Growing the Labor Pool

A lot of attention is paid these days to the knowledge economy. The word is that employees’ grasp of academic knowledge, research and technology will propel the country’s productivity for the future. But blue-collar industries, and not academia, are going to transform the economy of the United States, says Joe Lamacchia, author of the book “Blue Collar and Proud of It.”

By 2018, there will be 3 million more job openings requiring a post-high school associate’s degree than there will be skilled workers to fill them, Georgetown University reported recently.

Lamacchia started a website in 2003 to muse about the blue-collar employee recruitment issue. He couldn’t find enough workers who knew how to set cement or drive trucks for his 30-year-old landscaping business in the town of Newton, Mass., near Boston. The thoughts he shared electronically led to national interviews and speaking requests.

By 2006 and 2007, when demand for interviews had continued, Lamacchia realized that he had struck a nerve. He wrote the book describing his personal story and advocating the funneling of more high school students toward working with their hands instead of four-year colleges (“it’s a feel-good book,” he says). He remains a visible spokesman for blue-collar workers.

GOMC asked Lamacchia to share some ideas on attracting and retaining workers for the gas, oil and mining support services industry:

GOMC: How do you change a perception that physically demanding GOM support services and other blue-collar jobs are to be avoided?

Lamacchia: I like that there are shows like “Dirty Jobs,” “L.A. Hardhats,” “World’s Biggest Fixers.” We need to show people that things are built. Things are grown, too, by farmers. People need to see it.

Parents need to understand that some of us don’t learn from the blackboard to the paper. Some of us need to pound it, to solder it, to bend it, to touch it, to smell it, in our work. This is necessary work. Some of it is dangerous work. But our grandfather’s factory floor doesn’t exist anymore. Workplaces are clean, and automated. You can’t leave high school and start a job at the factory anymore. You need seasoning. You need training. You need math and science even if you are in welding.

GOMC: How do you find good workers?

Lamacchia: Run very specific ads and say that you’re going to be doing drug and alcohol testing. I don’t really do it, but it weeds out some people so that you don’t have to. A good worker is somebody who shows up every day and who is willing to take the bull by the horns and get done whatever needs to get done. I have 12 guys and I consider four of them the pillars of my company. When you find good workers, don’t lose them. A lot of good workers fall through your fingertips if you get chintzy; pay them well. I like to do a first interview on the phone and then bring them in if I like how they came across so far.

Tell them this is steady work. This is complete employment; there are plenty of hours if you want to work. And if you have to, tell them they can try it and think about it. You get more bees with honey. I trust my guys to get the work done. I believe in them. They know that.

GOMC: How should employers persuade GOM support services and other blue-collar employees to stay in their jobs?

Lamacchia: Pay a little more than the average and treat them well. Money’s a funny thing. They’ll stay if you pay a little more. I treat (employees) right. I take everybody whale watching every other year. I let them use a truck if they need to move furniture. I write letters to get them mortgages or to get them apartments.

GOMC: Do you think society is moving toward encouraging blue-collar jobs?

Lamacchia: It is starting to turn. All these kids bought into the idea that they had to go to college to get a good job. It’s not true. Treating kids like pieces of clay by saying that they all have to go to college is just not working. The numbers are amazing: One-third of them drop out the first year, and half can’t find a job after four years of college. We not only have a housing bubble in this country. We have an education bubble.

Vocational schools are a big need. Don’t call them alternative schools: This is my first choice.

GOMC: Two generations ago, parents steered their children to white-collar jobs; why is the trend reversing?

Lamacchia: It might have been the dream. The next wave was to work in the cubicle, with the hard candies and the pictures of the kids. But that dream is not for everybody. I have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Not all of us in blue-collar occupations do, but many of us have different ways of knowing something. We have different filters in our heads.

On the weekends in high school, I worked as a bricklayer on a team. I would mix cement, carry bricks, and we would all drink coffee together. I was in the zone. Why wouldn’t I want to keep doing that? After high school, I put some tools in a van and started a business. Then I got a Toyota and a trailer. Eventually my dad bought me a truck. I was 21. I’ve been doing this for 30 years.

GOMC: Are any other factors driving the need for workers who are not desk-bound?

Lamacchia: These are valuable jobs. Everything’s pointing to their becoming even more valuable. Baby boomers are starting to retire. There is a lot of money in the stimulus plan to create America. The United States is growing. We are going to have more than 400 million people by 2045. I was driving in my truck a while ago and I heard the U.S. Transportation Secretary, Ray LaHood, say that America is one big pothole. We built this country after World War II. It needs to be rebuilt.

Who’s going to do this work? It will be the plumber who installs the low-flush toilets, the electrician who puts in the solar panels. You’re not going to send your roof, your car, your cabinets, or your landscaping to India.

GOMC: What are you doing in your blue-collar business to stay successful, in addition to your efforts to keep employees?

Lamacchia: Our business is down about 40 percent from 2007 and 2008. I had to cut wages and sell trucks. Last year, we went down to eight employees from 18. Right now, we have 12 guys and 20 pieces of equipment.

It’s been slow, but I think that the fear factor is starting to change. For a long time, people were afraid to put in a walkway or a driveway. It’s starting to change.