Keeping your focus: the labor, manpower crisis

In the January column, I mentioned labor and manpower as being something that was an ongoing problem, and I wanted to leave it out of our series on focusing your attention on the things that you can do to make a real difference in your operation and bottom line. That was before Mike Rowe of “Dirty Jobs” did a Wal-Mart commercial and thrust the very real manpower/labor crisis into the national spotlight.

I have tried to contact Mr. Rowe for an interview yesterday, but have not heard back from him as yet. As busy as he has been it is not surprising. Because he stood for excellence, training, work ethic and American can-do spirit, he has been both applauded and vilified, but he has stood his ground.  If you haven’t heard any of his interviews with the mainstream media and internet outlets, I urge you to look them up and give a listen.

Here is a guy who means what he says and says what he means. He is intelligent, well-spoken, and his responses to questions are clear, cogent and well thought out.  He isn’t trying to duck and cover from controversy, but is standing tall for American labor and the need for getting the country “back to work.”

This is ground that yours truly, this magazine and others have been covering for the past few years with increasing volume and frequency. Perhaps this is the opportunity for the trades to get some much-needed national exposure at the highest levels. Many readers commented during the seven part series on the manpower crisis that we did last year. We brainstormed some really terrific ideas and came up with several really good suggestions from industry leaders as well as shops, large and small, union and non-union.

Now is the time to leverage the exposure that Mr. Rowe and Wal-Mart have given the problem. Because of Mr. Rowe’s stand, in the face of the usual ‘naysayers’ in the media, his responses have gotten a lot of traction where there was only indifference before. I urge everyone who reads this column to make an effort, any effort, to expand the coverage that the manpower issue has gotten. We might not get this golden opportunity again anytime soon, and the problem is so very dire that letting this chance slip by is not an option.

Leaders of trade associations, manufacturers, trade schools, suppliers, industry heavy weights: make some noise! Get some air time on local network programs and print media.  Reach out to other organizations. Let’s get everyone moving in the same direction. While I don’t, for one minute, expect the government to come to the rescue, it is entirely possible that local agencies and local departments will step up. Besides that, a national program will be fraught with duplication and bureaucracy. The best way to get some mileage out of the current exposure is to act locally while thinking nationally. Regional conferences would be a good thing, but even then it might become unwieldy.

Without knowing how many more commercials Wal-Mart plans with Mr. Rowe, it is hard to tell how long this issue will be in the national spotlight. However Mr. Rowe himself is a big proponent of the work ethic and turning America around.  His website is: www.mikeroweworks.com. I heartily recommend that you take a few minutes and read some of his ideas and stated goals.

Unless you have suddenly manned up your shop with top notch people, this issue is one which our trades must adopt and work for. When last I checked, many of the shops I am familiar with are still having a rough time finding, keeping and training qualified people. The problem is not getting any better and in fact it is getting worse, much worse. Whether it is a societal issue as we have been told or a political issue, the fact of the matter is that there are damn few people out there who want to work or learn a trade and we need to think outside the box, as they say, to solve the problem.

Our trade has survived and grown for more than 2,000 years. Are we really going to let it simply die on the vine for lack of a generation to pass it on to? It is that serious a threat. The time has come to stand for your craft before it is left to waste away from lack of attention. If I can get an interview with Mike Rowe, I’ll report it here. Hopefully, it will be another way to get exposure for this very real, very serious problem and may actually help.

The Brooklyn, N.Y.-born author is a retired third generation master plumber. He founded Sunflower Plumbing & Heating in Shirley, N.Y., in 1975 and A Professional Commercial Plumbing Inc. in Phoenix in 1980. He holds residential, commercial, industrial and solar plumbing licenses and is certified in welding, clean rooms, polypropylene gas fusion and medical gas piping. He can be reached at [email protected].