Laid-Off Factory Workers Find Jobs Are Drying Up for Good

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Monday, July 21, 2003 | CLARE ANSBERRY

[TroutStalker]

BUTLER, Pa. -- The two Karenbauer brothers and their cousin, Danny Mottern, have worked alongside each other for much of their lives. Working with their hands comes naturally to all three. As young boys they were dispatched to feed the cows and plant corn on their grandfather's 134-acre farm.

[TroutStalker]

Dateline: Butler

[StatesEnemy]

Well they should be 'adding value' in a 'service industry', anyway...

What the heck's wrong with them? Don't they know that factories are for loser countries???

[Huck]

"For people who work with their hands

Everyone except soccor players, right?

[joesnuffy]

NAFTA...

[Alouette]

What happened to the family farm? Did the County take it?

[harpseal]

At least we will not be getting teh Buggy whip comments on this one. We are moving to a society most in the uSA will not like. The potential violence that this will bring will make those gated communities very much unsafe.

[y2k_free_radical]

My in laws hunting grounds-good paying jobs are vanishing in that entire region===true of USA i general i guess.

[BudgieRamone]

Stan Donnelly, whose Alexandria, Minn., company makes plastic parts for big equipment manufacturers, imports tools from China to save money. In the long run, bypassing U.S. toolmakers is a mistake, he believes.

---Ok you numbnuts, you believe its a mistake why are you doing it? BECAUSE IT SAVES MONEY!!!!

Ever notice its all about saving money and putting that "saved" money into the Stockholders, CEO's and all the other alphabet soup title's pockets. Why aren't these bone heads concerned with making money? because that would require them to actually have a brain and it would interfere with their tee times at the local golf club.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against someone who earns their money and is successful at it, more power to them, but this is gross incompetence coupled with greed. They expect their bread and butter (floor workers) to suffer and take the cutbacks while few of them feel any kind of pain from an economic downturn. In fact its quite the opposite, they profit from the downturn, their companies lose money and yet they are still given bonuses...how screwed up is that?

One example that I found to be particularly outstanding in this was Raytheon Corporation. They made a deal with Massachusetts to keep payroll--not employment, but payroll-- at a certain level to gain tax breaks from the state, Well the bright boys in charge decided they needed to lay off, so what do they do? They lay-off a bunch of workers yet, keeping true to the letter of the agreement, maintain payroll at its level by giving the person in charge a hefty raise!

Raytheon is only one example, I am sure there are many more horror stories floating around out there, I just happen to know more about Raytheon because I am a laid off production worker from their aircraft unit.

[JeanLM]

There maybe a problem with the shrinking manufacturing job sector, but it is not a recent problem and it is not the only issue here.

I have 13 job openings in N.E. Pennsylvania and would be glad to hire these guys but I doubt they'd move. People like this aren't very mobile. Two plants like ours shut down, for example, and I offered all their employees positions. None showed up. The shuttered plants were 150 to 200 miles away from us, but that was too far I guess. Family and familiar surroundings are powerful anchors.

[holdmuhbeer]

We are moving to a society most in the uSA will not like. The potential violence that this will bring will make those gated communities very much unsafe.

What kind of society are you talking about?

[harpseal]

A society consisting of a very small number of very rich and a large number of unemployed. See Argentina for a current example. Such societies are inherently unstable. Educated and otherwise productive people do not take being idles well. The results come in many forms including what happened in the Weimar Republic.

[livius]

I lived in Butler 25 years ago, and the papers were lamenting this same situation. The government poured money into "retraining," although without much impact. As you say, people are reluctant to move, and reluctant to change in any way. Instead, they howl for the government to keep things from changing, which aside from being unprofitable, is impossible.

These folks should learn a new skill, and it can still be one that involves working with their hands. I have friends and relatives in the construction business, and they say they are desperate for good workers. But most of their applicants do not have basic manual skills or the interest in learning them, and on top of that, they have lousy work habits (drug use, drunkenness, simply not showing up for work). These are not badly paying jobs, btw, even to start, and a really skilled construction worker can do very nicely after a few years.

Not to mention what a good plumber or electrician can make!

[OldPossum]

This situation is a real shame. I cannot help but feel sorry for these men, caught up in an economy which no longer needs their talents. The earlier solution was to train them in computers but those jobs are also being "outsourced" to other countries.

[Semper Paratus]

a really skilled construction worker can do very nicely after a few years.

In my area the better contractors are booked months in advance.

[Lazamataz]

The shift also means income for secretaries, maintenance workers, and counter people in lobby coffee shops and staff parking garages. Furthermore, off-loading much of the low-skill production work saves money and makes companies more competitive. That means they can focus on innovation and potentially create other jobs.

.....that they will immediately offshore to Bangalore, India.

[Tacis]

I regret to inform you that the good factory jobs from the US are going to Mexico so that the friends and relatives of Presidente Fox and the sons and daughters of the officers of the PAN will have good jobs (they don't get paid that much, but they don't work that hard, either). Of course, Mr. Fox gets a portion of each pay check.

It is also unfortunate that the safety valve jobs here in the US, the jobs that an unemployed factory worker could get that would pay a minimum amount of cash, don't exist any longer. They were all taken by Mexicans wetbacks who work pretty hard and NEVER push for higher wages. They send money home and, you got it, Foxey gets a cut of each of those checks too.

Fox is trying to get a cut of the money that young black criminals in the US earn in the course of their crimes. Fox figures he's entitled because the black kids would be employed if it weren't for the wetbacks and so he wants a cut of the crime revenue. Reports suggest that this plan is not working well.

[Lazamataz]

At least we will not be getting teh Buggy whip comments on this one. We are moving to a society most in the uSA will not like. The potential violence that this will bring .....A society consisting of a very small number of very rich and a large number of unemployed. See Argentina for a current example. Such societies are inherently unstable. Educated and otherwise productive people do not take being idles well. The results come in many forms including what happened in the Weimar Republic.

Wisely observed, friend.

[Valin]

A lot of these job losses are due to advancements in technology.
Example
I work for a major manufacturer of filters, we are going to be upgrading the machines I operate. The machine I operate runs filter media at an of average 70-75 fpm. The new ones will run at 150-200fpm, the old machines need pre-slit media, the new ones have a slitter built in. This means the new lines will be able to do in one shift what the old ones do in 3.
The days of being able to make a good living with a strong back and a weak mind are long gone. To work as a "blue collar" factory worker today you'd better know a little electronics, phenumatics, hydrolics, qc, and of course computers.
Like it or not it's not 1956 anymore.

[Michael Barnes]

I don't live very far from Butler. The construction bizz around here is hammering the contractors. There is new construction, private contracting construction; it's all over the place. These guys could do very well as "Handyman" types if they put their minds to it. If they want to take a pay cut and learn a new skill, there is plenty of work around here for the "Hands-on" type. I know a "kid" around here who is 22, making 200 bucks a day. That's not small change for a 22 y/o in the construction arena.