Study of Attitudes of Puerto Rican Factory Workers (1958)

• Speeial Services

Comfflonwealth of Puerto Rico

Bcononic Developinent Administration .• Management and

Sapervisory Development DEPARTMENT

OF

• Industrial Engineer ing

INDUSTRIAL SERVICES • Marketing San Juan, Puerto Rico

BULLETIN VOL. V - NO. l8

m Management Information

March 25, 1958

DISTRIBUTION: A

STUDY CP ATTITUDES OF PUERTO RICAN FACTORy WORKERS

Sllghtly over one year has elapsed since our Department of Industrial Services made available to local manufacturera

reprints of five reporta containing the preliminary findinga of a atudy on Puerto Rican factory workers, conducted by the • Social Science Research Oehter of the Univeraity of Puerto Rico.

Becauae of the great Ínterest aroused by the preliminary reporte, the Social Science Research Center decided to publish further preliminary infórmatlon en this atudy.

The attached

paper waa made available to ua recently.

This bulletin is iasued by the Management Infomation ¡seciiiQn

of the Department of industrial Sérviees, iconomic Dévelopment Administration, San Juan, Bierto Rico, ^

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INVOLVEMENT IN AND COMMITMENT TO THE INDUSTRIAL LABOR MARKET OP THE PUERTO RICAN PACTORY WORK FORCE

Jntroductlon añd MethodoXogy »'

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The Social Science Research Canter of the üniversity of

Puerto Rico undertook durlng 1953-56 a research project on in dustrial work forcé problems and attitudes. carried on in three phases,

The research was

The first was a survey of the

experiences of 85 plant managements in recruiting and evolving a stable and efficient work forcé.

This was followed by inter

views held with 1,045 factory workers (506 women and 539 men) distributed over three areas of the island, distinguished by varying degrees of urbanization;

San Juan Metropolitan area,

Ponce Metropolitan area, and the northern coast area stretching from Dorado to Manatí.

During the interviews, inforraation was

collected on work and raobility histories, attitudes toward fac

tory employment, discipline and wage incentives, as well as on aspirations.

In addition, one intensiva plant study was under-

taken,to supplement inforraation already collected, eraploying both forraal questionnaire and participant observer techniques.

Because the drafting of the final report of the findings would take tirae> and ralease of useful inforraation was obviously

desirable, the Social Science Research Center issued about a year and a half ago a series of five releases giving sorae of the prelirainary findings of the study.

Because of the Ínterest

aroused by those releases and the many inquiries received, we are now releasing sorae additional inforraation on the findings.

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The acc<mf,8®ytog rélease is á sionmary (co

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Luz M.

Torruellas)" of a lorigér paper* Vncltten by Dr. Peter Gregory, assistant director of: fche próJect> for d^^

at a profes-

slonal meetlng in thé States.

This release consists of three sections.

The first dis-

cusses the origina of the employed factory labor forcé and Its Involvement in the industrial labor market.

Ihe second is

concerned with the behavior pf workers within the market and

the nature of their commitment. , The third section suggests several factprs which may have. facilitated the level of commit

ment which has already been achieved.

* Jk Spanish translatipn ©f the paper <wiil be published by the

íléiriita He Gieneias; Soclaiei, miyersity of puerto Ricoe

I. Origina ,and Invplvement..ef.Employed Woí'kers In thé Industrial Labor Market

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The. characteristiQS of the sample work forcé reveal it to

be ypunger and with a blgber average level of education than. the

insular labor.forcé as a whole.

íPhe iiediah age for our sample

was 32 for men and 26 for women as compared with 38.3 and 31 for

y

the total labor, forcé,

The median number of school years com-

pleted by our sample work .forcé waá 6il for men áná 6.7 for women; which was almost twice as hig^i as that of the total noh-

school population l4 years of age and older (3.5 years of school-

2/ ing) .

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At, the same time,.^the anfeeoedents ©f the sample suggests in

a strik^g manner the absence. of an indvstrial tradition.

i^ile

only 27^ of the sarapled workers curi;ently reported a rural residen.ce, fully 70^ had liyed in rural aréas either prior tó or at the time they entered the labor forcé.

