but there’s an unfairness about
that revolution, that revolution doesn’t come to towns like this.

00:54:15.000 --> 00:54:19.999
It creates a whole new areas of power,

00:54:20.000 --> 00:54:24.999
it creates new areas where people live and it’s easy to say
that the new jobs are going to be there for people to take

00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:29.999
but it’s not necessarily true that it’s the
people in these kinds of neighborhoods

00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:34.999
where there are kids who are going
to get those new kinds of jobs.

00:54:35.000 --> 00:54:43.000
[sil.]

00:54:45.000 --> 00:54:49.999
It’s putting a lie to everything we were taught when we went to school,
that you work hard, you bust your ass and you’re going to get a good job

00:54:50.000 --> 00:54:54.999
because it doesn’t matter what you do, you
aren’t working friend, you are out of work buddy

00:54:55.000 --> 00:54:59.999
and this society is still
saying, \"You are a lazy bum.\"

00:55:00.000 --> 00:55:05.000
[music]