OT: skills shortage

There are plenty of examples in the report, George. Does a lack of ability to test signify that the supposedly untestable skills aren't important? As difficult as it may be to test the abilities listed in the SCANS reports, they could well be the important ones.

NIMS skill sets were compiled from "Lack of trained/skilled/educated people [and by extension the educational system] is simply another in a long line of excuses by overpaid management unable to cut it in a results-oriented manufacturing environment, i.e. getting the product out the door, on time, under budget, to the customer's satisfaction, and at a profit."

It appears you were saying that there are plenty of trained and skilled people around. Is that the case?

It also appears you're saying that industry's problem is that it doesn't know what it wants in its people. But, from the SCANS report, there seems to be general agreement that there are certain abilities that are required; the government says that more than 50% of high school graduates don't have them.

So, rather than criticize the various lists and solutions that have been suggested, can you tell us what you think the problem is? Are there plenty of skilled workers, unrecognized by industry? Or is industry setting its sights too high? Or what?

-- Ed Huntress

Guess what, this is happening here in Australia

Melbourne Independent Media Center

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Original article is at

Print comments.

20,000 extra skilled migrants will lower wages & increase unemployment by AustralianWorker Wednesday August 24, 2005 at 11:50 PM

The Howard Government is bringing in an extra 20,000 skilled migrants to Australia. This will lead to lower wages for Australia workers, which is what big business wants. Job vacancies should be being filled by unemployed Australians, not workers imported from overseas.

The Howard Government is currently bringing in an extra 20,000 skilled migrants to Australia. That?s on top of the 80,000 a year that are already coming in. This is bad policy. A secret report by the immigration department recently found that thousands of skilled migrants are either unemployed or being employed in low-skilled jobs, like driving taxis or working in restaurants or supermarkets, or in the security industry.

This is outrageous, because there are hundreds of thousands of Australians who can?t get a job, and many of them would be perfectly capable of, and willing to drive taxis and work in supermarkets and restaurants, and so the effect of so many migrants coming into the country is that unemployed Australians miss out on a job. And the other effect is that wages are lowered, which might suit some employers, but lower wages are a bad thing for all the Australians working on a low income.

The government is importing far too many skilled migrants. There are a lot of people coming in with information technology skills that can?t get jobs because there are already too many people here who want IT work. There are Australian IT graduates and other people with IT skills who can?t get work because skilled migrants with IT skills are being given the jobs. And the government is bringing in hairdressers. That?s really stupid. There are plenty of hairdressers in Australia, and the idea that we need to import hairdressers from overseas is ridiculous. The result of the policy is to lower the wages that local hairdressers can earn.

Even some cabinet ministers in the government are sceptical about the policy of boosting skilled migration. But John Howard will continue with it because his primary loyalty is to business and employer groups, and they like to have an increased supply of labour so they can drive down wages and screw more out of their workers. That?s where the new industrial relations laws come in. You take away the restrictions on wage rates and working conditions in conjunction with importing a hundred thousand skilled migrants, and the effect is that you have too many workers competing for not enough jobs, and wages and working conditions are bargained downwards.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union has highlighted an attempt by a company in Queensland to import 10 Philippine welders as a way of reducing its wage costs. The company is trying to use skill shortages as an excuse, but the truth is that it isn?t paying its workers as much as it should. If this kind of thing continues we might all end up working for $3 a day like they do in South-East Asia.

add your comments

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

N© Melbourne Independent Media Center. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by the Melbourne Independent Media Center.

Shame they can't figure out how to fix their own country. Or maybe it isn't, Mexico with its act together could be really traumatic for us gringos.

The Mexican Culture..which is the vast majority of those who cross the border..are hardly an example of an "honorable culture".

Mexico is one of the most corrupt nations on the face of the planet...and if those camposenos were willing to kick ass..they would stay the f*ck home in Mexico..Mexico, which has more natural resources than the US, and clean house and make their country a nice place to live.

Instead..they run Norte to Unidos Estada to escape, sending only their money back to the family they left behind. Somewhat over 33% of Mexicos GDP is that remittance money sent back to Mexico.

Hardly an "honorable culture", with the 7 Families running things.

The last Mexican Revolution, only changed the players, not the culture.

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

Latest corporate action on the skills shortage in the united States.