The employment patterns

of the: workers' fathers at the time the respondents entered their

fir81 Jobs revealed that^only 5í^ of the fathers were employed in manufacturing while about

were employed in agriculture,

Among .the men in our sample, §4^. bad th^selves worked in agri culture at some point.

Only about 45^ of thesé moved directly

y Derivad from data presented in Puerto Rico Planning Board's

Statistical Yearbóok, 1956i feble 63» p.

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-^Rigure for the total noíi^iSchool population oirer 14, derived from Asistehcia Escolar y RiVel Educacional, Oetubre 1952i Informe jspeciai Nt:m. 8^ psgociado de mentó del Trabajo, San Júan, Tabla 3, p. 20c

from agricul"btire into industJiíyi the others repQrted intervenlng 6inployinen'bs4 chiefly in construction and tradé. Constructión

and trade were also reportad as the most frequent Industries of

prévlous employüient by the other male workers with no agrlcultural experienoe, Only 22^ of the men found thelr flrstjobs in manufacturing,

'Women seehi to bemore radlcally affécted. by the expansión

of employment oppo:rtünities in nianufacturing. Por 7^ of the women. in our sample, factory Jobs were the first employment they

had ever held outside the homé. Pifty-six per cent of the women reportad a factory Job as their first paid Job; 23jg had been

employed as hmeworkers in hándicraft industries. Among the other women with prior work experience, domestic service accounted for practically all the employments, involvement of our sampled workers in the industrial labor

market appears to stem not from a desire to esóape from a physical subáistence existenca but trcm a ccmxbination of desiras to

maximize income and to séek change for its own sake, from an awareness of possible gains accruing from factory employment, and, more often than not, from the presentation to the individual of a specific Job oppórtunlty.

Seventy-five per cent of the men and 60^ of the women were led to their first factory Job as a result of personal contacts with persone who worked in a factory and referred them there, of other persenal referrals to factories í^ere employment opportu-'

nities were knom to exist, or of unsQliúited Job offers.

An

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sddl'tlon&l

of tlí6'nlen. aiid

of "thé wóíiien Wéré rQferz^d to'

factoty eraployínént by thé Enqpidyineht Service upoij ápplleátlon fot assistáhce iri findíng a'jób.

A facllítablhg, ttiou^ not thé déclsive; fórce ihducing workers" into factóry employi&ént was the awarenééá óf 1;he dppor-

tunltles préBéiítéd by thls fciiíd 6f émpíosraiéht ás ihdioátéd by the coriditiohs óf fáctory employinent they expecWd tó lilcé, ; Wages, thé oppóíttinlty tó seé'and iéarn new thlrígs, ánd the physlcal éffort invoivéd in factor^ work wéré the three most

frequently menbiohéd ahtloipated likes. StabÜlty of employmen.t

and opportvmlties for-advahc^ent wét»e mentioned- twlce as often by men as by women^ perhaps reflecting thelr bread-winnlng role ' ánd a greater oonceiíñ for career oppértunities, Pew reported

ari antlclpatloíí óf cóndltlons ídilch they had expected to dis^

rllke, though thete was some'apprehenslon about their ability to learn the Jobs they would be assigned,

In tems of changas in ctirikent liking over e^qpected liking# more workers found they likéd it more currently than Xiked It

less than e3q)ected.

In the cases of decline In líkihg from the

anticipated levelj the only two variables that ahoiiíed a hlghly significant relatlonship With the decline were low earningsr

leve! and poor Job perfofmanóe (quantity and quality of production) as evaluated by the individual workers' supervisors,

m .the coursé óf the sií^esF we trled to get as much evidence as possible on the question of vdiet^er involv^ent in the indus»trial iabof íürket was viewed by workers as a perTaanent ojés or

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not. ^ífe fp\in4 considerable evidence fpr examplej tjbat the bulk of the sampled rosn consider thelr Involvepient to be.a permanent one.

