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The Blue-Collar Drought
SHRM ^ | February 2, 2019 | Dana Wilkie

Posted on 04/17/2020 9:23:29 AM PDT by GuavaCheesePuff

t age 13, Montez King took a machine shop class at a Baltimore high school that later landed him a job at what was formerly Teledyne Inc., earning $10 an hour. Back in 1991, that was pretty good money for a teen.

A few years later, King was earning $16 an hour as a full-time apprentice machinist, while Teledyne paid for him to attend community college two nights a week. At age 18, he had saved enough to buy his own home.

King credits that apprenticeship with giving him the opportunity to make a solid living. But he acknowledges that today, so few young adults in the U.S. are interested in so-called “blue-collar” jobs that there’s now a frightening shortage of workers who have traditionally been the economic foundation of this country—be they builders, welders, plumbers, pipe fitters, miners or mechanics.

(Excerpt) Read more at shrm.org ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Local News; Society
KEYWORDS: bluecollar; february2020; michigan; newjersey; ohio; oldarticle; oldnews; shrm
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To: Flavious_Maximus

> You do realize that Bush gave total control of the “No Child Left Behind” policy to Ted Kennedy. <

Oh, yes. But that in no way lessens Bush’s responsibility for this fiasco. The buck stops at the White House.

NCLB gutted trades classes all across the country. Music and art, too. How tough would it had been for Bush to say, “Sure, let’s rank schools based on their math and English scores. But let’s rank them based on other skills as well.”

NCLB is lunacy. I saw kids who should have been in a welding class struggling to interpret some damn English poem from 100 years ago. Bush signed NCLB. He owns it.


21 posted on 04/17/2020 10:39:13 AM PDT by Leaning Right (I have already previewed or do not wish to preview this composition.)
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To: GuavaCheesePuff
My husband is retired and I am still interested in his ability to do just about any labor he wants. He took shop in high school, along with other courses, and constantly relies on his knowledge of the basics that he learned at that time. He has higher education which requires more blue collar experience but even there he draws on what to him is basic knowledge that he picked up in his very early years of shop training. Carpentry, car engines, basic machinery and tools. It does not have to be an either-or choice but a life long enhancement of the rest of an education at whatever level.
22 posted on 04/17/2020 10:40:54 AM PDT by mountainfolk
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To: glorgau

99% of the time, no trust.


23 posted on 04/17/2020 10:44:58 AM PDT by wally_bert (Transmission tone, Selma.)
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To: mountainfolk

My otherwise joke of a high school offered 3 years of auto mechanics or ag.

I took auto. That was enjoyable. The rest was boring and easy.

My HS only cared about college prep, band, football, and the rich kids. The rest, so what.


24 posted on 04/17/2020 10:48:22 AM PDT by wally_bert (Transmission tone, Selma.)
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To: GuavaCheesePuff

Even the Bill Gates of the world will need a plumber sooner or later!!!

For those who like animals & being their own boss outdoors-—there is a severe shortage of farriers (people who shoe horses0 in this country.

There are more horses in the USA today than before tractors came onto the scene.


25 posted on 04/17/2020 10:56:49 AM PDT by ridesthemiles
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To: Taxman

Kids today cannot even read analog clocks-—they want all the clocks in schools changed to digital!!!

How should anyone expect them to read a dial gauge or use a calipers???


26 posted on 04/17/2020 10:58:11 AM PDT by ridesthemiles
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To: Mathews
I try to hire craftsmen all the time, but I can’t find any good ones who can pass a piss test.

Why should they have to pass a piss test? What counts is on the job performance, not off the job recreation.

27 posted on 04/17/2020 11:14:10 AM PDT by glorgau
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To: ridesthemiles

“How should anyone expect them to read a dial gauge or use a calipers???”

My grandfather (who at the end of his career was sort of an internal consultant to machinists, a “setter”), said that was a problem - but he said it in the mid 1970’s, when there WEREN’T any digital gauges or calipers!


28 posted on 04/17/2020 11:40:45 AM PDT by The Antiyuppie (When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day.)
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To: GuavaCheesePuff
I know a lot of contractors who are older and can't find young people to take over. Can't find trainees; can't find any help. The 20 somethings are sitting in the basement playing "make believe". Skilled trades earn good money. Even common laborers can earn good money.
 
29 posted on 04/17/2020 11:43:13 AM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie (Guide me, O thou great redeemer, pilgrim through this barren land.)
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To: glorgau

I try to hire craftsmen all the time, but I can’t find any good ones who can pass a piss test.

Why should they have to pass a piss test? What counts is on the job performance, not off the job recreation.”””

Because if they get hurt on the job & are under the influence of drugs-—or alcohol-—the workmen’s comp insurance won’t pay them.

Also- IF any such employee is driving a company truck, the auto insurance won’t pay out for being under the influence behind the wheel.

IF I owned a company, I would be piss testing randomly on a continuing basis.