Note that the company claims to have " a weak array of drugs in development." This stands in direct contridiction to their justification for outrageous drug prices in the United States -- namely that they need the money for R&D. Just in time for the bird-flu pandemic.

With the other drug companies also cutting back, where are the biotechnicians, etc. to go?

More bafflegas from the suits.

Uncle George

============== Merck to Eliminate 7,000 Jobs, 5 Plants

By LINDA A. JOHNSON, AP Business Writer Tue Nov 29, 1:21 AM ET

TRENTON, N.J. - Faced with thousands of Vioxx lawsuits, the loss of patent protection for a key product and a weak array of drugs in development, Merck & Co. is axing more than 10 percent of its work force and eliminating five production plants.

The moves, announced Monday as part of a global reorganization company officials said is designed to make Merck more efficient and competitive, drove shares down more than 4 percent.

Merck shares fell $1.42, or 4.6 percent, to close at $29.56 in heavy trading Monday on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares are down about two-thirds from their value five years ago.

Merck will immediately start cutting an estimated 7,000 jobs, about half of those in the United States. The company's manufacturing sector will take the biggest percentage of cuts ? about 60 percent ? while the rest will be spread around the company.

Supply chain and research operations also will be restructured as the company attempts to reduce pretax costs by $3.5 billion to $4 billion by the end of 2010.

By the end of 2008, Whitehouse Station-based Merck plans to close or sell five of its 31 manufacturing plants, scale down operations at some others and close three other facilities ? one research site and two preclinical development sites. The company did not specify which plants would be closed.

Analysts said Merck is following in the footsteps of other pharmaceutical companies like New York-based Pfizer Inc. and Madison-based Wyeth, which have announced restructuring and job cuts in the last year.

"This is in response to a very challenging environment," said Morgan Stanley managing director Jami Rubin. "I would expect broader cuts to be announced within the sales force, marketing, general and (administration) as well as R&D over the longer run."

The changes announced Monday are the latest in a series of cost-cutting efforts by Merck. Last December, then-chief executive officer Raymond V. Gilmartin announced changes aimed at cutting Merck's costs by $2.4 billion through 2008. Merck also eliminated 5,100 jobs through buyouts and layoffs in 2003-04 and an additional 825 jobs this year.

Richard T. Clark, who took over as CEO in May, said Merck's revenue and legal troubles did not play a role in his strategy. He said Merck must maintain sales of its top drugs, launch new ones and better integrate late-stage research and manufacturing to reduce the time to launch new products.

"We need to execute flawlessly all of those ingredients in order to turn this around," Clark told The Associated Press in an interview.

Merck has slipped from the world's third biggest pharmaceutical company to No. 5, by revenue, in recent years. It is facing thousands of lawsuits and tens of billions of dollars in potential liability from its recalled painkiller Vioxx, a weak pipeline of new medicines and the looming loss of patent protection next June for its blockbuster cholesterol fighter Zocor.

Zocor generates about 20 percent of Merck revenues and is the world's second-biggest drug. But with competition from generic drugs, Merck expects Zocor sales to drop almost in half in 2006.

Analysts were split on the reasons for the cuts.

Rubin blamed Zocor's patent expiration, Vioxx litigation and not enough strong products.

Tony Butler, pharmaceutical analyst with Lehman Brothers, cited Vioxx, Zocor and an industry cost-cutting trend.

"There's not a company that's not swept up in this wave of cost analysis," Butler said.

Henry L. Miller, a plaintiff's attorney from Newtown Square, Pa., who has two Vioxx cases pending, said it would be hard to draw a connection between that litigation and the restructuring.

"If every company the size of Merck that had lawsuits filed against it went out and started closing plants, nobody would be doing any business," Miller said.

The first federal Vioxx trial is to start in Houston on Tuesday. Merck has won once and lost once in state trials in New Jersey and Texas.

Merck employs nearly 63,400 people, including about 8,000 in New Jersey, 15,000 in Pennsylvania and a total of 31,000 in the United States. Vacant jobs and ones held by temporary workers will be cut first and full-time workers will get severance packages, but no buyouts are planned, Clark said.

The company won't name facilities being closed, sold or scaled back until workers are notified in the next few days.

I live in California..Im likely a bit closer to the problem...daily, than you are.

Shrug

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

Where does the company claim this? Looks to me like the AP Business Writer is claiming this.

