N.E.'s machine shops feel economic sting

The Boston Globe ^ | 6/22/2003 | Robert Gavin

[Willie Green]

DRACUT -- In the back of an old mill here, the radio was blaring classic rock -- Fleetwood Mac, Bruce Springsteen, Creedence Clearwater Revival. A couple of years ago, the music would have been drowned out by grinding metal and churning machinery as up to six machinists -- including the two owners -- worked 10-hour days to keep up with orders for prototypes, parts, and newly-developed products from local technology and telecom firms.

[jocon307]

"Leo Perrin and Jean Chandonnet"

Hmmmm, these guys sound pretty FRENCH to me.

[Uncle Miltie]

JOBS INCREASE IN MAY (Summary Snippets)

For Release: June 20, 2003
Contact: Elliot Winer
Telephone: 617.626.6558
E-Mail: ewiner@detma.org


The Massachusetts seasonally adjusted unemployment rate held at 5.5 percent in May.

The national unemployment rate edged up from 6.0 percent in April to 6.1 percent in May. The gap between the Massachusetts and U.S. unemployment rates was 0.6 percentage point, with Massachusetts now recording a lower rate than the U.S. for 99 consecutive months.

Massachusetts added 7,900 jobs in May.

Professional, scientific, and business services jobs were up 2,500 in May.

Jobs in education and health services were up 1,200 in May to 574,100.

Trade, transportation, and utilities added 800 jobs in May to 581,100.

Employment in the information super sector was off by 500 in May.

Financial activities recorded a 500-job gain in April.

Leisure and hospitality recorded a 5,000-job increase in May.

Construction posted a 600-job gain in May.

Manufacturing continued to show weakness in May with an additional 500-job loss.

---

Snip

So, Manufacturing employees who lost their jobs in Mass. have lots of opportunities in other sectors. Looks like a net job gain to me! Good luck in you new careers, Bay Staters!

[Gorzaloon]

After each recession of the past 30 years, employment in machine shops has failed to return to prerecession levels. That has left an aging work force and few apprentices to take their place

In the '60's, "College Focus" class divisions implied that there was something wrong with the Shop Class kids, and they did not pad the school's "On to College" statistics.

I read an article in "The Welding Distributor" magazine back in the '70's that decried "Effeminate guidance councillors" who talked kids of out learning how to weld!

In later years, one could spend a lot less time and effort to get someone to call you an "IT Engineer", or "Web Designer".

I was kind of an amphibian..College Focus, Scientific...but with a lathe in the cellar. I have a lathe and miller, now, and really respect the machinists at Work. This situation just does not seem right. Being a good machinist is a VERY demanding skill, and one that an industrialized country cannot do without. Sure, we can send manufacturing ("Machine _Operator_") jobs to Mexico all we want, but if you want to do engineering*, there has to be a shop around with skilled people in it.

* OK, so I am old-fashioned. Software is not "engineering". Software is a tool used by engineers.

Grinning and ducking.

[RonF]

I'm sure they are of French heritage. There's a number of such in Massachusetts, having come down from Canada to become productive U.S. citizens. These two in particular seem as though they've been hard-working citizens all their lives.

[JackOfVA]

I'm also a home shop, self-taught machinist with a Myford lathe and a Grizzly (made in Taiwan) milling machine in the basement. (Undergrad and grad work in Electrical Engineering, and then law school. Now that I'm retired I have a chance to get back and do some useful stuff.)

Very interesting article re competition from China in Machining Magazine. http://www.machiningmagazine.com/China.pdf

To summarize:
(a) Equipment is more modern (largely from Europe) than in the typical US shop
(b) Wages are a fraction of those in the US

Conclusion is big trouble for machine shops in the US.

I know that looking at the rough quality of machine tools from China sold in this country would lead you to believe we have a long lead in quality, but this article will convince you the opposite is true, at least where the Chinese want to compete and put the effort into it.

Jack

[elbucko]

So, Manufacturing employees who lost their jobs in Mass. have lots of opportunities in other sectors.