There is evidence that once bhese workers have entered

industrial, ejuployment tbey do not often report sidí^sequent non-

industrial einpjoyinents, Among the men for whlch we.have complete Job histories, only 17^ reported a non-industrial employment following their first factory Job; of those whose histories were not

completeji 72^ showed no non-industrial employment at least since 1945. Their aspirations for themselves also indícate that they expect to continué being employed in factories.

Asked what kind

of work they woiüd like to be doing five years henee, those indicating factory work of some kind ranged from 62^ ih San Juan and a coastal area to 6^ in Ponce of those men vrtio indioated a

positive cholee for employment

(l^e most frequently indlcated

alternatlve employment for men was self-employment either as an artisan or a email merchant). This pattern of cholee , may indicate a belief that factory employment in itself represents a

significant advance over earlier expectations or previous em

ployments, so that satisfaction wlth the current status is expe-

rienced and further advances are not considered likely or, alternatively, an appraieal of the probable employment opportunlties In other classes of employment, i,e, white collar Jobs, 1/ -=/Those who did not make any cholee indlcated either a desire

to retire or that the thought of other ^ployment had never óccurred to them, Those in the latter group constltuted 11^

of ail the men in San Juan,

of those in Ponce, ano «;1^ of

those in the coastal aí^a, Since the bulk of these showed a

hi^ level of liking for their current Jobs, it is likely that these too, will remain in the industrial labor market.

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: In the case of men with agrlcultural expérlerice> they too seera to be permanently involved in. tbe-industrial Habor mb-rket.

Of the ^91 men .in .this group/ all but ninej had-been lañdless wage laborers in their last farm eráplojbnentj therefore, entby . into the industrial labor market•did not represént a sharp'hreak in employment status- and relatlonshlps, slríoé théy énjóyed none

ot the social prestige associated with land bimeiiship.-^ We got complete employment histories, for 172 -of these men and ohly 27

of them had repprted, a retum to agriculture..' Of the i^áinlng ,119> none of these. reportad agricultural employménts stibsequent to 1945# an^ it is.probable that a majority óf them did not

return*

Asked under what conditions would théy return to' agri

culture, 57^,of those vitio indicated a greater liking for factory work {90^ of the total) indicated that they would not return under any condition, 27í^ would return If théy cOtíld owh their

2/ own farms , while the remainder specified either a higher income, the status of a "mayordoiBQ" or other scattered conditions.

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However, this should not be interpreted to iraply that thése men

were driveh out of agriculture by ámmediate necesslty to escape a marginal existence.

Rather, they were among the most em-

ployable and desirable of the agrioulturai workérs (over twothirds of them had enjoyed employment throughout the year in their last farm employnientj a proportion almost 2,5 times

greater than that prevailing for the agrioulturai labor forcé

as a íjhole in. 1952)« 2/

These were the older group (over 40)i have had relatiyely- longer years of agrioulturai émplóymeht (generally over 11)j had béen móstly employed in minor fruit and vegetable cropSi and weré currently at the upper end of the incomé distribution of fomer agricultura! workers.

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The, woniiBn. jüi omr samplé Imve also shówn contlnued involvement in the industrial laboí market.

Econoihlc réasons ránk

foremost aiBqfng tha explanatóry factors, althóugh onii^ ábout 20^ of the woiaenj,. primarily divorcees or widows, evér reportad to ba tha sola support of the housahold. Tha desira to escapa the

tedium pf the homai has baan anothar strong pushióg forcé tó entar

and raraain in tha market — the factory provides a social axpa-

rienca pf^ graat valué ih contrast to the rastrictad social opportunities at home, Pinally, women hava amargad with a naw feeling of Indapatidenca» that sort of assures continuad invólvament in

the market* ühey hava successfully resisted tha pressures of husbands and othar male mambars of the family to hava th©n con-

form tp the traditional role. Por axampla, it is surprising the degree to which the women in Our sampla expressad a desira

to continua wprking regardless of marital status. About 90jg of the single women and 85^ of the othars axprassed a positiva interest in continuing to work indefinitaly. Thay seem tO like

factory work with aqual intansity as man, Qf thosa women exprassing an occupational choice for a tima five years henee, aimost two<*thi37ds in aach area indicated soma cláss of factory work.

Howavar, it is interasting to nota that women with more than 9

years of edueation in all three areas demonstrated a strong pref» erence for clerical occupations or othar non-factory employments

which were eonsidared more prestlgéful, while among man, only in San #uan. did the iéval of edueation show any significant assoclation with non-factory occupational cholee.

• ■i9il. Workers ' Market Behaviog ahd-Óther Iridlcés of -the Lévél of

• Commitment

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A modern and raátui'e' ihdtistrlál la'bor market^ Is cháracterized

by both mobility ^ahd'stáblilty.

There" is mobility wlthin the

inarket ín thé senáe that Workers téñd tó móve In response to wage

difíerentíais ánd worklhg cbndltlbns tóward Jobs whiGh-promise to maximize Job utilities.

There Is stablllty in the sen se that

workers do jjot generally móvé in irregular fáshión between the industrial and hon-industrial sectors of the eeonc^y^ nor is

there constant ahd large-scále éxif from ánd re^entry to the la

bor forcé.

We gathered a substantlal body of data dealing with

these aspects of workers* Job mobility and stability* We háve already pointed to the pemanence with which the

current factory labor forcé viewed its ihvolvementin industrial employment and hów ihfrequent changes in their labor forcé status have been,

while this can be taken as an index of stabil

ity, the extreme variatións iri labor turnover among the surVeyed fiirnis reveai that there was not thé same dégree of stability /

within the industrial sector or within individual firms.

Annual

net turnover ra tes ranged fr<mi as low as 5^ to well over The fact that the incidence of high turhóvér was not eompletely

random among firms or industries led us to believe that rational éxplañations of thé diversity in reported fiim experiences can be found in the characteristles and manag«nent practlces of firms as well as in the ends workers séék to realizé by their iñterplant raóváments.

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.We foxind. considerable evidence that workers,' moveraents were

influenced and gulded by the structure of wage differentials,

We got adeqxiate data on empioyinen.i: stability for 67 of the 85 plants we vislted.

Dividing these fims inte 3 groups by level

pf turnover, we dlscovered that there was a striklng Inverse relationahip between the wage level and the level of stability and that the differences in stability cannot be attrlbuted to

other factors alone, such as age of the flrm, Its slze or the

sex composltlon of the workforce (these factors ylelded a statistleally Inslgnlficant correlatlon wlth turnover. when. wages were

held constant). It la notable that, as wage leveis have rlsen in flms and Industries characterlzed by hlgh turnover, employers have reportad that stability aind sometimes productlvlty have In-

oreased In splte of thelr expectatlons that lelsure preferences would weaken the effectlveness of the wage riae>

Subjectlve evldence of moblllty from the lower-wage indus tries to the hl^er was also recelved from the employers Intervlewed.

Por example, some of the plants whlch opened up In the

relatively hlgh-wage electrlcal goods Industry after 1953 In the metropolltan centers reportad that they were able to recruit a larga proportlon of female workers wlth prevlous industrial

experlence in the garment and other lower-wage Industries.

Wlthln

the garment Iniustry itself, there was considerable movanent of

women reported from the lower-wage locally-owned sector of the industry to the newer producers for the malnland market who paid

hi^er wages set xjnder federal regulatloni this, in spite of the

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more severe work discipline, higher production and quality require-

ments and more impersonal, thotigh léss authoritarian, relations

to be expected in these firms. The starting wage differential of 30^ or more seemed adequateto overeóme any preference workers may have hadfor the more tolerant and traditionál climate of the native sector;'

Management employment practicas must be credited with part of the responsibility for-great instability where it has persisted ovar time.

Por example, veiy high turnover rates were

sometlmes found to flow from inefficient recruiting and hiring

prácticos. Rather than screen applicants fully before hiring, many firms first hired and then screened workers on the Job;

those unable to show rapid progress would then be dlscouraged

from rémaining. Training personnel and raethods were often found to be unsystematic and inadequate for the early achievement. of

the high output standards which' were demandad; again, ehcouraging frustation. and turnover. in the case of absenteeism, soma firms dismissed it ás endemic to the puerto Rican workforce and

made no attempts to reduce it. It appears frran our data, that where turnover and absenteeism reflect resistance on the part of

workers to the discipline of the factory, this resistance could

be softened greatly given appropriate training and wage condltions. under optimum conditions, labor forcé stability could be achieved in a plant employing a moderately low order of skills •

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in as short a time as one to two years,

Our dáta also show that rlsing minirnimi wages not only reduce workers" incentive to raove but they also have an imi^ct on

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manageneat practices favorable to stabillty.

Management desires

to restrain labor cost increases lead to more careful hiring and

tralning procedwes, more vlgorous raeasuree. to combat absenteeism, and a tl^tenlng of production standards that minimlzes the frustratione to idiich workera may otherwiee be exposed,

Purther evidence that once workers' Involvement in the market

Is achieved, both actual and potential mobility seem to be guided or influenced by wage dlfferencea was obtalned by esqplorlng the pattern and reasons for workers' past Job changes and their attltudes toward their current Jobs.

Dissatisfaction with earnings,

either because of low wage rates or because of irregular work, was by far the most frequently glven reason for yoluntary separa-

tions by workers in their post-inyolveijient period, That mobility has not, been irrational In a v?age sense is shown by the fact that, for workers with between one to three Job changes slnce 19^5>

about 2/3 of the moves were acccwnpanied by earnlngs increases; for workers with over 4 Job changes, one-half of.the moves among

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men and 40$$ among women were aceompánled by earnings increases.

Dissatisfaction with the current Job or employment situatlon

also show a hlgh inverse correlation with the earnings level> Th®

•i/since these changes include all moves# both .voluntary and involintary, including some which preceded entry into the indus trial labor forcé and reflectlhg the greater seasonality. of

non-factory employment, the high proportion of earnings in creases is even moré impressive.

purthermore, there need be

nothing irrational about movement among plants offering identical mínimum wages. Por exmaple, the high rate of turnover among brassieres and other gament plants was often motlvated

not SO mu#h by ,hopea of an immediate incréase in inoome, but by hopes that instructlon or supervisión would be better or Job standards more attainable.

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majority of the workers interested in other Jobs In the plant, of workers who did not expect to remain in their current place ■ ''A.

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Of employment, and of workers who expressed a preference for employment in. some other factory had wages below the average of

the sample as a whole and offered wages as a primary reason for desiring the change,

Further weight is lent to the relative importance of wages by the rather narrów-range of non-economic factors to vdiich most

workers assign high positive valué.

Our data showed, that the

lower the wage level, the less important non-economic factors are in determining movements between Jobs.

It would appear from the findings thus far discussed that the Puerto Rican industrial worker is firmly integrated into the industrial labor market and that his behavior is consistent with

that of a committed industrial worker.

But there are other res

pecte in which our data show that the development achieved is

stiii only partial.

In a mature industrial society, the labor market function

serves not only to draw workers into the industrial sector and to induce them to remain within it but, simultaneously, it also

serves as an efficient raechanism for allocatlng workers through

the occupational hierarchy. In other words, the development of

an occupational hierarchy and opportunities for upward mobility are essential conditions for gaining ful! conanitment of the labor forcé.

Workers in our sample, though they were very much aware of the substantial gains in inoome and status that their involvement

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In. factory eraployment had yielded over their previous position.,

dlsplayed only a vagu© awareness of posslbilities for advance wlthin the Industrial systera.

This is reflectad in a notable

lack of wlde-spread asplration to advance to skilled or more responsible positions.

Por example, only a third of the men arid fewer than a' quarter of the women indlcated a preference for scane Job in the

plant other than the one they held ciirrently.

Of those men,

however, only a bare half expressed interest in a Job with a higher skill or supervisory content than their current Jobs.