30 posted on 04/17/2020 11:45:27 AM PDT by ridesthemiles
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To: Leaning Right

I went to high school before the Bush II era. Boys (and they were almost all boys) who took the welding, air conditioning, bricklaying, auto mechanics, electrical, plumbing, and similar classes (and the girls in cosmetology) in their junior and senior years also had to take and pass the regular mathematics and English classes. The mandatory junior English class covered that classical British literature, interpreting centuries-old poetry. Generally, welding students took 3 hours of welding, one hour of English, one hour of American history or government, and as many as two additional hours, usually including mathematics (trigonometry; many continued to calculus), science (chemistry or physics; many took both), and foreign language. They also could take music and art classes (if available in their schedules).

Incidentally, the vocational/technical-school crowd almost without exception managed to pass these difficult classes. A few took honors and even advanced placement classes. Those who enrolled in the technical classes generally had sufficient drive, determination, or parents. Many such students probably didn’t get particularly high grades but still managed to eke out passing scores while behaving appropriately. Other pupils simply failed away.


31 posted on 04/17/2020 11:46:29 AM PDT by dufekin
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To: ridesthemiles
under the influence

Like I said. What counts is on the job performance, not off the job recreation. What you're saying is that the potential liability is greater than the productivity minus the compensation of the worker. I imagine that the value calculation could be refined.

32 posted on 04/17/2020 11:53:03 AM PDT by glorgau
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To: glorgau

Ha!!! Okay... so you’re telling me that I need to hire a meth-head simply because he can weld or fit pipe, and I can trust said individual to come in here every day sober and not high as a kite? Not happening. No friggin’ way. Our insurance company would crap a brick and the corporate folks would fire my a$$ yesterday!


33 posted on 04/17/2020 12:13:06 PM PDT by Mathews (Ecclesiastes 10:2 (NIV), Luke 22:36 (NIV))
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To: GuavaCheesePuff

A friend of mine’s nephew started getting in trouble in high school. His mother convinced him to enlist. While in the Navy he got training in Diesel engines and when he was discharged got his ASE certification. Diesel repair may not be the most glamorous job out there but he’s now making good $$$ and doing very well for himself, without any student loan debt from some overrated diploma mill hanging over his head.


34 posted on 04/17/2020 12:24:19 PM PDT by Impala64ssa (Virtue signalling is no virtue)
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To: ridesthemiles

That is surely part of the problem; one other part is a general unwillingness to perform an honest day’s work for an honest day’s wages.

My buddy has fired several young men because they can’t leave their damn phones in their cars!


35 posted on 04/17/2020 12:44:53 PM PDT by Taxman ((We will never be a truly FRee people so long as we have the income tax and the IRS!))
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To: yesthatjallen

Great idea, and I am not sure he has done that.

I’ll ask him when I see him again.


36 posted on 04/17/2020 12:46:02 PM PDT by Taxman ((We will never be a truly FRee people so long as we have the income tax and the IRS!))
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To: Mathews
Exactly and that is only the beginning. Even if you didn't get fired then, you would the first time one of these stoners injured or killed somebody with an expensive piece of equipment or even knocked down a door or storage rack with it. There is a good reason piss tests are required.

(Although, I actually passed mine by providing a hair sample. The HR guy told me these tests are more reliable because a guy has to be clean for several weeks to pass whereas a week or two will get you through a piss test.)

37 posted on 04/17/2020 12:50:05 PM PDT by Vigilanteman (The politicized state destroys aspects of civil society, human kindness and private charity.)
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To: muggs

ping


38 posted on 04/17/2020 12:56:08 PM PDT by timestax
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To: dufekin

> [trades students] also had to take and pass the regular mathematics and English classes <

Right. And that’s just the way it should be. Algebra 1, for example, is actually a very practical class. It has real-world applications.

But NCLB forces everyone into advanced math classes like pre-calculus. Who needs a class like that? Maybe someone looking to go into engineering or physics.

The trades kids don’t need it. Their time is better spent in the shops. But NCLB eliminated the shops. So kids who should have been in those shops are instead in pre-calculus, a class they neither want nor need.


39 posted on 04/17/2020 1:00:39 PM PDT by Leaning Right (I have already previewed or do not wish to preview this composition.)
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To: GuavaCheesePuff

My Grandpa worked as a tool&die for one company - Michigan Brass - for 40 years (1930 - 1970) and yes, he was hired during the depression, in Detroit. He retired and lived 19 more years as a single man (he had outlived my Grandma and his 2nd wife) spending half a year in Fla. with my Uncle, the other half with us in Mich...

My Dad also a tool&die retired in 1998 and enjoyed over 20 years retirement, he just passed this past Feb...

Me? they started me as an apprentice working the tool crib, I enjoyed the good pay but (all important ‘but’), I decided I had a wanderlust so I joined the military...

If I had stuck with tool and die, I’d be retired by now...

Still putting my 40 hours+ a week here and NOT retired...


40 posted on 04/17/2020 1:03:12 PM PDT by dakine
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