You have completely missed the point of the article. It is not total net jobs, loss or gain, but the loss of jobs in manufacturing, which, by social necessity, are about fourth behind farming, ranching and public health.

If you should ever have a great idea about ANY physical object, including electronic, who are you going to get to build it for you if you don't have the skill? The Chinese!

Hey Willie! I see the articles you post and I get your point, loud and clear. To bad the computer geeks can't see the writing on the wall, unless it's HTML. By then, it's too late.

[elbucko]

I have a lathe and miller, now,..

So do I, as well as a degree. Your post was right on (the money).

[elbucko]

Thanks for the link to the magazine article. I downloaded it to read later.

(from your post)To summarize:
(a) Equipment is more modern (largely from Europe) than in the typical US shop
(b) Wages are a fraction of those in the US

The equipment is also being purchased with American Dollars from the Chinese manufacture and export of consumer goods to the US..(all those tennis shoes, etc at Walmart). This may be a Marxist-Leninist dream come true, we are fashioning our own rope with which the communists will help us hang ourselves.

[pt17]

Being a good machinist is a VERY demanding skill, and one that an industrialized country cannot do without.

Amen.

[Zeppo]

Telecommunications initially took root in the Merrimack Valley because the skills that were developed for the shoe and textile industries could be adapted to building electromechanical devices first used in the industry. When the industry switched to electronics, and later fiber optics, March said, the ''skills and insights'' of machinists again proved adaptable.

That is wishful thinking. The shoe and textile industries were decimated by lower-cost competition, first from the Southern and Western states, and then from other countries. About the only thing that the hi-tech industries that sprung up in the Merrimack Valley got from the defunct former shoe and textile industries was cheap real estate within easy commuting distance of the Boston-area colleges, as companies like DEC and Wang moved into the discarded mills.

[JackOfVA]

The equipment is also being purchased with American Dollars from the Chinese manufacture and export of consumer goods to the US..(all those tennis shoes, etc at Walmart). This may be a Marxist-Leninist dream come true, we are fashioning our own rope with which the communists will help us hang ourselves.

I wish I could disagree with you, but truer words were never spoken.

If there is any good news, it is that they are becoming more of a traditional corrupt dictatorship (kleptocracy) than a Communist ideology driven dictatorship. Whether this conversion is more or less dangerous to the US, time will tell. However, history suggests that a corrupt dictatorship without an ideology is less likely to launch a war, compared with one fueled by ideological fervor. But, as they say in your mutual fund statement "past performance does not predict future results!"

Jack

[Gorzaloon]

I know that looking at the rough quality of machine tools from China sold in this country would lead you to believe we have a long lead in quality, but this article will convince you the opposite is true, at least where the Chinese want to compete and put the effort into it.

As I understand it, if you want to pay, the Chinese can make equipment as good as anyone. But as for the Toy Machinery I see on display at Wholesale Tool, I am not exaggerating or kidding in the least when I say I would not trade my fifty year old South Bend Model A* for their whole damned showroom.
* R&D department lathe, never did an honest day's work; Still has hob marks on the back gear, 0.003 play in the crossfeed, and 4 tenths in the spindle..very near SB's new specs! I love that old thing.

[verity]

...meet the payments on a $110,000 computerized milling center they bought shortly before the boom went bust.

They rolled the dice and it came up snake eyes.

[lelio]

Where's the Union angle in this? As we all know that's the only reason why companies are going over to communist Chinese factories.

[Brimack34]

Our machine shop in Mn. is in the same shape. I see shops going under monthly here. And there is no one that wants to do this kind of work anymore even if it picks up again. I feel that wihtin 10 of 15 years there will be Machine Shops anymore.

[lelio]

You would think that a machine shop has a place for a quick turnaround prototype work. Except a lot of the R&D work that requires this is moving overseas as well.

[Willie Green]

Except a lot of the R&D work that requires this is moving overseas as well.

BINGO!

[glasseye]

You should see the machine tooling selling on eBay out of the north-east. There are really fine tools selling for pennys on the dollar.

I have bought some for the little home shop here, but it is sad to see.