Live~NRGY

U.S. home builders ask: Where have all the carpenters gone?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/us-business/us-home-builders-ask-where-have-all-the-carpenters-gone/article12661805/

Disillusioned and jaded ex-construction workers gives new meaning to the expression – Been there done that.

In a large sense and very similar to other industry ups and downs, this is very much like the death throes of the automotive manufacturing industry top to bottom while it out of control costs, bad logistical methods, people skills, foreign imports and ominous bankruptcy clouds created the perfect storms to bring about drastic changes.

Laid off workers would just move on vowing not to get caught with their pants down again.

Ditto for the Tech Industry – especially in Ottawa.

You can now add to the construction industry’s woes the following ingredient – retiring experienced baby boomers which will not only leave the industry with massive practical working experience, but also the relatively stable payroll costs and dependable manpower to keep it going in an upwardly positive direction.

The younger workforce will place the construction industries in an about as face changing evolutionary path that it has never witnessed before. The status quo will be thrown out with the kitchen sink.

Trade Certifications good, but not enough to counter the new mindsets coming down the pipeline. Every industry will be clamouring for good people.

I guess it’s fair to say that it’ll be payback for the ill treatment that so many hard working people put up with that will no longer be tolerated as standard working conditions.

To have a workers in a whole industry painted as thieves, liars, beggars, bums, illiterate, poorly skilled, poorly educated, etc…. just won’t fly with the new generation.

The days of slaves doing dirty work are on it’s deathbed.

I would have to term the treatment of this class of workers as a discriminatory hidden practice. Why, because it’s always been like that, so why change. The fact of the matter is that the economy has had it’s butt kicked and as a result people aren’t willing to tolerate conditions any longer. It’s a sliding slope of diminishing returns. Those who hire with the past mindsets will fall face first and be 6 feet under the ground in the near future.

Good luck with that program. My suggestion – bring ethical respectful treatment of people into the 21st century. Trade Certification is only but a very small minuscule part of it. It just doesn’t cut it as a whole. You can’t put a stamp of approval on someone’s forehead and say they’re good to go.