Manufacturing

Manufacturing is coming back to the US. In 1993, the passage of NAFTA began the exodus that lasted 24 years. US citizens born before the 1970s with manufacturing experience should be available to hire and shorten the learning curve for those born after the 1970s.  If Congress had lowered the US Corporate tax in 1993, we would not have seen as much deterioration in the US economy as we have seen, but they didn’t. Now we need to reboot the structures to support the technical training that will be required.

Most manufacturing jobs were blue collar jobs high school grads took to “get ahead”. They liked the fact that manufacturing pay structures allowed them to “advance” in the company and have a “future”. These are “production oriented” folks who like to “stay busy” and know that their jobs depend on “continuous improvement” of processes.

The opportunity employees had to earn pay raises had been built in to the company structures for decades. Wherever there is demand for their products and services, companies worked to increase sales. As sales increased, companies hired more employees and invested in new equipment to increase productivity and throughput.

Companies had traditionally recognized that each job has levels of expertise and had established ladder progressions from Assembler I, Assembler II and Sr. Assembler. Employees were hired as Assembler I and taught to perform assembly of sub-assemblies. Those who were the most productive would advance to Assembler II and were given a promotional increase in pay. They were given more difficult work. Those who learned all operations and would train other employees were promoted to Sr. Assembler and given another raise.  Most manufacturing jobs have this ladder progression for Technicians, Machinists, Materials and other “blue collar” jobs. These are primarily skill-based and reflect the employees overall value of the work these employees do.

In addition, most companies also gave annual raises based on the overall productivity increases that had been achieved. These raises were at or a little above the increase in the cost of living.

If, for whatever reason, product demand and sales decline, the Company may lay off employees if the decline isn’t temporary. Hopefully, laid off employees will be able to secure a similar job and continue to increase their value.

In all cases, employees need to pick jobs they love to do.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader