The competition of imported goods  in  the American market has pushed

       American industry  to  reevaluate  its methods.  The result of this has

       brought mixed reviews.  While the current race towards automation stems

       from  necessity,  its  affects  on  the  labor market may outweigh  its

       benefits towards industry.


         There are  several  industry  which,  having  suffered  in  the  last

       recession, have slowly been slipping in  production  and  profit  owing

       largely  to  the  advancements  in foreign production.   Automation  of

       production overseas has greatly decreased the  cost  of  products  from

       regions which historically have had cheaper labor and materials.


         Competition  from foreign producers, particularily the Japanese,  has

       forced  American  industry  to   rapidly   improve   their  methods  of

       production.   "If  we  had  not  introduced  new  technology  into  our

                                                                             1
       business, we would have fallen behind the  Japanese  rather  rapidly."

       That  was  said  by  Carl  J.  Schlemmer,  vice  president  of  General


       ----------

       1. "High Tech: Blessing  or  Curse?,"  U.S.   News  &  World Report, 16
                                              ____   ____  _  _____ ______
       January, 1984, p.41.



                                        - 1 -










       Electric's Erie Pa. plant, in defense of G.E.'s  move  to  automate its

       plant  in  Erie,  Pennsylvania,  a  move which wiped out 3,000  of  the

       plant's jobs in three years.


         In  fact,  that remains to be the producers' strongest  argument  for

       automation: necessity.  In most industries there is a  common  thought,

       "although automation would take away the jobs of  hundreds of thousands

       of industrial and office workers, if not more;  a  failure  to automate

       would almost certainly cause the loss  of far more more jobs to foreign

                    2
       competition."


         There are  indusries  in  which investment in high tech machinery has

       been  necessitated   by  this  reason.   In  particular:  auto,  steel,

       aeronautics, electronics, textiles  and  other  industries depending on

       heavy machinery to produce assembly line products.


         In the automobile industry the leader in automation  has been General

       Motors.  It is particularily in this industry that both the corporation

       and the  union  have seen the necessity of automation.  In fact, United

       Auto Workers union  analyst,  Peter  Unterwegh  has  found  that,  "the

       failure to automate more quickly in the steel and to lesser  degree  in

       the  automobile  industry,  is  responsible  for  at least some of  the

       current difficulties of these industries.  It is an unfortunate paradox

       that the  greatest  job loses will most likely occur in industries that



       ----------

       2. "Automation Seen By Experts As  a Job Saver for Indusries," New York
                                                                      ___ ____
       Times, 28 May, 1983, Sec.  D, p.3 col.1.
       _____



                                        - 2 -










                         3
       fail to automate."


         The most developed of all automobile, automated factories is  General

       Motors' Orion plant.  This plant is schedualed to open in 1985. General

       Motors is planning to remodel three  such  plants,  each  costing  $500

       million.  The Orion plant will  be 72 acres, all under one roof and 85%