Hotmail
Auto turmoil casts cloud over factory jobs
 |
Home sales surge, boosting recovery hopes The recovery may have gotten off to a slow start in the third quarter, but a surge in sales of existing homes in November could presage a more robust end to the year. |
The FMA’s Lee says that training should include everything from trade school courses in high school to college engineering and science degrees.
But since such jobs are still undervalued by so many Americans, she says, not enough people are interested in the training needed for these jobs.
“It’s an image problem,” said Craig Giffi, chairman of the Global Manufacturing Industry practice for Deloitte, referring to manufacturing work. “It’s perceived as dirty and grimy and hard labor. Manufacturers understand they have an image problem.”
Giffi believes most people don’t understand that manufacturing today generally is a high-tech industry done in facilities with clean floors.
Plus the image of manufacturing jobs has declined as white-collar jobs have gained ascendancy.
“The idea is you go out, develop yourself, educate yourself and basically become a white-collar worker,” explained Mark Clark, associate professor at the Kogod School of Business at American University.
Manufacturing sector jobs have become stigmatized, he argues, as a result of the democratization of education. “We want to send our kids to college, to get computer skills," he says. "That doesn’t seem to coincide with manufacturing.”
But that assessment is unfair, he noted, and blue-collar jobs are getting the short end of the stick. “If we’re too good for manufacturing, then pretty soon everyone is too good to do manufacturing, and that will create difficulties," he says.
Another issue plaguing manufacturing, and the auto industry in particular, is the belief by many that unions aren’t necessary anymore and that they may have contributed to the problems automakers are facing now.
“Ask any consumer not remotely related to manufacturing, and the first thing they talk about is the union,” says Clint Adamkavicius, senior industry analyst for consulting firm Frost & Sullivan. Many believe unions have contributed to the high cost of products like cars and few want to bailout a work force they believe is making more money than they think they should.
Most statistics show that unionized workers, especially in manufacturing, tend to make more than their non-union counterparts.
The high wages enjoyed by unionized manufacturing workers, including the United Auto Workers, gave many American workers a path into the middle class they would not have had otherwise, says Gary Chaison, professor of industrial relations at Clark University’s Graduate School of Management.
He says the shortage of manufacturing workers goes beyond perception issues.
“Those shortages won’t be filled unless these jobs are high-paying, provide good employee benefits and give assumptions of continued employment,” he says.
If the U.S. auto industry were to die off because people think workers make too much or they just don’t like the industrial nature of the business, he said, “then maybe we’re saying the United States cannot be a manufacturing country.”
GM assembly worker Maccari hopes that’s not the conclusion Congress or his fellow citizens come to.
He’s eligible to retire in a little over a year and is praying that his longtime employer has a future, not just for himself but for the workers and the for an industry he’s spent his whole life in.
“When you worked with your hands it used to be considered fairly important, an honorable occupation,” he says. “I think it still is.”
- Discuss Story On Newsvine
-
Rate Story:
View popularLowHigh - Instant Message
MORE FROM LOCAL BUSINESS |
 Local Business Section Front |
| Add Local Business headlines to your news reader: |
Sponsored links
Open an Account Online Today! $7 Trades & Powerful Trading Tools.
www.scottrade.com
Resource guide