A

large part of these were already skilled workers who preferred

some other skilled Job; unskiííed and semi-skilled workers Ohose unskilled and 8¿ni-skllled Jobs much more often than they did skilled.

The most frequently mentioned reasons for the indicated

cholee were wage and physical effort dlfferences,

wage differ-

entials were relatively more important than physical effort in chooslng skilled and supervisory Jobs, v^ile physical effort in-

creaséd in relative importance as a factor in the cholee. ©f s^i-

skilled or unskilled Jobs,

Prestige.as a factor in the cholee

appears Important only in supervisory posts.

These narrow patterns of aspirations on the part of workers

appear quite understandable tdien the technological nature of in-

dustrialization to date and the employment policies pursued by many employers are examlnedo

The raajority of the new manufacturing plants, at the time

of our studyj^ were light industries which, except in malntenance

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pósitions, employéd largely low-level sklllSé

A vfell developéd

occupationál hierárchy was the exceptioh rather than tha rule.

In the -more cómmon case, the wide gulf, ih tems of sklll,' which

separated productlon from níaintenaríoe Jobs, removed the latter from the óccupatíonal lina bf pregresslon,:; 'Ehus> asjitratlous for more skilléd Jobs carne tó-be;a fuhetion oX the .skill matoe-up

of the plánt work fórde".

Por example, among the industries em-

plóying men, the thfee yielding the hi#iest relative liumber of skilléd to other workers In our sample also ylelded two of the three industries withih whlch -the largést proportion of workers

maklng choices chose skilled Jobs; conversely, the industries

wlth the smallest proportion of skilled workers yielded the least interest in skilled Jobs among those workers. making choices. This suggests that the level of áspirátions is a function of the prox-

imity to and awareness of the existeñce of opportunities in

skilled positions and of the advantages such positions held.

The textile industry provides an example of an industry in which the existeñce of a more formal ladder of Job pro^essloh

on a step by step basis, vrtiich makes qualification for ad^vance-

ment séem feásible, gives riáe to. greater expectations on part of workers.

This industry not only yielded a high proportion of

workers aspiring to skilled positions, but it also was the only

industry in Which a majorlty of the sampled workers expressed some alternutlve Job preference.

Even where diverse skills are eraployed, managérial polioles

often rallitate against the early development of active aspiratlons for advanceraent among workers.

We found many firms liralting

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sharply the opportunitles for adyancemént wlthln the work forcé by filliríg the: more skilled posltions by hlrlng from the out?side

rather than by internal ppogresslon.

ESnployers justlfied this

practlce on the groijnds thsit. ihternal progresaion aggravated the problm of instability aiid inefficiency of the work forcé and ereated training problema aince both the promoted worker and hia replacement would have to be tralned.

Othera contended that

Puerto Rican workera were not intereated in advanc^ent elther becauae of a disintereat tn increasing thelr incomea or becauae

they are afraid of aasuming the reaponsibility whlch often ac-

companled Jobs of greater akill content.

Thla laat healtaney,

many employera reported could be overeóme with a little peraua»^ alón smd encouragement *

Wage structure policies likewise militate against the developnent of aapirationa for advanc^ent.

it la common to find

no formal wage atructures In factoriea with the b.ulk of the productlon Joba all being paid at the same rate or within a very narrow range of ratea*

Slnce Job content differences do exlat

and are not reflected In the wage ratea, it la not imreaaonable that workers expresa alternative Job preferences whlch tend to

mlnlmlze the dlsutlllty elementa of the Job (r.e* effort, dlrt, etCo)* In our plant survey, we found that where opportunlties for advancement exlsted and a Job hleratchy was paralleled by a atructure of wage ratea, the responae of workers to Job openlngs was also aufficlent to flll them*

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The partial and transltlonal character of ccMumltment ampng

our sample workers is díscernlble iñ other ws^s as well. There

has yet to emerge amohg thé new facfcory workers a sepárate identity as a group or class. Most factory workers stlll think of

themselves as belóhglng to the lower working class. One does not sense a strong feeling of comraon Interests,

Their Uves appear

to be organlzed about two sepárate poles> the factory ahd the home, and the two rarély háve anything in commOn. once the worker leaves thé plant, his activitiés appear to be orientad toward his residential neighborhood much more than toward thé work group.