The fact that they spend money on R&D does not mean that that R&D invariably leads to profitable new products.

To the venture capitalists if they have any really good ideas. If in fact Merck does any significant amount of biotech as opposed to old fashioned pharmaceutical R&D.

Right now they seem to be concentrating on saving Tookie from his date with the needle.

Operational word here is "should." Any time you see it, reach for a weapon. Anglo California is gone and it ain't commin back.

As an English speaker you are now faced with the choice of learning Spanish or moving.

You could be a teacher in Florida [Miami I think] where you are mandated to learn Spanish.

We and our elected leaders refused, and continue to refuse, to take unpleasant actions and we are now faced with even more unpleasant consequences.

Uncle George

Uncle George, Up your meds dude.

I used to hear something just like this when I was at Honeywell. The skilled tradesmen and unskilled workers who kept the facilities running would all tell me that they didn't give a crap whether the engineers in the research center (100% of the reason there was anybody in my building) were let go or stayed; they (the union members) would still have their jobs.

They wouldn't listen when I pointed out that if there were no productive people (the engineers) in the building, there would be no need for them to maintain the facility.

Grant's comment that people can live without any fear of their jobs being exported is valid right up until the point when few can afford to pay the skilled tradesmen their portion of the $80k.

Who's gonna call the plumber to unclog a sewer line or run new water if they don't have the cash to pay? Same with electrical except if there are really harsh penalties for homeowners doing their own work. The work's going to get done, but it'll be done differently than it is now.

Pete (in St. Paul)

Yes and look what happened to them. The indians didn't enforce the immigration regs at Plymouth either ....

What goes around comes around, unless you do something to stop it.

Uncle George

The Cities get a big cut in the penalties & set up the rules. But plumbers jobs won't go to China. Wonder want will happen when all the people that have been outsource 'ed can't pay, will we be in deep shit?

Cliff wrote in news:bo21p19c7n361snse0cvomf8596dpel9nc@

4ax.com:

I was going to do some electrical work as part of a project and was told that I needed to take a test to get a "homeowner license", the test is the same as an electrician would take, less the three phase and commercial/industrial stuff. Pfft. Why bother? Cheaper to hire a guy who is willing to let you do most of the work and then he inspects, connects and signs off under his license.

With an ankle grabber like Cliff, he gets lots of practice getting poked.

Which state is this?

It sounds like a bit of overkill, but some sort of a "I'm not a total moron, let me do my own work" test isn't that bad of an idea.

A lot of electrical work is in knowing the proper procedures, materials and methods, because they can't spell everything out in that much detail. You're often winging it as to exactly how you do something, but you know the 'generally accepted practices' what is and isn't allowed.

The building inspectors would catch a lot of it after the fact, but there's a lot more stupidity that can be easily buried where they can't see or catch it, and that could result in dangerous conditions.

I've run into a few really "interesting" things over the years - like finding the color changing in the middle of the conduit run...?? And pulling a newer THHN wire out of a conduit to find a "Western Union" style splice in the middle of the run - no solder, just twisted the two wires together and slapped on a little cheap black tape.

Or finding what was left of aluminum Bell Boxes buried 6 inches down in the dirt, with what used to be splices inside going to post lights.

Rule Number One: NEVER say "Now I've seen it all." Because fifteen minutes later, you're just going to get your mind blown again. ;-)

-->--

snip

-------------------------------------- The craziest thing I ever saw was when I was hired to troubleshoot a very expensive closed circuit security system. Good sony cameras. Good swicthing gear. So I walked the entire cable route. Some very well meaning master electrician had spliced video coax to 3 conductor 18G copper unshielded. I was amazed that any image was sent through the mess at all.

I had never seen wire nuts used on coax and never seen coax spliced to plain copper. I still have one of the junticions framed the wall in my radio room.

Mr master electrician was rather irratated and tried to argue that I didn't know what I was talking about. I had a 1000' spool of coax so I bullied him into helping me make a temp run. He shut up when he saw how clear the image was with coax.

Made a tiddy sum off that job.

Terry

Unless you work for a living in most fields. You will find that many, I dare say most job adverts want Bi-lingual as a qualification, in California. Particularly in service sector jobs.

As a service tech in machine shops..the ability to speak spanish is damned near manditory in So. Cal, unless you want to deal only with the Lead person, who is the translator.

Gunner

"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner