Report of the Director-General

The annual report of the Director-General (Morse) of the International Labor Organization (ILO) to the 38th session of the ILO Conference had a special theme, that of labor-management relations in thedeveloping industrial society.1 The state of labor-management relations was an important conditioning factor in attaining the broad goals laid down for the ILO in recent years, the Director-General stated; for example, productivity had been widely emphasized during the preceding year, and in the last analysis, the success of efforts to bring about higher productivity depended largely on improved cooperation within industry between management and labor. Labor-management relations were fundamental to the achievement of better manpower utilization in underdeveloped countries, and to the improvement of working and living conditions. In connection with the desire for greater economic security, faulty labor-management relations, creating an obsession with security and an aversion to change on the part of labor, could result in economic stagnation. Research and standard-setting and technical assistance were noted by the Director-General as important contributions being made by the ILO to industrial development, but he stated that these activities, while related to the problems of labor and management, were limited in that they were primarily concerned with setting the goals and establishing the legislative and administrative framework for social policy. It was worth considering, he thought, whether the ILO was not in need of a more positive, active and varied program for improved labormanagement relations.