Our data alsó show that group action to recti^ grievancés

has not been common among the newer industrial workers.

There

is a rather strong residue of valúes and esspectations associated

with t^e traditional personalistic reiationship between "patrono" and "obrero",

v/orkers were cotnmonly found to identify with the

employer as a person and to desire recognition directly from him.

At the same time^ there was an expectation that the employer should be the arbiter of the workers' on-the-job problem if not his personal problema as well.

III. Factors Pacilitating Commitment

A number of factors and eonditions have contributed to the

observad adaptation and oonwíiitmertt of workers to industry. Pirst,

the organization. of factory production does not represeht a radi-éir

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cal change from pre-indüstrial patterns, partieularly with those inherent in the plantation system of produetiono

Por many male

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workers, factory employment opportunities has meant merely an extensión of the boxindaries of the labor raarket,

The oharacteriSitics of the labor forcé must be consldered a second factor, favorable to corataitment.

The majority of the

workers who have been..drawn into the- industrial labor market

were wage laborers,^ either,in agriculture or in non^industrial eraployraents. statiis tems

They had nothing to losp in either economic or The hlgher inconijs and better working conditions

of industry could only enhance his social status,

Purtherraore,

the modérate,amount of education (less than eight years of

formal schoóling) the majority of the workers had left no other alternativo to factory employment but unskilled manual labor.

Third, workers have entered the industrial labor forcé with

only limited ajranediate objectives, hlgher incomes and/or increased employment stability.

These are goals which have gener-

ally been.susceptible to early satisfaction in industry.

Contributing to the effectiveness of industrial wage levels in encouraging coramitment have been the legal procedures for

determining mlnimvan wages.

A substantial wage differential in

favor of industrial employment has emerged as a result. of legal miniraura wages which are determined largely by the criterion. of industry profitability.

The existence of this differential and

the expectation that wages will continué to rise steadily, if

not rapidly, have been of vital significanee in securing the permanent involvement of workers in the industrial labor forcé.

Another contributii:^ factor has been the fact that indus

trial employment does not appear to have resultad in visible

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large scale social and faraiíjr diso3?ganlzat±bn though eohslderable reorganization is readlly observablev

Por many of the

industrial workers, their integr^ation into industrial employment has not meant a complete uprootlng of ccanmunity or family

ties,

There has been considerable migratiorí. to urban centers,

but íriost of this is faraily raigratioh.

Purthemore, the wider

"

dispersal "of factories throughoüt thé islahd promises to perrait

more workers to accept factory eraployment without severing their ties to their residential communities.

In other words, though

it is true that industrial discipline and the new employment opportunities for víomen have accelerated a loosening of tradi-

tional ties to the extended family and adjustment of family

relationships is proceeding, there has not been any discernable widespread family disintegration.

Pinally, substantial credit for the successful integration of workers into industry must lie wlth the overall quality and the eraployment prácticos of the nev; industrial management.

While

plant personnel policios still leave much to be desired, the atmosphere does not appear to be óppressive, and relations between workers and manageraents are generally cordial.

Though

workers often do expresa a wlsh for closer personal relations

with employers, they have been responsivo and appreciative of the greater impartiality, the less authoritarian approach, and the

1/ greater evidence of managerial skills which most of the new

3/since most of the expansión in Puerto Rico has represented the establishment of branch planta of raainland fims, there has been a readler availability of skilled managerial personnel to the new plants.

i'

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managerlal forcé has tíroiA^t to JLts tá,sk.

They also show a rather

sophisticated imderstanding of the needs and problema facing managements, aríd a surprising awareness of the varylng abilltles pf management personnel:.

On the other hand, managements have,.in

thelr^ effort.tLo« facilítate workers'. adjustment to modern. faatory

condltions^ successfully adopted> tn many cases, selected paterna-

listic practices and forma ídilch help increase woijkers' ifeelings

of security .witho.ut compromising plant efficienoy.