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It all sounds depressingly familiar: Master Lock Co., in the throes of a restructuring and under shareholder pressure to control costs, has been shipping jobs halfway around the world.
"We're strategically going at it, when it makes sense, where it makes sense," said Master Lock senior vice president Bob Rice.
In a new twist, however, it's China where Master Lock's costs are rising disruptively. The company has responded by pulling production back to Milwaukee, where the manufacturer of iconic padlocks was founded in 1921.
I live in Milwaukee, and needless to say, manufacturing jobs have taken a beating. Kohler (based in Kohler, WI) just renegotiated their contract with the union, and workers had to give up quite a lot. The same with Harley-Davidson (based out of Milwaukee) employees.
Some jobs may start trickling back to the US from China as costs there rise. A sort of reverse outsourcing which is quite ironic. However, the days of making $20 or $30 an hour are long gone for most workers.
Today, making anywhere between $10 & $15 an hour is the new norm -- with less benefits. That isn't a good thing for society as a whole.
Back in the day when income distribution was more evenly shared, things were better for one and all. It's impossible for a country, as a whole, to prosper when the top 1% are constantly pissing on the bottom 50%.
My own company has re-evaluated some of the jobs we have in other parts of the world. Take India for example-- they have shown to be really good at QA for software, etc. They are also phenomenal for data entry-- usually far more accurate than those onshore in the USA (I used to do quality control for a spell). I think, from my experiences, they excel in those areas in my business because they follow procedures and processes thoroughly. We are keeping tons of jobs over there in those areas.
What we have found is that they are not great with customer contact, business analysis, systems analysis, etc. The thinking out of the box without parameters they struggle with. And in our industry where it does not exist for people of India-- it makes it very difficult to try and make it relevant for them. Basically, the rework was not worth the savings by having those portions offshored.
That is the way things should work, if a business wants outsourcing to work-- they have to be thoughtful about it and really consider what portions should be outsourced versus just throwing things offshore and thinking it will be great.
What I have seen quite a few instances of is how groups and jobs are being moved throughout the US finding the cheaper labor centers. For example, my own company has moved certain groups to states in the west where they have worked with universities to have access to skilled talent but where the COL is so low still as well as workers wages.
People will make what they are worth, and frankly no one packing blister packs of products into cardboard boxes on an assembly line is worth $20-30 an hour. I'm glad that the unions are losing their footing--in my opinion it's unreasonable union demands that started the outsourcing problem to begin with. Now we'll all dealing with the aftermath.
Not ironic or surprising. Globally the cost of living is going to increase as jobs are offshored until there is more parity with other, more expensive countries. There are also a series of costs and difficulties involved in outsourcing work, I've seen/am seeing this in the software world (which are reasons I'd rather not be involved in such an effort because it's a massive pain in the ass).
Being on calls at like 830 or 9 PM my time in order to make sure C/D grade software "developers" actually do their job because my company is cheap was definitely not something I expected to get involved in during the course of my career.
People will make what they are worth, and frankly no one packing blister packs of products into cardboard boxes on an assembly line is worth $20-30 an hour.
I would probably be more supportive of unions if they served the mission for which they originally intended--advancing the cause of ALL workers, whether those be union members or not. But instead unions have simply devolved into private clubs that protect a privileged few while sacrificing the many.
I don't see the UAW union (that reps Kohler workers) speaking out about increasing the minimum wage or living wage for the rest of us. They aren't saying anything about the rising healthcare costs the rest of us are facing. Why should their union members be protected with cheap healthcare and guaranteed pay raises and leave the rest of us dangling in the wind?
Nice to see some here support lower standards of living & wages for us here in the US.
Hey, while we're at it, let's eliminate those minimum wage laws, and start most workers at 40 cents an hour. The jobs should just flow back considering those greedy Chinese workers demand 80 cents an hour.
Nice to see some here support lower standards of living & wages for us here in the US.
Hey, while we're at it, let's eliminate those minimum wage laws, and start most workers at 40 cents an hour. The jobs should just flow back considering those greedy Chinese workers demand 80 cents an hour.
Ummmmmmmmmmmm......NO.
But when someone is getting paid $30 an hour to put a tire on a car on Detroit assembly line something is out of whack.
Because that is what they were getting and that is why the jobs went away.
PBS did a documentary on laid off auto workers and it showed how the unions pretty much destroyed the industry. They had workers who were out on disability for months collecting full salary.
And one of the laid workers profiled was a woman who was now tending bar, she was one of those $30 an hour workers whose only job skill was mounting tires on a car.
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